The 50k category is pretty tightly routed thanks to the big20 #18 and there's likely only a handful of frames left until we hit the limit of the first stage (lag management frames due to missiles being required). The 100k category, is 100% possible to be completed at the end of the second stage, and the evidence is in my current run, where the 20k boss points happened on the second boss, but I missed the 20k on the first boss. So there is a lot of time available for that, plus getting a faster miniboss kill/multiplier

For the past 8 months, xenkaroshi has not been a moderator on this board. I personally have reviewed almost every run currently on the board (and frame counted them with somewes.com), and this recent incident happened during a time frame I was unable to. Due to the recent increased volume of runs being submitted to the board, I did not review every single run with attention to extreme detail, and I also wanted the other moderators, CzaR and MTL to have a chance to approve some of the community's progress.

Because MTL has removed all the videos of his runs, I have no way of confirming his side of the incident. Moving forward, I will start making detailed notes on frame counts in areas that could possibly lead to cheating and comb through the boards again for anything I may have missed before. But as this game is very prone to lag in many places, without a perfected TAS run to review against, it will not be a perfect solution. This is by far the most competitive timing board I moderate for where the top times are within 1 second by more than 2-3 people, so I may have been approaching this a bit too casually, and for that I apologize.

Specifically, for the WR single player timing incident, Charlie did a comprehensive analysis of his and MTL's run from a synced start and by the end there was at least an 8 frame difference, in Charlie's favor. MTL had posted that if there was a problem with his frame count to have the other mods recheck it. By the time I was able to review either run (within 24 hours of MTL's submission), MTL's runs were already removed and account deleted, which strongly raises suspicions of cheating.

I wish I had taken a watch and frame count of your run as well before this (I've gone through 99% of the non-obsolete runs as it is). I did go back and retime your run (as ManTuoLuo is no longer on SRC) and frame counted it to 24:30.900. I did not have the opportunity to check the other run to confirm that timing. Definitely GG's on the first sub 24:31!

I am a little confused as to the official stop time of the run as both current runs by GoBonsGo and JYAGARantaro are timed to a different stop point. I did a frame count for both runs (to the best of my capabilities after seeing the frame count off of my inputs) for the start (3 frames before the screen starts to fade off NEW GAME) to both ending positions which seemed to have been 27.033 seconds for GoBonsGo at the exclaimation point ! of SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT ! or 23.867 to the first frame the first pixel of the S showing up and JYAGARantaro's run at around 42.100 for S and 45.083 for ! (from what I could discern from hardware recording). My own run submission was 19.800 for S and 23.000 for !

I don't want to surprise too many people with some changes coming to this board, but I will be retiming the board to a unified starting/ending point that is also now specified in the rules, as well as clarifying that runs need to start from a New Game (to avoid any possible saved game runs being submitted). After seeing that many runs were submitted with a -29 second start timer, I verified the exact time from input press on new game start to when the first dialogue box appears (not first possible input to shift the dialogue as -29 was). -28.333 is 4 frames before the first frame of fade out after the input for New Game until the first frame the dialogue box appears. I will also be unifying the ending time to the first black frame after leaving the throne room via the south exit after defeating the final boss.

I want to thank LovenityJade for their moderator time on this board, and I will do my best to keep things fair and simple here. If there are any questions, feel free to DM me or post here.

I am unable to confirm that at this time. When I had it, I only was testing for the NES version but refunded it because I could not adjust the controller layout. I would assume that it would be version 1, and the above examples would be a very easy way to check or by jumping out from the top of the ship to an invisible platform that's only in version 0

It's not as widely known, or as easily available from rom sites, but the version 0 of the game has a few exploits many of the top runners are able to utilize in the run. Most notably - the FPS section dinos have smaller collision boxes that let us just pass them by in areas that the Rev 1/A does not, for example the dilophosaurs in the raptor pen B1 at the door after the elevator, the one next to the NVG battery and the one just before the floor meat can all just be passed by running along the wall/door next to them. In Revision 1, these specific dinos are impossible to pass by between them and the walls.

In terms of hardware, the version 0 cartridge can be identified by the Made in Japan on the back of the cart/box, revision 1/A has a Made in Mexico/Assembled in Mexico instead.

I did some early experimentation with Bizhawk, but nothing extensive, between versions when I was working with chill_runs in the possibility of creating a rom hack for starting characters. I tried a wide variety of directions plus buttons to try to influence it, but if it is a fresh press on a specific frame, I definitely did not test that deep. Bizhawk 2.9.1 was the one that I could not get a different character aside from Nightcrawler in, with random button configurations as well as hard/soft resets.

In terms of overall fairness between the variety of platforms available to run this, I think the Load Removed Time from fight start to fight end would be the fairest way to calculate the runs. I have yet to look at the Slash Mode and Secret Ending times but depending on the area load times of stage 1 for Secret Ending, this could be a weird spot depending on how the platforms handle this differently. I expect to be digging into this over the next few weeks, unless someone already has some more information.

If there are more runs that are on other systems other than SNES, I will be happy to separate the boards into those consoles as all 3 versions are different in terms of cutscenes and events (or lack thereof like no mines in SNES). As it stands, with only my run being on Genesis, I'm fine with leaving it as such.

Thanks for the opportunity to help with the community! It means a lot to me as this was the first game I ever decided to speedrun (albeit badly at first).

I have strong ambitions to run this game, in many categories. I also agree that this board, for sake of fairness, should be LTR and not RTA with emulation and mixed consoles sharing the same board. I have 2 runs ready to submit, one on a PS2 slim, one on duckstation 0.1.7836.0. My PS2 slim run was near perfect on the baseline execution, but load times wouldn't let it go below a 1:30. My emulation run, after setting the Read speeds as high as possible, I was able to come close to Intecksss run (around 3-5 seconds), and after setting the scan speeds as high as possible, I accomplished the same jump between RTA times as they had from the prior WR with a 53.817. The overall execution was cleaner in my emulation run as it was more practiced and my focus for getting the fastest possible time to showcase what I was trying to prove versus the feeling of defeat of not being able to come close to a competitive time.

On that note, I did take the time to frame count each fight starting from the first frame the character shows to the first frame of transition to the replay (or the first frame of the death stroke of the final fight), reducing any loading times to almost 0 because the start of the fight replay was fairly consistent and a visual cue that made sense and took cutscenes and mashing to the next fight out of the equation. My initial PS2 slim run was 1162 frames, Intecksss run was 1156, my duckstation run was 1123 and PEPENPAPONTRO's run was 1112. That is from 19.367 seconds to 18.533, well within the realm of plausible, tight times for the fights being as quick as they are. I did these calculations through https://somewes.com/frame-count/

If it is a matter of needing someone to do so and another moderator is needed to retime to LTR, I am willing to offer my time in doing so.

I am a strong believer that emulation runs should show frames, frame rates, inputs, etc. and these are typically required by runs submitted from other emulated systems. While I know that many of these runs are older and not plausible to change this, it should be something considered going forward.

For reference my 2 runs are - PS2 Slim - and Duckstation emulator -

*Edited to show I've been working on the LTR timing so far and each fight frame counts

Bad Ending single character -

JeremyAnderson - vod no longer exists

ConkerXvi - vod no longer exists

267 + 276 + 265 + 261 + 36 = 1105 18.417- PS2 run 53 (my run done live on hardware, not linked above, submitted)

272 + 286 + 266 + 272 + 60 = 1156 19.267 Intecksss

264 + 280 + 264 + 266 + 38 = 1112 18.533 PEPENPAPONTRO

268 + 276 + 272 + 266 + 52 = 1134 18.900 Teru

272 + 284 + 270 + 270 + 50 = 1146 19.100 W0DiE

276 + 271 + 281 + 276 + 50 = 1154 19.233 goatpuncherartic

312 + 384 + 312 + 302 + 86 = 1396 23.667 AonoSaku (movement caused slower time)

276 + 285 + 269 + 276 + 53 = 1159 19.317 JakePlisskenSDA

267 + 284 + 271 + 268 + 40 = 1130 18.833 ayyjer

290 + 308 + 298 + 290 + 82 = 1268 21.133 FunkySteve

284 + 270 + 280 + 264 + 56 = 1154 19.233 GothrockMike

288 + 296 + 290 + 288 + 62 = 1224 20.400 hippokittie

290 + 290 + 278 + 274 + 66 = 1198 19.967 SuperBeastGN

282 + 270 + 478 + 276 + 48 = 1354 22.567 AeronGames

326 + 554 + 326 + 328 + 216 = 1750 29.167 Stuhligen (1:45.400 RTA)

278 + 278 + 280 + 1038 + 62 = 1936 32.267 Radiantstream165

1042 + 342 + 822 + 602 + 176 = 2984 49.733 MacCloud

288 + 736 + 274 + 278 + 844 = 2420 40.333 DBcade (Last hit was hard to tell the exact frame due to blurriness from camera recording screen, so might be off by a few frames)

Normal Ending single character -

PEPENPAPONTRO - Vod no longer exists (would have loved to see it after that Bad Ending run benchmark)

456 + 502 + 588 + 490 + 442 + 752 + 680 + 1472 + 726 = 6108 1:41.800 Stunt_MK

437 + 487 + 603 + 460 + 462 + 1116 + 567 + 502 + 1444 = 6078 1:41.300 JakePlisskenSDA

708 + 537 + 530 + 482 + 576 + 430 + 549 + 478 + 879 = 5169 1:26.150 PS2 run attempt 72 (my run, submitted)

Secret Ending single character -

PEPENPAPONTRO - again vod no longer exists

1000 934 578 1062 950 1150 1506 1438 734 (9352/10524 with area loads) Well jump 470 452 868 696 1522 1068 812 = 15240 / 4:14.000 Stunt_MK (no area loads calculated)

Bad Ending All Characters - (only fight times, calculated as single character Bad Ending, not character/weapon select)

RS - 333 290 268 273 112 (1276) total - 7982 2:13.333 ayyjer

T - 268 328 328 276 100 (1300)

M - 347 340 338 275 50 (1350)

BL - 331 277 341 275 51 (1275)

U - 278 328 273 281 57 (1217)

K - 270 330 283 273 408 (1564)

T - 653 355 267 267 48 (1590) total - 8262 2:16.700 PS2 run 83 (my run, submitted)

RS - 329 282 267 269 459 (1606)

M - 268 712 259 263 36 (1538)

U - 265 278 265 263 27 (1108)

BL - 284 284 281 278 60 (1187)

K - 261 279 363 263 67 (1233)

There are 8 frames from input press until the black screen for the screen transition off the main screen used for timing the start of runs (for runs with no input reader) and time stops on the final frame of movement/color change (not grayscale) of the final alien fight. It had been "on alien scream" but an audio cue is not a precise point to time from.

This also happens on the NES version for the egg at the top of the bridge (2nd egg you get to) at the start of stage 5 with the islands to the point you can shoot it 10 times and still collect it (which results in the collection producing the keycard). I will be looking into replicating this wherever I can for GB as well. I did not have much success with other eggs on NES. Stage 6 overworld would be ideal to really kill some time. Imagine not having to do the last 1-2 rooftops? For the NES, and it seems this egg, it has to do with the position of the egg at the top of the screen.

So, I "completed" a run of low% JP. There is a major snag in the theory in stage 5, the copper ammo between floors on the left side to the egg on the ship (timestamp 19:35) and the ammo at the beginning of electric room 1(timestamp 21:05). I unloaded all the shots into the wall so I had none of it (kind of like how Ninja Gaiden low% runs deal with oops candles). I only avoided the yellow ammo in the lower right corner of stage 4 where there's the huge walk around (timestamp 13:15 range), but I ended up having to pretty much pacifist% stage 6. I think it would be better to actually grab that ammo and take extra pot shots at eggs later than to skip any ammo drops. There is a 40 pack of yellow in stage 6, but it's inside the last building. I have it highlighted on my channel for now, but I kinda want to give that ammo a shot, and to see how possible it is to skip the ammo in electric room 1. I think that we should allow green ammo on compy's ONLY on stage 5 ship and 6 in the case of a continue, if only for the sake of not having a RIP run or having to pacifist% 95% of stage 6. It is incredibly difficult to make it through the ship in pacifist mode without 3 lives.

I have been looking into getting a rom-hack set up that would allow the starting character to be set (ideally this would be the only change that resulted from the hack) for hardware/flashcart runs. During the initial investigation phases, it was found that at a minimum, Bizhawk 2.8.0 was always Wolverine on hard reset, cyclops on soft reset, 2.9.1 was always Nightcrawler on either reset, and Mame 0.264 was always Beast. Retroarch and Gen-GX were random.

I was also curious if this kind of hack would be allowed for the single character/any % runs since the only goal is for it to reduce the amount of resets before a run could start (and also allow for other emulators to be used in runs as the initial testing has shown). If there has been any other research into this type of thing, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I am planning on running this game some time next year, so I at least wanted to put feelers out for this kind of project or if I should just reset mash the cart.

GG's!

If you've got an arcade% run, seriously kudos. Expert and Arcade I've noped out of. If nothing else, you could post a link to it here.