Post subject: Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
The ideas are just about endless. Right, ZAMN. Deep down, everyone loves it. But deep down, everyone knows it's truly evil, since the game gets pretty damn hard right around Level 28 (Scream in Horror on: Level 28: Mark of the Vampire) wherein you need to smite three vampires, which will often all gang up on you. I -know- there are bosses...but I've never ever seen one. The game's pretty long. From the VERY cool guide I've found on Gamefaqs (http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/zombies_ate_my_neighbors_a.txt) it looks to have 48 normal levels plus a bunch of bonus levels. I think, like Kid Chameleon for the Genesis, that this game poses quite a few ways to tear through. 1) You've got a password system, letting you jump about every few levels. One run could use a password to get as far as you could and book it to the final boss. Of course, lack of ammo would pose a problem on Dr. Tongue. 2) A full run, composed of every normal and bonus level. This is what I'm hoping to see eventually. 3) Single and Two-player whoopass action. Both would be interesting. 4) Victim Rescue - You could choose to save every tourist in every level (I'd like seeing that. Some of them turn into werewolves after a set time. In one level, it's nigh impossible to save one of them, though a glitch is listed to get you there in time or somesuch.) or you could choose to let all but one die. Barring Bonus Victim Awards, wouldn't you only have to rescue -a- tourist from every level after that? With the vast amount of weaponry to choose from, along with all of the interesting bonuses and items, I think a lot of people would love seeing a run. It would definitely require a bit of planning, moreso than the average game. And then there's the evil of Level 36's boss. A glitch exists that, sometimes, the victim after the boss isn't THERE. In which case you'd have to start all over. I'm not sure if savestates can keep this from happening with enough loads, but...it's something to be wary of. Choosing when to rampage as the Monster and when to turn into a Ghost and use the speed shoes would be one thing to keep in mind, I feel. Especially in levels like 24 (Level 24: Warehouse of the Evil Dolls) where those infernal Chucky Doll wannabes are all over the place. And if memory serves, conveyor belts going in the direction opposite of the way you want to go are spotted throughout, as well. What say ye, men (and women)?
Former player
Joined: 3/24/2004
Posts: 248
Location: West 81st Street
I actually started a run but it was too hard/boring (meaning that it didn't feel like I did as fast as possible on some levels) I only did 5-6 of them though.
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Grah. Well, I finally lucked out and got to the end of the game. But my ammo was in such short supply, I had to turn on an invinc code to BEAT Dr. Tongue. I think that not only do you need to map out how many hits Tongue can take, but you need to be damn precise in your shots. The giant spider form is definitely harder than the floating head form, but by that time, your ammo's probably gonna be REALLY low. I'm not sure how many Pandora's Boxes it would take to nuke the spider, but conservation of them's probably a good idea. It'd also help to know what monsters are weak against what. I only really know that werewolves hate the silverware, martians hate bubble gun ammo, and that a weedeater is NOT a good thing to run after a big honkin' spider with. Jeez.
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
?I? ?p?l?a?y?e?d? ?t?h?i?s? ?g?a?m?e? ?m?u?c?h? ?b?a?c?k? ?i?n? ?t?h?e? ?d?a?y?s?.?.? ?A?n?y?w?a?y?s?,? ?I? ?h?a?v?e? ?r?e?a?d? ?a?b?o?u?t? ?a? ?f?l?a?m?e?t?h?r?o?w?e?r? ?a?t? ?s?t?a?g?e? ?4?5?(?d?u?n?n?o? ?i?f? ?i?t??s? ?4?5? ?b?u?t? ?c?l?o?s?e? ?t?o? ?t?h?e? ?l?a?s?t? ?s?t?a?g?e?)? ?o?r? ?s?o?m?e?t?h?i?n?g? ?b?u?t? ?I?'?v?e? ?n?e?v?e?r? ?f?o?u?n?d? ?i?t?.? ?I?f? ?i?t? ?e?x?i?s?t?,? ?w?o?u?l?d? ?t?h?a?t? ?h?e?l?p? ?b?e?a?t?i?n?g? ?D?r?.? ?T?o?n?g?u?e??? ?I? ?w?o?u?l?d? ?l?o?v?e? ?t?o? ?s?e?e? ?a? ?t?i?m?e? ?a?t?t?a?c?k? ?o?f? ?t?h?i?s? ?g?a?m?e?,? ?b?u?t? ?i?f? ?i?m? ?n?o?t? ?r?e?m?e?m?b?e?r? ?i?t? ?w?r?o?n?g? ?i?t??s? ?n?o?t? ?o?v?e?r? ?j?u?s?t? ?b?e?c?a?u?s?e? ?y?o?u? ?k?i?l?l?e?d? ?t?h?e? ?e?v?i?l? ?d?o?c?t?o?r?.? ?T?h?e? ?e?n?d? ?i?s? ?v?e?r?y? ?w?e?i?r?d? ?;?)?
/Walker Boh
Former player
Joined: 3/24/2004
Posts: 248
Location: West 81st Street
I would love to see a speedrun through all the levels. It's a lot of work though.
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
I think this would make a great Speedrun, but I doubt that saving all the neighbors in the game is possible. According to the FAQ, it points out that some of the tourists are pretty much impossible to get to before they change into werewolves. However, every 40,000 points nets you an extra bonus victim, so if possible, whether it be planned out or not, you could have ten neighbors to rescue in each level. As well, I think there could be two runs of this game: A run with, and a run without bonus levels included. In the Bonus Level run, there would definitely be some luck manipulation involved because of the fact that if you don't get a Bazooka in Level 1, then you're not going to the bonus level unless you start with a password. From my point of view, I have yet to see or hear of any glitches in this game that weren't caused by a Game Genie, with the exception of a password in the aforementioned FAQ that freezes the game after a few levels. I think that definitely, there's gonna have to be some stocking up on Sneaker items, simply because you just fly through terrain with those things on. Monster Potions would unfortunately, have to be kept down to a minimum, and bazooka shots well-timed, or against walls only, because of the throwback and delay in shooting. I'll try and download a ROM of this game, and if I'm not too busy, I'll make a chart about how good weapons are against each enemy, with the exception of bosses, because it'd just take waaaaaayyyy too long to kill each boss with a single weapon. I'd just hook up my SNES and do it tomorrow, but I have a lot of problems with the power cord on my SNES.
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
Rick wrote:
I think this would make a great Speedrun, but I doubt that saving all the neighbors in the game is possible.
Actually, it IS possible and someone's already submitted a record of it to Twin Galaxies [There was a cash bounty for this achievement]. Your point about the every 40k, though, does make the game a bit easier. And speed shoes are a DEFINITIVE must, especially, to begin with, Level 7. Well, a weedwhacker and Speed Shoes. I believe if mystery potions can be manipulated, that'd be cool. I'd say save monster potions for the bosses... the Titanic Toddler goes down reasonably fast to a beasties fury. Bazooka's backshoving could be used to blow away a hedge and bounce back to collect a victim? I know on the higher levels with Ants, it's a bitch to out manoeuver them normally. The one thing that's going to be the stinger is the Bonuses. I mean there's soooooooooo freaking many! That will slow down a potential run big time, even if you go out of your way to avoid them... but I see that as a welcome challenge and an easy way of determining who'd be faster. Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
You got a link to that video or whatever on Twin Galaxies? I'm interested in seeing this... I think we need to come up with a list of bonuses and enemy weaknesses. That would help the speed run immensely. However, since I'm very new to this kind of thing, and I don't have the gift of being able to work on a plan (which is why I haven't been able to finish a run I started), I'll stick with doing a lot of behind-the-scenes info.
lfe
Joined: 10/16/2004
Posts: 19
Anything new on this?
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Yes, seek out this video. I wanna see o_o
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
If I had any experience other than doing a 1-Level trial run of Gunsmoke when it comes to doing speed runs, then I'd have started on this by now. Unfortunately, I don't think I could make a good speed run with any game at the moment. I can be a big info provider, though.
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I've decided to make this run. My biggest concern right now is to learn how to handle the Snes emulator ;) That could take some time. Also school has just started again so I don't know how much time I can spend on this. It will be done though if nothing stupid like heavily desynchs or something happens. I would very much appreciate if anyone had any tips or tricks for share. I haven't played this much yet but I know that the potions can be manipulated and such. I guess I learn more about the game once I start to time attack it.
/Walker Boh
Active player (410)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
It's cool that you started doing Snes games.
Joined: 6/3/2004
Posts: 32
Location: Finland, Iisalmi
http://speeddemosarchive.com/ZombiesAMN.html has Adam Sweeney playing this game on real SNES. He manages to beat the game with 10 victims in the end. I think watching this could give some ideas for the speed run.
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
That's awesome. Thanks a lot!
/Walker Boh
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I've checked the speedrun of this game now and it looked pretty good. From what I remember this game is very hard and he completed it in one go! Awesome. Anyway, I'm not sure about this but from what I remember the victims are sort of fixed at each map. What I mean is that if I were to only rescue one neighbour at each map to save time it wouldn't save that much time at all because the last neighbour to rescue is still very far from the starting point. Is this right? This means, especially in the boss stages, that the last neighbour is behind a door which requires a special key, dropped from the boss, and thus it wouldn't save much time just to rescue that neighbour. This is what I remember and what I could figure out by looking at the speedrun, but I might be totally wrong about it though ;) Anyway, I think I'll aim for all neighbours rescued in each stage because that's a hard task with those maniacs running around.
/Walker Boh
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Yeah, it works like that at times, I know that it definitely works in the final level...but there's actually a trick that mentions actually tells how to finish beating the boss by killing the last cheerleader at the end of the level, but you have to have at least two victims or something to pull it off. It's in that big FAQ on GameFAQs. If you were going for a "just get the hell out of the levels ASAP" run, that might be a useful trick to think about. I would also consider stockpiling ammo somehow. I know that both bosses take an insane amount of shots to beat, and I'm always constantly running out of ammo when I fight them. o_O I've also just tried doing Left+Right and Up+Down at the same time. It doesn't appear to do anything, but I did, for some reason or another, while I was doing that, I was able to kill a zombie by hitting him just right from a trampoline jump. If that works, if you can manipulate it into working, that might be a neat idea to try and pull off in your run.
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Rick wrote:
Yeah, it works like that at times, I know that it definitely works in the final level...but there's actually a trick that mentions actually tells how to finish beating the boss by killing the last cheerleader at the end of the level, but you have to have at least two victims or something to pull it off. It's in that big FAQ on GameFAQs.
I'm aware of this trick but I don't know if I should use it. But that's for later headache ;)
Rick wrote:
I would also consider stockpiling ammo somehow. I know that both bosses take an insane amount of shots to beat, and I'm always constantly running out of ammo when I fight them. o_O
Yeah, that's probably a good idea.
/Walker Boh
Former player
Joined: 3/30/2004
Posts: 359
Location: Borlänge - Sweden
Got any WIPs Walker`? :P Cant wait for the whole thing :)
Wheeeehaaa.. Yaaayy..
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
No WIP's so far. I might concider posting progress eventually though.
/Walker Boh
Player (80)
Joined: 7/22/2004
Posts: 63
Location: USA
Walker Boh wrote:
No WIP's so far. I might concider posting progress eventually though.
i remember renting this game when i was younger and totally sucking at it :) are you doing a 1 or 2 player run?
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I'll do a 1 player run beacuse then (as far as I know right now) I can skip the competing bonuses. I've read that if one of the players rescues a neighbour more or so in every stage that player will have a reward after the stage, which takes unnecessary time.
/Walker Boh
Player (80)
Joined: 7/22/2004
Posts: 63
Location: USA
Walker Boh wrote:
I'll do a 1 player run beacuse then (as far as I know right now) I can skip the competing bonuses. I've read that if one of the players rescues a neighbour more or so in every stage that player will have a reward after the stage, which takes unnecessary time.
would having 2 players make boss fights much quicker? plus having two players does make it more entertaining although it's a pain to make :)
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
georgexi wrote:
would having 2 players make boss fights much quicker? plus having two players does make it more entertaining although it's a pain to make :)
It's possible the boss fights would be slightly faster, but I don't know that yet. Also I don't think that time saved is greater than the bonus sequences that I don't have to view when playing only 1 player.
/Walker Boh
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I just did a small tryout at this game, playing 2 (!) players. I played this game at console in the weekend with my girl and then I decided to make a 2-player run of it. It is actually kinda funny to control 2 player simultaniously, it's a new experience to me ;) Oh well. http://sthick.cymoro.com/upload/ZAMN%20(U)%20[!].zip This is me playing through the first stage. Notice that this is my very first attempt at handling Snes9x and this is also my concern. Can you view it? Does it desynch or something similar? Don't worry about my playing, this is (again) only a tryout to let you know what's coming. Also, do you got any onther suggestions about this game? Else I start to work at it when I find the time.
/Walker Boh