Semi-OT: Any interest in a Diablo 1 tournament?

**jdkerr** · 09-01-2010, 17:56

Jiansonz' recent thread got me thinking about a Diablo 1 tournament in the spirit of all the SPF tournaments we know and love.

Would anyone be interested in participating in such a tournament? It would probably be something pretty basic -- hardcore, single-pass, etc., but not a ton of esoteric restrictions.

Just as importantly, would anyone be interested in hosting such a tournament? I don't know the game well enough to know what restrictions would be necessary to make a fun, balanced, and challenging experience.

**LozHinge the Unhinged** · 09-01-2010, 18:04

I might be tempted by this, but my modest amount of spare time/energy is currently devoted to the Certain Death Tourney plus I have my eye on the Yellow Belly tourney as well. If only I could clone myself.
I await with interest further developments in this thread.

Jiansonz' thread is very engrossing, I recommend it if you haven't looked in ...

**Grisu** · 09-01-2010, 18:23

I am very tempted to shout "here" and "yes", but having 6 other tourney characters may limit my play time quite a bit. But yeah, sure, why not? Although I'm not entirely sure we even need restrictions - I mean, come on, who of us has played that game in the last 10 years? See

**jdkerr** · 09-01-2010, 18:34

Well, I remember enough of the game to know that sorceresses have a cakewalk in certain respects compared to other classes. Or was that my imagination?

When jiansonz sees this thread, I am sure he will have some opinions regarding potential rulesets. If the rules are simple, I would be willing to host.

**wakiki** · 09-01-2010, 18:48

HELL YES!!!!!!!!

......but, I don't have Diablo 1 and I don't think I can run it on this new iMac.

:(:(:(

Too bad.

**TheReadMenace** · 09-01-2010, 20:31

So long as there's no real restrictive time limit, I'd give it a go. I've only played it once back in maybe '02, and even that was for a single day. I'll admit that I'm in the middle of Borderlands, plus bassano's MF tourney will be starting soon so I have to actually install D2 and start playing pretty aggressively. But if others are interested, it might be some motivation for me.

**Grisu** · 09-01-2010, 21:07

Originally Posted by jdkerr

Well, I remember enough of the game to know that sorceresses have a cakewalk in certain respects compared to other classes. Or was that my imagination?

Considering that back in D1 days it weren't sorceresses but sorcerers, this might be your imagination

But I think you're right, they were overpowered esp. after the inofficial Hellfire expansion, but mainly if you played over and over to buy more tomes. In single pass, that's definitively a different story though...at least that's what I remember from the game...

**scrcrw** · 09-01-2010, 22:29

I beat the game with a Sorceror a couple of months ago (after many years of not touching the game - oh god, I'm getting old...) and found it surprisingly easy. I remembered it being way harder, probably because I was young and stupid back in the days before the release of D2C. IIRC I played "single pass" - i.e. starting every new session from the save and not with a new game. I died a couple of times though (mostly at the beginning), which can be pretty frustrating when you haven't saved for 45min... That obviously wouldn't be an issue in (simulated) HC.
Didn't know about the Singleplayer NM/Hell exploit, so I had nothing left to do after killing Diablo.
After the sorceror I started a Warrior, but abandoned him due to more pressing rl matters and apparently deleted the save games

So I can't comment on advantages of sorceror vs. rogue/warrior, but I think the existence of "beyond naked mages" back then speaks for itself.

I guess "untwinked HC single-pass" would be enough (if not too much) of a restriction for new and non-expert players (and there don't seem to be many D1 "pros" remaining).

I'd definitely try my luck. Seems like a good excuse to pick it up once more.

**Serdash** · 09-01-2010, 22:38

I think an ironman tournament would be just what the doctor ordered.

**Rhyme** · 10-01-2010, 01:37

I too get hugely nostalgic about Jiansonz's thread. It's not the first time I've thought to myself, "I should re-install Diablo 1 and play that again!" I even broke down and tried it once.

My review of that experience in one word: SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

My review of that experience slightly elaborated:

You can't run. I remember the moment after first starting Diablo 2 when my friend Greg and I discovered you could run in D2. Our reaction was something along the lines of, "YES!!!!!" When Greg discovered that the R key could toggle the run so that you didn't have to hold (whatever the button is to temporarily run), our reaction was something along the lines of, "YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!" Since then I have never turned off run. Never. 0 defense be damned, I've got places to be!

It's real easy to get accustomed to that speed, and to take it for granted. You forget that there was a time when you walked everywhere. Where even with the ferocious and terrifying Butcher chasing you, you'd at best, power-walk away from him. When you spend your time discussing the merits of using the red portal in meph runs to prevent a jog through the Kurast Docks, or making a Harmony in some low-req bow to speed up your run time to Pindle, it's very difficult to go back to D1. We get addicted to speed (this is especially true of the US - we're among the most time-conscious people in the world).

My advice to anybody getting thrilled by the idea of this tournament is to install Diablo 1 and take a walk through town before you sign up. I'm really hopeful the tournament happens, and look forward to reading it, but I'm fearful that a lot of people will drop out early in the tournament. That would be a real downer. Better to find out early if it's something you can actually handle or not.