Released in March 2001, Serious Sam marks the FPS debut of Croatian developer Croteam. Featuring an original 3D engine that can render large numbers of creatures on screen at the same time, as well as enormous indoor/outdoor environments, The First Encounter is the first game to feature Sam "Serious" Stone, who is mankind's last hope against the forces of Tah-Um (Notorious Mental). He has been sent back to the times of ancient Egypt using humanity's trump card -- Timelock, a remnant of an extinct civilization from Sirius. Serious Sam brings back the glory days of furious shoot-em-up action and paper-thin storylines, while throwing in a bit of crazy humor!
Return to the Game List, the FAQ, or the Home Page.
Segmented, Easy Difficulty: 0:28:37 by 'Blacksecret', 'Tarakan3000', 'Carbonehell' done in 129 segments appended to unknown files.
Author's comments:
Difficulty: Easy
Runners: Blacksecret, Carbonehell, Tarakan3000
Time: 0:28:37
129 Segments
This speedrun was created because recently the RTA record on Easy difficulty was improved by Carbonehell and his run also beat the record on Normal difficulty by 4 seconds making it the fastest category.
So we wanted to compare which category is the fastest, the limits of Easy category and what kind of crazy strategies and optimizations we could find and employ in a segmented setting.
For reference the segmented speedrun on Normal difficulty which is on SDA clocks in at 30:20 (this run was made a few years ago so it doesnt include some new strategies that in total should save atleast 30 seconds).
The three main differences between Normal and Easy are different enemy spawns (Less waves of enemies in arenas on Easy etc.), no self damage on Easy (except for the cannon), and less damage from enemies on Easy.
A message on the top left of the screen for example "Blacksecret is now known as Carbonehell" indicates which player is doing the next segments for those who are curious.
All timestamps refer to the ingame timer in the top center.
Hatshepsut (0:00:34) 4 segments
0:09 - A rare boost that you won't normally see.
0:19 - Killing the Gnaar to make the door open.
0:31 - Grabbing the shotgun to open the door that leads to the end of the level.
Sand Canyon (0:00:44) 3 segments
This level is done the same as in a regular speedrun, but with the fastest setup only used in individual levels runs, using the kamikazes and gathering them as close to eachother as possible to take as much damage possible for a big enough boost to go out of bounds while avoiding some teleport triggers on top of the hill that send you back inbounds.
Also this strategy doesnt work on Tourist difficulty because you dont take enough damage from the explosion to get a big enough boost.
0:45 - Jumping to alert some kamikazes earlier
Tomb of Ramses III (0:01:30) 8 segments
1:32 - A solid boost from kamikaze that is pretty random
1:52 - Jumping over a trigger that closes a door infront of you
1:58 - Machinegun boost from a scorpion
2:05 - Using a flying Gnaar to skip a bunch of staircases
2:19 - Another kamikaze boost, combining all the enemy boosts on this level is extremely rare due to rng
Overall saved a full second on this level over the individual level record.
Valley of the Kings (0:01:40) 7 segments
3:14 - Combining a boost from a bull with a kamikaze explosion for a bigger boost
3:32 - Using the bull to go out of bounds and skip the whole level
3:48 - While in out of bounds here normally we can only go up, but going through that mountain peak we were able to get full vertical movement. That allowed us to save time by not trying to avoid holes in the ceiling down below, but instead flying directly to the end level trigger.
3:55 - As soon as we enter the part that the game considers as inbounds we start falling and after we fall down we jump again to re-enter out of bounds while airborne to be able to move down.
Overall these optimizations saved 3 seconds compared to the individual level record.
Oasis (0:00:47) 3 segments
4:31 - Sadly the individual level strategy doesnt work in a full game setting which lets you enter the waterfall a few seconds earlier.
4:36 - Taking a slightly suboptimal line to manipulate enemies to the best of our ability for the upcoming skip which allows us to go straight to the end of the level.
4:45 - This strategy is pretty infamous for its inconsistency because the different enemy attacks have to line up perfectly or you wont get enough speed to get up the hill.
Dunes (0:00:49) 5 segments
5:35 - Jumping on this bull in a specific way to go the direction we want while baiting the bull to run over the hill so he could proceed to boost us again quicker.
5:53 - Getting hit by a bull and jumping at the same time to gain a lot of height to get over the wall.
6:00 - Grabbing a health pill that spawns an ammo backpack which triggers enemy spawns.
6:08 - Kleer skeleton pushing us just far enough into the door to touch the end level trigger.
Suburbs (0:00:55) 10 segments
Running through the level and pressing 2 buttons that open the exit. Done same as the individual level route.
Sewers (0:01:02) 11 segments
7:14 - A pretty new strategy to use a fish boost at the start for a small timesave.
7:32 - Boosting from enemies as much as possible
7:44 - Normally you would take a sub optimal line here to jump over a trigger that closes the door to the water section, but we found that it is barely possible to get there before the door closes with a Kleer boost at the right moment.
7:56 - Another quite recent strategy to float to the surface of the water to get a further boost from the fish.
A second faster than the individual level record.
Metropolis (0:07:08) 28 segments
8:09 - Jumping on edges in a correct way allows you to jump higher.
8:14 - This also applies to enemies tilting their heads if timed correctly.
9:10 - In a RTA run you would go straight to the final arena, but with segments we can use a much more difficult route.
9:24 - Jumping over the spike pit on the right side to manipulate a bull for more optimal boosts and grabbing the minigun for later.
9:59 - Going this far into the arena starts the arena fight and now we have to wait for over 2 minutes for the final kamikaze to spawn, so we take this time to go and grab the secret cannon back in the middle of the level.
11:04 - The first thing we do when getting the cannon is self damage boosting to get back to the arena before the enemies finish spawning.
12:19 - Killing the final kamikaze as soon as it spawns to progress the arena as fast as possible.
12:24 - Grabbing this ammo backpack aswell as 2 more backpacks later starts the next wave of enemies.
13:25 - These harpies spawn a set time after grabbing the backpack so we have plenty of time to clear the previous ones and we can anticipate their spawn with some well placed rockets, also this is where the minigun comes in handy saving a bunch of time.
13:43 - Clearing bulls on the left to be able to kill the rest of them in one shot.
13:55 - Final waves of the arena where we just wait for the final spawns.
15:10 - Standing in the middle of the enemy line to clear it quickly and reach the exit faster.
9 seconds faster than the individual level record.
Alley of the Sphinxes (0:02:08) 13 segments
16:03 - Using trees to make the bull turn around faster.
16:12 - Combining a cannon boost with a bull boost to get a huge boost, this is why we kept as much health as possible up to this point since you take a lot of damage using this strategy.
16:54 - Triggering enemy spawns since we need a Kleer skeleton to skip the arena.
17:06 - Staying close enough to the Kleer so it does throwing attacks minimal amount of times and to make it run towards us and to the exit without stopping.
17:23 - Leading the Kleer towards the door in a straight line and having it clip us slightly into the door so we would touch the end level trigger.
13 seconds faster than the individual level record.
Karnak (0:04:46) 14 segments
17:28 - Cannon jumping out of the intended play area and going towards the final arena.
18:20 - A strategy that was only used on Normal difficulty up to this point but Inv1ve (previous record holder on Easy difficulty) discovered that you can use a cannonball instead of a rocket to get the same effect.
18:30 - Getting boosted all the way to the Backpack which starts the final arena (saving 25 seconds over just walking here).
19:30 - The final kamikaze kill starts the timer of the next enemy spawns.
20:23 - Killing the Kleer skeletons quickly wont speed up the arena but we have to kill the red scorpions as fast as possible.
21:08 - Another wave that only spawns after a set amount of time and we have to kill all but one harpy to progress the arena.
21:24 - Red scorpions that spawn after the harpies are killed which also need to be killed as fast as possible.
21:55 - After grabbing enough health for the next level we prefire one of the Biomechs with rockets to focus our attention only on the other two that we have to kill for the final door to open.
22:08 - Killing these bulls is not necessary but we couldnt make them useful to save time and we need to keep our health as high as possible.
Overall 29 seconds faster than individual level record mainly due to the new fish boost. It wasnt previously used in any runs whatsoever.
Luxor (0:01:22) 5 segments
22:35 - Horizontal cannon boost can save up to 1 second if done this way, similarly to rocket boosts on the normal difficulty.
22:37 - Tricky jump to go out of bounds to skip all of the level.
23:22 - Avoiding picking up 100 armor but picking up 25 armor instead. This allows for the jumppad boost on the next level since we cant perform it with too much armor.
The Great Pyramid (0:05:05) 18 segments
23:42 - Getting stuck on the jumppad and using a cannon boost to skip a lenghty arena.
23:47 - Grabbing a mandatory trigger to spawn the final boss.
24:10 - Bull boosting and getting this 200 armor pickup to combine bull boosts with cannon boosts.
24:34 - Thankfully we have just enough health here to do another cannon boost.
24:38 - On the bottom of this slope is a trigger that starts a timer to open the door to the final boss arena.
24:51 - The boss is still invulnerable so we start shooting rockets at it that will reach him only when he becomes vulnerable since we want to deal as much damage as possible before the doors open.
26:57 - The boss doesn't take damage at the start of the actual bossfight so we shoot rockets at him.
27:05 - Shooting 2 cannonballs while in the air for free damage and to stay on optimal lines during the rest of the fight.
27:11 - Doing some horizontal cannon boosts saving around a second each at the cost of a lot of our health.
27:57 - The lower the boss health is the more regeneration it has, so there is not much point in getting it into red health before jumping through the last hoop and at this point we just lower the bosses health as much as we can until the laser kills it.
28:40 - We lose control of the character and the run is over done in 28:37 as shown in stats screen after the unskipable cutscene.
We hope you enjoyed the run and thanks for watching.
Co-Op, Single-segment: 0:41:23 by Anders 'DenLillePige' Hansen ('DenLillePige' PoV), 'Momfy' ('Momfy' PoV)
Single-segment, Tourist Difficulty: 0:49:15 by Arran 'ShadowWraith' Kelf
Author's comments:
This run was done using version 1.05.
Originally I started running this without using Fraps to record, since using the built-in demo recorder would enable me to play at 1280x1024 at 60fps, which makes aiming/movement easier for me. After completing a very good run however, I discovered that every multi-level demo I created desynced at the second level, which was rather annoying, so I had to resort to Fraps for this, meaning I had to play at 30fps at 640x480. It wasn't as bad as I thought, and I came close to beating the run I'd captured on demo previously. (I was 45 seconds off that time with this run, which I find impressive considering that it's hard to do long distance aiming at 30fps) Anyhoo here's a list of tricks I used in each level, along with things you might wonder about in the run.
At the start I jump up the slope instead of walking since you gain altitude when jumping off a slope, which means I move up it faster. The rest of the level is just precise movement along walls and barely skimming the shotgun to pick it up.
This level is a pain on 30fps. I leave the first Kamikaze I see alive, since killing him makes more spawn and makes it more annoying a bit further ahead. I kill the two Gnaar because their deaths trigger a Kleer Skeleton spawn, and I use that as a stepping stone to get over the barrier at the bottom of the dark slope. The hopper trap in the next room is triggered by killing all three Kamikazes in the tunnel before it, so killing them as soon as possible makes progression faster. I press the secret wall to get the Tommygun here since it makes killing the hoppers faster and costs no time at all. I use the slope jumping trick in the room after that (and jump over a Female Gnaar on the way) and in the next area I kill the Bull, since it has an annoying habit of knocking me out of the doorway at the end if I don't.
Again the slopejump was used here for a little speedboost. In the long corridor area where I jump randomly the jump avoids a trigger which closes the door ahead of me and spawns a Young Arachnoid and some Gnaar, which I have to kill to get the door to open. I use a trick to jump on the flying Gnaar's head to get to the upper level faster, which shaves a few seconds off. (This is also in the Serious IL for this level) It's possible to jump up the slope in the room after the Kamikaze in this level in one try but I didn't manage it, luckily the flying Gnaar was just behind me to give me a stepping stone. Jumping up the wall at the end of the large square arena room lets you exit early.
Here I kill the Kamikaze riding the bull first, since it has a very annoying habit of getting in the way of the bull boosting me. Here's also where you'll see the first truly random part of the run. Bull boosting. Grazing the side of the bull sends you in the direction perpendicular to that side, which is nice for moving in one direction since you can just keep grazing opposite sides, but here I didn't manage to keep the pattern up. The Aludran Reptiloid Highlander takes 14 rockets to kill, but you can substitute the last two for Tommygun bullets which saves about a second or two. In the room with the Ankh on a pillar, I need to press one button (The left one specifically) to get the pillar to lower enough so that I can slopejump onto it, which means I skip half of this puzzle. I also have to keep at least one of the flying Gnaar from pressing the left switch alive to jump back over the Wall of Darkness further in the level. There's not much else to say about this level which isn't self-explanatory, except that keeping all the Kleer from jumping in the water with the Stone Ankh is harder than it looks. :)
This is probably the easiest level in the game for me, it's a straight forward run, the only area of note being the large hopper room where I kill the initial waves with the rocket launchers splash damage then when the extra hoppers start spawning further along the walls I switch to the tommygun and exhaust each hopper spawn in turn.
I really didn't like this level., and you'll see why when you watch the run. Bulls can be very uncooperative. :( The end door has the end-of-level trigger right inside it, so all I need is a boost to push me slightly into the door to trigger it.
This level, like Oasis, is also straightforward, and doesn't need any comment from me.
This level can be really annoying, depending on how the fish behave during it. I managed to press the first button faster than I normally do. (and without killing all the fish in there to boot!) Note that killing the Aludran Reptiloid guarding the Super Armor pickup and pressing the button is faster than waiting for the wall to move up by itself.
Killing the two Aludrans on the towers in the courtyard with the Black archways is the only way to unlock the door here. I skip a large part of the level by (clumsily) using a Beheaded Sirian and a Biomechanoid Minor as stepping stones to get on the roof of a building and from there over the wall and out of the main level area. Bunnyhopping after using the bouncepad lets me keep some of my momentum for the next two jumps, and touching the Armor piece in the centre of the room starts the fight off. Note that Grenades > Harpies. :) (Each wave here is summoned by picking up the ammo backpacks.)
This is another pretty straightforward level, and with luck it would be possible to shave about 30 seconds off by managing to get a bull into the courtyard after jumping the wall and opening the door by touching the Armor piece. I've managed it only once though, and messed up that run at Luxor. Killing most of the enemies in the area where you place the four elements spawns the items which spawn the Lava Golem here, and I try to be efficient about it.
Thanks to zojji for the tactic for this level, though on previous runs I had trouble actually not killing the Bull, since I was dumb and used Cannon to kill the Young Arachnoid in the wide room where the Bull spawns. The rest of the level is pretty self-explanatory.
This level can theoretically be improved by 1:30, but it requires a very VERY random trick called Cannon Boosting. Basically if you get the correct angle and jump height, you can boost yourself into the air at about Double Rocketjump height, for the price of 70-140hp. Unfortunately it's so hard to get perfect that I just gave up trying and finished this level normally. The Ankhs in the last room always spawn in the order I collect/place them. I was admittedly a little cautious partway through the level stopping to kill some Kleers, as I had a run where I collected the golden feather, went to exit the room and was double boosted by two waiting Kleer off the edge to the lower level. Which was pretty annoying. :(
This level is also improvable by around 3-4 minutes or so by use of the Cannon Boost to skip the initial part of the level. I got very unlucky with bull randomness here, had a few decent boosts which hit the wall too soon and caused me not to go over the wall. (cue much cursing) The timer for the opening of the doors into the great pyramid start when I get to the ramp, so my goal is to get there ASAP. Ugh'Zan did something funny where he stopped advancing after a while, so I was stuck spamming Cannonballs at him at super long range. Luckily he was close enough for them to get to him. Inside the great pyramid all that's left is to jump through the four hoops and activate the ships teleport, which happens to be fatal to large horned six-armed demonic entities. (Lucky me.) If you try to kill him normally, he'll regenerate back to half health. Sounds simple? It's not, since he has to be positioned over the glowing circle in the center of the floor for him to take damage. I've had many runs ruined because he moved out of the circle at the last second. But not this time. :)
*NOTE* Ignore the very last time screen, it includes end-of-level cutscene times which aren't included.
Thanks to www.ssdq.org, stx-Vile, Kibumbi, TheVoid-, dex|, sarou and Ewil for the various tricks, strategies, shortcuts, routes and just general encouragement, and to AjAX for giving me reason to attempt this run. :P If you have any questions about the run, feel free to contact me via email at arran DOT kelf AT gmail DOT com, on irc.freenode.net in #sda (my name is either ShadowWraith or noeff|ketsuzoku there) or just send me a PM on the forums.
Segmented, Normal Difficulty: 0:30:20 by 'Blacksecret' done in 94 segments appended to unknown files.
Author's comments:
Difficulty: Normal
Runner: Blacksecret
Time: 0:30:20
94 Segments
Hatshepsut (0:00:38) 2 segments
A simple level where you just have to run to the exit.
0:11 - Jumping up the slope for a tiny speed boost.
0:23 - The first thing you want to get is the secret rocket launcher which is why this level is slower on normal than on tourist but unlike tourist difficulty you can damage yourself with explosive weapons allowing for some game breaking rocketjumps saving heaps of time in the later levels.
0:33 - Killing the Gnaar to make the door open and a rocketjump out of water which increases the boost you get from the rocket.
0:44 - Grabbing the shotgun triggers the final door to open and you have to get through the door before it closes or it will get locked until all the enemies in this room are dead.
Sand Canyon (0:00:33) 1 segment
Normally you would have to go through an underground section and fight a bunch of enemies but we can just skip all of that.
Every time you finish a level with under 100 health on normal difficulty you gain 50 health at the start of the next one.
0:58 - Since I use an extra rocket jump in the first level I have to climb the mountain with the help of a single rocket which requires precise timing of your rocket shot during the jump. After that I dodge some teleport triggers and enter out of bounds while the character is technically in the air which allows me to control my height and fly lower to avoid a teleport trigger near the end.
Tomb of Ramses III (0:01:27) 5 segments
This level is all about avoiding damage to save enough health for a trick in the next level.
1:56 - Jumping over a small trigger that traps you inthe room until you kill some enemies.
2:02 - Staggering the scorpions so they dont attack with their hitscan and doing some rocketjumps to skip parts of the level while staying as healthy as possible.
2:40 - Firing the rocket under my self late into the jump to maximise forward momentum.
Valley of the Kings (0:01:05) 7 segments
Another level that gets mostly skipped by going out of bounds.
2:56 - This is the first instance of a high rocket jump which requires a very precise jump timing just after firing the rocket under you. Right after the jump I rise into a teleporter which sends me further into the level, trigger the bull early and proceed to do bull boosts to reach the next out of bounds spot.
3:07 - Grabbing this health is essential for a rocketboost coming up, I also dont take any damage from the bull because he hits me with the edge of his hitbox and for some reason it does close to no damage.
3:24 - Combining a bullboost with a rocketboost results in even more speed allowing me to get on top of this hill and with a jump over a taleport trigger you can just go out of bounds and fly to the end of the level, this saves around 15 seconds compared to not using the teleporter and flying to the end right from the start.
Oasis (0:00:47) 2 segments
One of the easiest levels.
4:05 - I jump into a teleport trigger which sticks through the back side of the secret area behind the waterfall to get further into the level.
4:17 - Climbing this hill using a rocket jump and dodging invisible teleport triggers to get out of bounds to skip most of the level.
4:40 - Grabbing armor and health for the next few levels.
Dunes (0:00:43) 7 segments
One of the hardest levels to optimise because of how random the enemies can be.
5:07 - Doing bullboosts all the way to the final arena and taking as little damage as I can.
5:25 - Manipulating the bull's position a bit into a bull + rocket boost over the wall. Since the strenght of the rocket jump depends on how much health damage you take armor reduces the boost you get losing around a second compared to not having armor here, but I get to keep a lot of health which will save me more time in the next 2 levels than I lose here.
5:33 - Touching the end level trigger through the door with another rocket boost.
Suburbs (0:00:57) 4 segments
Another straight forward level.
5:42 - Rocketjumping over a trigger that spawns scorpions and other enemies that would certainly do damage to me and slow me down, but since I have armor I cant do a boost that would give me forward momentum here. Instead with the leftover health I do such a boost over the following building skipping another enemy spawn trigger and allowing me to take a straighter path.
5:56 - Using the grenade launcher to kill some of the enemies that would damage me around corners to slow down less.
6:14 - Maximizing the health I have for the next level by staying at atleast 50 hp to be able to skip an armor pickup in the next level.
Sewers (0:00:59) 5 segments
6:53 - After pressing the switch I do a rocket boost out of the water saving a few seconds.
7:11 - A rocket boost to pass under a barrier before it closes.
In the underwater section I get some really good boosts from the fish and a boost out of the water straight through all the pickups that I need to finish the level on almost full health and ammo.
Metropolis (0:07:39) 15 segments
The longest level in the game still without a way to get out of bounds to save minutes of time. However to save a few seconds compared to the older routes I take a quicker path to the main arena of the level which involves some high rotketjumps and grab the minigun on the way while skipping the secret cannon for now.
9:25 - The first wave of the arena which consists of kamikazes spawning for around 2 minutes is triggered when you get to the middle of the arena and the only way to speed this up is to kill the last kamikaze as soon as he spawns. These 2 minutes are exactly enough to backtrack all the way back to the secret cannon which is used for some of the next waves in the arena.
9:50 - Another note about this level and the game in general is that I intentionally dont grab armor because the height of your rocket jump depends on how much hp damage you take so having armor severely reduces your boosts.
11:30 - I actually left myself with almost not enough time to kill all the kamikazes on time but in the end I managed to do it pretty well.
11:50 - Jumping to grab the ammo pack to trigger the next wave sooner. This part consists of harpy spawns that are all on timers so my poor aim here doesnt lose any time and my only real goal here is to not drop under 50 health.
12:52 - Killing these harpies quickly does matter though so I prefire one with a rocket and kill the rest quickly with the minigun.
13:14 - Next up is two sets of bulls that are taken out quickly with the cannon.
13:42 - I prefire the bulls but leave one alive so I can do a boost towards the middle of the arena before killing it so I could get as close to the next ammo pickup as possible before it spawns.
13:56 - The next part consists of 2 sets of red biomechs and 4 sets of kleer skeletons, but it's only important to kill the last set of kleers quickly here.
15:05 - I found that its around 4 seconds faster to save an extra cannon shot for the last wave and to stand in the middle of the kleer spawn to be closer to the final door.
Alley of the Sphinxes (0:02:06) 9 segments
16:06 - Using a bunch of damageless bullboosts to get through the level quicker
17:27 - Another rocketboost through the door into the end level trigger.
Karnak (0:06:51) 15 segments
This is another level with an unskippable arena fight making it rather long.
17:35 - This level starts with a rocket jump into an edge/slope jump which gives just enough height to jump into the window saving a second or two.
19:03 - Grabbing this pack starts the arena and for the first wave it's only important to kill the last kamikaze as soon as it spawns.
20:06 - Next up are the kleers and I found this part really hard to optimise just because the last ones spawn on all sides very quickly and the cannon doesnt shoot fast enough to get them all on time.
20:50 - I tried a lot of different ideas and combinations to kill the red scorpions quickly but they just have too much health and anything but a charged cannon shot is too slow or too weak to kill them quickly, so the only optimisation I could make here was to get as far from the furthest scorpion as I could, prefire him and then shoot the other one a little bit after he has spawned.
21:20 - The next wave starts off with harpies, but you dont have to kill the first ones quickly.
21:41 - You have to kill all but one of these harpies so I start by prefiring some rockets and taking a certain path so it would be easier to fire at the distant ones that I could barely see and to reach a position that would let me kill 3 at once with the cannon. Right after this the next red scorpions spawn so optimally you just shoot at them as soon as possible with an almost fully charged cannon.
22:10 - Just before the bulls start spawning I grab 50 armor and max out my health in preparation for the next level and its important that I dont lose any of this health. All of the bulls are also on timers so I just kill the last one as soon as it spawns to save time.
23:53 - 2 seconds after you hear an item spawn red biomechs start spawning so you just kill them quickly.
24:10 - As it turns out the last door opens after the last red biomech dies, but the time it takes for him to spawn and for the door to open after his death is really random. So random infact that my best and worst segment with pretty similar kills had more than a 4 second difference.
Luxor (0:01:22) 2 segments
A short level due to a relatively new way to enter out of bounds.
The reason I want to start with a specific amount of armor is that I want to enter out of bounds after 3 rocketjumps with atleast 100 hp allowing me to grab the health supplies that are conveniently lying under the map faster without having to grab the smaller healing items first before grabbing the +100 hp heart.
24:54 - A tricky high jump.
The Great Pyramid (0:05:06) 20 segments
Last level in the game with a boss who can refuse to die whenever he wants.
Right at the start I use a bouncepad which is designed to return you back inside the arena in combination with rockets for a massive boost and a single very high rocket jump over the gate of the arena into a trigger that you must hit to spawn the boss and the UFO that will kill him.
26:12 - Running straight through a trigger that spawns a large amount of enemies and bulls that get used to boost quicker to the pyramid.
26:20 - Since I have so much health I can combine the momentum of rocketboosts to go even further and grab the armor before the bulls throw me off. The next section involves reaching the pyramid as fast as possible to trigger a timer for the door to the last arena while keeping as much health as I can.
26:57 - The timer has started but I dont rush up the ramp because it turns out that if you get up the ramp this quickly the boss wont break the walls at the start of the level and they will block your cannon shots so you will only be able to damge him with the limited amount of rockets that you have. However this is not and issue because I figured out that killing all the enemies around you and backtracking for ammo allows you to do much more damage to the boss before entering the arena saving around 3 seconds in the end.
27:38 - The boss doesnt take damage until his healthbar shows up and this ammopack has 30 cannonballs in it and you have a lot of time to shoot at him.
29:14 - Entering the arena as early as posssible and with over 20 cannonballs and the boss under half health.
And now all that remains is to do enough damage to the boss while jumping through the 4 hoops that trigger a laser which is the only way to kill the boss. Since the boss is already so low on health I dont have to constantly shoot at him so I can do some rocketboosts and I can afford to turn around to hit the jummppads quickly more easily.
29:57 - At this point his health is in the red and he gets increased regeneration, If you had more cannonballs you could get his health so low that he would immediately regenerate back to almost full health, but I just use the minigun for a while to limit his regen for a while so I could then reduce his health to as low as I can before the laser hits him without triggering his healing.
31:00 - ignore the in game timer that keeps running because the real final time is in the end statistics screen.
Recently there was a pretty cool discovery that had the potential to save a minute on this level involving using the jumppad + rockets to boost almost to the pyramid but it was impossible to trigger the boss this way, and even if you backtracked after starting the timer at the pyramid you would have to wait over a minute for the spaceship or it wouldn't open to fire at the boss in the arena.
Levels - Time
Hatshepsut - 0:00:38
Sand Canyon - 0:00:33
Tomb of Ramses - 0:01:27
Valley of the Kings - 0:01:05
Oasis - 0:00:47
Dunes - 0:00:43
Suburbs - 0:00:57
Sewers - 0:00:59
Metropolis - 0:07:39
Alley of the Sphinxes - 0:02:06
Karnak - 0:06:51
Luxor - 0:01:22
The Great Pyramid - 0:05:06
Total - 0:30:20
As for a comparison my previous segmented run (which was not on SDA) times using one segment per level
Levels - Time
Hatshepsut - 0:00:38
Sand Canyon - 0:00:33
Tomb of Ramses - 0:01:31
Valley of the Kings - 0:01:13
Oasis - 0:00:48
Dunes - 0:00:42 - this segment was really lucky on top of having no armor for the bull + rocket boost
Suburbs - 0:00:58
Sewers - 0:01:03
Metropolis - 0:07:54
Alley of the Sphinxes - 0:02:20
Karnak - 0:07:06
Luxor - 0:01:23
The Great Pyramid - 0:05:35
Total - 0:31:50
Thanks to the Serious Sam speedrun community that is still alive and active to this day on the Serious Sam Done Quick Discord server - https://discord.gg/PfHmhHE Feel free to join even if you are not a speedrunner and just want to have a chat. Special thanks to all the runners of the game and the people who find all the crazy optimisations to this very day.
Serious Difficulty: 0:52:45
Drew DeVore's comments:
The first trick jump, which uses a Kleer as a step over the gate, is rather tough to stage... it's hard to see in that dark tunnel, so getting the jump immediately made me happy. In the Marsh Hopper (exploding toad) room, killing the headless enemies quickly makes the toads appear faster. The armor for the end run was entirely optional, but requires quite a bit of luck to survive without it. Overall I'm pleased with how this one turned out, despite getting hung up a bit at the very end.
Also, as an aside, I normally let the final cutscene play out completely in these demos, but the slowdown there got so horrible that I cut it short early. I was afraid for the rest of the runs where I would be avoiding large numbers of enemies, hoping the slowdown wouldn't get too bad, but it seems this was the worst case scenario. :
I'm very happy with the way this one turned out. I had two monster boost tricks and both were implemented without much loss of time here. In the tunnel after the secret passageway, with virtually nothing going on, I jump once while running through it. This jump was to avoid a trigger that will close the door in front of you and trap you with an Arachnid and some kamikazes. I discovered this trick by accident and was quite glad, as I was using the kamikazes to painfully jump over the door to get out of the trap, putting me in an unhealthy position for the remainder of the run
This was the last run done for the pack, replacing a 4:50 run that I wasn't happy with and eventually couldn't ignore. It's one of the more frustrating runs in the game on the fastest route. In the valley, I don't kill the Gnaar (beartrap teeth creature) or the Werebull, as their deaths will cause many more enemies to appear in their place. I just let them trail behind me as I run for the temple. The Reptiloid (green magic missile caster) has to be killed for the rocket launcher to be appear, which in turn causes the boss to appear when it gets picked up. At this time, the Werebull is still running around trying to get me, and sometimes I can actually get him stuck on the left side of the platform so that he'll eventually stop trying to chase me. This is luck-related though, so I sometimes have to kill him. The boss takes exactly 14 rockets to kill, incidentally.
Inside... I hate that rocket jump to the key. It's easy to miss grabbing the key entirely. This is also the room where you can ghost around the map by rocket jumping on top of the ceiling. I don't do this, though, having made it against the rules. You could fly right to the exit if you wanted, though. :)
Rocket jumping over the wall of darkness... self-explanatory. At the cage trap with the heart, it's possible to avoid getting caught inside, but the door to the next area will not open until the trap has played out. The cage provides protection against the Kleers anyway
The first secret level of the game. There's not much to explain here, since the run is fairly straightforward. There's two shortcuts that I use here, but both of them actually count towards the secret tally, so there's really nothing that I can take credit for, here. At the very end, I rocket jump over a werebull that spawns in front of you, though this was probably hard to see in the demo. I'm also quite happy with this one
This is a luck-oriented pain in the ass on the fastest route, since the Bio-Mech that spawns inside the building can keep you from advancing too quickly. I had to cancel out his rocket attack at close range with the tommy gun to make it by. In the boss room, you can rocket jump on top of the outer walls in this room, but that's rather boring. :)
Also, it's worth mentioning that the two health potions that can be found in the boss room are both booby-trapped and cause more toads to appear, which aren't part of the boss meter. The one that appears in the middle of the room partway through the battle is particularly unforgiving...
Special thanks to LarvaExotech, who contacted me sometime after the original demos were posted and revealed to me a trick for finishing this level quite a bit faster than before, making the final battles unnecessary. I assume that he/she is close to the Serious Sam community, as this trick's existence would have been difficult to predict, otherwise. Basically, this run exploits a "thin door" bug whereby the player can initiate the final cutscene of the level through the exit door and end the level early. This is done by taking damage and forcing Sam in the direction of the door, apparently reaching through it briefly to activate the end-level trigger. LE described this trick using a Bio-Mech for the required damage boost, but some rocket splash damage from your own launcher is sufficient. Although some other levels in TFE come close, this is the only level that I know of where it actually works. As a word of caution, for this trick to work, you MUST end the cutscene before it finishes, because you won't end the level if you do. Instead, you'll be returned to Sam's point of view, stuck inside the door, unable to turn, and with a red screen. It's weird, but true, so pressing fire sometime in the final cutscene is necessary to move on to the next level.
That said, the level became much shorter, and so I also felt obligated to implement some time-saving Werebull jumps to cross the desert faster than before. These jumps are rather uncooperative, as you can either take a lot of damage from the hit or no damage at all, and the direction is tough to control. However, for such a short run, I felt it necessary to do so... if just for the practice, since I've found at least one place in The Second Encounter where such a jump is needed because the rocket launcher isn't available yet.
This was the first level where I thought I'd have to slow down and deal with the battles that are scripted by the game, but by choosing which enemies to kill and which ones to ignore, I can make my way through without having to get too hung up by the hordes. In the first half, I briefly retreat to the secret corner until the situation calmed down a bit. I'm normally getting chased by several Reptiloid projectiles, as well as the Werebull, so reaching the door quickly required some sacrifices on my part. In the second half, the screen changes briefly when I hit the two switches that open the way to the sewers. This is the game trying to initiate some small cutscenes showing what the switches do, but it assumes that the player would have cleared the area before hitting the switches. I make those cutscenes as short as possible. :)
I had a hard time seeing the electric fish, so I sometimes couldn't predict exactly where they would appear in the final underwater segment. I only had the general idea of their locations. I don't think I lost any time, though, since I kept moving on the right path as they appeared.
I'd say this is the run I'm the least satisfied with, as it was rather boring on the shortcut route. As such, I played a run where I got to the end and dealt with the final battles in a manner that wasn't too embarrassing, but didn't spend a lot of time shaving away the seconds. For future improvements, it's possible to be right by the door as it opens, though that greatly depends on some blessing from the Kleer horde.
Perhaps the first run to use the new Number of the Beast, not that it matters. This run is similar to Dunes, in which I avoid a large portion of the battles by rocket jumping past the segments before the final arena. For each item that is placed in one of the four corners of the last arena, a different set of enemies will appear. I tried to move from each corner of the arena to the next so that some collections of enemies would overlap with each other, but not becoming too overwhelming. A shame that minigun and laser ammo was more limited here.
As I found out, only the largest of the lava golems need to be killed for the final door to open, not any of his offspring. I move towards the door without getting too close to the boss as his melee attack is, not surprisingly, rather painful.
Another run like Metropolis. I demonstrate the trick jump at the start, run off to the end, giggling the entire way (maybe) and then basically do a walkthrough of the final battles of the level. I'm not sure why the rocket jump off of the beheaded soldier's head seemed to get more height, but that was the case here. I got knocked away from the exit door right at the end, so that's one possible improvement.
For this run, I'd like to give credit to someone named Prestige, assuming that was the first person to discover the trick seen here:
http://files.seriouszone.com/download.php?fileid=265
This trick makes the level rather quick like Karnak and Metropolis, but also makes it just a walkthrough of the final battles of the level. I know some people were disappointed by the lack of action in these instances, but it did allow me to speed up the final battle when it was reasonable to do so. In the final arena, you must collect the four Ankhs and place them on the center pedestal to make the final door open. They appear one at a time, and you must place that Ankh before the next one will appear, but at least they'll always appear in the same places.
Also, near the start, I use a seemingly useless RJ over one of the walls to get to a nearby courtyard. This is used to avoid a trigger that would bring in some tough monsters (large lava golems, reptiloids, etc) that would cost even more health and time to dodge, since they will lead their attacks.
The second secret level, and oh dear, another boring run because of the rocket jump possibilities. I didn't spend much time here, but I'm actually happy with the way the final run looks. I guess things go rather smoothly when there isn't much going on, I just got the gold sphinxes and got the hell out. :)
Also, at the start, I pick up that health pill since a rocket jump will cost exactly 50 health without armor... so I'm afforded a second rocket jump without killing myself here.
I skip the first arena with a double rocket jump right off the bat. Hurray! :)
Reaching the ramp of the great pyramid will initiate the countdown on the door, so doing that as quickly as possible is the idea here. Afterwards, I'm free to defend myself in any way I choose, all while shooting cannonballs clear across the landscape at the boss in the distance. The final battle could be a potential luckfest, since even if you go through the four hoops as fast as possible to zap the boss, he won't always be in the right position at the end. Sometimes he'll stay in place and use his weapons multiple times so the blast misses him entirely... grr, annoying I tells ya.
Bart de Waal's comments:
Tomb Of Ramses
In the narrow corridor there is a trigger that TheVoiid jumps over which prevents the door from moving down. After that he walks into a secret teleporter to pick up the Rocket Launcher and perform a pretty difficult rocket jump. This is where the 10 seconds are saved compared to to the previous run, which instead used a Floating Gnaar to get to the upper floor. The Rocket Launcher also comes in handy in the last room, as he easily skips it with a rocket jump instead of having to jump on Kleers. The final walk up the ramp with Kleers chasing you has probably ended a many runs, but he managed to dodge their attacks nicely.
Serious Difficulty with Large-skip glitches: 0:06:30
| Level | Time | Date | Player(s) |
| Sand Canyon | 0:00:35 | 2013-01-24 | 'Freezard' |
| Valley of the Kings | 0:01:51 | 2013-07-25 | 'Freezard' |
| Moon Mountains | 0:01:05 | 2013-07-29 | 'Freezard' |
| Oasis | 0:00:49 | 2013-01-22 | 'Freezard' |
| Luxor | 0:02:10 | 2008-04-12 | Bart 'TheVoid' de Waal |
Freezard's comments:
Sand Canyons
Who knew that this level would eventually only take 2 seconds longer to finish than Hatshepsut? Only a single enemy is seen during the level which is a record. Damage boosts are severely increased on Serious difficulty, something I take advantage of to get through a pretty specific spot in the teleporter perimeter, which, unsurprisingly, teleports you back to the level upon touching it. From there on it's all just about running out of bounds to the exit trigger. Since you skip the whole level, this run is 1 minute and 10 seconds faster than stx-Vile's run.
Valley Of The Kings
This is basically the same trick used in Sand Canyons. Killing the Gnaar spawns the Kamikaze, so you have to time it right, but the actual boost is easy. This level is really long and painful when played normally. Even with the large skips used in stx-Vile's run, going OoB saves 2 minutes and 21 seconds.
Moon Mountains
There is a secret armor around the fourth platform that is catapulted up when the minigun ammo is grabbed. I found out that there's actually an invisible jump pad that catapults it, so by holding jump when landing on it you get thrown really high into the air while still able to control the direction. How fitting that you can then simply jump out of bounds, no teleporter fields and all, since the developers obviously thought no one could ever get up there. This shortcut saves 36 seconds.
Oasis
Inside the secret cave (the classic and oh so secret behind-the-waterfall-secret) there's a teleporter field that saves me a lot of running by taking me closer to the entrance. Thankfully I don't have to worry much about the Adult Arachnid this way either. When looking in the map editor, I found a very small spot that is not covered by the teleporter perimeter, and as you can see I'm rocket jumping right into it. This took many, many attempts since you have to slide in a certain way to get through the field, but saves a massive 2 minutes and 36 seconds due to the timed Marsh Hopper fight normally encountered.
Bart de Waal's comments:
Luxor
This is basically an OoB version of stx-Vile's run. After getting on top of the perimeter of the level by doing a few nice rocket jumps, TheVoiid eventually runs into an OoB spot which takes him all the way to the exit instead of falling back into the level. This lets you skip the lengthy final arena battle and saves 3 minutes and 24 seconds in total.
Author's comments:
1 - Introduction & Verification
Hello, I'm Drew "stx-Vile" DeVore. You might remember me from such speedrunning bloopers as "Doom/Doom2 Done Nightmare Style" or "The Obscure Appearance in the Skillz Test #4 Reel."
With some awkwardness afforded by that opening, I'm happy to introduce my collection of speedruns for the fast-paced shooter, Serious Sam: The First Encounter. Serious Sam began life in 1996 and was developed for five years by the now-famous Croteam. Gamers were given an unexpected sample of Sam's first adventure in 2000 in the form of a tech demo, showing off expansive indoor and outdoor environments and hordes of enemies thrown at the player at the same time, which has become the Serious Sam calling card. Less than a year after the release of The First Encounter in March 2001, the aptly-named Second Encounter, Sam's next adventure, was released, improving upon the original in many ways but retaining the same successful shoot-em-up formula. Since then, Serious Sam has appeared on many different platforms in many new adventures, and continues to be the source for "serious" action. :)
Sometime after the release of the First Encounter, a forum for potential Sam speedrunners appeared in the form of "Serious Sprint," which was much like Quake's SDA or Doom's Compet-N. Unfortunately it has since disappeared, although some records of its existence are still available at the Files section of www.seriouszone.com. Check out the demos there for some solid walkthroughs of the levels.
Since no real speed records remain, just walkthrough runs with all secrets collected, I tried my hand at some demo recording and eventually completed a set of runs for the entire game. These runs were recorded (using version 1.05) on Serious difficulty from scratch using the Custom Level menu, which I will explain in a bit. These were NOT recorded like a traditional QDQ project, where the stats you have in one level are carried over to the next. All levels were recorded individually as to allow improvements for earlier levels without affecting the rest of the runs. Anyone who wants to try a run like that are welcome to do so. :)
Unfortunately, I don't remember what sort of validation process was implemented in "Serious Sprint," hell I'm not even sure how it's handled for Quake or Doom. However, I've come up with my own measures to assure that these and future runs were done legitimately. First, it should be noted that the tally screen, which normally appears at the end of the level describing the time taken for completion, total kills, secrets found, etc. does NOT appear in the demo playback. However, capturing a screenshot of the tally screen and packaging it with the demo is just as effective.
Why is this method of validation so important? Well, at first I only intended the screenshot as a bonus because of the absense of the tally screen in the demo, but further exploration into the commands in Serious Sam revealed something else. The game allows the action to be slowed down with the following command, taken from ShellSymbols.txt in the Help directory:
gam_fRealTimeFactor:
Realtime factor in game.
<1 = slower
1 = normal
>1 = faster
As I found out, demos recorded in values lower than 1 can be played back at normal speed. I'm not sure how speedrunning admins determine if a demo was played using slowdown, but the screenshot helps verify that it wasn't. On the tally screen, there are values for the time taken to complete a level, say, "06 - Oasis" which is 3:25 and Playing Time, which is 3:31. Playing Time is the cumulative time spent playing the game in a particular session. For legitimate runs, the total Playing Time should only be a couple seconds higher than the time needed to complete the level. I believe it includes the time needed to complete the level, as well as the loading time for the level itself, which for me can be between 5-10 seconds. Anyway, when demos are recorded in slow-motion, the Playing Time for a particular level will appear much higher than the level completion time, which would mean that the game was either played at a very slow realtimefactor, or the player restarted the level multiple times without quitting that particular session, IE pressing fire after dying and being sent to the start of the level. Confusing? Well... I stink at explaining this stuff. In short, please take a screenshot of the tally screen at the end of a run, like I did, if you intend to improve my runs or make your own! :)
2 - Run Mechanics and Rules
Firstly, for those who intend to speedrun the game, I'd like to help by talking about the recording process. The game has an option in the main menu called "Custom Level" which allows you to select any level from the game, provided you completed it in normal play first. Otherwise, only the first level will appear here. When you select a level from this menu, you'll start the level with certain weapons and some ammo for each. The weapons you are given are ones that would have been introduced by that time in a casual run through the game. Weapons that are found on the intended path of a previous level are provided, not ones that were found in secret areas. For example, in level 2, you are given the shotgun, which appeared on the main route of level 1, but not the rocket launcher, which appeared in a secret area in level 1. So, when you select a level from the menu, hit ESC while it's loading, which will bring you to the menu first-thing when it finishes loading. From there, start recording a demo and kick some ass. :P
As far as console commands are concerned, I only used two which proved helpful:
hud_bShowTime = 1 --- Gives you an ingame timer, which is nice for guaging your progress. hud_bShowMessages = 0 --- Keeps NETRICSA from bugging you about new messages to a degree while playing.
Next, there's a distinction about what tricks I did and did not implement in my runs. For instance, in some maps, you can either use a rocket jump or a monster boost to reach places that were not intended by the level designers. Some things, such as reaching a key early or jumping over a wall, are allowed. Also, running along the outside walls of some large open maps, like Metropolis or Karnak, were also deemed allowed. I had to go to Radix for a ruling on that one. However, there are some instances in the game, such as in Valley of the Kings, where you can actually reach an area outside of the boundries of the level and essentially noclip your way around the map. These types of shortcuts were deemed NOT allowed, and although some can argue otherwise since it's not really cheating if you can reach these areas by normal means, it does maintain some level of sanity regarding the runs. I had to draw the line somewhere to keep the runs from becoming too boring. :)
Finally, the time taken to complete a level is measured from the point that the level begins to where the final cutscene of the level STARTS. For example, in level 1, the time was 0:35 when the final cutscene of Sam walking into the darkness begins, which is what shows up on the tally screen. You can easily skip cutscenes that appear only PARTWAY through the level, though... in fact, it's encouraged.
3 - Game Mechanics
The following are some little factoids about certain aspects of the runs:
1. Serious difficulty gives you double the ammo of all other skills besides Tourist. This could be considered an homage to Doom, where Nightmare skill gives you the same benefit. 2. Rocket jumps in Serious Sam provide hardly any horizontal push when compared to games like Quake, so they are mostly used for vertical boosts over walls. The distance you receive depends on how much health you lose, not a damage total of health and armor lost. In short, this means that armor-less players will receive more distance than players with armor. This can affect what kind of jumps are possible, so keep that in mind. Rocket jumps without armor will take away exactly 50 health in Serious skill if the entire blast hits you, so keep that in mind as well. :) 3. Monster pushes, such as getting launched by a werebull, are very hard to control and are hardly ever used intentionally in these runs. It seems like the direction you get launched by a werebull is random. 4. Third-person view is allowed in this game, though first-person is recommended. I only used third-person when I felt like goofing off, or had to run for a long time with nothing going on (Metropolis, again). 5. Sometimes, large battles can be avoided for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's by avoiding the triggers that make them appear, such as walking over a certain area or picking up a certain item, but other times, it's by avoiding killing certain enemies that would originally initiate these battles. I'll explain these are they appear. 6. Lone health pills and armor shards in this game are almost always booby-trapped, so pick them up at your own risk. :P
4 - Onto The Levels!
I'll provide some sort of commentary regarding each of these runs, perhaps recounting some horrible frustrations or giving some insight about possible improvements. I think people like to read these things, anyway. :)
5 - Conclusion
Thanks to everyone on the forum who encouraged me to keep going with these runs and giving me good feedback on my progress. It was my pleasure to entertain you with my antics, assuming it was entertaining, and hope you enjoyed my runs as much as I enjoyed making them. The future, for now, is set to the Second Encounter, where I hope to finish another complete set of speedruns on Serious skill. See you then!
This was the only run where I intentionally used a Kleer for a slight speed boost. They really hurt, so I don't get hung up on it, but since the run was so short, it might have helped optimize the time a bit. Also, is it just me, but does a Kleer seem like the skeleton of a Quake Fiend... large scythes for arms, hooved feet, leaping attack... hrm.