Zombies Ate My neighbors is a fun game to play, specially with someone else, it is not that fun to watch if you at least haven't played the game. I don't think this will be a huge problem on this run, as I blaze through the levels, a very big chunk of the video will be spent on level intro and endings.

Since I played this a lot with my brother and during the time these horror movies starting showing on tv (at least on my country) it has become my all time fav. game, I didn't only play the game to find more monsters, but I also kept an eye on the tv to catch their movies :) Anyway, my brother used to pick Zeke, that is why I used Julie here, even though I lose some time selecting her.

Runs for this game more than skill require memory. Not only to memorize the routes and what items to pick, but also to memorize what areas are likely to have certain monster, from where I shouldn't approach a victim, etc, basically what are the usual -and unusual- ways each level plays out. In that regard I got the game pretty much memorized.

My test runs were emulated runs however, the keyboard differs a lot from the SNES controller since I can press single and diagonal directions without worrying of mispresses. When recording the actual runs with the actual controller however, this became a problem as I had a drunk-like character. I picked the best controller I had and finally managed to control the character most of the time, at the cost of concentration... that costed me three ugly mistakes I hate, and others I don't mind. I do have good character control here, tend not to mispress, and still fire the bazooka in diagonals and stuff. Something odd is that this runs stays faster even though later I did more emulated runs _with_ savestates to test some shortcuts, boss battles were lucky I guess.

Every 40,000 points you get a bonus, an extra victim if you have less than 10. If I didn't kill anything I could get this bonus _very_ late in the game, however that means losing time while evading monsters, and later when killing the extra victim (in the later levels they are quite apart from each other). Instead I kill monsters and trigger it a bit past the first boss, in a level where both victims are extremely close. The window of error is about 750 points, that means I earn 750 points on the level before the goal, so I HAVE to leave the level before that with points between 39,250 and 39,999 to be sure to make it.

• Several places I get stuck, more than usual but even with perfect presses it's inevitable.

• I get out of way several times to pick items that will be needed later (whether required, good to speed the game, or to ease the game, ie medikits).

• Some medikits are faster to get than dying instead. I pick a safe minimum.

• In the final battle I die instead of using the medikit. I wanted to use the invincibility time to damage the boss (that's why I went to a place without webs), the boss left however.

• I open cabinets on the way just in case I can get a useful item -> Monster potion, speed shoes or skeleton keys, no such luck here.

• I don't evade damage, if a zombie is on the way I kill it, freeze it or just get hit. Only damage to really evade is the alien's bubble gun because the animation is way too long.

• I pick 2 extra bazooka (10 shots) for snakeoid battles, just in case, they can die in just 2 shots, or sometimes 7 depending on your timing / position.

• By standing against a wall the bazooka fires faster. Some places it doesn't matter because its only one shot or two and you are better using the time for walking.

• Level 1, the cheerleader jumped when the zombie was close to her, bah, that gets countered because the zombie ate the dog cleanly, it usually gets stuck. The baby can't be killed, as well as the pool guy so I have to keep them.

• Level 2... I had left pressed and didn't realize. I kill the extra victim and move on. From here I can't lose that lone victim or its game over.

• Level 6, the first hidden item is a Pandora Box, I need at least 4 to be likely to kill the Giant Toddler at level 8 (5 to be safe). The second hidden item is a random item, I think it is a Water Gun.

• Level 7's hidden item is the Extinguisher.

• Level 8, since I didn't get a random skeleton key I am forced to defeat the Giant Toddler, that gives me an extra victim and 7500 points. There is one animation frame that gives 0 points (when throwing milk), why no idea.

• Level 11, have to move up or I'll hit the plant.

• Level 12, I use the speed shoes to evade being bubbled while also speeding the level, I spend one and get two pair of shoes.

• Level 15, I shoot the bazooka at the beginning because I am positioned correctly, since I have trouble with mispresses this is safer than trying to get the shot later. The skeleton key will allow me to get the flamethrower which speeds the boss battles.

• Level 16, this level is constant walking and walking in circles at that, and it is long and boring compared to the other quick levels, I use the speed shoes to bring it to a even time with the other levels and keep the run consistency ;o

• Level 18, I use level 13's potion to walk on water. Going underwater makes you slower.

• Level 19, a speed shoe is equivalent to ~20 seconds less on the final time. If you spend less time getting it, then its good. I miss a bazooka shot, hate that because I got them counted.

• Level 20, I try to shoot three bazookas each iteration, because even if I managed to get a two shots victory I rather not find out I was wrong, like on the third snakeoid.

• Level 21, monster potion for bubble gun immunity.

• Level 22, extra potion and the flamethrower which is the hidden item I pick up.

• Level 23, the clown to take fire, luckily the blob didn't touch the victim.

• Level 25, that's no mistake, the stairs go up so its faster to go up then take the ones downstairs.

• Level 27, GAH! mispress.

• Level 28, both routes take the same time, so I enter using one and take the other to leave. The mistake I make here is one I hate with a passion, I concentrated too much on my movements I forgot to pick the third skeleton key, I realized immediately (I touch the door while turning lol) and lose some seconds backtracking.

• Level 29, another mispress (bubble gun), but it isn't important.

• Level 30, bad bazooka shot. I enter shooting because there are two frenzied spider spawns in that room, and they kill the victim rather quickly, coming from the south greatly lowers the chance of victim death.

• Level 32, speed shoes to outmaneuver the ants and speed the level.

• Level 36, I keep walking to wear out the potion effect, the flamethrower is faster against the boss.

• Level 37, I arrive to the checkpoint with my score within the range: 39,605.

• Level 38, grr I got stuck too long. Kill one of the victims, baby is safer to rescue.

• Level 40, damn mispress. I spend weapons I don't need and bother my weapon switch memorization.

• Level 41, I do lose some time getting hit with the blob and taking it off me, I took too long doing it. I picked the plates on purpose.

• Level 42, this hopefully makes up for the mistake at level 28. I use the music for timing. It is not easy even with keyboard much less with my control problems. I was going to reset if I failed this.

• Level 44, I hit the plant because it has a bazooka below it, first try I fail to pick it up (I switch weapons to find out), second try I pick it.

• Level 47, I used the speed shoes when I realized I was in trouble with all the football players.

• Level 48, the hidden items at the beginning are gold and a skeleton key. The second place are a medikit, a clown box and a weedwhacker. Some weird palette bug with the spider turning white. I use the dead parts when I'm stuck in the web and the boss is away to kill the vampire in the meantime, that's why I don't kill it before entering the boss room. I got unlucky and lucky against Dr. Tongue. To beat him quick you have to lock him at the north wall, several times he got out of the lock and moved to the left of me. I got lucky because none of those times he stayed there for long, he returned to the lock quite quickly. The plates, they are finally useful.

• Credits, last speed shoes. Then waste time entering my nick ;o

I have this run since a long time ago, didn't send it because I wanted to get a dvd recorder because I did not like the video quality. Hmm, actually the avi looks much better than on my tv so I guess it's my vhs. Since I yet don't have a dvd and the VHS submission deadline had arrived I just sent it.

Possible Improvements:

• Level 30 can be sped entering the victim room from the north, but success rate lowers considerably. I'll add it to a future run :)

• If you get a skeleton key before level 8 you are set to skip the baby battle, preferably if you get it before level 6 (there I collect pandora boxes I would no longer need).

• Get to the memorization point where you can quickly change your routes depending on random items you get from cabinets. Coupled with luck this would yield the fastest time.

• No execution mistakes.

I did a speed run of a "horror" game on Halloween night! How cool is that? :)

The goal of this run was to rescue EVERY possible victim in the game, including the bonus levels. There's already a nice "100%" run on this site, but that one allows for victims to die, so long as all 10 are alive after the last stage.

Here's the victim breakdown:
480 - 48 normal levels
60 - 6 bonus levels
10 - the "Credits" level
3 - Defeating the "Titanic Toddlers" turns them into normal victims
MINUS 1 - Impossible victim behind a solid wall on Level 22B ("Son of Dr. Tongue")
TOTAL: 552

As shown above, it's NOT QUITE possible to get every single victim, so some may think that this isn't a "true" 100% run. However, since that one victim is absolutely impossible, I don't think that it counts. Call it a 99.8% run if you have to (552/553), but this is as good as it gets!

The first problem in doing this run comes right away in Level 1. There's a bonus stage pickup behind a cracked wall and the only way to get the necessary weapon is to be lucky. After about two hours of retries, I was able to get a Monster Potion as a random item from one of the cupboards. Worse yet, this bonus stage ("Day of the Tentacle") is easy to lose victims on. The pattern I used helps a lot with their survival, but you can still be unlucky and have something bad appear right on top of someone.

After this initial challenge, it gets a lot easier. Wherever possible, I used a calculated pattern of movements to "force" monsters to appear at a safe distance away from the victims.

I also had to take care to collect a bunch of items, but I did my best not to waste too much time doing this. One thing I was able to completely avoid was the cupboards/trash cans with the random items. A TAS person might try abusing those to perfect this run, but for a human, there's no way this can be useful. Anyway, there are enough items out there in plain sight not to worry about this.

Unfortunately, on some levels, the only sure strategy for perfection is the "boring" way. I sometimes stand around for a bit so I can make a bunch of monsters follow me around. The game can only spawn so many enemies at a time, so this keeps them from appearing on top of the victims. There are some places that the probability of this is simply too high to risk playing it "straight", particularly since it takes so much effort to get a run started. I try to keep this tactic down to a minimum, but bear with me when you see it.

Enjoy! :)