I'm contemplating running the DOS version. I know you can use DosBox, and I know you can record DosBox itself. As far as I know, the only change to gameplay on the VGA version is the ability to exit the game.

I've also seen people save and quit to the main menu on some games (Dark Souls, for example), but I don't think I've ever seen anyone completely exit the game. Would this be allowed? If the VGA patch is a no go, so long as I would be recording, and the clock is running, could I exit DosBox and rerun the game? Obviously I want to do this to manipulate the moons, which on startup are always both new, allowing quick harvesting of Mandrake and Nightshade.

Also, would there be rules on what cycles are allowed, or can I use the most optimal ones? Setting those too low would make some parts of the game quite a bit slower, but too fast can also be really annoying with the winds.

Considering the VGA patch is a fan-patch, I would say no that we should not allow the reload and exit commands that it introduced, as that is not part of the base game feature set. However, I see no reason that we would not allow runs using the VGA patch, as it does not seem to affect anything else about the gameplay. Would love to hear other opinions on this as well though.

For cycle timing in DOSBox currently the rules for the DOS version of the game as listed in the category rules is: "When using DOSBox use a config with core=auto, cputype=auto, cycles=500."