I've always had a passing interest in speedrunning. On occasion, I've watched a few streams or Youtubers before moving on after a while. The amount of effort exceeding obsession that members of the community put in has always been fascinating - both in terms of developing strategies and optimizing and repeating their execution until it becomes rote. It's a rabbit hole I've never personally gone down (until now), but I've heard it calling.
I think it's obvious that one would want to speedrun a game that they enjoy. Often the subjects are classic games that hold a lot of nostalgia for the runners. They also have to be good candidates to run. I think Drakklor is exactly that - which I will discuss further down.
Also, a large part of this is the learning experience from several aspects. Learning more about speedrunning as a whole, exploring what's involved from commitment through to obsession at a personal level, and how I end up feeling about all that in the end. In addition, there are a lot of tech-related corralaries from self-hosting and building a website, complexities of content creation and distribution, emulating old games, etc. that also strike my fancy. I'm glad to have an excuse to do short-form writing again as well. It's an all-in-one package for me really.
My motivation here is to enjoy (and I'm sure be frustrated by) the experience, while at the same time getting to document things in what seems like a logical format: a website supported by the familiar trappings of speedrunning such as "leader" boards and video content. I'm not running analytics on this site, I don't plan on opting into monetization options for any "platforms" I end up using, nor do I have any designs on garnering attention. It's just a lark that's been in the back of my brain for a while now, and it's time to excise it.
That said, I'll be happy if anyone does choose to engage with this hyperspecific and esoteric endeavour, or at least finds it of passing interest.
Dungeons of Drakklor (or simply "Drakklor") is a classic and mostly-forgotten dungeon crawler that's pretty typical for its era but holds a special place in my heart. It looks like this:
Gameplay-wise, you progress through levels, fight (or avoid) enemies such as "green crawlers" (ghosts) and "red chasers" (pumpkin-looking things), solve puzzles, collect powerups, and try to make your way to the MacGuffin of the game - the fountain of youth:
"You are Binkley, the bravest explorer of all time. You will soon begin the most dangerous campaign of your life, the search for the fountain of life. Legend has it that the fountain is located in the lost fire-city of Arrythrias. Your quest will not be easy. Arrythrias lies in the outer reaches of the Drakklor Mountains where unspeakably evil creatures lurk, waiting for unwary explorers. Fame, fortune, and eternal life await anyone brave enough to reach the lost city. Certain death awaits any who aren't."
What's not to love? If you'd like to give it a quick try, you can play it in-browser thanks to the Internet Archive here.
Drakklor is one of the earliest games I remember playing on our family's old 486 computer (with "turbo" button and all). In fact, I remember walking down the street to my older brother's friend Wesley's house with a floppy disk in hand to make a copy from him so I could play it myself:
Over the years, it's entered my mind on occasion - including during my last staycation where I fired it up in DOSBox, which got me thinking about this whole project. There's also a mystery in the game, in the form of a hint on the title screen:
I never figured out what it meant, there doesn't seem to be an answer online, and it puzzles me to this day. Something to explore during this adventure, for sure.
From a more modern lens, the game has that quaint retro charm. Also, for its time, I think it's actually quite robust. The monsters all have unique behaviours, there's a variety of puzzles and mechanics, and it doesn't quickly become tedious after diving in.
As far as speedrunning goes, I like it as a candidate for the following reasons:
In short, the game is my cup of tea and I think the strategy-over-grind aspect will scratch my obsessive itch and keep me engaged. Being able to start from scratch with no known "prior work" existing is also a big part of the appeal.
I've tried to give a semi-concise elevator pitch above. My inaugural blog post will likely be a long-winded brain-dump about all the miscellaneous thoughts and initial work I've done leading up to the founding of this project. There will be subsequent posts documenting my process, and then at some point content relating to actual runs once I figure out the logistics there. Explore as you like:
