Pennsylvania, USAThe Hamsteak Graveyard Overflow glitch also seems to be the only currently known way to achieve the strict Meteor Police-based "Cheese Stands Alone" Ending (win with only Cheese in inventory and no party members remaining alive)
This is a cleaned up "Hamsteak but win instead" ending. Unlike the other one, the party is fully wiped out by Weird Ed before winning triggers, so you can't walk past the graves during the apologies cutscene.
If you're using Tele-Death to get a third gravestone with a character other than the one in possession of the hamster, you can switch back and go for a fourth Weird Ed revenge in that brief moment before Game Over would normally trigger. This overflows the graveyard and lets you continue the game without losing first. The character you were controlling for the fourth one will then return as a ghost in Weird Ed's room. From this point you can still beat the game and/or legitimately finish off the party with an already full graveyard.
In this example I tripled Dave's gravestones, got Syd on Weird Ed's fourth swing, and got Razor with the Microwave.
It turns out you can stack losing endings. Here's my best version of Meltdown/Hamsteak:
It seems like its best to get the other two characters out of the way before hitting the keypad for timing, or at least turning the microwave on after the timer starts sets the music back to normal and it's harder to time.
You can also survive the meltdown and get the apologies/you win sequence if timing is just right on a few things.
or have the meltdown trigger during the victory screen
Its turning my mind to taffy thinking about these combinations but I think for speed Meltdown/Hamsteak is still gonna be nearly as fast as the microwave tele-death route hamsteak runs. Nearly but not the same.
It's a little too slow to try in any%, but if you don't start the Weird Edsel until after the second real doorbell ring but immediately before the "Oh The Doorbell" cutscene, you can regain control and steal the package in time for Weird Ed to answer the door after "Don't Be A Tuna Head". This will make "Can't You Read The Sign, Now Get Out Of Here" the very last thing that happens before "Congratulations You Won The Game" appears.
He can also accept the package and/or not have as precise timing, like this one. On this one Sandy's dialogue from another cutscene gets mixed up and she talks back to Dr. Fred before Weird Ed collects the package..
This requires the glitch to unlock New Kid, mainly used for the Fred Skip, but takes alot less setting up and routing than the other alternate endings I've devised. Not sure how much variation there'd be in the potential time range if this was a category. The doorbell timing can be influenced but not with much precision as far as I've been able to tell.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Limited Run Games has a reprint of Maniac Mansion for pre-order on NES and PC. The deluxe box even comes with a soundtrack CD. I'm surprised I heard about this when I did but am now extra glad I didn't drop the big bucks on an original CIB copy the other week. I'm gonna guess they're using the original rom, perhaps with some hacking to update copyright credits on the menu or something at most. I'd be beyond surprised if they patched any of the glitches and stuff.
This keeps getting better. You're well on the way to sub-5.
Right on ShesChardcore. It's probably been well observed by some runners (definitley present in one of NesS7or9's recent smashes) that if you regain control during the Purple Tentacle checking utility room cutscene without actually skipping it, it will turn out the lights wherever you are. This even applies to areas that aren't lit as such, under the porch area for example.
Using the Flashlight however will slow the game down hardcore and is only recommended for certain Talkshow/Meteor Police or 100% run scenarios.
I guess there is a difference in some sense but I'd been interpreting it all along as the timer starting when any portion of the menu whatsoever, including just the Go To action bar, shows up. Not sure what the end result difference its gonna make but would we have to retroactively change all recorded run times in all categories? If the rule is updated across the board then no one would be given an unearned advantage by doing so.
In a somewhat similar vein, does the timer get resumed or extended in scenarios where you regain control after "No Thanks/Werid Edsel launch, etc. but the game otherwise would have ended?
Like say you came in with a smashing 5:30 but went for the post-game meltdown for extra pizzazz. Would you automatically be relegated to a longer time/lower rank in line with when the menu disappears at absolute final game over?
Obviously this is hypothetical cause no runs are yet submitted for such scenarios, but I'm always considering the possibilities.
This is basically a load of nonsense that isn't what it looks like. Only Cheese in the inventory, You Won The Game displaying with music, but it's not the mythical Cheese Stands Alone ending, just comical timing during post-game exploration.
TL;DR
Getting caught by Purple Tentacle is not a game winning skip but it can be dressed up as such if you cut enough context out.
This rules. i could never get this kind of data reviewing runs on VHS
Way to go on clocking a full minute under your longstanding old WR.
Thanks for taking the time to examine it ShesChardcore.
It looks like everyone on the leaderboard for 2-character% has a better time recorded on any%. On the one hand, that is at least some grounds to abolish that category but the rankings stack up differently on the two boards so some of us might feel like we have more to lose if its discontinued than others. I could go either way and would be interested in a vote maybe? I'll vote "present".
Has anyone tried speedrunning the uncensored prototype rom either with an emulator or repro cart? I prefer the official version myself but I haven't played the bootleg in ages and in light of the new attention to the advantages of 2-character mode I now wonder if there are more than just cosmetic differences between the two roms.
Caught this one happening live thanks to the This Week In Retro report. The Ed Chase rules. So begins the quest for 4:59
