zallard1 | Super Punch Out!! - Masked Muscle [0'06"30] (NTSC WR) @zallard1 | Uploaded February 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
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: pastebin.com/TtXx1PQx
Additionally, I've decided to include a non-stretched version of this fight in an unlisted video. If you'd like to learn more about why I'm including this too, you can check out the description in the second video here: 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 I'll get into later.
Masked Muscle is a fairly innocuous fight in the full game speedrun. He doesn't 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 you've 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 they're 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 Muscle's 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 it's been discovered that there actually exists a perfect buffer for this punch! The only caveat to this buffer is it's 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 didn't 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. It's 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 isn't actually the fastest, which makes the punch get blocked. If you over compensate for that by going too fast, then you'll 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 he'll 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. It's 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!
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: pastebin.com/TtXx1PQx
Additionally, I've decided to include a non-stretched version of this fight in an unlisted video. If you'd like to learn more about why I'm including this too, you can check out the description in the second video here: 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 I'll get into later.
Masked Muscle is a fairly innocuous fight in the full game speedrun. He doesn't 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 you've 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 they're 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 Muscle's 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 it's been discovered that there actually exists a perfect buffer for this punch! The only caveat to this buffer is it's 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 didn't 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. It's 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 isn't actually the fastest, which makes the punch get blocked. If you over compensate for that by going too fast, then you'll 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 he'll 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. It's 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!
![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!")
![Splatterhouse (Arcade) - *Former* High Score World Record [811,400 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t8PPDkUaWsQ/hqdefault.jpg "Splatterhouse (Arcade) - *Former* High Score World Record [811,400 points] (TG/Aurcade ruleset)
UPDATE: The record has recently been improved to 827,400 by John Liming over at Galloping Ghost arcade! You can check out his run here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voI03Mt0l58
This was played on an original Splatterhouse arcade PCB on the H.A.S. supergun. This run was also done on default difficulty 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.
Here are links to a Twitch highlight where I got this run live in front of about 50+ viewers, as well as a highlight of that entire stream of attempts just for posterity.
Twitch highlight of the run itself: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/398283573
Twitch highlight of the entire stream - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/398281489
Ok, now that we got all the fine details out of the way, lets talk about the run itself. This run was incredible, with only a couple of bad mistakes in a few of the stage 6 loops. On average, my stage 6 loop scores were incredibly strong, most of which were well beyond 50k each. I actually was doing so well, that on the final loop of stage 6, I actually started doing the speedrun strategies to defeat the boss faster, just because I absolutely did not want to take even the slightest risk if it meant threatening this incredible pace. I wish more of my stage 6 loops got to see the blue orb, but having 4 out of 10 see the orb isnt too shabby at all.
Something I should probably elaborate on; the blue orb is a counter-measure so that players do not stay in one spot for an infinite amount of time. This is so theres something to kick idle players off of the game so any new players who walk up to the cabinet dont get any free games, as well as just make sure that players cant stall in one spot to prevent others from playing. This orb is great for score, since it puts a finite limit on how long you can point press any given spot.
With this run breaking the 800k barrier, I think Im pretty content with this run for the foreseeable future. This is still very beatable, but would require a lot more effort than Im willing to throw at it right now. I might return to this one day if Im feeling up to it again, but I think this is a great score for me to stop on for now!
I gotta give huge shoutouts to both Anthony Paparo and Caitlin Oliver for driving up this score over the years! Their efforts to optimize this score ultimately inspired me to do attempts of this once I finally got access to arcade hardware.")
![Super Punch Out!! - Super Machoman [00943] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tb-dTAbaBSc/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Super Machoman [00943] (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=t5EvG_pqQBg
Super Machoman is probably considered the hardest of the usual 15 records that people usually match in this game. Even despite this, this strategy is still not that awful with a bit of determination and good execution.
This fight starts by pressing nothing on the first frame, then pressing Up and Y for the second frame, and unlike other fights that Ive mentioned these inputs on, this set has to be EXACTLY like this, because if you are not frame perfect on the first jab, then you will not be able to sneak in 2 left jabs before Macho starts to wind up for his first punch, to which he would just block your 2nd jab if youre too late.
After landing the frame perfect left jab and buffering your second left jab, Macho is going to wind up for a jab on your right, and youll need to land a right jab of your own to counter it. I try to aim these jabs at the exact frame Machos sprite changes from him being punched from your previous punch, to him starting to wind up for his own jab. Once you land that jab, just buffer 2 left gut punches, then Macho will throw out another identical jab that you need to counter in the exact same way, so counter it, and then buffer a low left gut punch into a low super.
Now, the phase 1 for this strategy is fairly strict. The dizzy meter never reaches 0 once youve landed the first frame perfect punch of the fight, which means the timing of your 2 counters are the deciding factor on whether or not Macho will get dizzy off of this strategy. With the way the dizzy meter shakes out, you can not lose a total of 4 frames across these two counters, which sounds lenient, but can be fairly tricky if youre not confident on how early you can actually land these counters, since they both come out pretty fast.
Once that low super goes off and you havent lost those frames, then Macho will become dizzy. To knock him down with a super punch, we have a few options for buffer strategies. The original one that works fine is 3 left jabs into a low super, which will take him down. However, since Im also optimizing the real time of this fight, I wanted to knock Macho down with an uppercut here for a different super knockdown animation thats 7 frames faster. If you buffer a tap duck (by tapping Down and waiting for your boxer to center on his own), then chain that into a left gut, then right gut, and buffer an uppercut out of this will take Macho down in an optimal real time too!
For phase 2, there are a couple of things to consider here. Macho has a couple of random things that he can do at the start of phase 2. First off, before the fight even starts, the game has decided whether or not Macho will do an exercise program at the start of phase 2. If hes destined to do one here, then your attempt is immediately over, because the primary thing we need for this strategy to work is for him to be in a position to take a punch immediately, and with any of the 3 programs, hes basically invincible until the animation is over.
The other thing is that Macho can do dances at the start of phase 2. Its actually fine if Macho dances one time, because hell be idle again before your first punch lands, but if he decides to dodge a second time, then your attempt will be instantly over. Macho also has the potential to randomly dodge super punches, and him doing that will end your attempt.
Despite his ability to do so in phase 1, I couldnt confirm whether or not Macho is capable of randomly blocking in phase 2. It could just be some weird luck Im locked into every time I check, but it doesnt seem to be a thing? Ill amend this statement if this doesnt end up being the case.
Considering all of this, phase 2 starts with you holding Up for the first frame of the phase to set Machos guard high, then immediately letting go of the Dpad and pressing A to throw a low super. If youre lucky, it will land without Macho dodging, exercising, or dancing twice. Once you land the super, Macho will try to throw a hook on your left side, which can be countered with a delayed left body blow. Once you land this counter, just buffer a low super and you should be home free!
If you can pull this off and get the record on it, you can absolutely get the record on any other fights this game has to offer, with only Narcis being one that you will likely not have the patience for.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Narcis Prince [00832] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/thr9c6EO0hw/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Narcis Prince [00832] (PAL WR)
This run was done on an original PAL 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.
Ive been meaning to get around to the PAL ILs for the longest time, but never found the right time to start. After my stroke, my muscle memory for games have been thrown off a bit, so I figure this is the best time to get these taken care of, because switching between the NTSC and PAL versions of this game is very confusing on the muscle memory anyways. Ill talk more about why Im doing the PAL fights in the description of my next video Ill upload (Gabby Jay), since Id like to spend the rest of this description talking about this fight.
Compared to the NTSC version of this fight, matching this TAS time is far less annoying, but still fairly annoying anyways lol. You have slightly less luck you have to put up with, due to it being impossible to do a triple gutter on PAL, making the strategy and pattern needed completely different.
Narcis can literally end your attempt on the 1st frame of the fight if he dances or walks to the side. Start the fight starts by holding Up for the 1st frame, then letting go and buffering a right gut for the 2nd frame. After that 1st gut punch, follow it up with another right gut punch. Youll then be set up to buffer a quick duck to automatically counter his hook. You can actually adjust to this if you can tell if your first punch is a frame slow, and do a quick dodge instead, which is 1 frame faster than a quick duck, but I had a hard time telling on my janky PAL setup, so I mostly stuck to just doing the quick duck every time.
In addition to the dances I mentioned before, he can also end your attempt before either gut punch by: twirling left or right, side stepping left or right and sliding away side to side. He can ALSO end your attempts during the punches themselves, by randomly block them outright, or doing a random retaliation in response.
Once you counter the hook, you just buffer a left jab while hes stunned. Punching Narcis in the face will make Narcis angry, and when hes angry, hell go to the back of the ring and comes back to throw one of 3 main patterns at you. The first 2 patterns are the one where he throws 2 jabs on your right side, which has 2 variants where hell either follow up with uppercuts or hooks, and we NEED the uppercuts for this strategy to work. The next pattern is 2 jabs on your left side, which will also be a reset, but its worth noting that if you can react and counter the hook frame perfectly and throw a stunned punch, you can get a time of 8.34, which is still really good. The final pattern is the one where he can throw a hook on your left side, then right side, which is also a reset.
After the jab lands, you need to buffer the following in any order that you prefer: 3 tap dodges, 1 low left gut, 1 left jab, and finally, end the sequence with 1 right jab. This jab will hit Narcis on the first frame that hes vulnerable from walking back after getting angry. Once it lands, you need to buffer another right jab, which will land on the first possible frame, then you need to pause as soon as the jab connects. This lets the super meter fill so that you can throw rapid jabs instantly when you unpause. Buffering them has a 6 frame window to repress the A button, otherwise youll be slow and youll lose time once the rapids are finished. With the correct pattern, Narcis can still dodge rapid jabs 2, 3, and 4, but if they all land he goes dizzy! Just do a quick duck into low super for a knockdown!
Phase 2 involves throwing a rapid jab into his jab that he tries to throw. I used a pseudo buffer of a duck into a quick duck, which worked fine for me, but I had two completed 8.34s before getting this one lol. Once the rapid lands, youll need to do a buffer for the final uppercut (I went with right gut, quick dodge, right got, into uppercut). This final uppercut can still kill your run at the very end if you get bad luck with him dodging or blocking, but I thankfully got it this time.
This took 4 days of attempts, with just small half hour bursts here and there. The video quality has an annoying issue during transitions where you can see power supply noise, which sucks but Im not redoing this fight lol. I found the issue so it wont show up for future videos (power supply needs to not be plugged into a power strip with other stuff active). I have the attempt session from power-on in an unlisted video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=es1MJZ3zDz0
The total odds for this fight come out to 1 in about ~931, which is a decent bit better than NTSCs 1 in 1600. If youd like to see the math & events, itll be in the attempt session YouTube description.
With this fight done, the rest of the PAL ILs should be an absolute cakewalk. Ill do the rest chronologically and upload them every other couple of days.
Total stats:
3.39s: 98
6.75s: 4
Thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Mad Clown [00901] (NTSC WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u1lbpG4Wci4/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Mad Clown [00901] (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=Q1bddZn6DtA
So, the longstanding 905 strategy on Mad Clown that was first published in the Super Punch Out TAS back in 5/29/2007 has been improved 2 times recently. To see that original strategy, you can check out my recent upload of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs6AEtl-HMs
Lixunis was finding strategies for the PAL version of Super Punch Out recently, which actually has several wildly different strategies from the NTSC version, but ended up checking the NTSC version for things recently for full game speedrun stuff. On 3/14/2022, he posted an improvement from 905 to 903 in the Super Punch Out speedrunning discord server.
That strategy involved 6 frame perfect things you needed to time, as well as an extra unstunned jab, which increases the luck needed greatly. However on 4/4/2022, he found *another* improvement that cut it down to 901, but requires *another* frame perfect punch, bringing the total to 7, making this fight the most difficult strategy to execute that this game has to offer.
I had a weirdly hard time matching this tied record, because despite how quickly I hit the 903, I kept messing up phase 2 every time I got there on pace during attempts. The phase 2 counter was the main culprit, as I just didnt have a great cue that worked for me consistently.
Usually you have to resort to feel on punches like this, but I simply wasnt great at getting the feel for that spacing down. I ended up not playing the game for ~2 weeks, but came back to it today and thankfully got it very quickly with no practice.
This fight starts with you pressing nothing for the first frame, and then pressing Up and Y to throw a left jab on the next frame. Follow that up with another buffered left jab, with Mad Clown hopefully standing still without random retaliations and not randomly blocking. From there, Clown will throw a jab on your left side, and youll need to do a delayed left jab to counter it.
Once the jab is countered, youll have to land a right jab on the same frame that Clowns stun ends, which is a very awkward timing. I opted to do a pseudo buffer by timing a quick duck shortly after I visually see Clowns sprite change into his stunned sprite. Then you have to throw a left jab with a *very* small delay, then delay a right jab by 1 frame so Clowns move timer advances just enough to do buffered rapid jabs on Clowns upcoming hook.
Buffering rapid jabs requires pressing A, letting go when you see your character start his super, then repressing it. That rapid jab will hit him out of that hook animation and make him instantly go dizzy. Since rapid jabs made him dizzy, the buffer strategy needs to be different than the one in the 905. Hold left, and dont let go until your character centers himself, then press Left then Up in rapid succession, along with A to throw an uppercut to knock Clown down.
Clown opens phase 2 by either him doing a taunt where hes pointing to his stomach, which means hell retaliate when you attempt to throw a punch, or by standing there. Start by pressing nothing on the first frame the fight starts back up, then press Up + A to throw an uppercut (theres a 3/8 chance he dodges). Once that lands, Clown will do a jab on your right, that you need to counter with a right jab, and then buffer another uppercut for knockdown 2.
If you got this far, then congratulations, because youve basically finished the fight! For phase 3, Mad Clown always opens with Show Time, which involves him throwing really fast jabs. Because of Show Time, you can easily counter his first jab by buffering a right jab as soon as the phase begins, and because of how fast phase 2 was, hell come back with so little health that hell go right back down when the jab lands.
I did this fight offline while watching other streams, so unfortunately theres no live reaction. I did record the full attempt session, which totals to about 11 and a half minutes, so I figured I might as well upload it in its entirety too. You can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxNGng8q4DI
Also here are some stats on how many frame perfect phase 1s I got, as well as how each of them failed to net me 901.
Frame perfect phase 1s: 35
Dodged in phase 2: 9
Taunted in phase 2: 10
Too slow in phase 2: 8
Too fast on phase 2 uppercut: 3
Too fast on phase 2 counter: 4
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Splatterhouse (Arcade) - Speed Run [13:37]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uC3B_PTHt_g/hqdefault.jpg "Splatterhouse (Arcade) - Speed Run [13:37]
This was played on an original Splatterhouse arcade PCB on the H.A.S. supergun. My Splatterhouse PCB also now has the EVERTEN stereo expansion board, so the audio is more clear now with separate stereo channels! This run was done on the hardest difficulty, which starts you at 2HP instead of the default 4HP.
This was also recorded through the Datapath E1 capture card via RGB and upscaled to 4k, so this quality is about as crisp as you can possibly get on real hardware. For comparison, you can check out my slower 13:37 run from a while back which was recorded via S-Video to see how much better the recording quality has gotten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvgl8DadM6M
It is also worth noting that the game is running at a slightly higher framerate than the home release ports out there (JP Wii VC at 59.94 fps, and the Namco Museum version runs at ~60 fps). This board appears to run at about 60.60 frames a second, so this benefits from small time gains compared to those versions.
So stormcrow56k picked this game up for speedrunning recently, and found a couple of new strategies in a few spots. The main optimization he found was for the stage 2 boss, where he found an approach to kill the chair with one punch and one slidekick, however its extremely difficult and inconsistent, so he also found a backup strategy that minimizes time loss if you dont get it, which helps justify going for it.
Beyond the chair kill, theres a really hard strategy that requires good luck on knives such that they cross in the center of the room, as well as a really difficult jump-punch strategy to take out the 2 airborne knives, which requires pressing jump and punch on the same frame to get Rick to carry his punch state into the air and punch twice in the air. Normally when you do a jump, your first attack will always be a jump kick, and any subsequent attack will be a jump punch (unless you hold down for more jump kicks).
The other find that stormcrow found was for the Jennifer boss fight in stage 5. Effectively, you can exchange one of the punches early in the the fight with a very late slide kick for the last attack, which saves you one attack and nets you a tiny bit of time.
As far as the overall run, I didnt get a great stage 3 boss kill just because I missed the jump kick as he jumped forward, which allows him to jump after every couple of shots (he wont jump if his HP is at an odd value, and shotgun blasts deal 2HP of damage).
I also missed the optimal knife kills on the stage 2 boss due to the difficulty of them, but kept the run going just because it still had a small chance of getting a new record. The exact time of this run is a 13:37.357, which beats the old run by almost exactly half a second (old record was an 13:37.856).
Should hopefully be able to beat this soon. The record probably wont stay at a 13:37 for long, so this will likely be the last one this game sees!
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Narcis Prince [00826]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uXrU6xjn8us/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Narcis Prince [00826]
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=RWRlCMDAGys
Narcis Prince is the most random fight in the game, and is the only one that doesnt have dozens of people tying the TAS because of it. A few people have been able to match it recently during the pandemic, but its a huge range from being a quick one to get, to taking close to a year of consistent effort to get. This fight is the entire reason Ive redone my ILs in RGB quality, to motivate me to improve my time and inch closer to, and eventually match, the record of 820. My PB on this fight was an 828 set in 2014, until I improved it recently to the 826 you see right here.
Ive been grinding mostly just this fight on my Twitch channel, with several stats Ive been tracking, and a running timer during attempts. Ive also been exporting streams of this grind to my alt account on YouTube. You can check out the playlist for that (with more comments) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXiI-lPUXEQ&list=PLt0miTqQ0e4i4dz-YRuBp4TJw-2DfmPiI
Narcis can end your attempt on the 1st frame of the fight if he dances or walks to the side, before you even get to do anything. The fight starts by holding Up for the 1st frame, then letting go and buffering a left gut for the 2nd frame. After that 1st gut punch, follow it up with 2 more left gut punches. You have a 2 frame window to do that guard manipulation, otherwise Narcis will block your 3rd gut punch due to him starting his scheduled hook.
Landing those 3 gut punches is an absolute ordeal. In addition to the dances I mentioned before, he can also end your attempt before *every* gut punch by: twirling left or right, side stepping left or right and sliding away side to side. He can ALSO end your attempts during the punches themselves, by randomly block them outright, or doing a random retaliation in response.
After landing the 3 gut punches, Narcis will throw a hook on your left, which youll need to counter with a low left gut punch. Once you land it, you need to hit Narcis on the final frame of his stun animation from the counterpunch, which thankfully has a buffer that works every time, although its just finicky enough to where you could lose attempts on it once a blue moon. To do it, tap and hold left or right until you see your character start to dodge, then IMMEDIATELY let go of dodge so that your boxer goes through his dodge animation. As soon as your character is about to center himself, then press Up plus Y to throw a jab, which should hit Narcis to where his recoil animation is faster and he instantly becomes angry.
When Narcis is in his angry phase, hell go to the back of the ring (which resets the dizzy meter entirely) and comes back to throw one of 3 main patterns at you. The first (and most common) pattern is the one where he throws 2 jabs on your right side, which is an immediate reset if it happens, because hell block it. The next pattern is 2 jabs on your left side, which will also be a reset. The final pattern is the one where he can throw a hook on your left side, then right side, which is the one we *need* to have a chance.
As soon as the delayed jab lands that makes Narcis angry, you need to buffer a left gut, into a quick duck, then cancel that with another left gut, into right jab, then left jab. Once the left jab lands, you NEED to pause the game to let the super meter catch up; if you dont, then Narcis cant get dizzy. Then you need to buffer rapid jabs, which has a 6 frame window to repress the A button, otherwise youll be too slow and Narcis cant get dizzy. With the good pattern, Narcis can still dodge the initial jab, as well as your 1st and 4th rapid jabs. Once all rapid jabs land, just do a quick duck into low super for a knockdown!
Phase 2 just has you throwing a rapid jab into his jab that he attempts to throw. I do a pseudo buffer where I tap duck, into a quick duck, but I time that 2nd duck exactly when I see my boxer fully centered. Once your rapid jab lands, buffer a quick dodge, into a right jab, low jab, and uppercut. This uppercut is so awful and rare, but if it lands, then youve finished the fight! To put it in perspective, back in 2014, I got this uppercut to land 1 time out of 30+ attempts, which is abysmal luck.
Ill still try to improve this closer to the record periodically, but its a brutal grind. Hoping Ill get some nice improvements sooner rather than later!
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
![Super Punch Out!! - Nick Bruiser [00749] (PAL WR)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u_AJnZir_GE/hqdefault.jpg "Super Punch Out!! - Nick Bruiser [00749] (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.
Here’s the final fight of PAL Super Punch Out, and I’d by lying if I said it was anything other than anticlimactic, lol.
The NTSC version of Nick Bruiser is almost identical to this fight, aside from one small difference in execution. If you’d like to compare that fight to this one, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR1kxwZutr8
NTSC Nick requires you to hit one mandatory frame perfect counter, as well as a couple of buffered inputs to match the 7’52” TAS time. However, would you believe me if I said that the PAL version is even easier?
That’s right, you just have to memorize a couple of buffer strategies and keep rolling the dice until you win, ultimately requiring very little skill to pull off.
The strategy begins just like the NTSC version does, where you simply buffer 2 left jabs. This is the only fight in the entire game where you can simply punch an opponent in the face without needing to worry about guard manipulation, so it makes the inputs for the first attack trivial.
Once you land the 2 jabs, you need to buffer a quick duck into a right jab to perfectly counter Nick’s jab to where his recoil animation is faster than usual (Nick may throw a hook here, which ruins attempts 50% of the time). For the NTSC version, this has to be hit manually, but for this version, that buffer makes it automatically free for the player.
Once you land the jab, you need to buffer a left jab, then do a tap duck which involves holding Down on the dpad until the instant you see your character start to duck, then immediately let go. Once your character is almost centered, buffer B to hit Nick on the final frame of his stun. From this point forward, you need several more luck events to align. From there, just buffer 2 left jabs and he should go dizzy assuming he doesnt block at all. With Nick going into his dizzy animation, just buffer 2 right gut punches into 2 low supers for the knockdown at 5”28.
Phase 2 is trivial, as you just need to buffer 2 consecutive uppercuts. If you get all of the luck, then the 2nd uppercut will land, and Nick will be down for the KO.
It’s extremely easy to execute this strategy in full, but the real deterrent for doing something like this in full game runs is the luck, so let’s take a look at the luck real quick…
Phase 1:
-Nick throws a jab (1/2)
-Nick’s delay for his 2nd attack is 80 frames* (1/4)
-Total Phase 1 odds: (1/2)*(1/4) = (1/8) = 12.5%
*You won’t see if you got the correct delay until the first uppercut of phase 2 lands.
Phase 2:
-Nick throws a jab (1/2)
-Landing an unstunned uppercut (5/8)
-Nick doesn’t get the 24 frame delay for next attack [prevents him blocking 2nd uppercut] (7/8)
-Total Phase 2 odds: (1/2)*(5/8)*(7/8) = 35 / 128 = ~1 / 3.6571 (or ~27.34%)
Total fight odds: (1/8)*(35/128) = 35 / 1,024 = ~1 / 29.2571 (or ~3.4%)
The luck ends up being the 2nd worst odds to complete a strategy in the entire game, with only Narcis being rarer.
The good thing is that the execution is so trivial that it handily makes up for the unfavorable luck requirements to make this one of the easiest records in the entire game.
Phew, and that’s it for the PAL version of Super Punch Out! That was a pretty fun diversion and I’m glad I finally got around to tying these records.
Right now I’m having arm issues (cubital tunnel), so I’ll be taking a break from speedrun attempts for a while, but once it’s better, I’d like to match the Narcis Prince TAS time on the NTSC version to round out my TAS ties in this game in all regions.
After that, I’d probably be more inclined to improve my full game run, as my PB is 6 years old at this point and a lot of new things have been found since I ran it last.
In the meantime while I heal, I’m probably going to start uploading the couple of marathon runs that I’ve done over the years that I haven’t gotten around to yet.
I stopped uploading them at the Calithon run of Double Punch Out in 2017, and there’s still a couple more between that and the 2019 Wii Punch Out run that I haven’t uploaded yet. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and perhaps this is the best time to get that taken care of.
Anyways, thanks for watching!")
