Most people think of DOSBox as being a DOS emulator, but it's actually a PC emulator that's geared towards playing DOS games. That means that it can also run a copy of Windows 3.1 so that you can run Win16 games. (I wrote a tutorial about how to run Windows 3.1 in DOSBox
here. It also links to all of the drivers you'll need.)
It seems that I'm not the only one who has fond memories of playing a game called The Adventures of MicroMan. I decided to do a single segment speedrun in DOSBox, and I recorded the AVI.
It's not tool assisted because DOSBox doesn't support save states yet, though Qbix discussed his desire to add them in an interview for the site which you can read
here. It's definitely possible to beat this time through better luck manipulation, but the randomness was quite favorable in this particular run. I wasn't able to completely avoid taking damage, but in some cases no time is lost when I do (like if I'm on a moving platform). There is one room where I pause for a second in order to avoid teleporting into an enemy. There are times when you see me enter a room, then immediately leave and re-enter. This is to make an enemy I call "the Leader" leave the room so that he doesn't shoot guided missiles at me.
You can't tell from watching it, but this game is actually pretty hard. Most people played v1.0, which was very challenging. MicroMan is constantly running out of energy, and there are rooms that have bottomless pits that have some really difficult jumps. Many rooms require you to find invisible platforms, invisible springboards, and invisible moving platforms. I know where they are, so I making finding them look easy. If you don't know the game inside and out like I do, it's time consuming and really a matter of trial and error to figure out how a room is supposed to be completed. The hardest part was that if you died in v1.0, you had to start over. Version 1.5 added save points and made three of the rooms easier. The big jump off of the springboard onto a disappearing platform in the room before the final boss is frustratingly difficult and ended a lot of games in v1.0 because of the lack of save points.
I elected to use v1.5 for this speedrun, even though it made one of my jumps easier, because v1.5 added background music, which hopefully improves the entertainment value. If you didn't play this game back in the day, you might not be very impressed by this video. If you did play the game and remember how freaking frustrating it was, you may find this enjoyable. In fact, no one has told me that they've ever beaten the game, so if you never did, you can finally see the ending.
The AVI can be downloaded
here. There's also a really bizarre glitch that I wasn't able to use in the speedrun, which you can watch
here. I apologize for not linking directly to the AVIs, but these are large files and I'm a bit paranoid about spiders/crawlers/grabbers snatching them from the links in this forum.
Edit: Now 27 seconds faster due to better Leader avoision, much better boss fights, and better play.
