zallard1 | Splatterhouse (Arcade) - High Score [690,100 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset) @zallard1 | Uploaded February 2019 | Updated October 2024, 14 minutes ago.
Real run begins at 1:52. I included the bootup sequence as well as any failed attempts off of that boot for completeness's 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: pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy6ucfvUwAA4AZC.jpg
It's 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 KO's 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 you're 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 that's 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, I've 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 someone's 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 game's 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.
Real run begins at 1:52. I included the bootup sequence as well as any failed attempts off of that boot for completeness's 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: pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy6ucfvUwAA4AZC.jpg
It's 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 KO's 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 you're 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 that's 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, I've 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 someone's 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 game's 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.
![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!")
![Punch-Out!! (Arcade) - 3 Loop Speedrun [7:57] (Nintendo Switch Default Settings)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qKcxuhsOOHc/hqdefault.jpg "Punch-Out!! (Arcade) - 3 Loop Speedrun [7:57] (Nintendo Switch Default Settings)
This run was played on a Nintendo Switch on the port done by Hamster. This port is based off of the Japanese romset, which has some key gameplay differences in some spots compared to the run I did previously on an actual arcade board. The DIP switch settings were set to the default settings that Hamster assumed were default (2nd of 4 difficulties & 2nd longest timer), which is different from classic default settings (easiest difficulty & longest timer).
Getting this version of the game ready for SGDQ, so I re-routed the game based on this version with these settings, not to mention just getting used to the timings of everything in this version compared to the arcade board that I usually play on.
This run goes up until the point where the game stops increasing in difficulty. For this version of arcade Punch-Out on these settings, this appears to happen at fight 15, which happens to be the end of the 3rd loop.
This time I accepted no weak fights in the first loop (outside of Sandman just due to the randomness of him). It paid off since I was able to take that lead pretty much to the end of the run. All of the fights were solidly executed with reasonable luck this time around, so Im way happier with this run. This can still be substantially improved with way better Sandman luck, but this is a really solid baseline for this category
This run is also timed by summing up all the in-game times of each fight. For example, Glass Joe had 2:44 left on the clock, so thats considered a 16 second fight.")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Mike Tyson [2:07] - PB since stroke](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qOf-RrC9UPM/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Mike Tyson [2:07] - PB since stroke
Todays my birthday! The last couple of days, Ive tried to see if I am still capable of completing a perfectly executed Mike Tyson fight on my Twitch stream.
For context, at the start of May, I suffered a stroke. I got to the hospital quickly and my recovery has been good so far, but if you want to catch up on how Ive been doing (and what exactly happened), this thread has everything, including the incident itself described in the pastebin, my gradual recovery, and any struggles Ive had along the way:
https://twitter.com/zallard1/status/1653471339100119041
Despite my good outlook, this has still affected me and my every day life. I also have been hesitant to fully committing to speedrunning again, because I know my gameplay has been affected by this incident too. Ive fought Tyson in very brief bursts here and there, and my consistency on him has been undeniably worsened.
Through my efforts, I think Ive been able to get back to the same level of consistency with the uppercut frame perfect punches on Tyson in phases 1 and 2, but my phase 3 frame perfect punches are still considerably less consistent now.
Ever since the stroke, I had been completely unable to finish a perfect fight because of this consistency dip. Its a massive barrier keeping me from speedrunning the entire game again, because this fight matters more than any other fight in the speedrun, so if I cant match or do better than my 2:15 in my full game PB, I have no chance being competitive with it again.
Tonight, I finally was able to pull it together enough in phase 3 to prove to myself that I still have what it takes, despite all odds. Heres the Twitch VOD just for completeness: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2005431274
Its going to be a long and hard road to get back to where I was, but I see hope if Ive been able to get this far. Thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Piston Honda 2 [0:39.97] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rN7ScxzU01Q/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Piston Honda 2 [0:39.97] (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/m7tzR5Cq
Ive also 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=ONGOXtSkuHQ
So I havent uploaded anything in a while since Ive been going through various difficult IRL things. I wont get into them, but theyve been making it pretty brutal on me, so I havent been able or willing to commit time to speedrunning stuff. I did a charity drive recently for Starlight, and had a bid war between which Punchout game I should derust: MTPO or SPO. MTPO won handily, so Ive been gradually derusting the game while making sure my direct captures are ready for if I land any PBs.
I ended up landing this during a time where I was testing my recording quality with my Datapath card settings, which was extremely unexpected considering how hard I was struggling with this IL a couple years back trying to get sub 40. You can check out my offline attempt session here to check out how brief this was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbkeQcF6a_o
This fight is extremely complicated and brutally difficult. Just like the 39.99 I uploaded a while back, this fight executes the TAS strategy for the fight, which has a couple of specific quirks to it.
For the entirety of the first phase of the fight, you CANNOT lose more than 1 frame across the ENTIRE knockdown. If you lose 2 or more frames collectively throughout the first knockdown, then Honda will block your face jab at the start of phase 2.
This fight heavily uses two techniques, one of which is called a dizzy destroyer, which is a 2 punch combo that involves exploiting Honda 2 & Machos guard in a very specific way. Honda 2 follows your gloves when you tap up, which leaves him open for a gut punch, then you are capable of holding up and punch for an immediate jab after, which will successfully land only on the condition that you let go of up while Macs punch animation is going off, but before the punch actually connects.
The second technique is called a max damage uppercut. This is where you throw a star punch and tap up in a special way in the Honda 2 & Macho fights where the opponent is busy trying to follow your guard, but cannot block their face in time before the uppercut lands, which results in dealing more damage than usual, as well as preventing them from dodging the uppercut outright.
For Honda 2 in particular, there is an addendum to this, because Honda 2s max damage uppercut has a sizable window where you can throw the star punch, but there is a single frame window thats several frames before that sizable window where you can still have the max damage uppercut work. I need to go for specifically these frame perfect max damage uppercuts.
Phew, lets finally talk about the fight itself. The fight opens with 2 dizzy destroyer combos, which is the fastest way to land 4 successful hits, which always results in your first guaranteed star. Immediately throw a frame perfect max damage uppercut, followed by another dizzy destroyer to get 2 more stars (1st one is 100% likely, the 2nd is 50%), then hold up while Honda 2 is recovering from the previous star punch, and as soon as you see Hondas sprite fully centered while he starts to do his eyebrow pattern, throw a star and IMMEDIATELY let go of up. If youre reasonably fast, this star should deal max damage as he attempts to throw a punch, and you should be able to knock him down at 23 seconds with a buffered jab.
The start of phase 2 is just holding up + punch, then letting go of up as soon as Macs punch animation starts. If and only if you are on TAS pace, this punch will land and you will get a guaranteed star. From here, throw a frame perfect max damage uppercut, then follow it up with another dizzy destroyer combo, then throwing another frame perfect max damage star for a knockdown at 36 seconds. For this to work, you NEED the good health refill (50% likely) and the lucky star on the final face jab (also 50% likely). This puts the total odds of this fight to 1/8.
Phase 3 consists of landing the final star punch for an instant knockdown since Honda got up on a 1 count. When throwing the star, you need to do the max damage input, and you can tell if its perfect if Honda lowers his guard near the very end of the star punch.
Compared to McHazards TAS, I only lost 1 frame on the first dizzy destroyer in phase 1; everything else in the entire fight was performed frame perfectly. The record was a 3 way tie between Summoningsalt, Jlet, and Jefeman, so its nice to finally add my name to that list and not have to think about this strategy ever again.
Thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Glass Joe [0:42.00] (NTSC WR w/ a ★)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sF2NnZj2xjU/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Glass Joe [0:42.00] (NTSC WR w/ a ★)
So, Ive finally gotten an RGB setup up and running for streaming/recording stuff now! I recorded this on a real NES that has an NESRGB kit installed in it, and upscaled this fight to 4K. For more information about my recording setup, as well as other details surrounding my setup and troubleshooting to get my recording to look so incredible, heres a huge pastebin that chronicles a bunch of the subtleties of RGB capture that Ive been wrestling with over the past few months: 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=31Nb-NYMKMA
Similar to when I started redoing Wii Punch-Out records in widescreen HD, now Im wanting to start to do the same for my NES/SNES runs of MTPO/SPO. I was going to start with SPO, but I ran into a really quirky hurdle that I didnt anticipate, so instead I decided to restart MTPO videos first. For MTPO, I have decided to leave a decent bit of the overscan areas in, because with how sharp this quality is, its one of the only ways to prove that this was captured off of a real NES, as emulators do not have overscan areas that function the same way that the NES does, especially for the very top of the screen.
I decided to start this retreading with none other than the easiest world record you could possibly get in the Punch-Out series, MTPOs Glass Joe. This fight has numerous strategies, including one thats completely buffered from start to finish that just instantly gets you the 42.00. I opted to go for a challenging one that gets you a star, but to justify the existence of this upload a bit more, I also looked around and see if I could match the TAS in terms of real time, as well as in-game time. I looked at McHazards TAS and realized that I had a couple of options, as well as some wiggle room for strategizing, since he gets to Glass Joe backing up with a couple of frames to spare.
I start this fight with 1 buffered jab, then I actually delay my second jab just ever so slightly so that I waste only a couple of frames. The TAS at this point would instantly go into punching Glass Joe in the gut with Macs left hand repeatedly, which is humanly possible, but is very easy to lose frames on for human execution. Plus, the first gut punch that McHazard does is specific, in that he delays very very slightly, then presses up as Macs punch is being thrown so that Joes guard is manipulated up. This can also be done as a human too, but is slightly awkward.
However, Ive found that similar to the Von Kaiser WR strategy, at the net cost of 1 frame, you can buffer a right gut punch and then lift Joes guard up while Macs fist is still going off, which is way more reasonable of an approach, and with the cost being only a single frame, its totally worth it.
After that first gut punch, you can start buffering nonstop gut punches in the sequence left/right/right, but only if you continuously tap up for that last right gut punch in each of these repeated sequences to prevent Joe from ever blocking your punches. Doing this sequence 5 times, then ending with 2 left gut punches will leave you with a star as Joe backs up for his signature move at 40 seconds. I get to this point slightly behind the TAS, but because Joe backs up at the same in-game time every time, I instantly catch up to the TAS once Joe backs up, since the only thing that matters is that Joe is idle as the clock ticks from 39 to 40.
Glass Joe will shake his fist while doing either 2 beeps or 4 beeps here. If he does 4 beeps, I reset, but if he does 2 beeps, then I time my star punch precisely at the end of the second beep noise. This punch has a 4 frame window that will guarantee you a KO at either 42.25 or 42.00, with 2 of frames allocated to each of those increments. You can hit Joe with any type of punch for this to work, but the star punch is the most swag option, so I have to go for it, haha.
For this fight, I made sure that my star landed on the first possible frame of the 42.00 increment, which it most definitely does. Since this fight is so easy otherwise, I decided to only accept a fight where Joe never attempted a fake getup on Marios 5 or 9 counts, which added an extra luck requirement, but also ensures that my real time exactly matches the TAS from the first frame the fight starts, all the way until Mario says KO at the end.
Id like to eventually improve/match all my personal best times in this game so that they all can be in amazing quality like this one, but it will take a really long time and a ton of effort to do so. Right now Im working on trying to improve my best Tyson time. Im streaming attempts sometimes on my Twitch channel, so give it a look if youre interested in following my progress: http://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Don Flamenco 2 [1:23.25]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sQeqW-9iNng/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Don Flamenco 2 [1:23.25]
Doing single segment attempts of this game again and somehow landed a small improvement over my old pb with a safer strategy, without even pressing select!
Here is the footage from power-on to the successful fight for SRCs leaderboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6L1H9q3x0w")
![Super Punch Out!! - Masked Muscle [00630] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/spDuMYzQo9A/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Masked Muscle [00630] (NTSC WR)
This run was done on an original Super Nintendo cartridge of Super Punch-Out, as well as an original Super Nintendo 1chip console that was recapped and modded with the Voultar RGB amp to restore the correct color intensity. For some more in depth information about my general RGB setup, you can check out this pastebin here: https://pastebin.com/TtXx1PQx
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=RkSchmu_51E
When I went to re-match the TAS time for this fight, I had actually gotten it in like 6 minutes of attempts, but forgot to press record and totally had to do it *again* which was rough lol. I ended up spending like 2 extra hours matching the time again because the luck was unusually rough on me despite it typically not being that bad on paper, plus the new adjustment that was found in this fight that Ill get into later.
Masked Muscle is a fairly innocuous fight in the full game speedrun. He doesnt dish out luck that can outright kill your entire lead due to a couple of backup strategies, but despite this, he has a fair bit of randomness that can make getting the perfect fight on him mildly annoying.
The fight starts off with the usual guard manipulation that youve been seeing in other fights where you hold up for the first frame of the fight, then let go and hold punch for the second frame, however this fight introduces something new into the mix: random blocking from the opponent.
With this strategy, Muscle can block the first two punches, and the final punch in phase 1. These are the only luck events in the fight, and the first blockable punch has a 3/4 chance of going through, while the second and third blockable punches have a (3/4)^2 chance of going through since theyre buffered punches. This means the odds of the strategy are:
(3/4) * (9/16) * (9/16) = 243 / 1024, or about 1 in 4.214 (~23.7%)
Once you’ve landed your first left gut punch of the fight, then immediately buffer a second one and pray he doesn’t block either of those. Thankfully, the next 2 left jabs you’re about to buffer here will land 100% of the time, since Muscle is attempting to throw hooks here, and while he commits to throwing an attack, he cannot randomly block.
After the 2nd jab, you need to do a slight delay and counter an uppercut that Muscle is about to throw on your right side, to which, you counter with a right gut punch. From here, you need to hit a frame perfect delayed punch such that when the punch lands, you get 2 extra arrows, as well as speed up Muscles recoil animation.
You have two paths to get this difficult punch done. Back when I initially matched the TAS on this fight, I just timed the punch manually, similar to how I did it on the Bald Bull IL from this game, however, the community has been booming lately, and its been discovered that there actually exists a perfect buffer for this punch! The only caveat to this buffer is its pretty tricky, but definitely something that you can master.
It involves doing 2 quick ducks which are actually pretty tricky, because you have to tap Down and Up extremely quickly one after the other. This was the main reason I didnt consider this as a possibility for a buffer back in the day, because it seemed too awkward.
Hootey had actually found that if you do not have your super meter completely filled up, that holding the A button will actually automatically cancel your dodges for you, which effectively eliminates the Up portions of the quick duck inputs, meaning now your only obstacle is to quickly press the Down inputs at the correct rhythm. Its still fairly tricky to get it down just right because of how fast the ducks come out now.
If you hold Down too long, then you end up getting a quick duck that isnt actually the fastest, which makes the punch get blocked. If you over compensate for that by going too fast, then youll only have one duck actually come out.
Once you get the double quick duck, then buffer two more left gut punches to hopefully get Muscle dizzy (he can block the final punch if he wants), and just hold Down until you start to see your character start to dodge, then immediately let go of Down and throw a low super as your character centers himself for an instant knockdown!
For phase 2, you need to throw a low super exactly *1* frame after the fight starts, otherwise hell dodge your punch outright. If you waste an in-game frame on the dizzy knockdown, you can actually buffer a low super, but it would involve abandoning the tap duck buffer, which might not be a great idea for some runners. Its worth mentioning though, especially if anyone happens to find phase 2 unusually difficult to be consistent on. Either way, once that low super lands in phase 2, Muscle will be down for good!
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Mr. Sandman [0:34.64]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/spMeNqEKjdk/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Mr. Sandman [0:34.64]
UPDATE: Ive improved this to 34.46! Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWvJj5LpiL0
Ok so I lied a little bit, because NOW Im taking a detour from Wii Punch Out ILs to do Tyson IL attempts. I just felt that since I was in practice for the various complex inputs for the Title Defense Sandman fight, that I should at least try out this bizarre headgear strategy that Frame by Frame Animation (Mysteryman) found a while back.
As far as the Tyson thing, Ive promised sinister1 that I would grind Mike Tyson for the fabled phase 3 uppercut, which Ive never attempted before. This was off of an ill timed bet/promise I made, but is kind of funny how it unfolded. Check out sinisters perfectly executed Tyson PB here, along with the lore that goes along with this silly promise: https://youtu.be/fVeE7SdCjiA
Ill be streaming attempts at this pretty soon! If youd like to watch those attempts, follow me here at http://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/
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.
Despite the assistance from the headgear, this strategy is far FAR FAR MORE DIFFICULT than the previous 38.73 strategy that I just uploaded. I struggled to complete even a single attempt because of phase 2s dreamland pattern not being correct, so the fact that this is the first time this strategy has ever been fully completed by a human, and its *this* close to the TAS despite the unbelievable difficulty of this strategy, just absolutely blows me away.
Most of this fight is like the 38.73, where you punch Sandman to the side and throw a delayed jab to provoke a My turn hook. 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.
Then, 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 Ive only gotten about 10 times before.
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. Here is the critical moment of the fight, because this is what stopped literally 100% of my attempts before this one...
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 finally 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 itself, just counter the 2 winks and buffer the 2 star punch for the TKO! This strat was wild to pull off, haha. Anyways, thanks for watching!")
