Speed Completely Beyond Belief
------------------------------
(0) Index
(1) Introduction
(1.1) What's SCBB?
(1.2) Why this name?
(1.3) About Beyond Belief
(2) The Demos
(2.1) Installation
(2.1.1) Instructions for scbbfull.zip
(2.1.2) Instructions for scbb.zip
(2.2) Integrating other demos
(2.3) Running the demos
(2.4) Solving playback problems
(3) More details about the demos
(3.1) Timing
(3.2) How the run was recorded
(4) Statistics
(5) Credits and contact info
(5.1) Credits
(5.2) Utilities used
(5.3) Contact info
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(1) Introduction
(1.1) What's SCBB?
Speed Completely Beyond Belief is a collection of demos recorded by
members of the QdQ team for Matthias Worch's excellent and popular
Quake episode, Beyond Belief. It features two runs through Beyond
Belief, going through the levels as fast as possible, killing every
single monster and finding every single secret in every single map of
the episode. One of the runs is on Easy skill, the other on Nightmare.
Like with all other QdQ projects, the runs are in proper continuity
but were recorded one level at a time.
There are some differences between the demos on Easy and Nightmare skill;
Nightmare demos pack more action since there are more monsters to kill,
whereas Easy demos allow for more shortcuts and tricks.
We do not expect every demo to be completely optimised, some maps still
have some room for improvement - the only certainty in speed-running is
that you can always do it faster somehow. (-:
If you think you can beat any of the demos in this pack, go ahead and try,
and send us your demo if you succeed. Make sure you use BBStats to start
with the same stats we started with, and also check out our improvements
page to see if any maps have
been run faster after this release. You can also submit single level demos
to the Speed Demos Archive .
(1.2) Why this name?
How did we come up with the name "Speed Completely Beyond Belief"? Isn't
that taking the mouth a bit too full?
Well, not quite: The name ties in with "Speed Beyond Belief", our first
speed-run project for this episode, and the added 'C' refers to the fact
that this time we're doing the levels completely, getting all the kills
and secrets.
Also, you can integrate the other speedrun packages for Beyond Belief
into this one (see section (2.2)), thus creating a complete collection
of demos for this episode.
(1.3) About Beyond Belief
Beyond Belief is a free add-on for Quake released in 1997 by Matthias
Worch (langsuyar@ocrana.de). It features a new episode consisting of
eight levels (plus one start level) that aim at recreating the feel
of Quake's episode one, as Matthias put it. To this day, Beyond Belief
is renowned as one of the best single-player add-ons for Quake, and its
fame eventually earned its author a job in the FPS industry.
Beyond Belief's homepage is at the following URL:
(2) The demos
(2.1) Installation
In order to watch SCBB you need to have the following things:
* Quake.exe - v1.08. Older versions tend to crash in the menu map.
* The registered version of Quake.
You also need to download one of the two .zips we made available to you:
* scbbfull.zip (11 MB):
This zip contains all the files (apart from Quake itself) that you
need to watch the demos. In particular, it contains both the Beyond
Belief mission pack by Matthias Worch and the demos we made for it.
If you download this, you can play the Beyond Belief levels for your-
self in addition to watching our demos. Read section (2.1.1) for more
instructions.
* scbb.zip (4 MB):
If you downloaded Beyond Belief before you can save yourself from get-
ting it again: This .zip contains just the demos. Read section (2.1.2)
for installation instructions.
(2.1.1) Instructions for scbbfull.zip
In order to install this package you should do the following:
First you need to find your main Quake directory. This probably has the name
"Quake" and will contain such items as your Quake executable programs (such
as quake.exe, or winquake.exe, or glquake.exe) and your Id1 subdirectory.
(Mac users may be more used to the term "folder" than directory.)
You should make a subdirectory under this main directory. Give it the name
"bbelief". In DOS, you can do this by changing to your main Quake directory
and then typing "md bbelief" at the prompt.
Once you've done that, simply unzip the contents of scbbfull.zip into this
"bbelief" directory.
(2.1.2) Instructions for scbb.zip
Again, you need to find your main Quake directory first (the one containing
the Quake executable).
Your copy of Beyond Belief should reside in a subdirectory of this main
directory. For the purposes of these instructions we will assume you have
called it "bbelief". Unzip the contents of scbb.zip into this subdirectory,
and you're done.
(2.2) Integrating other demos
If you previously downloaded and watched "Speed Beyond Belief" (by QdQ)
or "Speed Beyond Belief lite" (by D&M), you can integrate them into SCBB!
Simply put the contents of the SBB and the SBBlite packages into your
"bbelief" directory and run the program sbbpatch.exe. This program
will look at all the .pak files in the "bbelief" directory, determine
whether they're part of SBB(lite) and if so, change them for use inside
SCBB. The next time you start SCBB, you will be asked whether you want
to use these extra paks. You can run sbbpatch.exe multiple times.
On the QdQ homepage you will find altered versions of SBB and SBBlite.
These are already patched and can be used within SCBB without change.
In order to watch demos from SBB or SBBlite, press F5 at any time while
you are in the menu, then choose demos in the normal way. SBB demos will
replace SCBB's Nightmare demos, and SBBlite demos will replace SCBB's
Easy demos. To get back to SCBB press F5 once more.
(2.3) Running the demos
* DOS/Windows users: SCBB includes a batch file named scbb.bat.
Runnning this file lets you select a few options and will start
the package. In particular, you can select whether you want to
run normal Quake, WinQuake, or GLQuake (if available) to watch
the demos. Also, if you patched your SBB/SBBlite packs, you're
given the opportunity to add them in.
* Linux users: Sorry, I didn't have the time to write a similarly
comfortable script for you. I'm sure you're competent enough to
get the demos running anyway :-) You should rename scbb.pak to
the lowest free pak number in the bbelief directory (most likely,
that's pak1.pak). Then run Quake with the option "-game bbelief".
If you want to use SBB(lite), rename their files to the next free
pak numbers.
* Macintosh users: Rename the .pak files as described in the Linux
section, then start Quake whilst holding the option key. When you're
asked for additional arguments, enter "-game bbelief".
Once you're in the game you'll see a menu map that lets you choose
the skill, and whether to play the whole episode, or individual levels.
This menu map is based on the original design of the start map by
Matthias Worch and was modified by Jesse van Dijk to suit our needs.
Going left from the start leads to the Easy demos, going right to
their Nightmare equivalents. In both areas you can enter the big
portal to play the whole episode, and the smaller teleporters on
the sides will lead you directly to the individual levels. Be
prepared to prove your worth before you can sit back and relax!
Everything in the map should be mostly self-explanatory! Walk around
and explore a bit, you might even find some extra stuff :) There are
just three additional keys you should know about:
If you are playing a sequence of levels, then you can press F9 to
advance to the next level. F10 will abort playback and return you
to the menu map.
While you're in the menu map you can press F5 to switch between the
100% runs included in this package and the older straight runs from
SBB(lite). This option is only available if you patched your SBB(lite)
packs and added them through scbb.bat.
(2.4) Solving playback problems
Some versions of Quake have problems playing back very long demos. We have
used every trick and hack we know to try to solve these problems, but it
is possible some will have slipped through for your Quake version. If you
do experience problems, please tell us, since we are still learning how to
prevent these problems. But in any case, any errors shouldn't ruin your
enjoyment of the movie. You can use the menu interface to play it one epi-
sode at a time, or to play any individual level. If you have trouble with
the menu interface itself, you can still watch the demos by pulling down
the console (press ~) and typing, e.g. "playdemo easy/bbelief2" or
"playdemo night/bbelief3". If all else fails, you can contact us at the
addresses given in section (5.3).
(3) More details about the demo
(3.1) Timing
Just a quick explanation of why we say we completed Beyond Belief in 12:33
and in 18:24. We recorded every demo separately and then connected them
together, adding the times for the individual levels. The time spent on
the start level is not considered in this calculation.
(3.2) How the run was recorded
We recorded each demo separately, on skill 0 (Easy) or skill 3 (Nightmare),
of course without any cheating. To start with the correct stats we ended the
previous level with, we used a QuakeC patch that allowed us to select the
statistics we started with. You can get this patch from our homepage, go to
.
We recorded the episode as one big run because it was made to be played all
levels in a row, and not as separate levels. There are few weapons in the
higher levels, because you should have them already from previous ones. And
we did it by connecting single demos together because the final product is a
lot more interesting that way and entertaining, and we could include more
tricks and better playing that we couldn't do had we recorded it in one sitting.
(4) Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Nightmare
Map Name Time Player Time Player
----------------------------------------------------------------
bbelief1 Mission Control 1:42 Ilkka 2:02 Marlo
bbelief2 The Cleanse 1:23 Ilkka 1:49 Justin
bbelief3 Another fine Mess... 1:28 Ilkka 2:08 Justin
bbelief4 Hell's Sewers 1:42 Ilkka 2:18 Will
bbelief5 The Lava Grounds 2:08 Marlo 3:15 Will
bbsecret These deepest feelings 1:24 Stefan 2:06 Will
bbelief6 Seal of Secrecy 2:24 Ilkka 3:29 Marlo
bbelief7 The Unholy Alliance 0:22 A/M * 1:17 Marlo
----------------------------------------------------------------
Total for Beyond Belief 12:33 18:24
----------------------------------------------------------------
In bbelief7, you can only get 4/8 and 7/11 kills, respectively.
The missing four monsters are spawned *after* you exit the level,
and they get gibbed upon entering the final room. You can see this
if you wait long enough after the finale.
* Attila and Mattias recorded bbelief7 in 0:22 at almost exactly
the same time. In an attempt to be fair on them, we include both
demos, and one of them is chosen randomly when you elect to play
that level.
(5) Credits and contact info
(5.1) Credits
Speed Completely Beyond Belief was created by the following team:
Mattias Berggren
running
Attila Csernyik
running, graphics
Jesse van Dijk
http://www.planetquake.com/sda/rde
level design
Justin Fleck
running
Marlo Galinski
running
Ilkka Kurkela
http://www.planetquake.com/sda/mineral
running
Will Marsh
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Geyser/2599/
running
Stefan Schwoon
running, co-ordination
Additional thanks and credits are due to the following people:
* Matthias Worch, the creator of Beyond Belief. Thanks for building
such a fine set of levels for the game we love! Matthias also gave
out the .map source for the start map which we used as as basis for
building the menu map.
* Anthony Bailey, whose BBstats modification we used to record the
run and who helped in many other ways.
* The statues in the credits room are based on an animation frame
produced by Kenneth Yeung and dressed in a skin by nop of GameArt
(formerly CO2) .
(5.2) Utilities used
The utilities we used included:
LMPC by Uwe Girlich for decompiling
and recompiling demos so we could use the convenient LS format. Also Uwe's
DEM specs were very useful for us in creating our own tools. His other utility
DemCut came in handy too.
DemTool by Stefan Schwoon to do
90% of the editing needed to make such a run.
Some in-house utilities; BBstats
and DemoRelise (unreleased) to make demos that fit into a continuous run.
ProQCC to produce a modified progs.dat for handling the menu and demo playback.
Worldcraft, Mipdip and Photoshop for building the map that lets you select
the demos.
(5.3) Contact info
For QdQ news and future projects check our page at
At the time of writing, the next releases should be:
Quake2 done Quick, too
* A speed-run through Quake2 on Hard skill. Look out for it!
The Rabbit Run (movie version)
* A run of Quake on Easy skill, the fastest run through Quake yet.
For questions and comments (even if you just want to say you liked the
demos), email . For general comments to QdQ,
email .
To contact individual members of the team see section (5.1).
Enjoy Speed Completely Beyond Belief!
June 1999