If I recall, SpeedRunsLive have a list of emulators that are allowed for racing. Now that the list is probably outdated is there a list of emulators that is allowed for submission to this site?
Specifically NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, N64 is what I am wondering of atm.
Cheers!
I was wondering this to and wondering if MAME was accepted but I think some of the answers that I got back is that its strictly up to the mods and the community of the game you're speedrunning in. I hope that I got that answer correct if anyone can answer better thanks.
That’s the correct answer, the mods and communities for a game decide what emulators and what versions of them to allow. There are certain staples that are (usually) always allowed or banned, but always check the rules of the game for specifics and ask the mods if you’re still unsure.
Thanks, I wasn't sure if emulation itself was allowed. I'm new to this site but not to speedrunning usually emulation is not allowed in high scores or speedruns with the exception of twin galaxies which allow MAME to be used. I hope in the future most score keeping and speedrunning sites begin to allow emulation as a platform for world records.
Liv I have questions for you about silent hill 3. I notice you speedrun the game can I ask you in the silent hill 3 forums or would here be okay?? MAMEs emulation isn't perfect but is accepted as submission standards. You're right about NES and SNES emulation it is accurate.
In defense of GBA, the mGBA core is considered the most accurate at this time (but its still not as close to say NES/GB/SNES). Avoid VBA at all costs.
@ShadowFlare7799 MAME emulation accuracy varies on a game by game basis, but is usually considered accurate for most things from the mid 90's and before. 2000+ and 3D games sometimes are a bit sketchy. It is up to each games leaderboard/community to determine whether or not MAME emulation is allowed/appropriate for that game.
If you're curious about using MAME for a specific game, you should ask that leaderboards moderators.
It's always going to be a case-by-case thing. SRL made blanket rules for emulators because it's just a site for racing, not for verified leaderboard rank stuff. Makes sense there, not so much here.
GBC and GB have accepted known accurate emulators as well.
Most of the time you will see bgb and Gambatte as accepted emus. VBA is never acceptable. Some boards accept the use of bgb and gambatte cores in other emus (Retroarch, bizhawk), but others do not (There is documented issues with the way retroarch implements the core, for example.)
More details can be found here: http://www.gbrunners.com/game-boy-speedrunning-explained
Just to add a wonderful little wrinkle on MAME emulation:
Even if MAME is allowed, you may not want to do runs on plain MAME. It was originally built to preserve the games, not the user experience, so unless you're using an optimized fork, you may run into extremely high input latency depending on the game/hardware.
Final Burn Alpha and WolfMAME are generally considered the best for latency, though there are a few other forks that are good as well. Usually games specify what versions of MAME are acceptable.
shmupmame is perfect latency. This is what world record and shmup pro's use to get latency as perfect to the actual arcade cabinet as they possibly could. Wolfmame is another mame emulator that I use personally for recording inputs for youtube and gaming site submissions. FBA is another great emulator for latency but I barely use it because of game compatibility however the games that it has to offer work at perfect latency so its another good choice. All in all I'm happy with wolfmame, shmup mame, and mame plus plus for my games. Thanks for everyones input it does help and I'll check out that Silent Hill 3 game forum on here because that happens to be one of the games I'm currently working on speedrunning, I just have soo many other projects to do.
@NeonSmiley As the second post in this thread answered, this is done on a per-leaderboard basis. You’ll need to check the rules for the game(s) you’re interested in running, and ask a game’s mod if you’re not sure.
Some games have their consoles from the 6th generation-present won't allow emulators due to emulator issues (game barely works, inaccurate game speed, faster loading times than playing on real hardware). However, games that have their consoles from the 2nd-5th generations would allow emulators as long as you use an accurate emulator due to simple hardware.