A year after I did my 1:29:43 Jill run, I decided to do a run as Chris. I didn't plan on putting in as much effort as I did for Jill; I just wanted a smooth run that would be close to as good as my Jill run. Well, I only tried for about five nights before getting this, which I was very pleased with. It's approximately as good as my Jill run, yet it took a lot less effort.

Chris has a bit more health than Jill, but other than that, his game is harder and slower. I'll list the main differences in case you don't know what they are.

1) The most annoying thing is Chris only has six items slots instead of eight. I was able to go through most of the game smoothly regardless of this, except for when I returned to the mansion. I had to detour to drop off the crank and make another detour to pick it up again. This bothered me, but I didn't see any quicker solutions. Also, he had no room for first aid sprays at the beginning of the game, which made it very difficult to get out of the mansion without limping.

2) Chris uses a shotgun instead of the grenade launcher and Barry's magnum. This makes all the boss battles harder and longer. Plant 42 was very annoying because I couldn't find a consistent strategy, but that battle actually went as I planned on this run.

3) Chris needs to detour to pick up old keys because he doesn't have a lockpick. This further clogged up his item slots early on in the run.

4) You have to waste time running to the Main Hall and back while Rebecca is practicing the piano.

5) After giving Richard the serum, you are transported back to the room where you picked up the serum. You have to waste time running back to where you found Richard.

6) Due to #3, #4, and #5, Chris has three more difficult zombies to dodge than Jill does, which adds to the difficulty of getting out of the mansion without limping.

Taking everything into consideration, I'd say this run is just as good as my Jill run. It might be slightly less polished, but it's also a little more difficult. The only part that I was disappointed with is when the hunter blocked me on the stairs in the mansion. My strategy usually works for me there, but I messed it up this time. Anyway, if you liked my Jill run, you should like this one too. If you didn't watch my Jill run, but you want to see a smooth Resident Evil run, then you can choose between this one or that one. I wouldn't say either is really superior.

Enjoy!

Well over a year ago, I set a goal to beat Resident Evil in under an hour and a half. I wanted to play with Jill, on normal, and not use any secret weapons such as the rocket launcher. This is also known as an "out of the box" speed run. I put forth a lot of effort before I realized just how difficult my goal was and ended up settling for a time of 1:38:58. At the time, it seemed impossible for me to go below 1:30:00.

As August 2004 rolled around, I became motivated to improve my time. I learned of the strange stair strategy, where rapidly tapping the run button allows you to travel across stairs faster. I also slightly improved my strategies and put forth a greater effort than beforehand. It wasn't long until I realized that a time below 1:30:00 was within my reach. However, I knew I would need a very good run with minimal mistakes. After a couple weeks of trying, I finally broke the 1:30:00 barrier and achieved my long-time goal.

I was extremely pleased with this run, however, most of the mistakes I did make came early on. A couple zombies grabbed me that shouldn't have, the battle with the dogs on the balcony could have been faster, the crimson head boss in the graveyard fell down, and I stopped a weather vane incorrectly. However, from that point on, I played extremely well, at least by my standards. I ended up completing my run with a time of 1:29:43. I would have great trouble trying to improve this, so I will be satisfied.

this was my first major speedrun project. there was a contest in the summer of 2002 held by TG for the fastest run in this category. i participated but couldn't even beat the 1:33:09 time by Wolff Morrow set at the beginning of the contest. Martin Bedard ended up winning with a time of 1:30:39, which i thought was unimaginable.

until late 2003, i played Tekken for competitive gaming, then decided to give this run another try in January 2004. after a month or so, i ended up with a time of 1:29:24 that i planned on keeping to myself. i haven't seen his run, but i figure the major reason i was able to beat Martin was because of the knowledge that running speed is actually increased without a weapon equipped. Martin and Wolff considered if this was possible but ultimately decided there wasn't a difference, which was wrong. i was fairly content with my 1:29:24 time.

in March however, i came across Shin's Biohazard speedrun site from the TG forums and found i was crushingly defeated by a time of 1:27:55 by the japanese gamer Shin in just the "new game" (non special weapons) category. watching a few sample videos of the run, i learned of some very key strategies that i missed in my limited individual research into the game, such as the infamous stair trick.

this is the product of months of failed attempts at a run that i had enormous expectations for. the end result still has some flaws - naturally. this speedrun is memorable because not only was it my first, but i experienced the greatest degree of frustration trying to achieve it than with any other run i've gone on to do.

i had a rapidfire rate of about 8 pushes per second for this run. i can do better these days, so i considered going back to this game now and then, but i probably ultimately won't. i'm aware of the rocket launcher stigma that exists out there. i'm only addressing it briefly because i don't want to seem oblivious. i get your stance - please don't go off in the forums again in response to this run. it's annoying.

the run doesn't actually utilize the rocket launcher against enemies a whole hell of a lot... in fact, i dodged zombies in a hallway that i'd pass through multiple times in the game just to make the run more interesting. i tried implementing as many interesting strategies/actions in the run as i could, as a matter of fact - dodging enemies "unnecessarily" being the least of them; an assumption that i decided to go along with (that dodging was faster than shooting) for the sake of coolness. i dropped in a number of cool, "unexpected" things - some of which actually save time, and others that may not, but were preserved for the sake of making the run more interesting. for example, i'll grab the emblem as early as possible. probably not optimal, but it allowed me to use fancy cursor movement in the menu screen and use a little swapping trick involving it with the storage box. later, in the residence, the zombie that'd normally be in the hallway in the dorm room with the ladder on your way back wasn't there, because previously i had allowed it to enter the bathroom and LEFT it there. see what i mean? i'd call these actions "personalizing" the run. these days in my runs i'll "personalize" as much as possible, but my goal is strictly speed - in other words "personalization" will only occur if it helps save time, or if the difference is nearly nonexistant (i.e. less than a second).

in my opinion, the mansion revisited portion of the run is the most exciting to watch. lots of dodges in a short time period. on the snake, i manually aimed the rocket launcher to hit it off-camera, which is hard and very cool. the dog dodge at the end - when i led it around the fountain in order to avoid it - was improvised. i had originally planned on charging straight through that area, since the initial dog behavior seemed to allow it... but something was wrong when the dog hadn't passed by me in the next camera angle, which would've granted me easy passage, and i realized the thing was going to hit me from the front. i immediately just tried running around the fountain to avoid it, and the damn thing actually followed me around. never improvised like that in any speedrun since.

the only major flaw in my strategy planning is walking up the stairs partway to shoot Plant 42... this was proven unnecessary in one of packattack's runs where he does it from the floor, near the bottom of the stairs.

this run is special to me and anyone who is familiar with REmake should see it. enjoy.