Hey, thanks for the bump. I saw both threads and think we must first decide on the rules and then decide what to do with the run you mentioned.
The current rules for "Any% Warpless" are misleading, so I also vote for changing them. I like your suggestions, but I think they mean two different things.
- All elevators must be used
- No warps in hidden rooms allowed - this implies that the warp in the first room from 6 to 7 is allowed
What do we want to track? I would say 1) which is kind of like a 100% (we could also name it that way). What are your thoughts on this?
Hi, I'd like to request moderation for the game https://www.speedrun.com/altered_space I have pending runs and the Mod hasn't been on site for ~10 months. He is inactive on Twitter and Twitch for even longer (and didn't react to messages I sent ~2 months ago regarding another issue).
Hi, I'd like to request moderation for the game https://www.speedrun.com/gremlins_2_the_new_batch I have some pending runs and the Mod hasn't been on site for ~1.5 years. He seemed somewhat active on Twitter so I wrote him last week, but no response (I also wrote him on Twitch) on either platform.
Nice find! I vote for allowing it - not sure how much of a glitch it really is, I guess the base mechanic to conserve speed for an immediate jump/slide is intended and makes sense, and this is just a clever usage of this mechanic. Also, it must be quite hard to control, as you already said.
I would look forward to runs doing this, as it is also fun to watch :-)
Hi, I am one of the Mods of Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports - https://www.speedrun.com/tiny_toon_adventures_wacky_sports_gbc. Could the game be added to the Tiny Toon Adventures series - https://www.speedrun.com/tiny_toon_adventures?
The game is quite obviously part of the series, details can be also found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tiny_Toon_Adventures_video_games
Thanks!
Thanks for posting the rule change here. Some additional notes to this:
- I think this specific rule was introduced to spot sped-up / cheated runs. There are still occasionally stolen or fake runs which are being submitted, but they can be spotted otherwise.
- A big part of the existing runs doesn't follow the rule anyway.
- Rule-wise it is obsolete, as the site explicitly states this about timing: "The time of the run is the time in the video from starting condition to ending condition. It is not the time shown on the timer program, which is started and ended with human error." (https://www.speedrun.com/rules)
- Audio is still required (important for verification, see first point)
Thanks for noticing.
Hi, I'd like to request moderation for https://www.speedrun.com/kingdom_crusade - I have some runs pending and the moderator has been inactive for 5 months. I tried to reach out on Twitch and Discord (I'm not allowed to send him a Twitter DM) with no response, on all his social contacts he's been inactive for the same amount of time. Thanks.
Hi all,
As we track time in milliseconds now it makes sense to define some exact frames on where to start/stop the timing. So here's a little "tutorial" of how to properly time your run.
Start
Rule: "Timing starts when you press A on the new game screen.".
At the keypress, the menu will start scrolling down, and it's quite easy to spot, especially at the bottom. Start frame is the last frame where the menu is fully visible.
End
Rule: "Time stops when credits are fully faded in."
This one is easy to spot too, the credits will appear in 3 different colors, and timing stops on the first frame they're fully faded in (=black in most color schemes).
Calculating time between start and end frame
Now that you have the frames, how to measure the time between them?
- Youtube: You can navigate with "." and "," until you find the right frames and then put them here: https://mattbraddock.com/yt-frame-timer/ Be sure to get the right FPS and it will calculate the time between the start and end frame.
- Video editing software: Usually some kind of timer is available which can be used to count frames or time directly. There's VSDC for example which is free and has a timer available.
- Twitch: Not sure yet (please let me know if you know!) try with one of the methods above.
Thanks for noticing.
Hi, I have a run which I'd like to submit but I struggled a bit with the exact start of the timing.
The existing run seems to start the timer on emulator reset. As other emulators may have different startup times I think this is suboptimal. This also applies to real hardware, if someone would run it on a Game Boy (e.g. with an Everdrive), the startup takes far longer (fade-in of the "Nintendo"-logo). It's also difficult to precisely define the exact start frame, regardless of emulator or hardware.
I'd therefore would like to suggest another start of timing: Either
- Timer starts on first input (quite common), which means on pressing Start on the "Daedus / IZMA 2019" title screen or:
- Timer starts on pressing "New game" - this would even make more sense from my point of view, as the goal of Any% is beating a new game.
Both would allow for frame-precise timing.
Also, as the game is so short, could we track the times in milliseconds?
Hi, I have a pending run for Golf (GB) for 4 weeks - https://www.speedrun.com/golf_gb - and contacted the current Mod, Aphotic_Ktulu. He is currently inactive in speedrunning (since ~6 months) and is fine with adding me as a Mod, but I noticed that there is no SuperMod on the board. (Besides verifying runs, the existing boards also need the rules to be set up, none exist so far). Can send the conversation via DM.
Hi all, I became Mod on this board this week and noticed that the times are in Milliseconds, but no precise timing start/end rules have been set.
I tried taking the existing rules and specifying them further down, so that it is consistent with the existing runs and for future runs, it's clear how to time. (One run had to be retimed - the one from @wanderson921 - and is now ~0.1 seconds faster than before).
So here's a little "tutorial" of how to properly time your run.
Start
Rule: "Timer starts on pressing the start button (last frame that "Start" is fully visible, with arrow)".
Most of the time, the transition after pressing "Start" will be easy to spot, with the "arrow" before start and incoming white pixels at the top and bottom:
It is possible though that the transition only shows up below, like this the following (in this case, please make sure to still take the frame before the transition starts):
End
Rule: "Timing ends when last stairs are entered (first frame that Tater is not visible anymore)."
This one is really simple and easy to spot.
Calculating time between start and end frame
Now that you have the frames, how to measure the time between them?
- Youtube: You can navigate with "." and "," until you find the right frames and then put them here: https://mattbraddock.com/yt-frame-timer/ Be sure to get the right FPS and it will calculate the time between the start and end frame.
- Video editing software: Usually some kind of timer is available which can be used to count frames or time directly. There's VSDC for example which is free and has a timer available.
- Twitch: Not sure yet (please let me know if you know!) try with one of the methods above.
Thanks for noticing.
Hi, I'd like to request moderation for https://www.speedrun.com/maui_mallard_in_cold_shadow_gb - I have runs pending, the oldest being 3 weeks and the only Mod hasn't been online for 1.5 years. I tried reaching out via site message, but he didn't respond. The only other contact info is youtube where I couldn't find any way to contact him.
Hi, I'd like to request moderation of https://www.speedrun.com/amazing_tater - I have some pending runs and there seems to be no moderator at all, so nobody could verify my runs. (Also, I'd like to add the other Game Boy hardware platforms, I did the runs on GBP but currently only GB is an option.) Thanks.
@ShesChardcore Nice! I don't really know much about Twitch VODs or that this is possible. I still wonder if it should be part of the rules?
@Guggensulli interesting, thanks for your observations! I'll try to do some timing experiments like you did, on my GB hardware. Maybe there are some useful seeds in the beginning which could be reproducible...
Hi, I noticed that both my Emu- and original hardware runs show up on the leaderboard, that seems a bit odd.
Instead of deleting runs, I wanted to ask if you could enable that only the fastest run for each player is shown? As far as I see it it's just the enabling of the "Platforms obsolete each other"-Flag on the bottom of the "Edit game" page.
Has anyone figured out how to manipulate seeds / level generation on Gameboy? I'm still not sure whether it's timing alone or if inputs matter.
Also I noticed that in @ShesChardcore's run, the title screen (with "Gauntlet II") is not visible. Shouldn't this be required to avoid that somebody uses emulator save states? There's no music on the character selection screen so that would be hard to spot. As far as I see, every run for the NES category starts with the title screen and I think this should be required for the GB categories too.
VBA is now no longer allowed (as it is inaccurate) and the rules have been updated. Please use an accurate emulator like BGB or Gambatte, as @petracide mentioned.
Hi, I have a moderation request for Hugo: Black Diamond Fever (https://www.speedrun.com/hugo_black_diamond_fever). I've had a run pending for two weeks. Mod has not logged in for two and a half months. I contacted the Mod on Twitch (which is the only contact info) two weeks ago, but unfortunately I got no response.