What’s a longplay?
In the gaming world a longplay is a representation of a game striving for completeness. Originally the term was used for such representation in printed form in the German C64 magazine 64’er. Later is was adopted for full playthrough of C64 games following a specific approach for such playthroughs, for example avoiding any fails.
Longplay history
Printed longplays in the 64’er magazine
The term longplay was originally coined by the German C64 themed magazine “64’er”. The first longplay was Uridium II and appeared in issue 4/89. From that issue on a longplay was included in every issue until 10/94. There were also special editions dedicated to games called ” 64’er Top Spiele” which appeared from 1991 till 1993 and also contained longplays or “mini-longplays”. The intent of the longplays was to present more of a game than what was possible in a review, introducing the more difficult levels and ending of the game for people who weren’t able to progress that far themselves. (to do: add scanned page to illustrate what printed longplays looked like).
The first video longplays
The first video longplays have probably been made publically available by German video game preservationist Reinhard Klinksiek in early 2003. Reinhard was the one who adopted the term “longplay” for this type of full playthrough of video games remembering the printed longplays in 64’er magazine over a decade before. The first C64 video longplay was Monty On The Run. First the longplay videos were hosted on the private server of a colleague working at the local library. A little later the longplays were also distributed on file sharing services such as Kazaa and Emule.
C64 longplays book
In 2004 the book “64’er-Longplays – Spiele-Klassiker für den C64 komplett durchgespielt” was published with selected longplays of the original magazine era from 1989 to 1993. (to do: add cover image of book)
Longplays on YouTube
In 2005 the age of YouTube began and soon the first longplays found their way to the platform. The Amiga version of Giana sisters was one of firsts, uploaded by Hipoonios, the original founder of World of Longplays, Recorded Amiga Games and later also RecordedC64Games.org
RecordedC64Games.org
In 2012 RecordedC64Games.org was founded by Hipponios et al. A new website was started in 2018, improved and expanded in late 2021.
Longplay definitions and approaches
Longplays are not speedruns.
Longplays are not really walkthroughs.
RecordedC64Games.org longplay policy
The RecordedC64Games longplay policy is a set of recommendations, not rules or requirements.
Completeness: the game shall be shown in its entirety from the first frame of the intro to the last frame of the end credits, dialogues and cutscenes shall not be skipped. Side quests, dialogue options etc. that aren’t required to finish the game can be shown to illustrate the character of the game, potential easter eggs or simply parts worth playing.
Essence: fails, deaths, unnecessary actions and such shall be avoided, to achieve this emulator save states shall be used, long loading screens shall be shortened in video editing
Experience: the video shall show the playthrough of a knowledgable player skilled in the game, overcoming the game’s challenges swiftly and resolutely
Authenticity: yet the game shall be played with the necessary authenticity, no exploits, no massive overpowering, no trainers, also fails are acceptable if the natural design of the games lures you into the fail maybe only recognisable after experiencing it
Purity: videos must only show what’s in the original game, no commentary, no overlays, no additional intros or outros, no cracktros, trainer screens, etc
Quality: 50 FPS, empty space cropped/excluded but original aspect ratio but video resolution as big as possible, color palette close to the original, no scanlines, no blur and similar artefacts