Hi, I am thinking of running this game (no idea why lol).

But I have to bring up a concern about the no cutscene skips rule.

Firstly, I find it somewhat un-orthodox .. most speedruns both allow and encourage finding ways to skip cinematics as fast as possible.

Secondly, and more importantly, I plan to run the MS-DOS version. There is both a Floppy Disk version and CD version of the MS-DOS game. The Floppy Disk version actually has "some" cutscenes removed, most notably for a speedrun is the "death animations" which would play upon defeating each bot. Which would mean that only the floppy disk version would be optimal for a speedrun, which is wierd.

I don't know how this effects Genesis/Snes runs, but you may have to consider making separate categories for the MS-DOS versions as they appear to play fairly differently and the cinematics are wildly different.

On a completely separate note, I don't know if you are interested or not, but I got the leaderboard up for the sequel "Rise 2: Resurrection" which I am also speedrunning.

Consider creating Categories for each platform in my opinion. A good example is how the Mortal Kombat leaderboards are set up: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1 . Each difficulty can be set up as a variable marked as Sub-category. And each platform can have its own specific rules, so you could say Genesis: No Cutscene Skips, but MS-DOS: Cinematics Off is allowed.

If you need help setting it up this way I can do it for you, provided you are willing to make me a moderator. That's up to you, no pressure. Feel free to take a look at any of the boards I moderate, (Virtua Fighter Series, OMF 2097,Rise 2, Mk1). I have put a fair bit of effort into them.

The differences in each platform are just too great with this game. I watched a full playthrough of the MS-DOS version and it looks like you actually have to beat everyone twice before facing the supervisor. Which means that a playthrough of any of the Dos versions is going to take way longer than all other versions.

I really want to have a run up of the DOS version specifically since that's what I played (and was dissapointed by) years ago as a kid, so its the one I have the most connection to. I think for the MS-DOS version it should be allowed to turn Cinematics Off in the options so that there will be no difference between the Floppy/CD Version.

But if it must be forced on, then I also have to ask what counts as a "cinematic skip". Because on PC, the animations of the robot plays, and then a "text log readout" happens which is skippable the moment a "system ready" message appears. Would I be allowed to press the attack button at this time to skip the rest of the readout? or Does that count as part of the cinematic and I should not press anything during that time?

In any case, at this point in time I am still practicing beating the AI and dont really have all my strats ready .. so there is plenty of time to get this sorted before I attempt a run.

Also PS, I sent you a friend request in Discord if you want to talk about it in private..