What's the SHORTEST Speccy game ever?

[Lethargeek]

SQIJ is a pretty short game. Here's a re-post of my complete game map:

but you can't finish it, so it's actually the longest one

[redballoon]

Related to Atic Atac, somebody can speed run Melkhior’s Mansion Sir Stamperlot’s quest in 1m 33s.

[Mpk]

I've done this thread before I think and from memory Jack and the Beanstalk is what made me start it.

Although it takes your life to master it, I figure the game is beatable in three mins.

Depends on whether the bonfire is already lit.

[MatGubbins]

Sabre Wulf visiting all the possible rooms that the amulet can be found is around 16mins on a good day.


If the game is started, then a snapshot is taken, then find the rooms that the amulet is found, then reload the snapshot, then only go to those rooms, it could be completed in under 10 mins.

[Dr beep]

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Beginnersmaze

[AndyC]

Terminator 2 has to fall into this category surely? It takes about 6 minutes to complete, but it's so laughably easy that it's 6 minutes from the first time you load it up.

[SteveSmith]

It looks like this thread has inspired Rev Stu to collate various speedruns of Speccy games: https://wosland.podgamer.com/the-need-for-speed/

[Morkin]

Cavern Fighter is pretty quick, the YouTube rzx video is less than 3 mins and that includes a bit of chilling out on the title screen...

It's not too difficult a game either, so even with the odd lost life and the painfully bright skyscraper level you can usually hurtle through it.

[Einar Saukas]

Shortest games:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?group_id=1069

[TakuikaNinja]

The Hobbit is probably the shortest game if you abuse a text buffer overflow:

[toot_toot]

It looks like this thread has inspired Rev Stu to collate various speedruns of Speccy games: https://wosland.podgamer.com/the-need-for-speed/

Some interesting games in there. I also think you have to look at the games with some sort of “game style” context when it came to “completing” them.

Games that were more open in structure and required knowledge of where to find certain things (Sabre Wulf, Dynamite Dan)

Games that were more linear in structure that were more score attack (Tranz Am, Cobra)

Games that were more linear but required a lot of skills due to difficulty (Manic Miner)

Games that were made by Dave Perry.
As in they looked amazing but were fairly linear in structure, not that difficult and not built around achieving a high score and were released at full price later on in the Spectrum’s lifespan. Games like Captain Planet(13m), Dan Dare III (17m), Extreme (9m 38s) are great examples of not getting good value for money, once you got past the tech demo nature of the graphics. He seemed to have a history of this with some of his original games:

Savage 18 minutes for 3 separate loaded levels. This should have been a warning. I remember the game looking amazing and despite the bizarre advertising campaign from Firebird, I picked this up and within a couple of hours it was completed. With no reason to go back to it!

But I think the winner surely has to be

Great Gurianos - under 7 minutes except, get this, there’s a known bug in the game where the final boss couldn’t be defeated because there wasn’t enough memory left! Yes, it was on a compilation so you didn’t pay full amount for it, but seriously, under 7 minutes?

[Daveysloan]

Hard As Nailz, the longest I've ever seen anyone play for is 9 seconds...

[druellan]

Didn't saw it mentioned, but I'm pretty sure Give My Regards to Broad Street https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... oad_Street can be finished in less than a minute just traveling right away to one of the tube stations before one of the characters can enter there with the masters. I can't remember the source (might be a Spanish magazine) but I have memories of myself trying that.

[Nitrowing]

Didn't saw it mentioned, but I'm pretty sure Give My Regards to Broad Street https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... oad_Street can be finished in less than a minute just traveling right away to one of the tube stations before one of the characters can enter there with the masters. I can't remember the source (might be a Spanish magazine) but I have memories of myself trying that.

Far Cry 4 has a similar feature

[TMD2003]

Hard As Nailz, the longest I've ever seen anyone play for is 9 seconds...

And it took about 100 attempts to stay alive that long. Never let it be said I wasn't fully dedicated to my year in the control room of CSSCGC Towers.

[Daveysloan]

And it took about 100 attempts to stay alive that long. Never let it be said I wasn't fully dedicated to my year in the control room of CSSCGC Towers.

It was a hell of a commitment to the cause in fairness.

[Lee P]

Perhaps the best metric isn't 3 minutes, or 5 minutes, but "can you complete it in less time than it took to load?"

[Morkin]

Perhaps the best metric isn't 3 minutes, or 5 minutes, but "can you complete it in less time than it took to load?"

Additionally, Bugaboo has an intro sequence (over a minute) after loading, and at the start of each game you have to wait about 20 seconds for the flea to fall into the cave and the display panel to appear at the bottom of the screen.

Considering you can finish the game in seconds, I reckon they did it deliberately for padding

[textvoyage]

Jet Set Willy in 2 mins 14 sec using "WRITETYPER"

[Lee P]

Additionally, Bugaboo has an intro sequence (over a minute) after loading, and at the start of each game you have to wait about 20 seconds for the flea to fall into the cave and the display panel to appear at the bottom of the screen.

Considering you can finish the game in seconds, I reckon they did it deliberately for padding

One can finish the game in seconds. I don't think I ever have, so you're one up on me with your time of 946728000 seconds/30 years.

[equinox]

Pulse Warrior can be completed in seconds (check out my RZX), but I doubt it's intentional. On the other hand, whenever I've tried to play it through properly, I run out of time way before I can complete it.

[zx1]

This may have been mentioned earlier but in the game Street Gang by Players you can just jump through all the screens and complete the game in 5 minutes

[Stu]

You can see the end screen of Gyron Atrium in ~30 seconds if you exploit a bug:

Start the game and move the gun sight up about half way up the tower just in front of you. Take your finger off the fire button and move forward at full speed. When you crash into the wall you will lose some of your shield. Turn around and repeat this operation until you have lost almost all of your shield. Make sure your aim doesn't move and that you are firing when all your shields have been lost. Now watch the demo..

[TakuikaNinja]

You can see the end screen of Gyron Atrium in ~30 seconds if you exploit a bug:

Is there a video showcasing this? This sounds hilarious!

[Stu]

Not a video but I've done a quick rzx recording:

https://file.io/Iz17w3JDjDTD