zallard1 | Contra 4 - Hard Mode any% Speedrun [24:39] @zallard1 | Uploaded April 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
This run was done on an original cartridge of Contra 4, and an original model Nintendo DS that has been modified for direct feed video output.
I did this run a while ago, but didn't get around to uploading it until I got a decent chance to mess around with avisynth scripts to make sure that the final video was in decently high quality, would play back properly at 60fps on youtube, and had the correct pixel gap between the two screens.
This was actually a pretty alright run for me, up until the final stage where I got crushed pretty hard haha. I had made some bad decisions that lead to several deaths, part of which had to do with not having a good way to practice the final stage on a DS console. I'd like to get back into this run at some point eventually, but for now this is a decent PB for the time being to upload I think.
This run was done on an original cartridge of Contra 4, and an original model Nintendo DS that has been modified for direct feed video output.
I did this run a while ago, but didn't get around to uploading it until I got a decent chance to mess around with avisynth scripts to make sure that the final video was in decently high quality, would play back properly at 60fps on youtube, and had the correct pixel gap between the two screens.
This was actually a pretty alright run for me, up until the final stage where I got crushed pretty hard haha. I had made some bad decisions that lead to several deaths, part of which had to do with not having a good way to practice the final stage on a DS console. I'd like to get back into this run at some point eventually, but for now this is a decent PB for the time being to upload I think.
![Contra 4 - Hard Mode any% Speedrun [24:39]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/n4wYNwN6tIU/hqdefault.jpg "Contra 4 - Hard Mode any% Speedrun [24:39]
This run was done on an original cartridge of Contra 4, and an original model Nintendo DS that has been modified for direct feed video output.
I did this run a while ago, but didnt get around to uploading it until I got a decent chance to mess around with avisynth scripts to make sure that the final video was in decently high quality, would play back properly at 60fps on youtube, and had the correct pixel gap between the two screens.
This was actually a pretty alright run for me, up until the final stage where I got crushed pretty hard haha. I had made some bad decisions that lead to several deaths, part of which had to do with not having a good way to practice the final stage on a DS console. Id like to get back into this run at some point eventually, but for now this is a decent PB for the time being to upload I think.")
![Super Punch Out!! - Dragon Chan [00733] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/n51gYbNAj60/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Dragon Chan [00733] (PAL WR)
This run was done on an original Spanish Super Nintendo cartridge of Super Punch-Out, as well as an original PAL Super Nintendo 1chip console that was recapped and modded with the Borti RGB amp.
Dragon Chan is a fight that also tends to cause headaches when it comes to full game runs, because if he wants to, he can take nearly 5 seconds away from you compared to an optimal fight. If youre going for an individual level record on this fight, hes not too bad thankfully. His first phase requires a decent bit of execution, but thankfully that part has no luck requirements.
The fight starts out by holding Up for the first frame of the fight, then for the next frame, you want to throw a left gut punch, followed by buffering a second gut punch. For these next 2 right gut punches, you need to do very small delays for both of them so that he gets far enough in his punch animation to where he doesnt block them.
Then, you want to do a delayed left gut punch to counter the hook hes about to throw, then buffer a right gut punch as hes stunned, then press left and IMMEDIATELY press B to buffer a right gut punch while simultaneously cancelling your dodge into a quick dodge. This will end his stun early, while getting you everything you need in order to set up phase 2 for the KO.
For the super knockdown, you can easily buffer a right gut into a low super, which also happens to get you a faster knockdown animation just like for NTSC, and the buffer is much easier too, so its a win-win.
When Dragon gets up, hes going to do one of 3 patterns, which will either be him doing 3 kicks on random sides (this is the worst pattern) which is 50% likely, a heal with a slow delay which is 25% likely, or a heal with a fast delay, which is the one that we need. Thankfully, the buffer is just to do a tap duck (basically tap down but dont hold it), into a quick duck (tap down, then up), into an uppercut, and your super will hit Dragon on the first possible frame that hes vulnerable when he does the fast heal!
This fight ends up slightly slower than its NTSC counterpart, which is an uncommon outcome for PAL, but it happens sometimes. If youd like to compare this fight to my NTSC one, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mjjf6hyTHA
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Piston Hondo [0:33.88]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nefYQGGl7yc/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Piston Hondo [0:33.88]
UPDATE: I was able to improve this enough to match the current TAS/WR! The new run for this fight can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9TeA4fKSRY
This doesnt match the current WR/TAS, but I figured there was still some value in uploading this due to the strategy changes in phase 1 that Ill be going for, plus its nice to have my progress documented. Piston Hondo requires 9 inputs to be frame perfect to match Pottoww/Nolans WR, but 1 of my inputs in phase 1 was a frame too slow, and I didnt watch the full cutscene, which in this fight, wouldve make one of his attacks in phase 1 come out one frame faster.
Phase 1 in this video is a bit different compared to the phase 1 in my 33.94 video a year ago (can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH_8NML8OpE). Mysteryman discovered that if you reorder the punches in phase 1, you open up a new opportunity to setup a buffer strategy! The pattern for Hondos phase 1 is that he throws a jab, a hook, another jab, then bows. The old strategy was to cancel the 1st jab and the hook, counter the 2nd jab, then star punch the bow. However, if you counter the *1st* jab, then the timing is different such that you can buffer a punch on the same side you countered, dodge, and buffer a punch to get a free frame perfect move cancel!
This is great and all, however the caveat is that you can only get this free frame perfect move cancel if you skip the cutscene at the start of the fight early (i.e. lose 1 frame in the fight). Since this reordering is so different, I decided to use this buffer as a training wheel of sorts to get me used to the very different timings on this phase 1. Once I got a PB with this buffer, I would drop it in order to be in the running to match the WR/TAS again.
Anyways, I try to counter the jabs in this fight by throwing a jab as soon as I hear his eyebrows, although I react too fast for this to be super consistent for me, so I try to hesitate ever so slightly to compensate for this, and it works with moderate success while still being frame perfect often. I follow this up with the new buffer that Mystery found to cancel his hook, then I use pseudo buffers to hit the next cancel, and the star punch for the instant knockdown. The cues I use for when to start these ducks are from me looking at his gloves.
As soon as I see Hondos gloves fully raised, I hesitate very slightly, then duck into a punch to cancel his 2nd jab. When I see his gloves *begin* to move after that cancel, I duck again and buffer that into a star punch. Because I opted to go for the free buffer, the best time I couldve gotten here was a 2:47 that rolls over into a 2:46 exactly as the star punch landed, but I was behind that by 1 frame here.
Phase 2 requires getting a star with a delayed jab off of Hondos uppercut, and I throw that star as soon as Hondos EH? noise finishes. Then you have to do an *extremely* delayed star punch in order to make his next attack come out faster. For this, I use a pseudo buffer and time a duck as soon as I see Hondo start to move after my jab landed. This delayed star also works to make the in-game timer tick down at a slower speed (10% speed) than if you were to throw the punch immediately (30% speed).
He follows this up with 2 jabs that come out immediately if the star was timed correctly. These 2 jabs are probably my least favorite punches in the fight, as Ive lost some really good runs to at least one of these jabs due to how awkward it is for me to be consistent at them. Once you gather your 2 stars, you can just throw them immediately for knockdown #2.
For phase 3, Hondo is forced to do the Hondo rush pattern since hes been knocked down twice before a minute, which only requires you to do a single counter to finish the fight. I time this punch immediately after he stops talking, and it usually ends up being frame perfect more often than not.
This fight is going to be pretty challenging for me to get down to the WR time, just because Im insistent on learning this new phase 1 so all this practice transfers over well to when I eventually start doing full game runs again (this wont be for a very long time). My consistency in phase 1 is still kind of low, even with the hook cancel buffer. I think Ill be dropping it after this 33.88 regardless though, because the odds of me PBing are extremely slim now without the 1 frame save from the cutscene. I need to look into a couple of things before I start up attempts on this fight again, so this should be a decent upload for the time being.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Don Flamenco 1 [0:14.97] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nn3IIxeXU1M/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Don Flamenco 1 [0:14.97] (NTSC WR)
This run was done on an original cartridge of Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! on an NES that was modded with the Tim Worthington NESRGB kit. For some more in depth information about my RGB setup, you can check out this pastebin here: https://pastebin.com/4vZM3wA7
Additionally, Ive decided to include a non-stretched version of this fight in an unlisted video. If youd like to learn more about why Im including this too, you can check out the description in the second video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAJ2oZIaxw8
Don Flamenco 1 is very definitely the 2nd easiest record to get in the game, with none other than Glass Joe being the absolute easiest. With Glass Joe, you need to hit a 2 frame window in order to land the infamous 42.00 world record, but with this fight, you needed to land 2... that is, until I started applying buffering techniques to this game and found one of the most critical buffer strategies in possibly all of Punch-Out history.
If you hold the inputs left and B at the same time when the fight starts, then Mac will automatically throw a punch and dodge Dons retaliation punch. From here, if let go of everything while Mac is dodging, then repress left and then quickly press up and a punch button while Mac is starting his second dodge, then you will effectively get a frame perfect star for free, without actually having to time anything at all! This means the consistency of getting this is effectively 100%, which drastically changed the dynamic of speedrunning this game from start to finish. To get a peek into exactly how huge this find was, check out this highlight of me revealing this strategy to sinister1 over 9 years ago to see his reaction to it: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/48632279
Anyways, once you get that frame perfect star, then just hold start and Mac will throw the star punch immediately, and since Don 1 is critically weak to any and all star punches, his health bar will completely drain and hell be sent to the mat. Hell get back up with a puny amount of health, since you floored him before the minute mark, and because you still have a completely full health bar.
For phase 2, he will immediately start with an uppercut, with which you need to answer with a delayed quick dodge. The reason why it needs to be delayed is because you need Mac to immediately go into rapid jabs, which is impossible if you do the fastest possible dodge to Dons attack. Rapid jabs in general can only happen on Glass Joe, both Don Flamencos, Soda Popinski, and Super Macho Man. I tend to time this some time after I visually can see Dons sprite go back to black after flashing red, and it works pretty much every time. One quirk about Don is that if you care about optimizing your RTA time on Don, you want to end each phase with a right punch, since his knockdown animation is substantially slower with a left handed knockdown.
Similar to my goal with my Glass Joe reupload, I wanted to also make sure that I optimized the real time of this fight, which means I needed Don to get up on a 2 count, and then he needs to NOT do a fake get up on Marios 5 and 9 counts for the second knockdown. This was actually really time consuming and tedious, mostly because it really feels like 2 counts are the rarest count that he can get up on, compounded with the fake 9 get up being very very common. You also only have a 1 frame window on that quick dodge where a 14.97 is possible, otherwise youll get a 14.99 if you were 1 frame slow, and 15.00+ if you were even slower than that.
This upload technically doesnt improve on anything Ive done in the past, as Ive been able to get a 14.97 on Don 1 literally thousands of times, and Ive even gotten one in the past where Ive gotten the optimal RTA luck. This upload is really just here solely to update the video quality of the fight to be consistent with the new fights Ill be gradually uploading for this game, and I wanted to make sure that it matched the old RTA optimized one I uploaded several years ago as a bare minimum.
The only other TAS tie times in this game that I already recorded in the past with my old capture setup were King Hippo and Von Kaiser, and those will be quite a bit more complicated to get redone. I think I want to get King Hippo to be perfect for real time at the very least, but I might give up on that depending on how annoying it ends up, since its extremely luck dependent, even more so if I want to avoid fake rises. For Kaiser, I dont think Ill care enough to match the real time TAS for him due to how complicated the fight is, but I guess well see later on down the road.
Once I get through those ones, then the rest of the uploads for this game should hopefully all be new time improvements. Im currently working on Tyson/Dream and started mixing in Honda 2 on my Twitch stream. Feel free to stop by and check it out! http://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Speed Run [15:16.94]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nuLss02561o/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Speed Run [15:16.94]
Now this is the kind of improvement Ive been looking for. Overall a really solid run with pretty decent luck with only minor mistakes at the end of the run. I also finally got a really decent Tyson fight at the end of my PB again!
This run uses the new RNG manipulation tactics to get favorable patterns from Piston Honda 1 and King Hippo (which is why you see me waiting on the fight screens). I also used the new Soda Popinski strategy that requires a knockdown in order to get a consistently fast phase 2, which overall helps with how rough the luck is in this run. These strategies are designed to optimize in-game time, which is summing of each of the individual fight times seen on the blue screens at the end of each fight.
Anyways, hope you enjoy!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Disco Kid [0:22.58]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o9UiSWVcG_M/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Disco Kid [0:22.58]
This fight requires motion controls to gain access to Macs left handed uppercut, which provokes TD Disco into doing a slightly faster pattern. This improvement also happens to tie the current TAS/WR which is held by a handful of people by this point.
I actually didnt feel comfortable grinding this for quite some time because of my ongoing health issues after the pneumonia, but ended up trying out (and getting used to using) the Wii remote and nunchuck like drumsticks instead of physically punching, since thats the method that Universe used for his run of the WR. I quickly realized that with this, despite the difficult stuff Ive been going through, this allowed me to do more attempts than I ever could before, even pre-pneumonia while punching with the controllers, so thanks for that!
Thankfully, TD Disco is a very short fight, however, matching this TAS is still pretty annoying and difficult entirely because of the control scheme. Despite using the controller as drumsticks, it still doesnt solve the inherent inconsistencies of the control scheme itself, especially when it comes to star punches not working randomly, or random punches going off at incorrect times. I kind of feel like this mandatory motion control scheme for left handed star punches highlights some of the worst qualities of this game to me due to the issues it poses for accessibility, and wish it had some button mappable equivalent. I thankfully do not ever have to revisit this fight after finishing this run (unless the strategy ends up being improved anyways).
Anyways, lets talk about the fight itself. In order to match the WR/TAS, you will need to land 9 frame perfect motion controlled inputs throughout the fight. Start by countering his taunt, and doing a delayed gut punch to gather two stars. Throw a right handed star punch by pressing A and moving the Wii Remote forward, then allow him to go naturally into his next attack. Dodge and do a delayed gut punch into a delayed opposite gut punch to gather 2 more stars. This time, throw a *left* handed uppercut by pressing C on the nunchuk and moving the nunchuk forward.
This will provoke Disco to go into his 2 jab pattern afterwards, which you can gather 1 star from by intercepting the first jab before he even gets a chance to throw it out with a gut punch and subsequent delayed gut punch. The first gut punch here NEEDS to be a left handed gut punch, or else hell block the punch every time. From there, you can knock him down after blocking his next jab and stunning him with alternating punches, knocking him down with a star in reserve.
In phase 2, all you need to do is counter his taunt, do a delayed gut punch, then do a very slightly delayed triple star punch into his disco flurry windup and you should get an instant KO! The delay you have to do is so slight that it barely exists, haha. I try to time it as Mac is pulling back his fist from the 2nd to last punch.
I ended up getting roughly 10 TD Disco fights that were 22.64s in total before I ended up with this 22.58. Plenty of runs were lost beyond those 10 runs from being early one one input deep into the fight too, but either way, Im glad to put this fight behind me.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Mr. Sandman [0:32.22]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oDMszvZaPXE/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Mr. Sandman [0:32.22]
EDIT: Ive improved this record to match the TAS! Its now a 31.98, and can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itQv-OGtNs4
Improved the record by 4 frames, most of which probably came from having way cleaner cancels right before the 2nd knockdown. Mysteryman also let me know that the whiffed punch at the start of the final phase isnt necessary, so I decided to just use it to make a pseudo buffer so the Boo counter is easier. I basically just wait until Sandman is done saying Afraid? before doing my duck. Im also going to include the description from the previous Sandman video for posterity.
This is a fairly new strategy, courtesy of Mysteryman (aka Frame by Frame Animation on yt). It is a pain to even complete the strategy once, because there is a ton going on here with every punch Mac throws.
First off, this fight is played in Champions Mode, which is a toggle-able option to make every punch from the opponent knock you down in a single hit. This is used to take a knockdown immediately at the start of phase 1 to advance a bit in his move script. You also need to do *2* blocked punches in order to make him attack immediately as you get up from your knockdown (I have no idea why its like this lol).
Once you get up from the knockdown, you cancel the first punch Sandman attempts to throw (you can buffer this punch for some reason?!?) and then counter his quick overhead punch for a star. Then comes the extremely important part; you need to cancel his Stand Still overhead punch with a slightly delayed blocked punch, then do ANOTHER very slightly delayed punch. This 2nd punch is mandatorily frame perfect, and is timed in such a way that his normal Boo taunt is actually AN INSTANT KNOCKDOWN when you buffer a star punch off of it!
In the next phase, the idea is the same, but a bit more hectic, because now you have to counter his first punch for a star, then do *4* slightly delayed move cancels, with the last one needing to be frame perfect to get the same instant knockdown punch.
In the final phase, you need to have gotten there fast enough in order for this strategy to work, since he decides his attacks based on the game timer. You need to whiff a punch, then counter his Boo for a star, and then buffer a gut punch into a star. If you got there fast enough, it will land. Otherwise, his uppercut will have a slightly faster delay and hit you first.")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Mr. Sandman [0:34.46]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oWvJj5LpiL0/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Mr. Sandman [0:34.46]
I ended up getting sidetracked and improved my personal best time on Title Defense Sandman, because Title Defense Hippo continues to be an annoying, unfun fight, while this fight continues to be far more fun and rewarding. This PB ended up jumping ahead more than expected and actually beat back the record Nolan set on this fight a few months ago. This also happened to possibly be the first (and only) time that anyone has ever gotten a 2:35 phase 2 on this fight in real time up until this point, let alone finish an attempt with one. I dont know the exact requirements for this, but its pretty slim considering how elusive its been up until this point.
Anyways, this strategy uses the 100 loss headgear in Career Mode to reduce the amount of hearts and damage taken when Sandman throws his My Turn hooks, which slows the timer down substantially. The TAS time for this strategy is a 34.28 for reference, and has about 26 inputs that you need to time frame perfectly to get that time. This time currently sits about 3 (unstunned) frames away from the TAS time.
Most of this fight requires you to punch Sandman to the side and throw a delayed jab to provoke a My turn hook, since this slows down the timer substantially. The side that you throw your jab will determine if he does the correct type of hook, because My turn hooks are the only ones we want, and the jab pattern typically goes in a right right left sequence. For the first 2 wink attacks, you want to punch him in the gut and do a delayed jab for each of them, 1st one being a left jab & the 2nd one being a right, and let them hit you.
When you hit Sandman to the side off of any attack, the clock immediately goes to 15% clock speed, while provoking a My Turn hook forces it to crawl to an even slower 10% speed. Likewise, when you get hit by a big punch where Mac is visibly frozen for a about a second in hitstun, the clock for the duration of that hit is also 15% speed. So naturally, for the fastest in-game time, you want to maximize these events on the way to getting a star to TD Sandmans dreamland express.
After the first 2 wink attacks, youll need to throw a punch immediately after in order to make Sandman start his next 2 overhead attacks sooner. You can unlock Macs animation from being hit by mashing up and a punch, and as long as you are doing it during the last part of the hit animation, it should work if you mash fast enough. For Sandmans next 2 overheads, punch him in the gut and do a delayed jab for each one, first one being left and the second one being right, similar to the first 2 attacks. Then, similar to the punch to provoke Sandman, you need to unlock Macs punch to throw faster, but THIS this punch needs to come out ASAP, otherwise it wont be fast enough to cancel his Night night jab.
Next, interrupt Sandmans Stand still punch with, you guessed it, yet another gut punch into a delayed left jab. Next, youll need to counter Sandmans quick hook from the side, then youll need to throw a right hook to provoke a My turn hook right as his Dreamland Express phase begins. You need to duck his hook, throw a gut punch, then wait as Sandman centers himself and THEN throw the star as hes fully centered. If done correctly, he will attempt to throw an uppercut, only to be instantly knocked down by your star. I got him down at a 2:45, which by this point, Ive gotten countless times.
For phase 2, Sandman will do 2 winks, then delay and do a 3rd wink. For winks 1 and 2, you want to yet again throw hooks into delayed jabs for both, except this time you want both jabs to be on the right side. His winks are on a random side in phase 2, but will always alternate, so if you take note of what side his 1st or 2nd winks were on, you can be prepared to counter his 3rd wink on the correct side. Once you counter wink 3, buffer a hook, then wait for a couple of frames before throwing a right hook to provoke his final My turn hook.
Once you do that, then you need to do a mandatory frame perfect dodge/duck in order for Sandman to do the correct Dreamland Express delay. If you are even a single frame late on this duck, then he will do this instead: https://youtu.be/G6lHIBV0VAY?t=46
So... once you hit the frame perfect duck in phase 2 and lock him into the correct pattern, then throw your star right around when Sandman fully centers himself, then hell attempt to throw an uppercut, but your star punch will instantly knock him down first.
For phase 3, I regret to inform everyone I missed the funny punch... again. The 2:35 made me way too nervous so I totally missed it lol. If you would like to know about the funny punch, its still in the non-headgear WR here: https://youtu.be/ulu1jvluVgo?t=60
For phase 3 itself, just counter the 2 winks and buffer the 2 star punch for the TKO!
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Sunset Riders (Arcade) - Co-Op 1cc Speedrun w/ Mr. K [13:57] *Twitch VOD*](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/odx6Tp_PNcg/hqdefault.jpg "Sunset Riders (Arcade) - Co-Op 1cc Speedrun w/ Mr. K [13:57] *Twitch VOD*
Our run was performed on default settings via Fightcade 2, which allowed us to play remotely with practically no input lag. Fightcade 2 uses the Final Burn Neo emulator, and the replay for our run is hosted on Fightcades website, and can be viewed here: https://replay.fightcade.com/fbneo/ssridersebc/1598146839606-7348
Anyways, this is absolutely the best co-op run weve done of this game, both in time, and play quality. We effectively executed our entire route and got favorable luck where it counted. For this run, I played as Cormano, and Mr K played as Bob. We had to adjust a few things in that route since the last upload here however.
First off, youll notice that we have several more planned deaths than before. Thats because we realized that the lower rank on Richard Rose actually gives us several more frames of wiggle room for the balcony kill by slightly slowing down enemy bullets, which improves consistency dramatically because less luck elements with spawns can stop us there.
Weve decided that the deaths need to be compliant with our perception of a 1cc run, which means we want each player to die a maximum of 2 times, which would *also* be a 1cc on the US version that typically doesnt have extends. This means we need Mr K to die once per autoscroller (stages 2 and 7), and I need to die twice on the carousel in stage 6. This allows both of us to get fully restocked on powerups without any time loss, but at the cost of us needing to both get 0 unplanned deaths if we want to reach our personal 1cc restrictions.
The only real hiccups in this run were in stage 5 where Mr K got in a slightly sub-optimal spot during the boss, making him take damage slightly slower from him, and the final boss, where our positions in the top center area were slightly too far (we both could have been dealing more damage if we were closer to center). That had us chase him down, but thankfully he had low HP by that point, and I decided to gamble the entire run by jumping over his bullets and point blanking him; it clearly paid off, haha.
Im not sure what were thinking of doing with this game in the future. Possibly might add more runners for 3p/4p runs? Well see!")
![Splatterhouse (Arcade) - High Score [690,100 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pTK-t-z1PTM/hqdefault.jpg "Splatterhouse (Arcade) - High Score [690,100 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset)
Real run begins at 1:52. I included the bootup sequence as well as any failed attempts off of that boot for completenesss sake (this video only has 1). This was played on an original Splatterhouse arcade PCB on the H.A.S. supergun. This run was also done on default settings shown at the end of the video, and was recorded through an S-Video connection because my setup cannot support RGB signals at the moment. Here is a picture of my boardset w/ its original romset & supergun setup: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy6ucfvUwAA4AZC.jpg
Its worth noting that this run follows the Twin Galaxies & Aurcade ruleset for score in this game, which bans the use of the double KO tactic on the final boss, which is otherwise the most lucrative option to cash out your extra lives. If this were allowed, then you would have to set up guaranteed double KOs with the blue orb timer, which is something on the order of 14+ minutes per double KO. You could also die to rocks at the end, but if youre on a good pace, the guaranteed route is the best option for consistency. Without the restrictions in this category, scores in the 1.2 - 1.3 million point range are possible.
I also need to make a note that showing your physical DIP switch settings for this game is worthless. Switch 1 enables the settings menu, while switches 2-8 do absolutely nothing, so the only thing that showing the physical dip switches does is tell you whether or not the game is in test mode... which should be already obvious if thats the case or not by looking at the screen. Once the run was over, I flipped DIP switch #1 to show off the actual settings the board was set to during that run.
I should add that the one time I did have to reset, I pressed the Test switch on my supergun, which acts as a reset button for this gaem! This saves me downtime and reduces any potential wear on my board from unnecessarily powering the board off and on repeatedly.
Alright, so now that we finally got all of the details of this setup out of the way, I should probably talk about the run itself, haha. Since I finally have an original boardset of this game, Ive been doing speedruns of this game again. However, just to make sure my board is in full working order, I decided to go the other route in stage 5, as well as fall down every pit just to make sure each room looks ok. While I was at it, I figured I might as well make this a no-reset score run for fun. Unexpectedly, I ended up 579,700 with a silly death on stage 4, which is surprisingly really good for someones first try.
Because of that, I decided to try to complete a second run... and I quickly ended up with this. I had extremely goofy mistakes everywhere, mostly as a result from never doing serious score runs of this game before, but certainly a fair share of it can be attributed to still getting used to the lack of input lag that playing on original hardware causes. A lot of my decision-making in this run was experimental, like trying out the left side for the stage 1 boss fight, trying to kick objects during stage 2 boss, killing the stage 6 boss early when I have low health, and various other things that sometimes backfired. I think I learned a fair share of what decisions are more lucrative than others during this run, which is a great reference for future attempts!
For context, despite this being my 2nd completed run, this is already one of the highest scores in the world for this games leaderboard. The world record for this ruleset is currently set at 716,000 by Anthony Paparo, which is only 25,900 points away! Because of how close this already is with just 2 tries, I think I should pursue this record and see if I can set it any higher. I think if I put a similar amount of effort towards this as I do my speedruns, I feel like I have good chances in pushing this score.")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Soda Popinski [1:15.05] (WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qI4_x1p1zcQ/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Soda Popinski [1:15.05] (WR)
With this 1 frame improvement, Ive matched the TAS time on both Soda fights in this game... no more Wii Punch Out Soda videos from me anymore, gasp!
I was thinking of another fight since I did a few streams of Tyson recently, but I ended up gravitating to this fight again since I was in practice for it. Bizarrely, it took me less than 10 minutes today to get this once I started attempts, and it was the first attempt that got to the TKO recovery opportunity. I think because of how early it was, I just wasnt nervous at all, and that probably helped quite a bit in my execution.
Lets get into the fight. TD Sodas pattern is pretty aggressive compared to his Contender counterpart. He throws 2 jabs to start, and the counter windows for these are completely different than in Contender. You have to wait until the end of the soda fizz noise before throwing the jab, otherwise youre not going to get the star. Once you collect both stars, unload them and wait for Soda to knock you down, but also keep in mind that you cannot throw ANY extra punches in this fight anywhere, otherwise he will do extra uppercuts in phases 2 and 3. Make sure Just like the other Soda fight, we need to use Champions Mode in order for him to knock Mac down repeatedly.
Once you get back up, Soda will throw 3 more jabs that you can counter for 3 more stars, so once you collect all 3, unload a triple star punch and let him knock you down again. When you get back up, you need to dodge Sodas jab and stun him with a single punch, then buffer a dodge into a quick dodge (which is holding dodge + up simultaneously), and buffer a jab to counter the bottle. Its actually random what side he pulls out the bottle on, and the side you punch on needs to match his side, so you need to react correctly to this before you commit to your punch! Once you get the star, immediately throw it and let Soda TKO you... and hopefully get the luck you need in order to recover from the TKO. The odds are estimated to be about 25%, but if you get it, Macs TKO animation will be louder, and mashing will get him to stand back up. Once you recover, counter Soda for a star, and the first knockdown with 2:18 left on the clock.
When he gets back up, you need to dodge his 4 uppercuts, then stun him and land 4 jabs, and follow up with a star for an instant knockdown. The instant knockdowns for this fight are quite a bit different than the ones for the Contender bout with Soda, because in Title Defense, Soda has a momentum mechanic where the more attacks you dodge in a row, the more jabs you can throw whenever you stun him.
So for example, the first time you dodge an attack an stun Soda, you will be able to throw 2 punches to start, but if you dodge his next attack without getting hit, then youll get 3, then 4, 5, 6, ect ect. This instant knockdown will only start working once you have at least 5 hits in a stun. If you want this knockdown to work when you have built up more punches in a stun, then youll need to throw the maximum amount of punches in a stun without him breaking out of it, then have your last punch be a star punch. This will require you to be keenly aware of exactly how many punches your stun is at currently in order to take advantage of this consistently if youre using this in a casual playthrough or something to that effect.
Anyways, when he gets back up, hell throw 5 uppercuts this time, assuming youve followed the punch route precisely up until this point. Dodge them all and stun him for 4 jabs, then finish off the stun with a gut punch (this saves exactly 0.36 ingame seconds, or 6 frames). Then, in order to finish off the fight, you need to land 2 counters to gain stars at the very end. These two punches are the most difficult in the entire fight because by phase 3, Sodas speed has reached its peak, meaning the frame window for these counters has shrunk considerably. These counters are both mandatorily 2-frame counters, making this a heartbreaking place to lose a run after youve gotten through the TKO recovery luck and are on a good pace.
Here is the final tally on TD Soda fights Ive gotten since I came back to this fight...
1:15.83 - 1
1:15.65 - 2
1:15.59 - 2
1:15.53 - 3
1:15.47 - 5
1:15.41 - 3
1:15.35 - 1
1:15.29 - 5
1:15.23 - 3
1:15.17 - 1
1:15.11 - 1
1:15.05 - 1
Ive also gotten 101 TKO recoveries out of 310 attempts, giving me an approximate TKO recovery success rate of about 32.58%, which is significantly higher than what I was getting for when I did Contender Soda attempts to match the TAS time.
EDIT: I eventually decided to also upload the attempt session that I got this record with, since it seems to be a pretty difficult one for others to match (and I needed to empty some hard drive space). Its thankfully ridiculously short, and shows how sometimes these hard fought times come out of literally nowhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlHORj1yARY
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
