MTPO FAQ

****MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH-OUT!! FAQ****

What happened with that MTPO coffee table book?
Unfortunately it is not going to be published due to Nintendo's copyrights. The best we can hope for is an online pdf version to be released one day.

How do your splits work?
My splits do not use real time like traditional speedruns. Game time is used due to variations in the count when boxers get up and other random factors. The splits you see are a Google doc created by Dskye and simply add the total of the in-game times which are displayed on the blue screen after each fight. The times in the left column are the ones I am trying to beat, the center column are the times in my live run which I enter manually as the run progresses and the number in the right column is the amount of time I am ahead/behind.

What are the splits your up against?
Those are the splits from my 16:24.78 world record splits, they are my splits from the old segmented run I did. I did 4 segments, 1 for each circuit and 1 for Tyson himself. The game has come such a long way since then that I wanted to beat that old run in a single segment which my current record is only a few seconds off of.

What do all those #'s mean in your splits?
See explanation at the bottom of the FAQ.

What does "IL" mean??
It is an acronym for "Individual Level" created by SpeedDemosArchive to describe runs of small portions of a game, for instance, a single track in a racing game. In this case it refers to a single fight. The IL strategies for this game vary a great deal from the strategies for a full game run in most cases and use nearly impossible tactics and require absurd luck.

Do you plan to work on any ILs in the future?
Probably not. Zallard1 has pushed these extremely low and most are close to unbeatable. If I did go for one, it would be Mike Tyson.

Where can I learn how to play this game?
Head over to the SDA forums and check out the first post of this thread, it has a list of resources including tutorials by me:
https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/mike_tysons_punchout_nes_ss_and_ils_ss_wr__1633.22_on_p13.html

How do you play blindfolded?
I use audio cues and my general knowledge of the game. I have a general plan in mind for each fight but usually things do not go according to plan because this game is very random and I have to improvise.

What is the hardest fight?
Mike Tyson requires at least 13 frame perfect inputs to defeat in the 1st round which is required for a speedrun. Super Macho Man would be 2nd hardest, Mr. Sandman is probably 3rd hardest.

What is your favorite fight?
Super Macho Man. Takes a great amount of skill using several different tactics from various prior fights. Also just a funny character. You get a ton of stars and get to use them :D

What is your goal time?
It is not so much of a specific time but more a run that has no errors up to Mike Tyson. Making errors on Tyson is acceptable since you have to do everything frame perfectly, on the other fighters there is no excuse in my opinion. If a run is executed this well I expect it to be under 16:30, which would also beat my old segmented run.

Do you ever speedrun Super Punch-Out!! or Punch-Out!! Wii?
I have played both games but never did serious runs. I did hold the tied world record for Heike Kagero for a few months. I have plans to learn PO Wii at some point, if nothing other than casually. If you want to see SPO or PO Wii check out my friend Zallard at twitch.tv/zallard1

Who was Glass Joe's one win against?
It was a "freak win" against Nick Bruiser according to multiple websites.

Have you seen that video of Mike Tyson playing MTPO?
Yes.

Do you main Little Mac in Smash?
No, I don't play Smash. But if I did, I would at least try him out first.

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CHARACTER SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
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How do you get 0:42.00 on Glass Joe every time?
By using a modification to the original Zallard1 buffer strat that was discovered by CLChambers.

Why do you keep messing up on Von Kaiser?
Von Kaiser is one of the harder technical fights in the game due to the amount of guard manipulation in the first phase. It is very easy to mess up by either pressing or holding up or down for too many frames or at the wrong time. There is a much easier strat that is 1 second slower but I want that 1 second.

How did you gain so much time on Piston Honda?
Piston Honda has two different refills in the final phase and one of them saves about 2 seconds. He also has random delays so if he does not delay at all you can gain time from that.

Why do you do that dodge against Don Flamenco 1?
This is a buffer strat that was discovered by Zallard1 and ensures you will hit Don on the exact frame of the fight you need to in order to get the star. By holding left + b at the beginning of the fight you will throw a punch and then dodge with no delay. Follow that with a quick dodge and punch him in the face for the star!

What is the deal with King Hippo?
He is the only fighter completely based on luck. You can only hit him when he opens his mouth and he chooses random times to do so. I will often ask the chat to pick a number between 0 and 7 which is the number of times I will press up before the fight. This manipulates the RNG from one unknown point to another and gives the illusion of control, when in reality you have none, King Hippo owns you.

How come Great Tiger gets knocked down immediately the last two times?
Any time a boxer gets up on a 1 count they will be knocked down immediately by a star. He is not random at all and will always get up on 1 twice in a row provided you do not take any damage and get knockdowns before 1:00.

What determines how much time you gain/lose against Bald Bull?
There are random stars, patterns, and refills in the 2nd and 3rd phases of the fight which can save or lose time.

How come Piston Honda 2 blocked your punch/uppercutted you?
Because I mistimed the final punch of phase 1 which is very difficult to hit. Luckily there is a good backup strat and you only lose 2 seconds if you get blocked. You will lose a lot more if you get hit though.

Why did you lose so much time/reset on Soda Popinski?
Soda is another extremely random character like King Hippo. His basic pattern is to throw 2 hooks then delay a bit and either throw 2 uppercuts or ruin your day by throwing more hooks. You can only instant knockdown when he does the uppercuts so you need him to do that 3 times to avoid massive time loss.

Why did you lose time on Bald Bull 2?
Because I mistimed one of the 1st two counters which have a small window or because Bull failed to retaliate after blocking which is rare.

Why is Don 2 such a jerk?
Because he is the most random character in the game. Getting a random star on him only happens 6.25% of the time. He also has random refills in the 2nd phase and 50% of the time he will give you the worst one. He also likes to block without retaliating which can waste time in phase 3.

How/why do you start the Mr. Sandman fight with only half health and why is he knocking you down?
By pressing select before the fight I lose half my health and get knocked down intentionally after 1:59 of Round 1 in order to make him do his special move one extra time so I can get a quick final knockdown.

What makes Macho so difficult?
You have to use multiple tactics that are precise and difficult to pull off. By looking at the clock and dodging very late I can time the star punches after his Super Spin punch. There is a great deal of luck in this fight in terms of the amount of stars he gives and how long he delays as well as what patterns he does.

How hard is it to beat Mike Tyson in round 1?
Incredibly hard. This is the hardest final boss of any NES game and its not close. Tyson has a trick called the 8 second delay which he......that's right, delays for 8 seconds. By my estimation this happens close to 50% of the time and can be a real run killer. The most important phase is the first one because losing time compounds of the the next two phases. You can deal the most damage while he is in his uppercuts phase for the first 1:30 of the round. So the later you knock him down the longer it will take to get the 2nd knockdown.

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# MEANINGS
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The hashtags came about because Dskye made the Google doc that tracks the times and blank fields automatically say #VALUE. I used to have volunteers from the chat enter my times before Twitch instituted the 30 second stream delay and one of them changed #VALUE to something else and it took off from there.

#VALUE = Used to be for Glass Joe, before he was 0:42.00 100% of the time.
#WTF = One day Von Kaiser was giving me a particularly hard time and I kept saying What the fuck.
#SKYNT = A reference to "Skynet" from the Terminator series of movies. One day Piston Honda became self aware and did something he has never done before or since. There is a highlight.
#BLEFT - It is imperative to hold both B and left at the beginning of this fight to correctly do the buffer strat. In my early days of trying it I would sometimes forget this and needed a reminder.
#RESET - Formerly #FUKH (Fuck you King Hippo) was changed to the more appropriate reset for obvious reasons.
#YAWN - Due to my extremely low reset rate on this non-random fight, it is kind of boring.
#WORK - There was one day where I lost several runs to both Bull 1 and Bull 2 and I said "damn, Bald Bull is puttin' in work today!"
#BOPJP - Caleb Hart popularized the phase "Bop Japan Free" while attempting to take the Mega Man X WR from a Japanese runner. "Bop free" comes from the fighting game community and refers to beating a lesser opponent easily.
#GATE - Soda is known as the gatekeeper for his ability to prevent you from entering the final segment of the run.
#WORK - See Bull 1
#FLUCK - This guys is the most random fighter in the game and usually does not give good luck.
#HYPE - If the run has made it this far you can officially get hype.
#MMPLZ - Macho has killed his fair share of runs prompting many a "Macho plz BibleThump"
#TYPLZ - See above.