I am here, at Dr. West's mansion. Now, this may look like any typical abandoned mansion, but behind the walls lies something unsettling and dangerous. I've been instructed by local authorities that if I were to enter this place, I need to put on this mask. As it gives me the needed protection I need to safely explore what makes this place so infamous.
Splatter Party is a song produced by prolific composer Camellia, featuring the vocal talents of Minecraft inventor Hatsune Miku.
Game objectives, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.5.2
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Splatters houses
- hey y'all, me again, the ghostwriter
- y'know nobody's ever asked what my name is
- been ghostwriting the lady's submission texts for years uncredited
- putting in jokes 'cause she ain't funny herself
- ever seen her be funny? that's me
- ol' tim jokesman
- anyway my name is mark jokesman
- don't ask why i said tim
- tim's my brother
- dude's never made a joke in his life
- really shameful to the family name
- anyway peace out, one love y'all, see you space cowboys
Comments, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
Samsara: You know we had to do it to 'em.
Since this is the Spooky Month, and since I have returned, and since I didn't think to keep Nightmare on Elm Street until the Spooky Month in order for it to be Even More Spooky, and since this is the only run of mine that got obsoleted in the time I was gone (EZGames69: she somehow forgot about Castlevania 3 warp glitch c:), and since there was a new PCE core released, and since my boy/son/boyson/Son Boy, The Boy Who Is A Son EZGames69 wanted to collab on something, I felt like this was the perfect TAS for the two of us. Splatterhouse is great. As I said five years ago, it's self-aware about what it is as a series. Pixel gore, horror movie references, and that weird unexplainable gameplay shift in Splatterhouse 3 where you make breadsticks pop out of your body in what I can only describe as the Cooking Mama sequel we deserved instead of Cookstar.
This is a 155 frame improvement over the published run, primarily through better speed control by optimizing sliding, and better boss fights. You may notice that this is, in fact, not a 155 frame improvement, and that's because everything is garbage. 5 frames are lost by switching to the TurboNyma core. EZGames made a resynced version of the published run on the TurboNyma core, which we were using for comparison all throughout. The other 35 frames are lost because everything is garbage. RNG on the final boss means we are unable to end input early in the same way as the published run. The final boss still dies on the same frame, 155 frames faster than the resynced run, so I'm taking that as the improvement, and none of you can stop me.
EZGames' comments will be added later, as I am unemployed and he is not, and it is really hard to write submission comments when you are employed and your collaborator is not. What I'm saying is that I have no life and he does (EZGames69: this is not true, I have no life despite being employed.). Please hire me. This TAS is my resume. I'm great at sliding and punching babies. Don't read that last part unless your company is Baby Punchers, Inc.
Explanations, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
Rick's Speed
Samsara: To simplify it (AKA, in the way that I, Samsara, a dumbass, understand it), Rick's speed is based on an 8 frame cycle. Value 04FD shows Rick's current pixel speed, while 0552 shows his subpixel speed in increments of 32. Each increment of 32 corresponds to a frame in the 8 frame cycle where Rick will travel 2 pixels. For simplicity's sake once again, I'll be converting these values into decimals, with 1 increment of subspeed being equivalent to 1/8.
EZGames69: Ha Ha Rick go SWOOOOOOOOOOP
Samsara: "nyoom" - Rick "Splatter" House
Rick's max speeds:
Walking: 1.375 ppf
Jumping (holding a direction): 1.5 ppf
Sliding (ground): 1.875 ppf
Sliding (air): 2 ppf
Slopes: 2 ppf
Jumping (holding a direction): 1.5 ppf
Sliding (ground): 1.875 ppf
Sliding (air): 2 ppf
Slopes: 2 ppf
Because of this, naturally, we want to be sliding as much as possible, but also we want to be jumping as much as possible. I specified holding a direction when jumping because, without holding a direction, Rick's speed is maintained during a jump. This means that jumping on the first frame out of a slide without pressing anything causes Rick to travel at slide speed over the course of the jump. It gets more interesting when factoring in how sliding and speed work in tandem: The higher we jump, the higher we can begin sliding, which gives an extra pixel of movement per slide, which can save a frame here or there if the stage allows for it (it almost always doesn't!).
If we can't slide for whatever reason, but we need to maintain a high speed, then the next best option is to duck-jump immediately after finishing a jump. This loses a subspeed increment, but it still allows us to maintain a higher speed than normal throughout another jump. This is used to great effect on the bridge in Stage 3, the strategy we use to clear it is only possible with duck-jumping.
Stage by stage comments, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
Samsara: I marked down which of us worked on each stage. If you see both of our names, it was either we traded off halfway through, or one of us went in and optimized what the other did.
EZGames69: this is a lie, she did all the work, I am too lazy to be a good TASer.
Samsara: you pressed the run button twice and it was such a step up after DTC9 that i had to credit you
Stage 1 - Dungeon (EZGames + Samsara)
Samsara: A better "slide route" through the stage reduces the need to slow down or duck jump, saving 9 frames.
EZGames69: If you jump out of a slide right on a ledge, you can keep your 2 ppf speed for as long as you are in the air for. This is done on the platform near the end of the screen.
Boreworms (EZGames + Samsara)
Samsara: No save here, though we elect to kill some of the boreworms to make it different from the previous two TASes.
Stage 2 - Torture Chamber (EZGames)
Samsara: No save here.
EZGames69: Feels pretty tame for a torture room.
Underground (Samsara)
Samsara: Lots of music sync. Damage intentionally taken for variety in music sync sound effects. No save here.
Poltergeist (Samsara)
Samsara: One frame saved on the chair, as redemption for whatever possessed me to think that my despawning strategy was faster.
Stage 3 - Outdoors (EZGames + Samsara)
Samsara: Better slide route once again, saving 4 frames. No save on Biggy Man, but Rick does shoot the wrong way a bunch, because he's a saucy little scamp. If anyone knows what part of my brain misfired and made me type that, please let me know so I can have it removed immediately, because apart from this upcoming time, I never want to type the words "saucy little scamp" ever again.
EZGames69: Biggie is an Edward Chainsaw Hands lookin ass.
Stage 4 - Rotary Blade Room (EZGames + Samsara)
Samsara: Playaround changeups, mainly. Not messing with the harpoons and showing off a little bit of weirdness.
Mirror Hall (EZGames)
Samsara: it is a hall of mirrors
EZGames69: Shoutout to Zallard1, where I did music syncs almost exactly how he does them in his runs.
Also damn, my ass looking thicc in these Mirrors. Nice.
Samsara: ez games thiccs-ty nine
Evil Cross (EZGames + Samsara)
Samsara: Restating from previous submissions: The quick kill on the Cross is dependent on where it is on the screen when we arrive. It starts moving in an arcing pattern across the screen once it reaches a point near the bottom of its oscillating cycle. We want to arrive just after that point while it's travelling upward, as there isn't enough time to reach it while it's travelling downward. Hitting it will, for whatever reason, pause it in place for a few frames before it snaps back to where it should be on the cycle if it hadn't paused, meaning it's possible to hit it past that point going both ways and keep it on the right side of the screen. On the last hit, we want to be on the far right side to reduce the time it takes for the screen to start fading out, so the final jump and hit are timed perfectly to be able to hit the Cross as early as possible while still reaching the far right side of the screen. There's some political commentary in here somewhere.
11 frames are saved on this battle.
EZGames69: I don't want Religion in MY GAME.
Stage 5 - Chairs (Samsara)
Samsara: Continuing my chair redemption by saving 2 frames in this room with better sliding.
did a great job on this hand room (Samsara, obviously, with that joke)
Samsara: real good hand job over here
(12 frames saved through better understanding of rick's speed)
EZGames69: Why did I let you write the submission text?
Samsara:
Three whole-ass autoscrollers in a row
Underground by EZGames.
Necromancer by EZGames.
Banshees by Samsara.
Necromancer by EZGames.
Banshees by Samsara.
Samsara: Rick wears a hat and a skull for precisely one frame each and those are definitely not part of our screenshot suggestions, nope,
Jennifer (Samsara, in what she likes to call "my gender identity in reverse")
Samsara: The biggest single improvement in the run, an optimized strategy saves 50 frames.
EZGames69: Why are you sad about her dying, Rick? You drop kicked her face ffs.
Stage 6 - The Womb (EZGames + Samsara)
Samsara: We were worried about this stage from the start. The larva fetuses that we love to yeetus are the only notable thing in the game that are RNG dependent (EDIT: GEE SAMSARA YOU SURE WROTE THAT BEFORE GETTING FRICKED ON HELL CHAOS), and the only way that was found to manipulate it is all the dang way back in the Necromancer room in Stage 5. Luckily, not only did we get a good RNG pattern, we got a... Great... RNG pattern. 39 frames are saved on the heart.
EZGames69: This was how I was born
Samsara: tag yourself, i'm the first bubble that gets punched
Stage 7 - Hell, I Guess (Samsara)
Samsara: Optimizing the sliding and damage route saves 27 frames, the final improvement in the run.
Hell Chaos, AKA Captain Mozzarella (Samsara)
Samsara: A few different strategies were tried here, but none of them worked out. Hell Chaos ended up spawning on different sides of the arena in this run, which provided a real fun moment on the fourth cycle when I couldn't figure out how to do damage and survive afterward. Turns out: Ducking. All it took was ducking. That's an hour of my life I want back, thank you very the hell (chaos) much.
I don't wanna talk about the fifth cycle. I just want those other hours of my life back, thank you very the hell (chaos) much.
Final Thoughts, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
Samsara: Really happy with how this turned out (except for the end, which sucked), and also really happy to get back into collaborative work. Naturally, the best progression from controlling 4 players with 1 character is to control 1 character with 2 TASers. I couldn't have asked for a better collaborator than EZGames, either. Everything went super smooth, motivation stayed high all throughout, and it wouldn't have been nearly as good of a final product without his help. I'm looking forward to working with that saucy little scamp again.
AW HELL I DID THE THING AGAIN,
EZGames69: Sam I swear to god if you call me that again, I will improve this run on my own, and leave your name out of it.
Samsara: that is generally how non-collaborative improvements work, yes
EZGames69: In all seriousness tho, I feel super grateful to be working with someone as talented, kind, and as hilarious as Samsara. Both of us felt equally as knowledgeable about this game and it only made sense for us to work together. And I couldn’t be happier with the final result (also, am I really the best son/boy/boy son/son boy?🥺)
Special Thanks, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
Samsara: I couldn't have asked for a better PARTNER than GoddessMaria. Love you, hon~
Screenshot Suggestions, but SPOOOOOOOOKY
12211:
28301:
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feos: Judging...
feos: I also compared every room time, from fade in to fade out, and the total length of all room durations in this run is indeed 155 frames less than in the published run. No room is longer, so I have zero concerns about this improvement. Accepting over [3854] PCE Splatterhouse by EZGames69 in 12:12.61.
fsvgm777: Processing.