SDA logo

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, released in Jan. of 1997, was the first credible 3D FPS on a console. It loosely follows the plot of the comics of the same name, which involve an Indian heritage of keeping the Lost Lands under control. Turok must defeat the Campaigner before he collects the Chronosceptor.

 

Return to the Game List, the FAQ, or the Home Page.

Hard 1:02:54 by David Gibbons, done in 9 segments.

Author's comments:

ROAAARRRR!!!~~...

I haven't heard of anyone speed running this game. It was really fun taking the game apart.

Commentary time!

I stagger my saves in case I do something stupid. That way I can reverse fate!

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 1: OUTSET (sounds better than hub, fool) -----------------------------------------------------------

- Hitting the switch before getting the key. Saves about 10 seconds of staring at the wall.

- I'm not sure if strafing while running (GE/PD style) increases speed but it sure does feel like it...so I do it whenever possible. However, it can sometimes be rather glitchy in this game, especially near ledges, corners, and bridge rails.

- Diagonal jump = farther, not as high.

- After the second checkpoint and before the Tek arrows, if you do a high normal jump and hit one of the bulges in the wall you will end up higher than where most people land. I had to try about 3-4 times before this happened. The speed save is roughly 10 seconds (climbing eats it). You know you have succeeded if you appear directly by the life force triangles.

- I only shoot enemies if they unlock an obstacle, are an obstacle in and of themselves, or if they would do too much damage to me to ignore at the given time.

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 3: ANCIENT CITY -----------------------------------------------------------

- I do this before level two because I can. I'd also rather go to the ruins after an easy level two than a hard boss fight at the end of three where I am drained of health and ammo.

- Notice that I like running with my knife out -- I think this is a symptom of playing Counter-Strike too much. I continue to do this throughout the game. I have no idea if it makes any difference at all but hey, it looks neat.

- Getting fun extras like Tek Armor and Ultra Healths is extremely addictive when I play this game so I must fight the urge. I only get them when needed. I try to skate past levels with the bare minimum required.

- I keep this backpack for a long time. Obviously, I need a tremendous amount of ammunition for the bosses because hard mode = 2x the health of normal for all enemies.

- I get the invincibility power up because it saves a lot of health for a minor time waste.

- I get closer to the Purr-Linn (big green ape things that are scary. The ones that are required to be killed ALWAYS have a ridiculous amount of HP compared to ones that fall from the sky or are just wandering around) so I can spam Tek-Arrows as fast as possible.

- Jump in a stairwell to magically float down at high speed.

- After the warp in the basement of the above area I try to jump to the right. If this were possible I could save about 15 seconds of waiting for the pillar to lower, jumping in, etc. More importantly, it'd be extraordinarily kinky. Instead, the game decides an invisible wall should be there. I've tried all angles. Curses to a forward thinking Acclaim programmer or random chance?

- GG clipping glitch on the slabs of rock that slide down after climbing the tree. Seems to happen everywhere with a sheer vertical surface.

- I really dislike the jeeps. Besides being a bad choice for a boss I also need to kill them fast yet I need to save my explosive shells. Feel the agony of the chugging assault rifle. I suppose one could be much faster with lucky respawns of constant Tek Arrows. I do not enjoy sleeping with lady luck, however.

- Tank the longhunter, exploit explosive shells. They are the true boss killers. His plasma shots melt armor.

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 2: JUNGLE -----------------------------------------------------------

- Always swim underwater -- it is much faster than treading on the surface.

- Memorizing the tunnel directions can be a pain, although some are easy. E.g. the water tunnel is all rights until you see the surface on the ceiling. The beetle tunnel near the raptors after the Chronosceptor is almost all lefts.

- You may have noticed by now that I keep avoiding the pump. I can't waste having an extra slot in my already lengthy weapon menu because the pump is extremely inferior to the auto. If only cool sound effects could kill.

- Leapers on hard mode get the award for "best moving obstacle." Depending on the size, they require all three bullets from the rifle to die -- the larger ones take even more. They like to jump directly in front of you as well.

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 4: RUINS -----------------------------------------------------------

- I perform the most dangerous section first (area behind wooden logs instead of statue/canyon area).

- Meet your new friends the dart blowers, not to be confused with their brethren, which yield poleaxes. They will be accompanying you through the next three worlds and will prick your neck with highly accurate and damaging darts. Kill on sight or have balls.

- This level is made more enjoyable by four tough enemies that must be killed to open doors: two Purr-Linn and two Warrior Priests (identify: warrior minus dart, plus mystical fire powers that fry your ass). Bow down to Tek Arrows.

- In the statue-fighting arena, try your best to get them to fight each other. That way they won't wander off.

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 5: CATACOMBS -----------------------------------------------------------

- I ran this world the most to figure out how to best use my ammo. Thus, I found myself having to fall and get the cache of ammo behind the beginning. Explosive shells and Tek arrows are that valuable.

- One Tek arrow takes down a warrior even on hard!

- The Warrior Priest guarding the level eight key *the caged one) is a unique priest which I like to call a pink priest because he can teleport in a cloud of girly pink sparkles. Lady luck kisses me here by making him not teleport, which wastes a lot of time. There's another one by the Chronosceptor piece but we don't go there so it's all good. He is EXTREMELY durable.

- I take the time to blast all the darters with my machine gun because I had 10hp and they do 10hp of damage. Good enough reason I believe.

- Before this speed run idea I knew I could hop to one of the switches to save time. After a moment of thought I realized I could do the same to the other switch, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside as I skipped an entire section of a level (a rather long and annoying section, if I may add). Not an easy leap, however.

- I need to get the grenade launcher in the caverns because it is required for a smooth Mantis fight. The cave is dark and confusing but I get through, wasting maybe 4 seconds being stuck between a rock and a warrior (it looks like I should be able to slip through!)

- I don't save before the boss because I have balls and have practiced enough.

- I use explosive shells immediately because you must force him out of stage 1 because it's so easy to become trapped in a corner with pools of acid all around. By the way, how does the acid look so sexy? Best real time liquid effects I've seen from a game in the 90's, let alone one from 1997.

- Grenades are good -- magic grenade respawn is GOODER!

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 6: TREETROP VILLAGE -----------------------------------------------------------

- How linear can a level be before it becomes difficult to actually speed run? This one takes the cake. What a snore fest. All I can say is a) swimming is fast, know where to go so you don't tread the surface and b) I know killing myself on purpose was extremely cheesy. But come on, the checkpoint was in such an ideal locale. I simply couldn't waste such an opportune moment.

- Oh yeah, strafing on this level is scary. Sometimes you will randomly slip through the railing in certain places (so if you see me going forward, you know why). Also, sometimes you can see a path below but I don't jump because sometimes you make it...usually you just fall through in a puff of magic. This level is long enough without having to make me die in the middle from a glitch.

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 7: LOST LAND -----------------------------------------------------------

- The amount of platform jumping in this level makes me cry because every once in awhile Turok will mysteriously fall through what is clearly solid ground (floating in the air nonetheless) to his doom. That happened about two times while I ran this level for the video.

- Dodging the triceratops fire while going up the wall was extremely irritating. Sometimes I would get to the top with 10hp...or just die. You must make him spin in place, teehee! The part where I run blindly, dodging the insta-kill avalanches feels amazing but I think you can simply outrun it.

- Feel the wrath of DEMON LORDS, the most powerful magic caster in the game. Feel the torment as they take 10 explosive shells to the face. This is why I bothered to get the Fusion Cannon in the lava for after the lava pillar obstacle course.

- Speaking of lava pillars, if you asked any Turok fan which part of the game made his skin crawl it would be this obstacle course, which consists entirely of lava and rising pillars that have funny shaped heads. I take my sweet time on the middle pillar because it requires perfect timing. GOD I HATE THIS PART OF THE GAME ROAAARRRR.

- Why did they hide the subterraneans (super duper slick worm guys ala Tremors) in a corner of the level to guard a Tek armor? They should have been SOMEWHERE required...*sniff

- The stairs that spiral down from the sky can actually be gone up by diagonal strafing all the way. You won't fall off. Instead you will be sent ROCKETING straight up (while still going forward) and you will land ahead. I almost wanted to do it but I knew if I did after a fairly awesome run I would have fallen through magically or some such. You can try that trick on your own time...

----------------------------------------------------------- LEVEL 8: FINAL CONFRONTATION -----------------------------------------------------------

- Most of the tricks are self-explanatory. Things to watch out for: baiting robots to one side of the hall and then going around (these guys are less dangerous than dart dudes - use tek arrows if one binds you against a wall), jumping to bypass two "MOTHER WOW THOSE GUYS ATE THEIR VEGETABLE!" strong Purr-Linns in a pit. They take so long to kill that if I had to face them I would have gotten the fusion cannon in the water earlier in the level. Thank you for the sideways jump, Acclaim!

- Sorry about the incident in the sewers near the start. Sometimes you can simply slip through the pulse robot and the wall...other times that happens. No big deal, right? I tried to be a clever fox. I look like a clever beaver instead. Oh well!

- I take time to avoid the first two sets of laser traps because they turn armor into dust instantly and I need my armor for all the other bad guys shooting me.

- I get the fusion cannon when I can because a) last place I can get it on this route for the 2 shots and b) I have to go across this platform for the shortcut across the room regardless.

- My goal was to reach Thunder (Campaigner's pet Rex) with maxed ammo for the fusion, rocket, and grenade launchers. He has too much health for anything less, especially on hard (on normal you can skimp and still kill him easily).

- The Campaigner has a vortex shield that protects him from all explosives (except the Chronosceptor; why would we have that, though?) and both the plasma and alien guns. Use, in this order: auto shottie, Tek arrows, machine gun, and finish with the assault rifle if needed.

----------------------------------------------------------- OTHER NOTES -----------------------------------------------------------

All the bosses can be baited into coming close to you and then committing to an attack. Once the attack begins you can back away and fill them with hot lead as they sit helpless. Repeat until the burning sensation in your wrist ends.

Jeeps - uhh, the drivers are drunk, have fun

Longhunter - wait until he taunts or uses a physical attack so you can pump him with autoshottie. Make every explosive shell count

Mantis - grenades hurt the most; make them count. I usually shoot three at a time

Thunder - max all ammo for fusion, grenade, and rocket launchers. At least 50 for the plasma gun to finish him off.

Campaigner - lots and lots of shotgun shells.

---------------------------------------------------

Thank you for downloading my videos and reading my rambling babblefish-esque explanations. Fly on the straight and narrow.

Single-segment Easy: 0:55:08 by Forrest Hinton.

Get Flash to see this player.

Author's comments:

First of all I would like to give shoutouts to the CLgamers for supporting me through all the rage filled runs I endured upon trying to complete this game as well as getting to the point I am. Not to mention Panda in particular taught me how to jump after I fall :p Also shoutouts to Mmobossman for his TAS of Turok which taught me quite a few tricks along the way. This is my first run to be submitted to SDA and hopefully more to come.

Level One-

Level Three-

Level Two-

Level 4-

Level 5-

Level 6-

Level 7-

Level 8-

So that's my walkthrough of Turok (= thanks to SDA for

Return to the Game List, the FAQ, or the Home Page.