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Speedrunning Windows 95

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Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#11

Post by daveFNbuck »

acoye wrote: post #7

Can you speedrun something that is not locked to specific hardware like a console game would be? Feels like hardware is most of the "speed"

You can speedrun PC games. For video games, better hardware can speed up things like loading times (which also happens if you put an SSD in your PS4) and increase the framerate but the actual gameplay won't become faster beyond the threshold necessary to play the game smoothly.

This particular speedrun is much more tied to the hardware, but that's part of the fun for these people. It might make more sense if you compare it to something like car racing. Both the hardware and the person matter a lot to the outcome.

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#12

Post by [deleted] »

Someone1234 wrote: post #10
acoye wrote: post #7

Can you speedrun something that is not locked to specific hardware like a console game would be? Feels like hardware is most of the "speed"

Plus if you're using VMs you can manipulate it even further. For example, "lie" to the simulated OS about file-writes, and return files already on the visualized image. Rules would have to be carefully written.

[deleted]

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#13

Post by pbhjpbhj »

hugh4life wrote: post #2

I remember doing a similar competition back in high school between area schools... except you had to put together a computer and then install windows.

How about if it was put together some standard box, then install any operating system and connect a browser to a website [running on the box, the website printing "hello world" to the screen - and must be open for the judges to connect to].

Plenty of scope for choosing and comparing different OS, different software, etc..

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#14

Post by forgotmypw »

I got pretty good at this type of thing at one of my earliest jobs was as a network admin's assistant at a training place that was similar to today's webdev bootcamps, but for stuff like Oracle, VB, and Java.

Before every class began, I would go through the entire classroom of 15-20 workstations and do a clean install of WinNT4 and whatever software packages were necessary for the class.

Imaging was possible with software like Ghost, but it was still pretty clunky, and NT4 required extra work after imaging, so we just did it manually. Typically, by the time I was done a step with the last workstation, the first one was ready for me to click the next Next button.

Thanks for the memories!

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#16

Post by tniemi »

ah- wrote: post #4

Someone should enter this at one of the speedrunning conventions. I'd love to watch a stream of someone installing Win95 in front of a huge audience, complete with commentary.

I would probably watch that. At least it would be better than most of the things on the telly.

Semi-oblig-xkcd: https://xkcd.com/284/

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#17

Post by Quekid5 »

ah- wrote: post #4

Someone should enter this at one of the speedrunning conventions. I'd love to watch a stream of someone installing Win95 in front of a huge audience, complete with commentary.

It would be great to have a Win95 speed run on SGDQ or similar. :)

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#18

Post by Derek_MK »

acoye wrote: post #7

Can you speedrun something that is not locked to specific hardware like a console game would be? Feels like hardware is most of the "speed"

A lot of the time, for PC games, someone will have made a plugin that integrates into both the split and the game that removes loading screen times, turning it into an "in-game time" run

Re: Speedrunning Windows 95

#19

Post by lqet »

Anecdote: back in the early 2000s, I regularly installed Windows XP on the machines of school friends and family members and got pretty fast at it. After a few months, I realized that I had memorized the original Windows XP "default" CD key (the one starting with FCKGW...) by accident. I haven't done an installation of XP in 15 years, yet you could wake me up in the middle of the night and I could tell you this damn key.
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