Rayman 1

[eerieyuri]

I recently learned that you are able to life farm in Rayman 1 by repeatedly playing specific levels like Allegro Presto and the Swamps of Forgetfulness (which probably should have been obvious to me in hindsight)---since the extra life and minigame pickups don't seem to respawn, I assume this relates to Tings. I don't know how effective it will be in overcoming the steep difficulty curve, but I've had good fortune with farming lives in other games with old-ish / punishing game design (from around the era of R1's release). I'm not completely sure, but Allego Presto seems to be the more effective method, however, I was absolutely terrible at the jumps the one time I've tried them. Swamps of Forgetfulness might be more dangerous in terms of dying since failing the tight jumps in Allegro Presto just places you back at the bottom where you can try again, but it seems like it would be less troubling for long-term life farming.

I'd really like to know more about the technique(s) for life-farming if anyone could explain them in more detail; If I'm able to master them, completing the game should become a matter of endurance as lives will no longer be a barrier.



I haven't started a playthrough of Rayman 1 yet, so I've been contemplating which version I'd like to play; I was originally going to ask which version would be best for experiencing the game, however, I think I already know the answer. Among the different R1 versions, I own the PC version through GOG and the PlayStation 1 version through the PlayStation Vita store.

I've played a bit of the PC version, but it has some quirks I actively dislike such as the strange music system (which kills the ambience in many cases) and missing sound effects. Among features I wouldn't necessarily consider bad but different, there are also different cage placements and spontaneously different level design such as the first area of Band Land. I really want to experience the game how it was originally presented, so even though there are mods for the PC version I've installed using the Rayman Control Panel, I would probably want to play the game vanilla if I went through with PC.

What I am basically getting at is that I've already determined that I would prefer to play Rayman 1 for the PlayStation through the Vita, but I am curious if there are any reasons to consider the PC version over it? Are there any downsides to the PlayStation version which I should keep in mind?



Regarding the caged Electoons, I have to imagine I will need to consult online guide maps to find them all: I discovered this (https://archive.raymanpc.com/rayman-fan ... /music.htm) comprehensive one recently which I think I'll try to use. To anyone who has played the game and found all of the cages, how cryptic do their conditions and locations tend to be past the first few worlds? I want to maintain some semblance of "discovery," so I wouldn't want to immediately consult a guide for everything, but I also don't want to spend an obscene amount of time searching.



Please don't feel obligated to answer every question if you're unable or simply don't want to. I would appreciate any response to my questions. Thank you very much.

[dr_st]

I recently learned that you are able to life farm in Rayman 1 by repeatedly playing specific levels like Allegro Presto and the Swamps of Forgetfulness (which probably should have been obvious to me in hindsight)---since the extra life and minigame pickups don't seem to respawn, I assume this relates to Tings. I don't know how effective it will be in overcoming the steep difficulty curve, but I've had good fortune with farming lives in other games with old-ish / punishing game design (from around the era of R1's release). I'm not completely sure, but Allego Presto seems to be the more effective method, however, I was absolutely terrible at the jumps the one time I've tried them. Swamps of Forgetfulness might be more dangerous in terms of dying since failing the tight jumps in Allegro Presto just places you back at the bottom where you can try again, but it seems like it would be less troubling for long-term life farming.

I've been farming lives in Allegro Presto since before I was born!

Seriously, though, Allegro Presto becomes much easier on a subsequent playthrough since you have the helicopter power to help you. And if you wait until after Mr Stone's Peaks, you have the running power too.

Each playthrough (assuming you don't die) nets between 2 and 3 lives, depending on the starting number of tings. There are 100 tings in the first level, and >100 in levels 2+3 together.

To anyone who has played the game and found all of the cages, how cryptic do their conditions and locations tend to be past the first few worlds? I want to maintain some semblance of "discovery," so I wouldn't want to immediately consult a guide for everything, but I also don't want to spend an obscene amount of time searching.

I played the PC version back in the nineties, and back then there were very few cage guides, and those were for the PSX version too. Imagine my surprise when the guide and the game did not match. So, I think I ended up discovering all of them myself. A few of them were cryptic, but it was fun!

I suggest you try to get as many as possible yourself. Note - some of them require backtracking, because they cannot be obtained without some of the powers. If you want to be sure not to waste time - first make sure you have beaten Mr Stone's Peaks to have all the powers and then start replaying levels.

My own guide (for the PC version) is here:
https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/rayman-pc-guide/
It does not include images, but it does explain how to trigger the cages to appear. Between that and the maps on the wiki you should be good.

[PluMGMK]

Personally I find the cage placements in the PC version more satisfying, so I prefer that version, despite the more limited colour palette. It used to be the case that the PC version had a more limited soundtrack, but you can solve that now with the Rayman Control Panel

[dr_st]

I like my limited soundtrack! The same song should play in all levels and it should go in a loop through all songs. "Suspense" should be played in the Space Mama fights. And "Moskito's Rage" should play in BOTH battles with Moskito!

[PluMGMK]

But what about Caves of Skops ambiences playing in the Dream Forest, like in Rayman Forever and hence the vanilla GOG installation?

[dr_st]

But what about Caves of Skops ambiences playing in the Dream Forest, like in Rayman Forever and hence the vanilla GOG installation?

The people responsible for this should have been sacked.

[PluMGMK]

Who knows, maybe they were!

[Greengoop]

But what about Caves of Skops ambiences playing in the Dream Forest, like in Rayman Forever and hence the vanilla GOG installation?

Does the Dream Forest music play in the caves of Skops as well?

[dr_st]

Who knows, maybe they were!

By the way, if we're into discussing idiotic blunders during CD audio track arrangements, there's this from the Gamefest Redneck Classics collection:

Both Redneck Rampage and Redneck Rampage Rides Again include Redbook CD audio on their media, which plays during the levels (you can also manually change songs using the built-in “8-track player” in the sound menu).

Oddly, songs 2 and 5 (tracks 3 and 6) by The Beat Farmers on the Redneck Rampage CD were replaced with 10-second long silence tracks. Puzzled, I searched online and found this tweet, showing a rather rare version of the original game’s rear CD cover, with the two track titles replaced with “blank audio”. The author of the tweet claims that just the titles were censored (as they refer to alcohol), but the songs are still intact in all of the copies of the original release.

I could not verify this claim independently. Were these songs truly removed in some of the original copies? If so, why? Or did whoever compile the Gamefest release went off the “censored” song list, misunderstood the joke, and decided to add actual blank tracks? Don’t know, but given that I could not find any mention of such “butchered” copies, I suspect it is the latter.

[PluMGMK]

In that case, why did the person who misunderstood the joke use 10-second instead of two-second silence tracks?

[dr_st]

10 is 2 in binary?

[eerieyuri]

Seriously, though, Allegro Presto becomes much easier on a subsequent playthrough since you have the helicopter power to help you. And if you wait until after Mr Stone's Peaks, you have the running power too.

Each playthrough (assuming you don't die) nets between 2 and 3 lives, depending on the starting number of tings. There are 100 tings in the first level, and >100 in levels 2+3 together.

I actually didn't know about the abilities, so that's really helpful to know! From my prior knowledge, I believed the helicopter hair ability to be something you unlocked around the latter half of the game (despite how iconic of an ability it is.) (I suppose the end of Band Land isn't exactly early either.) My biggest concern with using Allegro Presto specifically would have been time consumption, however, having leniency from those abilities seems like it would make farming in it much more reasonable.

I suggest you try to get as many as possible yourself. Note - some of them require backtracking, because they cannot be obtained without some of the powers. If you want to be sure not to waste time - first make sure you have beaten Mr Stone's Peaks to have all the powers and then start replaying levels.

My own guide (for the PC version) is here:
https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/rayman-pc-guide/
It does not include images, but it does explain how to trigger the cages to appear. Between that and the maps on the wiki you should be good.

This seems really useful, so I'm thankful that you've shared it. I see it mentions the Allegro Presto life trick as well along with cheat codes (which I don't plan on using to finish the game but are nice to have a reference of nonetheless.) I also really like how the cage totals are divided by individual area in each level. I'll definitely look into it more closely once I'm actually playing the game, as I don't want to spoil too much at the moment.

Personally I find the cage placements in the PC version more satisfying, so I prefer that version, despite the more limited colour palette. It used to be the case that the PC version had a more limited soundtrack, but you can solve that now with the Rayman Control Panel

I'll keep that in mind! From what I'm reading on this thread, it seems like I should play through both (the console and PC versions) eventually since they are distinct enough to be almost "remixed"/unique renditions of the same game.

Did the PC and console versions release around the same time? I had never thought about it too much before, but now I'm curious why they would bother to change the positions of cages and level layouts to begin with. The only guess which comes to my mind is that the game being developed for the Jaguar and the 32X may have limited certain aspects of the console release compared to the PC... but that's merely speculation on my part.

[PluMGMK]

There's some interesting discussion about the version differences on a previous page of this topic: https://raymanpc.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... start=9360 (already two years ago! )

[lyndo64]

Was replaying Rayman 1 recently, and I forgot how much I hate Bongo Hills.

I feel like the rest of Band Land is quite easy, but for some reason I'm horrible at that level

[PluMGMK]

It's too long… To this day, I get to the end of the fourth map and then another one comes up and I'm like "what, more??"

[EdgyRabbid]

Ya know… I’d love to play and finish this game but it’s genuinely extremely unaccessible to someone like me. Aka someone with hand eye coordination problems, which sucks. Am I missing out on anything big with this??

[dr_st]

Well, whatever you are missing from not being able to beat it, you could always get from watching a playthrough. There are some very high quality playthrough videos for most popular games out there. With/without commentary, etc.

[Master]

Rayman 1's notoriously hard compared to the rest of the series, it's proabably the most unique title when it comes to it's aesthetics and general atmosphere, so if you would like to atleast see that portion, I'd echo what dr_st's said. But I wouldn't think less of you for bailing, Rayman 1's what got me into the series, but it's probably the game I come back to the least.

[EdgyRabbid]

Thanks for the feedback guys, and thanks for understanding that me not being able to beat this game is out of my control due to said disability! I just know in other communities people would’ve hated me for it..

[Greengoop]

Does anyone else think the PS1 version is a tad bit overrated? Like, it’s of course the main way to play the game, but it doesn’t stand out. Unlike the smooth physics and quirky sound of the Jaguar, or the amazing colour effects in the Saturn.