zallard1 | Star Fox 64 - High score run performed at AGDQ 2014 [2590 points] @zallard1 | Uploaded January 2021 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
Been struggling a little bit with health issues again lately, so I'm probably going to dial it back a bit on doing runs until I'm feeling a little better. In the meantime, I think I'm going to start uploading as many of my live marathon runs as I can, upscaled to 4k if possible. Some of these will be GDQ runs, others may be some you haven't seen before! So keep an eye out!
This run was done on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014. This also happened to be the very first live in-person marathon run I've ever done. I did a lot of Star Fox 64 high score runs from 2006-2009 on youtube, so with how GDQ was in the early years, this type of exhibition wasn't really "accepted" for consideration at GDQ's.
However, I also did speedruns of this game at the time, and had pitched this to AGDQ 2014 as a bid war, where donors were able to bid for a speedrun of the red line route for the game, or for a high score run. Thankfully GDQ accepted it, since it was a classic game that didn't really have any GDQ presence before this, and the bid war was considered a good way to raise money for the marathon! Thankfully high score won the bid war, and I was able to show off some various fun exploits in this game.
This being the first marathon run I've done live, I was incredibly nervous. I had also just gotten into the venue the previous night, and was so excited to be there that I didn't sleep at all the previous night. The area was also going through a vicious snow storm during this week, and my lips ended up being super chapped since I wasn't used to the harsh cold temperatures yet, which was pretty uncomfortable for this run since I didn't get a chance to get chapstick yet. I'm happy that this first marathon run ended up being decent for the conditions I was under leading up to it! Thankfully I had several years of practice in this game before this run, haha. It also opened the doors to exhibition runs being accepted to GDQs in the future that show off several different high level skill sets (Tetris Grandmaster was AGDQ 2015, Stepmania was 2016, ect).
I'm also glad that I got this run out of the way first, as it kind of settled some of my stage fright jitters I had, making things a bit less intimidating for the other run I had later on that week.
Anyways, thanks for watching!
Been struggling a little bit with health issues again lately, so I'm probably going to dial it back a bit on doing runs until I'm feeling a little better. In the meantime, I think I'm going to start uploading as many of my live marathon runs as I can, upscaled to 4k if possible. Some of these will be GDQ runs, others may be some you haven't seen before! So keep an eye out!
This run was done on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014. This also happened to be the very first live in-person marathon run I've ever done. I did a lot of Star Fox 64 high score runs from 2006-2009 on youtube, so with how GDQ was in the early years, this type of exhibition wasn't really "accepted" for consideration at GDQ's.
However, I also did speedruns of this game at the time, and had pitched this to AGDQ 2014 as a bid war, where donors were able to bid for a speedrun of the red line route for the game, or for a high score run. Thankfully GDQ accepted it, since it was a classic game that didn't really have any GDQ presence before this, and the bid war was considered a good way to raise money for the marathon! Thankfully high score won the bid war, and I was able to show off some various fun exploits in this game.
This being the first marathon run I've done live, I was incredibly nervous. I had also just gotten into the venue the previous night, and was so excited to be there that I didn't sleep at all the previous night. The area was also going through a vicious snow storm during this week, and my lips ended up being super chapped since I wasn't used to the harsh cold temperatures yet, which was pretty uncomfortable for this run since I didn't get a chance to get chapstick yet. I'm happy that this first marathon run ended up being decent for the conditions I was under leading up to it! Thankfully I had several years of practice in this game before this run, haha. It also opened the doors to exhibition runs being accepted to GDQs in the future that show off several different high level skill sets (Tetris Grandmaster was AGDQ 2015, Stepmania was 2016, ect).
I'm also glad that I got this run out of the way first, as it kind of settled some of my stage fright jitters I had, making things a bit less intimidating for the other run I had later on that week.
Anyways, thanks for watching!
![Star Fox 64 - High score run performed at AGDQ 2014 [2590 points]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MBZx0UOL4sY/hqdefault.jpg "Star Fox 64 - High score run performed at AGDQ 2014 [2590 points]
Been struggling a little bit with health issues again lately, so Im probably going to dial it back a bit on doing runs until Im feeling a little better. In the meantime, I think Im going to start uploading as many of my live marathon runs as I can, upscaled to 4k if possible. Some of these will be GDQ runs, others may be some you havent seen before! So keep an eye out!
This run was done on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014. This also happened to be the very first live in-person marathon run Ive ever done. I did a lot of Star Fox 64 high score runs from 2006-2009 on youtube, so with how GDQ was in the early years, this type of exhibition wasnt really accepted for consideration at GDQs.
However, I also did speedruns of this game at the time, and had pitched this to AGDQ 2014 as a bid war, where donors were able to bid for a speedrun of the red line route for the game, or for a high score run. Thankfully GDQ accepted it, since it was a classic game that didnt really have any GDQ presence before this, and the bid war was considered a good way to raise money for the marathon! Thankfully high score won the bid war, and I was able to show off some various fun exploits in this game.
This being the first marathon run Ive done live, I was incredibly nervous. I had also just gotten into the venue the previous night, and was so excited to be there that I didnt sleep at all the previous night. The area was also going through a vicious snow storm during this week, and my lips ended up being super chapped since I wasnt used to the harsh cold temperatures yet, which was pretty uncomfortable for this run since I didnt get a chance to get chapstick yet. Im happy that this first marathon run ended up being decent for the conditions I was under leading up to it! Thankfully I had several years of practice in this game before this run, haha. It also opened the doors to exhibition runs being accepted to GDQs in the future that show off several different high level skill sets (Tetris Grandmaster was AGDQ 2015, Stepmania was 2016, ect).
Im also glad that I got this run out of the way first, as it kind of settled some of my stage fright jitters I had, making things a bit less intimidating for the other run I had later on that week.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Mr. Sandman [01309] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mi73oXKLNQM/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Mr. Sandman [01309] (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.
Mr. Sandman is a breath of fresh air in the Major Circuit, as he has a completely set pattern with no random elements, making him a completely skill based fight. Back when I initially was matching the TAS on the NTSC fights for the first time, I discovered a pretty handy quirk that ends up being applicable to other fights. This strategy also happens to be almost completely identical to the NTSC version of this fight, only really gaining time over it due to NTSC/PAL clock differences. If you would like to compared the fights to each other, you can check out the NTSC one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYq3sQ2QOE
This fight starts with you not pressing anything for the first frame of the fight, then pressing Up and Y to throw a left jab for the second frame. This manipulates his gloves down, which allows you to freely punch Sandman in the face. Once youve landed your first left jab, follow it up by buffering 3 more, then buffer a left gut punch. From here, you need to do a very slightly delayed left gut punch to intercept his slow uppercut, but *dont* counter the uppercut itself. From there, just buffer one final left jab to get him dizzy!
Now heres that quirk I mentioned briefly before; you have the ability to delay your dizzy knockdown in order to make Sandmans next attack come out a little faster! Fights in this game have whats called move timers which effectively boils down opponents having moves that are scheduled to come out after a set number of frames on the in-game timer. This seems like an idea thats simple and makes sense, but what if I told you that we could take complete advantage of this mechanic in certain scenarios to make execution more consistent on certain punches?
Lets take this fight for example! PAL Sandmans first punch in the second phase begins to come out in 4 frames (for NTSC, its 5 frames). In order to intercept that like the TAS does, you would need to manually delay for those 4 frames before you throw your uppercut. This is reasonable to pull off for people, but wouldnt it be better if it could land frame perfectly every time?
The quirk I found is that you can burn frames off of an opponents move timer *while* they are dizzy! What this means is that I could find a different buffer strategy while the dizzy animation is going off to waste those 4 frames *there* instead of having to wait out those 4 frames in the next phase before throwing the uppercut.
Once you throw that final jab to get Sandman dizzy, you can throw a left jab, into a right jab, into a full dodge where you hold the dodge button until your character centers himself, into an uppercut to burn those extra frames I was talking about earlier. However, I opt to throw a low super for the phase 1 knockdown for a slightly faster real-time knockdown animation (40 frames faster), which meant finding a different buffer strategy since I dont think one was used for any other completions of this fight, so I found that quick duck, into left jab, into quick duck, into left jab, into quick duck will set up a low super perfectly as well.
When Sandman gets up, you do NOT have to delay those 4 frames like the TAS does, because of the setup during the dizzy, you can just HOLD Up and A to buffer an uppercut to hit him frame perfectly every time!
Its worth noting that Mr. Sandman is special, in that he is specifically hard coded to have a KO be completely impossible on him, even via methods of hacking. This means that despite how much youve dominated in phases 1 and 2, Sandman will get up on his 3rd knockdown with a *massive* health refill, which is unlike how this works for any other fight in the game.
For phase 3, you start by throwing an uppercut with a slight delay. I like to time this uppercut immediately after I hear the first note in the Major Circuit theme, which still works really well for setups that are playing on an actual Super Nintendo on a CRT (or RetroTink with lagless monitor). From there, Sandman goes into his signature move, the Dreamland Express.
In this game, the Dreamland Express is pretty slow, so you just have to cut the final quick dodge as tightly as possible. Also, once youve dodged the 3rd uppercut, you need to stun him with your RIGHT hand, because this jab deals slightly extra damage that you NEED in order for this strategy to work, and then follow it with an uppercut. Finally, Sandman will throw another hook, similar to how the phase started, and youll also need to land an uppercut into it.
Once the uppercut lands, then Sandman will be down for the TKO! This was overall still easier than the NTSC fight, mostly just because the game runs at 50fps instead of 60fps, which makes frame perfect punches easier due to the marginally larger window.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch-Out!! (Arcade) - Hi Score Mode [7,000,010 points] (Nintendo Switch Default Settings)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MovHzvGg_kA/hqdefault.jpg "Punch-Out!! (Arcade) - Hi Score Mode [7,000,010 points] (Nintendo Switch Default Settings)
Decided to overtake the #1 score for arcade Punch Out on the last online leaderboard category that I didnt already have have the top spot on (Hi Score Mode without savestates or pauses). This is in preparation for the SGDQ run of this game, just to make sure that my improvisation is at a decent level for this game.
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 US version that most people are familiar with. The DIP switch settings were locked to the settings that Hamster assumed were default (2nd of 4 difficulties & 2nd longest timer), which is different from classic default settings (easiest difficulty & longest timer).
Theres really not a lot to say about this run, haha. Bald Bull is consistently the most threatening fight, but even when things got sketchy, I knew enough details about the fight to keep me constantly alive, even by the skin of my teeth at times! I constantly take advantage of the instant knockdown glitch on the later loop Piston Hurricane fights to save me a ton of time in getting a consistently high scoring pace.
Needless to say, I could have continued playing indefinitely, but I was reaching exhaustion and annoyance, so I stopped it myself at a fitting spot.
I also streamed this run live on Twitch if anyone cares to watch with commentary! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421083076")
![Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Classic Mode - Little Mac (9.9 Intensity) [Deathless]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N80Ki997vE8/hqdefault.jpg "Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Classic Mode - Little Mac (9.9 Intensity) [Deathless]
This game is pretty fun. Kind of just felt like uploading a Classic mode playthrough since Ive been playing this a bunch lately and because it Little Mac.")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Piston Hondo [0:33.94]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OH_8NML8OpE/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Piston Hondo [0:33.94]
I got this time a while back, and was debating on whether or not I should upload it, since its still quite a bit off the mark of Pottowws WR of 33.76, but I decided to just upload it so I have a benchmark video to improve upon, as well as a solid incentive to want to improve it in the future.
Anyways, similar to the Bear Hugger fight, Piston Hondo is also a 9 input fight, but 3 of my inputs were a frame too slow (or some combination of missed inputs that add up to 3 frames). I also watch the full cutscene for this fight to set Hondos first attack to come out on the earliest frame possible relative to the in-game timer.
Phase 1 has you doing 2 move cancels to start (the 2nd one is mandatorily frame perfect). The duck isnt a true buffer, but it does give a nice visual cue for when to throw the first punch. After the cancels, you counter his eyebrow jab, then throw a star punch into his bow taunt for an instant knockdown. Similar to the buffer at the start of the fight, the ducks for the bow isnt a *true* buffer, but it has a nice visual cue. Also, similar to Bear Hugger, you can ONLY get a 2:47 phase 1 if EVERYTHING is frame perfect; even 1 frame slower in any spot will get you a 2:46 at best.
Phase 2 requires getting a star with a delayed punch off of Hondos uppercut, then you have to do an *extremely* delayed star punch in order to make his next attack come out faster. This delayed star also works to make the in-game timer tick down at a slower speed than if you were to throw the punch immediately, which sounds counter-intuitive, but this game is very strange with its timer sometimes lol
So yeah, Ill come back to this fight at some point to hopefully lower it to 33.76, but itll be a time consuming grind since in my opinion, this is a harder fight to get match the TAS on than Bear Hugger, despite the number of inputs being the same. Theres a wider variety of punches you need to do frame perfectly, while Bears punches are mostly similar between phases.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Piston Honda 2 [0:39.97] (Original Resolution)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ONGOXtSkuHQ/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Piston Honda 2 [0:39.97] (Original Resolution)
Mike Tysons Punch-Out!! - Piston Honda 2 [0:39.97] (Original Resolution)")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Mr. Sandman [0:32.46]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ONeYeEsuydQ/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Mr. Sandman [0:32.46]
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
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.
Odds are pretty high that this run will be obsoleted soon, either by me, or by several other really good players out there. I got this run in literally 7 minutes of effort, but tried a bit more and couldnt beat this tonight, so its quite a bit unoptimized compared to most of the stuff Ive uploaded recently. I also think this is the first video of this strategy out there, so this will be a pretty useful resource for runners out there!
Thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Soda Popinski [1:15.11]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OaYAWC7VBao/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Soda Popinski [1:15.11]
Improved the previous record on TD Soda I set a while back by 2 frames. This currently stands at 1 frame from the TAS time, which is currently a 1:15.05. I havent played this game in months, but felt an itch to improve something, and TD Soda is usually the one I gravitate to if Im indecisive. It took an afternoon to get this time, although I grinded this fight a lot more heavily before I took a break from this game, the stats at the end are combined with the stats for the last time I did this fight.
Im not *back* at this game right now, its just Tyson is really stubborn and difficult, so I decided to go for something much much easier as a small break.
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 are the stats for what times Ive been able to get on this fight recently...
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
Ive also gotten 100 TKO recoveries out of 309 attempts, giving me an approximate TKO recovery success rate of about 32.36%, which is significantly higher than what I was getting for when I did Contender Soda attempts to match the TAS time, as well as what I was getting when I set the 1:15.23. Not sure when Ill come back to this, since grinding off that last frame sounds pretty unfun. More likely than not, Ill probably let someone else take care of that haha.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Soda Popinski [1:15.23]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OiaU9Gl07Rs/hqdefault.jpg "Punch Out!! (Wii) - Title Defense Soda Popinski [1:15.23]
Improved the previous record on TD Soda by a frame. This currently stands at 3 frames from the TAS time, which is currently a 1:15.05. Might continue with this off and on? Its going to be excruciatingly difficult to cut any more time off of this, because of the random TKO recoveries coupled with the mandatory 2 frame counters at the end. Its very difficult to hit those last 2 punches, let alone get the early frames on both.
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 this incredibly difficult and random fight, you need to land 2 counters to gain stars at the very end in order to finish him off. 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 are the stats for what times Ive been able to get on this fight recently...
1:15.83 - 1
1:15.65 - 2
1:15.59 - 2
1:15.53 - 3
1:15.47 - 3
1:15.41 - 1
1:15.35 - 1
1:15.29 - 2
1:15.23 - 1
Ive also gotten 56 TKO recoveries out of 184 attempts, giving me an approximate TKO recovery success rate of about 30.43%, which is significantly higher than what I was getting for when I did Contender Soda attempts to match the TAS time.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
