Zombies Ate My Neighbors - February 16, 2016

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2016-02-16 12:13:13 pm

2016-02-02 11:28:31 am

Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors.html

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (ntscus) (genesis/snes) [100 %] [Single Segment]

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to Martin 'Allbeert' M.!

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2016-02-02 11:28:32 am

Run Information

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (ntscus) (genesis/snes) [100 %] [Single Segment]

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors-20160127/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). This is not a contest where the majority wins - I will judge each verification on its content. Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

Sonikkustar

2016-02-02 02:05:37 pm

The Great Farming Empire

A/V Quality - Good
Doesn't seem like cheating from what I've seen.

I'll admit. I don't know much about the run, and it doesn't help that I haven't played the game in years :P. But seeing as how this is around a 40+ min improvement over the current run, I don't see any reason not to Accept this. From what i've seen, the run also seems to be well played.

Nice work! thumbsup

honorableJay

2016-02-03 07:55:47 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

A/V - Good
Didn't notice any cheating.

Unfortunately, I'm one of the few sad individuals who never got to play this game.

That said, this run is an RNG nightmare. The amount of ways this game has to completely destroy a 100% run at any given time is inconthievable. As Sonik already pointed out, this is a huge improvement to the run currently on the site. No reason not to get this up on the front page ASAP.

Accept

*Note: No tentacles were harmed in the making of this run.

ktwo

2016-02-09 01:25:18 pm

A/V: Nice! (and certainly an improvement over the current run)

Gameplay: I see that Votava's run that's currently on sda was mentioned above. I actually started watching that run, but it soon became apparent that something was odd about it. It turns out that that run is actually a score attack and speedrun combined into one (an unholy alliance that I wish didn't exist). Without going into details, an absurd amount of time is wasted on racking up the score (and still being far from optimized in that area either). I will leave it at that and instead talk about the new run.

So, first of all it's fantastic to see that there is now a sort of consistent method of getting into 1B, which hopefully makes this category get more attention in the future. The execution is consistently high. There are of course a bunch of mishaps in a run as long as this and where rng plays a big role in many sections. I didn't see any major mishaps that weren't already pointed out in the run comments, which I won't repeat to avoid rubbing them in.

It was too long ago I played this game and it was a pure casual playthrough, so I haven't done any thorough check of the route (I guess checking with the tas wouldn't hurt as well, but I haven't done that either). While watching there were however a few things that made me wonder a bit. Even though they're only small potential time savers, I thought I'd list them here for good order:

* Somewhere in the first half, there was a small detour made around a pool to minimize swimming, but increased the walking distance. I'm curious if that really paid off. It doesn't look like swimming is that much slower than walking. Sorry for being vague, but I tried to find that spot again, without success.
* At 45:30, there were 2 keys right behind the tourist couple. Considering how some of the keys in the route are a bit out of the way, those keys could definitely have saved some time. (and yes, I know that level 28 has the tourists turn into werewolves if lingering too long, but would those 2 keys really make a difference?)
* I don't remember how rare fire extinguishers are, but would there happen to be more not too far out of the way? Every kill adds 6 frames of countdown at the end, so freezing more enemies would save time.

Overall, this is a much needed improvement over the current sda-run, but also a run that stands well on its own.

Easy accept

A/V: Nice! (and certainly an improvement over the current run)

Gameplay: I see that Votava's run that's currently on sda was mentioned above. I actually started watching that run, but it soon became apparent that something was odd about it. It turns out that that run is actually a score attack and speedrun combined into one (an unholy alliance that I wish didn't exist). Without going into details, an absurd amount of time is wasted on racking up the score (and still being far from optimized in that area either). I will leave it at that and instead talk about the new run.

So, first of all it's fantastic to see that there is now a sort of consistent method of getting into 1B, which hopefully makes this category get more attention in the future. The execution is consistently high. There are of course a bunch of mishaps in a run as long as this and where rng plays a big role in many sections. I didn't see any major mishaps that weren't already pointed out in the run comments, which I won't repeat to avoid rubbing them in.

It was too long ago I played this game and it was a pure casual playthrough, so I haven't done any thorough check of the route (I guess checking with the tas wouldn't hurt as well, but I haven't done that either). While watching there were however a few things that made me wonder a bit. Even though they're only small potential time savers, I thought I'd list them here for good order:

* Somewhere in the first half, there was a small detour made around a pool to minimize swimming, but increased the walking distance. I'm curious if that really paid off. It doesn't look like swimming is that much slower than walking. Sorry for being vague, but I tried to find that spot again, without success.
* At 45:30, there were 2 keys right behind the tourist couple. Considering how some of the keys in the route are a bit out of the way, those keys could definitely have saved some time. (and yes, I know that level 28 has the tourists turn into werewolves if lingering too long, but would those 2 keys really make a difference?)
* I don't remember how rare fire extinguishers are, but would there happen to be more not too far out of the way? Every kill adds 6 frames of countdown at the end, so freezing more enemies would save time.

Overall, this is a much needed improvement over the current sda-run, but also a run that stands well on its own.

Easy accept

Mr. Kelly R. Flewin

2016-02-09 04:52:04 pm

Learning to Stream

A/V - Great
Cheating: None seen

This was a very well thought out run and its very apparent this was practiced a lot. Very excellent use of weapons in all areas and it's shown through and through how well planned it was for almost everything. A few keys missed here and there that could have been grabbed, but in the long run, it worked out well. Flame throwers are virtually non existent and same with extinguishers. Also, the pure rng hell of finding random stuff was handled really well endured.

Very entertaining run! Easy accept! [And anyone complaining about points... I verfied a 24hr ZAMN marathon scoring attempt... Tom's had a splash of a blend of points and speed... this was just wonderful speed!]

Worn_Traveler

2016-02-16 11:01:16 am

Formerly known as Skullboy

A/V is fine. No cheating detected.

I haven't played this game in about 15 years but it didn't take to long of watching both this and the currently published 100% run to get back into the the swing of things. When I saw the disparity in the run time between the two runs I wasn't sure if these were really the same category but watching through Tom's run made the time difference make a lot more sense.

Great run. Definitely faster. I accept this run to obsolete the currently published 100% run.

SDAVerification

2016-02-16 12:13:16 pm

Decision posted.

Allbeert

2016-02-16 02:17:00 pm

Thanks to all verifiers Smiley

To address some of ktwo's points:

- I think of two points where this might have happened, one is to pickup the skeleton key on the island (level 15), in which case I'll look into it. The other is on level 23, where I do this to avoid bad RNG spawns, I remember losing at least 4+ runs there until I decided to go around.
- Missing the 2 keys there is really just my muscle memory. When I started practicing this game, my movement was so bad that I wouldn't make it on time for the tourist-werewolves if I took the keys.

This said, I want to bring the time much lower than it currently is. Improvements include the use of fire extinguishers or martian gun, re-routing some levels, keeping actual track of keys/bazookas (so far it's been by feel), and taking riskier strats. But I will take some time before going back to this.

Thanks again for all comments ^_^

ktwo

2016-02-17 12:18:59 pm

Ok, I found the spot with the detour around the pool. It's in level 5 and around the 7 min mark.

DeMoNFLiP84

2016-02-17 02:46:03 pm

A Serious Noob

Good job on your run @Allbeert thumbsup

I do have a question about the tourist victims in the castle levels. I remember playing this game years ago and during those levels the tourist actually transforms into Werewolves forcing you to lose -1 victim to save. What triggers that to make them transform or is there a time frame where saving them becomes a priority? Is the speed shoes the only solution?

Allbeert

2016-02-17 03:56:10 pm

Thanks

And yep. In some levels, the tourists will transform to werewolves after a certain amount of time. The time itself varies per level, a few levels have 8 seconds timer, and on those you have no option but to use speed shoes.

For them to transform the following is needed:
- It is already night (Timer has expired)
- You have are close enough (you see them on screen)
- There are enough sprite slots available

I exploit the 3rd requirement to get the last couple of tourists in level 28 Smiley

Also, ktwo, it is pretty funny, I would have never even considered that part of the run. But I did go ahead and time it, and you're completely right. It's a few frames faster to just go on water all along. Consider my route for that level updated!