The Second Great Monkey Island Race of 2009

[GuruGuru214]

Okay, there's been demand for a second Monkey Island race, and I have an updated list of rules for it, so I decided to start a new thread instead of changing the rule list from the unfinished first race.

Dates and Times

The biggest lesson learned in the first race was not to try and do it all in one day. The second race will be split into three days. The overall winner will be determined by combined times rather than finishing first. This will be the schedule:

Saturday, December 26th - The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Sunday, December 27th - The Curse of Monkey island and Escape from Monkey Island
Monday, December 28th - Tales of Monkey Island

To allow for a wide variety of time zones and varying schedules, there will be no set start time. This will allow for the most possible participants.

Rules

Both editions of The Secret of Monkey Island are allowed.

LeChuck's Revenge and Curse must be played in not-Lite and Mega Monkey modes.

Maximum text speed in Secret and LeChuck's Revenge is allowed.

The double-click room teleport in Curse and the room exit button in Escape are allowed.

Skipping dialogue or cutscenes is not allowed. Bypassing optional dialogue is allowed, but once a dialogue option is picked, you must let it play out uninterrupted. There is an exception for accidentally picking an identical dialogue section a second time (especially in Tales).

The credits count as a cutscene. You're finished with a game when you see "Turn off your computer and go to bed", "Turn off your computer and do something constructive", when Curse and Escape auto-quit, and when the Tales episodes return to their menus.

We're mostly doing this on the honor system, however it's preferred that you provide some sort of documentation. The last time we did this, Icedhope, Secret Fawful, and I broadcasted our races on Livestream, and it was a lot of fun, both for us and the people watching. However, this can cause sluggish performance in some games and can be difficult to make work with others, so if you prefer you can also provide updates on your progress over Twitter, post in this thread, or even come to one of the Livestreams and chat with everyone. What's fun about this is the added community element. If you choose to document, please provide a link to where you will be documenting and an estimated time (and time zone) that you will begin playing so I can add where and when to watch next to your name on the entrants list.

Certain puzzles in Escape from Monkey Island cause problems on certain PCs. The use of previously made saves is allowed as long as it is only for the following problems:
The raft locks up when Guybrush tries to disembark at Deadeye Dave's.
The timing for the boulder puzzle is incorrect because you have a faster PC.
You may NOT use it to skip Monkey Kombat.
If you need to make use of this rule, please try to make sure of where you are in the game ahead of time. I know that last time, I accidentally skipped picking up the chicken grease and whacking Herman with the coconut but also had to pick up the Eau de LeChuck twice, so I'll be trying not to make those mistakes again.
Feel free to suggest any other situations where a problem with the game necessitates the use of saves.

Saving the game during the race is allowed, and may be a good idea in case of a game crash (though I only see that as being likely to happen in Escape). Loading saves made during the race is fine (but other than a crash, why would you want to?). If your game crashes and you haven't saved, er...I really have no idea what happens then.

Since we're splitting the race apart, the winner will be determined by time. Time will be determined by forum posts made at the start and finish of each game.

Prizes

Currently, we don't have any prizes to offer. If anyone is willing to donate a prize (maybe an art request or something?), that would be awesome, but for now the winner only gets bragging rights.

Participants and Broadcast Info

GuruGuru214 - http://livestream.com/monkeython2009
Start Time Day 1: N/A
Start Time Day 2: N/A
Start Time Day 3: 5 PM GMT

Icedhope

Secret Fawful - http://livestream.com/thegreatmithon2009
Dropped out?

apenpaap - http://livestream.com/apenpaap
Start Time Day 1: Secret at 11 PM GMT on the 25th, MI2 at 8 PM GMT on the 26th
Start Time Day 2:
Start Time Day 3: 6 PM GMT
Start Time Day 4: 7 PM GMT

harald - http://www.livestream.com/hagmo
Start Time Day 1: 6 PM GMT
Start Time Day 2:
Start Time Day 3: 4 PM GMT

OzzieMonkey

Times

GuruGuru214:
The Secret of Monkey Island: 3:25
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: 2:40
The Curse of Monkey Island: 2:30
Escape from Monkey Island: 5:45
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal: 1:10
The Siege of Spinner Cay: 1:10
Lair of the Leviathan: 1:25
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood: 1:25
Rise of the Pirate God: 1:35
Total LucasArts: 14:20
Total Tales: 6:45
Total: 21:05

Icedhope:
The Secret of Monkey Island: 1:23
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: 1:45
The Curse of Monkey Island: 3:43
Escape from Monkey Island: 12:00
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal: 2:00
The Siege of Spinner Cay: 2:21
Lair of the Leviathan: 3:00
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood: 3:15
Rise of the Pirate God: 4:00
Total LucasArts: 18:51
Total Tales: 14:36
Total: 33:27

apenpaap:
The Secret of Monkey Island: 2:46
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: 2:45
The Curse of Monkey Island: 3:42
Escape from Monkey Island: 5:00
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal: 1:20
The Siege of Spinner Cay: 1:20
Lair of the Leviathan: 1:25
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood: 1:24
Rise of the Pirate God: 1:39
Total LucasArts: 14:13
Total Tales: 7:08
Total: 21:21

harald:
The Secret of Monkey Island: 2:48
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: 2:27
The Curse of Monkey Island: 3:48
Escape from Monkey Island: 11:08
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal: 1:51
The Siege of Spinner Cay: 1:53
Lair of the Leviathan: 2:10
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood: 2:13
Rise of the Pirate God: 1:55
Total LucasArts: 20:11
Total Tales: 10:02
Total: 30:13

OzzieMonkey:
The Secret of Monkey Island: 1:45
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: 2:00
The Curse of Monkey Island: 2:35
Escape from Monkey Island: 3:30
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal: 1:05
The Siege of Spinner Cay: 1:06
Lair of the Leviathan: 1:20
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood: 1:13
Rise of the Pirate God: 1:20
Total LucasArts: 9:50
Total Tales: 6:04
Total:15:54

Results
1st - OzzieMonkey - 15:54
2nd - GuruGuru214 - 21:05 (+5:11)
3rd - apenpaap - 21:21 (+5:27)
4th - harald - 30:13 (+14:19)
5th - IcedHope - 33:27 (+17:33)

The Next Race
The dates of The Great Monkey Island Race of 2010 and The Great Sam and Max Race of 2010 have yet to be determined. When interest picks up in the two ideas, the people on these lists will be PMed and planning will begin. If you're not on the PM list, either post here or PM me and I'll add you. If I stop checking in here, I'll say something so someone else can get the PMs out.

Monkey Island
apenpaap
Icedhope
Mandahaya
Tpravetz
Captain Mickey
puzzlebox

Sam and Max
Icedhope
Mandahaya
Captain Mickey
Tpravetz
apenpaap

[OzzieMonkey]

So, has the race already started? Coz at the moment I am up to Curse (I'm not sure when I was supposed to start) and I really don't care too much for having to start again, in which case i can't participate (AGAIN).

Edit: Whoops, just reread the post, sorry. Well, I started yesterday. I am now up to curse. Just about to talk to murray for the first time. My exact time so far all together is 5 hours 39 minutes of playtime, calculated by ScummVM.

[GuruGuru214]

Apenpaap was interested in doing it on the 27th, but with the three day idea, that would either put the start of the race on Christmas or the end of it on a Monday. No way could we swing it on Christmas, but Monday might be doable. I haven't gotten any feedback yet, so I didn't set a date. I'm thinking the 26th-28th, though. Definitely something soon, though, while any students among us are on break and have more time to participate.

[apenpaap]

I'm definitly joining in on this one. I'll have to see if I can get Livestream to work.

[Icedhope]

Yep, and I think I'll donate a prize hmmm...how about an autographed tales of MI poster?

[Secret Fawful]

I'm in, as long as my schedule doesn't change.

[GuruGuru214]

Originally Posted by apenpaap

I'm definitly joining in on this one. I'll have to see if I can get Livestream to work.

If you have any trouble, I'm happy to help you out, but in my experience Procaster has been very easy to use.

[puzzlebox]

I'll almost certainly definitely probably check in for some spectating and hint provisions.

[apenpaap]

I think I've got Livestream to work, could someone go to http://www.livestream.com/apenpaap to test it out?

[GuruGuru214]

Well, you definitely have a channel there, but you're offline so I can't say much more than that.

[apenpaap]

Yes, I was waiting for soemone to post, or there wouldn't have been much point. I'll be starting now.

[apenpaap]

I should've just streamed about two minutes of video if it worked. Did it work?

[apenpaap]

I've done some testing, and it seems I can stream all 5 Monkey Island games.

[GuruGuru214]

So...I have a friend's birthday coming up next weekend, and I've seriously considered just dropping out of this race since I just did one. Would anyone mind if I used my times for the first four games from the first race (which we didn't finish anyway) and just finished up with Tales on Monday?

[apenpaap]

I wouldn't mind. It'd be a shame, though.

[harald]

I'd really like to join this! It sounds insane and possibly even painful, but it would totally be worth having on my list of geeky merits. I suppose it would be possible for me to stream SoMI:SE via Livestream although I have no idea how it works (yet), but I hope it's okay if I run the other games on older (offline) computers to avoid any compatibility issues. (Besides, there's something about the charm of ol' DOS that Windows just doesn't have.)

I don't have Twitter either so I'm not sure how I would document the rest of the race. I don't suppose I could just post here? Didn't Guruguru do that the last time?

I have a suggestion for the rule on text speeds: Allow maximum, please. That's the only way you can play Secret's Second Edition without the annoying pauses between the spoken lines.

There's another thing. I'm in Sweden, at GMT +1 hour. That means I'll probably start playing 7-10 hours before anyone in the US. So maybe I should just skip the part of streaming live? (Of course, if there is massive demand from European players who'd like to watch me play, I'll rig something.)

So, please consider this a formal application. Any suggestions on how I document the thing?

*starts installing games*

EDIT: More rules questions. Is it allowed to use CMI's double-click-to-teleport-to-the-next-room feature? And if Escape has something similar (I really don't remember, I only played it once years ago), can you use that?

I also read through the first post more carefully and realized most of my questions were already answered in there. I'll just post in this thread, unless someone already has a Livestream up to chat in.

[GuruGuru214]

I made my posts in here to keep track of time, but I streamed the entire thing last time. I did use maximum text speed in Secret, so that should be fine. I did use the double-click in Curse and the room exit button in Escape, so feel free.

As for your time zone, I had people all around the world dropping in and out to watch. I think my audience was mostly American when I started in the morning and by the end they were all either European or out of their minds for watching me that late. You can do your sections of the race at whatever time is good for you.

Now, for documenting. You don't have to stream if you don't want, but it really is a ton of fun that way, so I'd recommend using ScummVM and the EMI installer from Mix-n-Mojo to avoid the compatibility issues. Or not, it's entirely up to you. Streaming on Livestream is pretty easy, they have a program you can download called Procaster that is very easy to use. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

And apenpaap, I know, I had so much fun the first time, but it is a little soon for me to be doing it again and my schedule this weekend just doesn't really allow for it. I'll be cheering you guys on when I can the first couple days, though, and you can bet I'll be participating fully if we ever do this again.

[apenpaap]

I'm European too, and I'd like to see you stream (It's really easy, I downloaded it a few days ago and found out how to stream all five MI games in about 30 minutes).

[TomPravetz]

Are you doing Tales and Escape? Because if so, I'm out. I hate Escape and Tales runs too slowly on my computer.

[harald]

Alright, you convinced me. I have a channel at http://www.livestream.com/hagmo and I'll probably be streaming the whole race from there.

I had to use "Game" as source (in Procaster) in order to stream SoMI:SE, and then I couldn't use the chat function. Did any of you get that to work? I thought chatting with everyone was half the fun with the broadcasting thing...

I haven't decided what time of day I'll start. I mean, I could go at midnight here (that's around 3PM in California) and play into the night to get more American people to watch. But then that might alienate some of the Europeans, I don't know. Also, what if I'd like to watch my "competitors" too? Or is that cheating? If not, I'd like to know when everyone else is starting so mine doesn't overlap apenpaap, for example.

I'm just about to try streaming the other three now. I'll let you know if I run into any problems.

Really looking forward to this!

...Also, Tpravetz: I'm only speaking for myself here, but couldn't you just join on Saturday and Sunday, and only race the first three games? The more the merrier, I'm sure.