SummoningSalt MTPO FAQ

**Q- Where's the timer for this run?**
A- It's on the right half of the screen. Rather than using a traditional stopwatch timer, this run is timed by adding up all of the in-game times for each of the 14 fights. You're able to see the time and decimals on the blue screen after each fight.

**Q- Why is the in-game timer used?**
A- There's a couple of reasons. First, the historical reason- in the early-mid 2000's, when people first began doing speedruns of this game, they would simply try to get the fastest time on one particular fighter rather than run through the whole game. It made sense to use the in-game timer for this since it was right there, and times could accurately be shared this way. So, years later, when players began doing "single segment" runs of the whole game, it was only natural to continue the in-game timing method and simply sum it up for all fights. As for the modern reason- using the in-game timer for the whole game takes out a lot of unnecessary randomness. Boxers randomly get up on different counts, or even do "fake rises" when Mario is counting, both of which lose time and have nothing to do with the fight itself. So, although the in-game timer isn't consistent with real seconds (each in-game second is about 1/3rd of a real second), it is a much better metric for determining if one run was faster than another.

**Q- Did you just get 3 (or however many) PBs in the same run?**
A- No. This run works the same way as any other speedrun in the sense that it's the total of all segments put together. The splits on the left are simply the fights that I achieved in my single segment PB- the full run of the game.

**Q- What's up with the PB% column?**
A- That represents the approximate percent chance of getting a PB from that particular point in that particular run. It was made by zoxsox, and is calculated by entering in an estimation of the odds in getting each time in each fight, then running 100 million simulations of full game speedruns, and seeing how many of them ended up under my PB from that pace. It assumes perfect execution on every fight except for Mike Tyson, because that fight is basically impossible to execute perfectly every time.

**Q- What is the attempt counter?**
A- The attempt counter estimates how many run attempts I have done since January 2018. I'd estimate that I had done about 2000 more attempts before January 2018, so you can add that onto the number displayed there to get the approximate total number of attempts I've ever done.

**Q- Why did you gain/lose so much time?**
A- In all likelihood, because of either good or bad luck. This game is INSANELY random- probably more random than any other speedrun that I know. To give an extreme example, Don Flamenco 2 can range from as low as 1:19 to as high as 2:00 just based on luck alone.

**Q- What is the world record?**
A- 14:55.25, held by me.

**Q- How much lower can the record go?**
A- Technically quite a bit, but the odds in getting much lower is just staggeringly low with the strats we know now. 14:4X will happen soon enough I think. 14:3X would be a ridiculously good run, with insane luck needed, but I guess I can see it happening with current strats too if someone tried long enough. 14:2X and below is technically possible too, but the luck needed is probably over 1/100K. Right now, it would take a miracle to get that low.

**Q- How optimized is the record?**
A- The human sum of best is 13:32, quite a bit below the record- however, this is extremely misleading. Getting 14 fights in a row that add to 13:32 would require odds of somewhere around 1/200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. I don't go for strategies that fast in a run anyway. The fastest times I could get using strategies that I use in a run adds up to about a 14:10. That too would require odds similar to the figure above. Getting 14:55 was about 1/300, not to mention the essentially perfect execution it needed. 14:4X or 14:3X is definitely realistic, but the odds just get closer to that massive number posted above the lower you go.

**Q- What is the TAS time?**
A- The TAS timed with in-game time is a 12:55.73, in a currently unpublished TAS by Mchazard. Unless insane stuff is found, humans aren't getting anywhere near that. The sheer odds in getting the patterns needed to match the TAS time for all 14 fights is approximately 1 in 629,281,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That number is pronounced 629 septendecillion, or 1 in 6.29*10^56.

**Q- Why are you waiting before Piston Honda 1 and King Hippo?*
A- I'm waiting because I am trying to set up RNG manipulation. This was discovered in the summer of 2019 by lucandor158 and his brother zoxsox. The exact way it works is too complicated to explain here, but one of the components to get these manipulations is to start each of those two fights at a specific time after resetting the game. For Piston Honda 1, I'm just looking at a stopwatch, but for King Hippo, I'm actually using a video with a visual cue to help me time the start of the fight correctly.

**Q- Why are three splits in red?**
A- Those splits are where the vast majority of my runs will die. The first is Soda Popinski, and he kills about 58% of runs by throwing a random hook in any of his phases. The second is Bald Bull 2, who also kills about 58% of runs by not letting enough random misdirected gut punches through his guard. The third is Don Flamenco 2, where I lose 13 seconds on average and have just a 4% chance of getting a time under 1:30.

**Q- Are you playing on console, or emulator?**
A- I'm playing on console. NES + CRT TV provides an essentially input lag-free setup, which is very important for this game.

**Q- Do you ever get sick of the music in this game?**
A- Not really. It's gotten a bit old, but mainly it's just background noise.

**Q- How many hours have you played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out?**
A- Between when I started learning this game in early 2015 and when I'm writing this (April 2020), I'd estimate I've put about about 2000 hours into the game.

**Q- Will you ever make a World Record Progression video for this game?**
A- I've made some already, just not for the full game (single segment). I probably will one day...