Hi all,
After spending another few hours back with this game to try and improve my time, I found it impossible to do better than the 3:24.750, which is a frame slower than my submitted time of 3:24.733. I based my submitted time on first frame being after pressing start and it is transitioning to the "Beginner Round 1" screen (there is a weird transition frame in between that is a fully grey screen with some text at the bottom). I based my last frame on seeing the red flag at the end (completely, as this will be important to note for Carter's run). This red flag showing occurs approximately 6 frames, or 100 milliseconds, from after the screen stops scrolling. Curious what I was missing that the World Record runs were doing, I watched all three runs and did framecounts. Besides the fact that everyone self-reported 7xx milliseconds, I think the framecounting is inconsistent.
This is what I found after mirroring my framecounting against the other runs:
Me - Framecount when the stage 3 screen stops scrolling: 3:24.633, and after the flag shows: 3:24.733.
Aaron2U2 - Aaron has a version of the Rom that shows "G1150" on the title screen instead of the LJN licensing, but it doesn't seem to impact game performance as far as I can tell. In any event, Framecount when the stage 3 screen stops scrolling: 3:24.650, and after the flag shows: 3:24.750.
Vesper - Somewes is being annoying and the twitch vod puts a "view next in x seconds" screen that blocks the flag showing, but the screen stops scrolling at 3:24.667, which means flag would show at 3:24.767.
Carter - Might be the recording rate, or something to do with console, or 30fps per second, or something, but the frames fade differently for Carter's run. Nonetheless, Framecount when the stage 3 screen stops scrolling: 3:24.667, and on every frame, the flag starts to fade in, but given what we know about the 6 frames for the flag to fully display, after the flag shows: 3:24.767.
Therefore, assuming that final frame should be based upon when the flag is fully showing on the post (6 frames after the screen stops scrolling), I believe the actual standings to be as follows:
-
Zarc0nis: 3:24.733
-
Aaron2u2: 3:24.750
T3) Carter: 3:24.767
T3) Vespervidya: 3:24.767
Thank you for reviewing this!