Tyson FAQ

**Q - What are you trying to do?**
A - I'm trying to set a new world record on the Mike Tyson fight in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! This fight is timed with the in-game timer. I most recently set a new record of 2:00.97 offline on 7/25/2020, which can be viewed here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YMOqycF2yQ  I'm trying to get a lower 2:00.XX time, or a 1:59 if it happens to work out.

**Q - Who has the world record for putting in the password?**
A - haha funny

**Q - How do you get the decimals after the fight?**
A - By recording my run locally at 60fps and plugging the data into a spreadsheet made by Omnigamer, I can get with near 100% confidence the decimal that the fight would have if it was displayed normally like any of the first 13 fights. It is essentially a frame counter that can tell exactly which frame you ended the fight on, then turns that into a decimal.

**Q - What makes this fight so hard?**
A - To deal the right amount of damage to Tyson after each of his uppercuts, I need to delay the second punch in each combination to the last frame, 60th of a second, before he would block it. This then needs to be repeated 15-17 times before he stops throwing uppercuts - 9-10 in the first phase of the fight (until he gets knocked down the first time), 5-6 times in the second phase (until he gets knocked down the second time), then one additional time in the third phase. Additionally, I then need to hit 6 more frame perfect punches after each of his 6 hooks in phase 3. That's a total of somewhere between 21 and 23 frame perfect punches throughout this fight, each of which has a 60th of a second to be timed properly. This is incredibly difficult.
Additionally, I need to cut each of my dodges and ducks extremely tightly. This involves dodging or ducking back into his punches just after they would be able to do damage to me so that I waste the smallest amount of time possible. This needs to be done over and over again for each punch he throws, and in all honesty is just as difficult as hitting each of the frame perfect punches.

**Q - What makes this fight so random?**
A - Even if you execute properly every time (which I can do on a pretty regular basis), the randomness is what makes this fight so incredibly difficult to get a new record on. He can randomly delay for about 20 frames, or one in-game second, after most uppercuts that he throws. In order to knock him down fast enough to get a phase 3 uppercut, the second knockdown needs to come at a low 1:25 or lower. This means that you need to get a pattern from Tyson where he does 0 of these delays throughout the first two phases, which has well under a 1% chance of happening. He can also do random 8 frame delays that eat up about 1/3 of an in-game second, and more delays in the third phase where he throws hooks.

**Q - How low can this record go? Can it go under 2 minutes?**
A - Yes, it can go under 2 minutes, but a time of 1:59 is insanely hard/random, and 1:58 might never happen by a human.
The TAS of this fight is 1:58.61, and the current record is 2:00.97. The TAS does a few more difficult dodges/ducks that are much harder than what I'm willing to do, so ignoring those, the lowest time I can get with the strategies I am using is 1:58.99. That's 39 frames faster than the 2:00.97 that I currently have. Saving enough frames to get a 1:59 shouldn't be so bad then, right? Well, let's break down where those 39 frames come from.

24 frames come from getting a better pattern from Tyson. My 2:00.97 got 2 separate 8 frame delays in the first two phases of the fight, which was rather bad luck, and a single 8 frame delay in the third phase, which was actually incredibly GOOD luck. His phase 3 pattern typically involves delays all over the place, and he can potentially give up to 57 frames worth of delays. Getting only 8 frames of delay in phase 3 is in the top 6% of all phase 3 patterns, so that was awesome luck. The delays earlier in the fight were unfortunate - he has 3 opportunities to give 50/50 8 frame delays, and he gave 2 of them.

The other 15 frames come from better execution. 7 frames come from a missed punch in phase 1, forcing me to delay one of my later punches by 7 frames, and 8 frames come from tighter dodging/ducking. The 7 frames from a missed punch I can pretty easily save in a future run, but only 8 frames of dodging error across 16 uppercuts is very strong.

I need to save 19 of those 39 frames to get a 1:59.99, and here are a few ways I could do it from increasing > decreasing likelihood.
1 - Save 16 frames in phase 1/2 from a better pattern, lose 2 frames in phase 3 from a not as great pattern, then don't miss a punch to save 7 extra frames - 1:59.97
2 - Save 8 frames in phase 1/2 from a better pattern, match the incredible phase 3 pattern, then don't miss a punch to save 7 extra frames and find a way to save 4 frames from better dodging/ducking - 1:59.99
3 - Save 16 frames in phase 1/2 from a better pattern, match the incredible phase 3 pattern, then don't miss a punch to save 7 extra frames - 1:59.82
4 - Save 16 frames in phase 1/2 from a better pattern, get the perfect 1% phase 3 pattern to save 8 more frames, and have the same level of execution - 1:59.82
5 - Get the same luck in phase 1/2, get the perfect 1% phase 3 pattern to save 8 frames, don't miss a punch to save 7 frames, and find a  way to save 4 frames from better dodging/ducking - 1:59.99

My goal is to just get a lower 2:00.XX.