Run Information

Run Information
Completion Date			April 22, 2014
State			Obsolete
Links
Verification Thread

Run Comments
So first things first, I have some shoutouts to give. DK28 for encouragement ever since I started running the TG16 version. TheKeeperSA for constant feedback for all things Splatterhouse when I was still in the routing stage. Funkdoc and Greenk4 for being awesome enough to pick the arcade version up for running, and finally the folks who organized the Sandython. That online marathon was the first marathon of any sort that I was a part of and ultimately this run owes alot to it! I was able to complete this run on stream, so here is the twitch VOD if you want to see splits & live commentary: http://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/c/4116147 I should also have a commentary track with Funkdoc, so check that out too! Here's a bit of a story in how this run came about. If you want details on the run itself, skip to the bottom for the level by level breakdowns. So, I ran the Turbo Grafx 16 version of Splatterhouse back in 2010. I was really happy about finishing that run because I completely routed the game from the ground up. There were no other speedrunners, no speedruns, not even a TAS! The stage 5 bossfight was one of my favorite finds in this game since it completely skips a few cutscenes. Once I finally completed the initial 13:53 and submitted it, I messed with the arcade version and found that some of the boss fights had the same kind of strategies that the TG16 version had, but they needed to be implemented differently. I had gotten a really rough arcade run and did not consider picking it up for quite a while. Jump forward to November 2012, now Greenk4 and Funkdoc have both picked up the game with the intention to race each other at the the online Sandython marathon. Funkdoc learned some of the basics from my old TG16 run on SDA, but when I saw him running it on stream, I gave him advice directly on how to do alot of the arcade-only tricks. Soon after, they wanted me to join in the race, so I practiced too. I ended up getting a 13:54 while getting ready for the race, however since I wanted to practice with the health that the race would have, I had 4 health set on the arcade dip switch settings instead of 2 HP on the hardest difficulty. The link below should direct you to the race if the VOD is still archived by the time you read this. http://www.twitch.tv/hurricanesandython/b/342495052?t=1h14m Funkdoc and I were neck and neck until his stage 6 death & Greenk4 put up a damn good effort and finished the race with a good attitude despite the situation he was in. I was very surprised how well my side of the race went even though I made some goofy mistakes on some parts. So I did not want to submit the 13:54 based solely on the fact that I wanted the hardest dip switch settings if I am going to submit a run to SDA. There were other mistakes too, but they were not bad enough to prevent submission or anything. It's more of an aesthetic thing to want the harder difficulty, but I figure I might as well go for it since if I play well enough I will have my health restored by the time I reach the levels that need it. I finally revisited this game to get a run in 2014 and finally got one that I am happy with. So let's get to the run itself! --- Stage I - Pretty standard stuff. There is pretty much no way to lose or gain time here other than slowing down for the puke and delaying on hitting the final boreworm; I did neither. Stage II - The route to minimize lag in the first room is vital. Enemies must die as you progress through the stage, or else the game will slow down to a crawl and cripple the ability for the game to read your inputs. The room lagged slightly when I slid the demon near the end, but that is normal. Boss strategy to deal with the knives and painting is a bit new and more consistent overall. Real happy with this stage. Stage III - This was a gold split (i.e. the fastest I have ever beaten this stage). The stage itself was executed perfectly and the boss went fantastic. Funkdoc found that if Biggyman's hitpoints are an odd number, he will not attempt to jump up over your shots, so it is vital that my jumpkick lands so I can land all of my shots. It's important to note that on MAME you can rapidfire Biggy to where he will take all of the shots without any jumps, but on VC and the reboot releases of the arcade version, Biggy has a bug where if you do not fire in a rhythm, half your bullets will miss. Stage IV - The first 2 sections are autoscrollers and the boss went pretty well. I wanted the final hit to be at the height of my jump, but I hit the head instead, so I lost a fraction of a second there. Stage V - Got greedy in the first room and tried to slide the last set of chairs, but they hopped immediately and I took a hit. Next room I got bad luck, but my slides still killed the demon guys to where I could keep moving. The necromancer room went perfect, which I'm really happy about, since I had a 13:53 a day earlier that had a bad necro room. The boss requires a bit of explanation. There are usually 3 phases of this fight separated by an 8 second cutscene of Jennifer transforming to human and back to a monster. Each phase has 6 HP, but slide kicks deal 2 damage, so if you get her to 5 HP in any phase and then slide kick, you skip the cutscene completely. The reason I am not getting hit by Jen is because she has no hitbox until the frame her feet hit the ground, so if I have an attack out as her feet hit the floor, my attack hits first. I got a bad pattern at the start of the fight to where she didn't hop to the left wall instantly, but aside from that, the fight was fine. Stage VI - This could have been better if I were more aggressive, but I was getting some really hard to read patterns on the way to the boss that cost some health. Another discovery that Funkdoc found was that if you jump backward, but hold down-forward, you can do forward momentum slides with backward momentum. This is huge for this fight because now I don't need running starts to deal multiple hits of slide damage. Once I started the sliding in this fight, I didn't mess up any of the inputs or stop, which was pretty great. Stage VII - Thank god I got every cycle on this run so my lost HP didn't matter as much. I had juuust enough HP to where if I got bad luck on the last 2 cycles to where his hands pop up ASAP, I'd have the HP to survive. I got the bad luck on the final 2 cycles, but did not get killed by a rock on the final one. --- So yeah, I suppose that's that! I hope you enjoy this run as much as I did making it!

Run Comments

So first things first, I have some shoutouts to give. DK28 for encouragement ever since I started running the TG16 version. TheKeeperSA for constant feedback for all things Splatterhouse when I was still in the routing stage. Funkdoc and Greenk4 for being awesome enough to pick the arcade version up for running, and finally the folks who organized the Sandython. That online marathon was the first marathon of any sort that I was a part of and ultimately this run owes alot to it!

I was able to complete this run on stream, so here is the twitch VOD if you want to see splits & live commentary:

http://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/c/4116147

I should also have a commentary track with Funkdoc, so check that out too!

Here's a bit of a story in how this run came about. If you want details on the run itself, skip to the bottom for the level by level breakdowns.

So, I ran the Turbo Grafx 16 version of Splatterhouse back in 2010. I was really happy about finishing that run because I completely routed the game from the ground up. There were no other speedrunners, no speedruns, not even a TAS! The stage 5 bossfight was one of my favorite finds in this game since it completely skips a few cutscenes. Once I finally completed the initial 13:53 and submitted it, I messed with the arcade version and found that some of the boss fights had the same kind of strategies that the TG16 version had, but they needed to be implemented differently. I had gotten a really rough arcade run and did not consider picking it up for quite a while.

Jump forward to November 2012, now Greenk4 and Funkdoc have both picked up the game with the intention to race each other at the the online Sandython marathon. Funkdoc learned some of the basics from my old TG16 run on SDA, but when I saw him running it on stream, I gave him advice directly on how to do alot of the arcade-only tricks. Soon after, they wanted me to join in the race, so I practiced too. I ended up getting a 13:54 while getting ready for the race, however since I wanted to practice with the health that the race would have, I had 4 health set on the arcade dip switch settings instead of 2 HP on the hardest difficulty.

The link below should direct you to the race if the VOD is still archived by the time you read this.

http://www.twitch.tv/hurricanesandython/b/342495052?t=1h14m

Funkdoc and I were neck and neck until his stage 6 death & Greenk4 put up a damn good effort and finished the race with a good attitude despite the situation he was in. I was very surprised how well my side of the race went even though I made some goofy mistakes on some parts.

So I did not want to submit the 13:54 based solely on the fact that I wanted the hardest dip switch settings if I am going to submit a run to SDA. There were other mistakes too, but they were not bad enough to prevent submission or anything. It's more of an aesthetic thing to want the harder difficulty, but I figure I might as well go for it since if I play well enough I will have my health restored by the time I reach the levels that need it.

I finally revisited this game to get a run in 2014 and finally got one that I am happy with. So let's get to the run itself!

---

Stage I - Pretty standard stuff. There is pretty much no way to lose or gain time here other than slowing down for the puke and delaying on hitting the final boreworm; I did neither.

Stage II - The route to minimize lag in the first room is vital. Enemies must die as you progress through the stage, or else the game will slow down to a crawl and cripple the ability for the game to read your inputs. The room lagged slightly when I slid the demon near the end, but that is normal. Boss strategy to deal with the knives and painting is a bit new and more consistent overall. Real happy with this stage.

Stage III - This was a gold split (i.e. the fastest I have ever beaten this stage). The stage itself was executed perfectly and the boss went fantastic. Funkdoc found that if Biggyman's hitpoints are an odd number, he will not attempt to jump up over your shots, so it is vital that my jumpkick lands so I can land all of my shots. It's important to note that on MAME you can rapidfire Biggy to where he will take all of the shots without any jumps, but on VC and the reboot releases of the arcade version, Biggy has a bug where if you do not fire in a rhythm, half your bullets will miss.

Stage IV - The first 2 sections are autoscrollers and the boss went pretty well. I wanted the final hit to be at the height of my jump, but I hit the head instead, so I lost a fraction of a second there.

Stage V - Got greedy in the first room and tried to slide the last set of chairs, but they hopped immediately and I took a hit. Next room I got bad luck, but my slides still killed the demon guys to where I could keep moving. The necromancer room went perfect, which I'm really happy about, since I had a 13:53 a day earlier that had a bad necro room. The boss requires a bit of explanation. There are usually 3 phases of this fight separated by an 8 second cutscene of Jennifer transforming to human and back to a monster. Each phase has 6 HP, but slide kicks deal 2 damage, so if you get her to 5 HP in any phase and then slide kick, you skip the cutscene completely. The reason I am not getting hit by Jen is because she has no hitbox until the frame her feet hit the ground, so if I have an attack out as her feet hit the floor, my attack hits first. I got a bad pattern at the start of the fight to where she didn't hop to the left wall instantly, but aside from that, the fight was fine.

Stage VI - This could have been better if I were more aggressive, but I was getting some really hard to read patterns on the way to the boss that cost some health. Another discovery that Funkdoc found was that if you jump backward, but hold down-forward, you can do forward momentum slides with backward momentum. This is huge for this fight because now I don't need running starts to deal multiple hits of slide damage. Once I started the sliding in this fight, I didn't mess up any of the inputs or stop, which was pretty great.

Stage VII - Thank god I got every cycle on this run so my lost HP didn't matter as much. I had juuust enough HP to where if I got bad luck on the last 2 cycles to where his hands pop up ASAP, I'd have the HP to survive. I got the bad luck on the final 2 cycles, but did not get killed by a rock on the final one.

---

So yeah, I suppose that's that! I hope you enjoy this run as much as I did making it!