Final Fantasy Racing

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Race me!

Edit: please see the second post in this thread for a challenge :muhaha:

I'm sure you've all heard of speed runs, right? As interesting as they are, I think there's a much more exciting time-based challenge involving Final Fantasy games (or any other, really, so long as it has a definite end point): racing.

Two or more players pick a game and set up on their respective TVs (emulators work well too). Both players press "New Game" at exactly the same time, and then it's a real-time race to the finish. Real-time means that if you choose to reset or end up getting annihilated, your opponent keeps playing and can move ahead (or catch up) in the game. So unlike a speed run, sometimes it's worth investing a little more time into the menus, or learning abilities, in order to ensure smooth progress later and avoid having to redo anything. Everything becomes a calculated risk. Should you save regularly, wasting time but ensuring that you won't have to replay a huge chunk if something terrible happens, or should you save sporadically to save time and take a bigger risk? Luck can have a huge impact, changing the dynamics of the race in a single stroke. You could be feeling confident, twenty minutes ahead of your opponent, but suddenly you could be ambushed my a malboro and have your lead wiped out.

Obviously, both players have to have a similar level of knowledge of the game - you can't have a veteran racing a noob, or at least you'd have to have a serious handicap.

I first heard about the idea eight or nine years ago, but it wasn't until about four years ago that I finally found someone to try it with. I let her choose whichever PSX era game she wanted, and she chose IX. We weren't actually together, just playing on our own emulators and chatting about our progress on IRC when there were FMVs. I got as far as the world map outside Dali (she was still in the Ice Cavern pre-Black Waltz) before we stopped for that day, and for some reason we never carried on, which was a shame.

But now I've joined here, there must be someone willing to give it a shot :) What do you think of the idea? Have you ever done anything like it? And would you be interested in trying it? I'd be happy to give more details about exactly how the finer things work (like taking breaks), if anyone wants to know.

PS: I hope I posted this in the right place. There doesn't seem to be a forum for general (cross-game) FF chat, so I decided to put it in the VII forum.
 
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Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
TLS, I'm calling you out.

One week from today I will take my final pre-university exam. After that, I will be free as a bird, with no commitments until the summer, when I will hopefully have a job. I've been studying hard for pretty much all of the year so far, and in that time I've built up a backlog of video games I want to play. As my time on this forum has pretty much coincided with that period of studying, my interest in re-playing Final Fantasy VII once again has been growing. With that said:

I am hereby challenging you, the members of this forum, to a race (see above post).The general level of knowledge of the game around here seems to be very impressive, and that would make for a really interesting battle. I'm pretty sure I can complete the game in 20 hours, but I have no idea how that compares to other players.

I'm completely flexible about how it would work, but I think it could be a great community event, if we put a little effort in. Using emulators (running at the same speed, 60 FPS), me and Challenger X could both stream our games. There could be commentary as well, either audio or text. I imagine it'd attract a fair audience if we posted about it on the front page. If the challenger couldn't or wouldn't want to run through the whole game in one sitting, it could be split over three evenings, for example, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

As I said, though, I'd be flexible to accommodate the needs of whoever takes up the challenge, and that would also extend to the date when it would take place. So who thinks they can beat me? :count:
 

Fangu

Great Old One
First of all: I don't think I have any chance of beating you ;) If I was to do something like this, I'd have to find someone to do it with (like, here in my apartment) because I can't play for more than 4 hours without getting tired. Also I'd have to set up a strategy for which characters to use and how to level them, like skip using Aerith, don't bother with Yuffie and Vincent etc.

So anyone who's played this game several times should do this. I know at least a couple of more people than Flint who's finished the game over 6 times, someone mentioned doing it 11. I'd totally watch the streams.
 

Kobato

Pro Adventurer
Oh gosh I did this with a friend once with FF VII though it didn't turn out well at all. She was pregent at the time, though we both thought that her due date was quite some time away. Guess not.


So yeah, we had to stop and take her to the hospital. I haven't really done this thing again since xD
She won though, she managed to get up to the first Reno boss while I was in the Train Graveyard.
Not that it matters, because her well-being and baby was way more important <3



I would love to do it again with FF X or FF IX though. FF X maybe more since it's a bit shorter, or feels that way anyways. xD
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
I would be happy to race you in FFIX, but right now I really want a challenger in VII :) X would be more difficult - I have a hard copy of the game, but I can't emulate it, so I don't think a stream would be possible.
 

Kobato

Pro Adventurer
Yeaaah I would do FF VII though my PlayStation copy is in really bad condition. XD

CD 1 is really badly scratched, CD 2 is broken and CD 3 is missing.

Too much love killed it xD

I would download it via PSP but I want to sell it since I don't really like much games on it expect The After Years and Birth by Sleep. :/
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
That's why emulation is the best way to do it, in my opinion. Whether or not it is technically illegal, I don't think there's any moral problem with downloading a copy of a game you already own. Disc three of my actual FFVII PSX game has a chip in it. It only seems to affect the ending FMV x)
 

Kobato

Pro Adventurer
I can't download anything these days since in New Zealand downloading is really tight. Can't download any music, games, or basically anything anymore.

I have found a site where you can play old retro games, though they don't have any PlayStation games >:

Even if I did download FF VII I don't think that the NZ government would be so understanding since all downloading = Evil Pirates and nasty heartless criminals >>
 

Lex

Administrator
I accept your challenge ^_^

EDIT: And DAMN I just realise I walked you through the how-to-get-Beta early strategy during our conversation. You are a crafty one Flint.
 
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Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
I accept your challenge ^_^

This is great news.

For everyone else: Lex and I pencilled in the race for the 13th-14th-15th of this month. We'll finalise the details later and let you know. We could both probably do with some help with streaming it!
 
Z

Zealkin

Guest
This looks like fun! Spring break is coming up for me, which is when I usually catch up on gaming, would someone like to race?

I'll play any ff 4DS-12 :3
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
You're welcome to join in with Lex and I, Zealkin, if you want to race VII :)

Lex: I don't imagine I'll be spending time getting Beta if I'm racing you, so don't worry!
 
Z

Zealkin

Guest
I'm going to lose so badly, im such a slow player XD

I ogle at things too much
 

Lex

Administrator
Yay another one! We're doing it next weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We can coordinate together on how we're going to do things soon.

Flint is using ePSXe and the NTSC version of VII, so I'm going to do the same.
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Is next weekend the only weekend we can do it? :/

Not at all. Hopefully we can find one which suits all of us. I'd be fine with the 20th-21st-22nd as well.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a weekend, either, at least from my point of view. If we had to, we could split it up further, say over four days on two consecutive weekends. Like I said, it's just about finding the best mutual arrangement.

I'm really excited about the prospect of a three-way race. It means I'll be up against two other strategies rather than just one, so it makes everything more interesting :)
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Sorry for double posting.

Zealkin, Lex, could we try to arrange a time to meet up on IRC/Skype/MSN/Whatever to try and get some details sorted out quickly? Doing it in a thread like this takes so long, especially as we're in different time zones. The main thing to agree on is when we will do it, but we should also discuss streaming and set down some rules about emulator setup, glitch abuse, and other stuff.

I'm going to leave VMs on both your profiles to make sure you see this next time you visit the forum :)
 
Z

Zealkin

Guest
You can skype without video right? Because I don't have a webcam... the 20-22 is best for me im not sure about lex though
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Sure, we usually just do voice chat on Skype. How about tomorrow (Thursday), sometime around 21:00 UTC? That'd be midnight for me, ten PM for Lex, and I'm not sure what time zone you're in, Zealkin.
 
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