California, USASo when you have a variable with a default applied to a leaderboard, the settings say that the board is filtered to that value by default:
But then the highlighting on the leaderboard makes it look like the board is unfiltered by default:
(Note that for Super Metroid specifically, we're currently debating whether to leave a default active for this variable)
You can submit a run without a video, but if you have some way of recording a video, even if it's just pointing a camera at your TV, that's better than nothing.
To answer the main question, the biggest reason why you saw new World Records is because the mods disabled verification. For a game with this many people submitting new PBs every day, requiring them to verify every run would simply be busy-work. It's much easier to just moderate runs after-the-fact if the runner tries to claim a top time with no video, or a dodgy video. The same goes if someone makes an honest mistake, like with the recent Ceres "WRs".
The opening spark can do up to 2250 damage, and the X-factor only adds at most 1200 onto that. So the shinespark is more important to get right, and it can take some practice to get used to the proper positioning and timing to get a full-damage spark, and not just graze her for a few hundred damage.
I put a video on the wiki of the strat that I used to do when my PB was around 53 or 54, doing the opening spark only, then using ammo for the rest of the fight.
https://wiki.supermetroid.run/Draygon#Any.25_.28Intermediate.29
Like I was saying about having strat videos on the wiki, there are several available for WRITG: https://wiki.supermetroid.run/The_Worst_Room_In_The_Game
Do the fastest strat that you can do consistently. I do the upward shot now, but until I had it consistent in practice I stuck with the leftward diagonal shot, which is only a second or so slower. If i mess up a faster strat in that room, i can easily lose 8 or more seconds.
As for recording your runs, until you get a capture card or some other way of getting the footage in high quality, there's nothing wrong with recording it with your camera or phone. Cloud9Mitchell does that even with a PB of 43:20!
I'm personally a huge fan of taking as many safeties as you need to finish most of your runs. As Melo said, skipping items can also cost you time due to not having enough resources for the optimal strats, or from needing to farm.
If you look at my run history, my latest PB, a 49:22, uses the same item set as my 55:31. They both have 25% item completion, with 5 e-tanks, Spazer, and 25/10/5 ammo.
I highly recommend watching Strat Chat, as it generally covers mid-level strats that you can start incorporating into your run. https://wiki.supermetroid.run/Strat_Chat
While boss fights are important, and can make for a big time loss, as Melo said the movement throughout the rest of the run tends to make an even bigger difference. Saving a few frames on every jump by having slightly tighter ledgegrabs will save way more time than getting individual tough tricks like Full Halfie or Plowerhouse. Or you can learn a faster but still consistent way to go through a non-dangerous room, like Kassiuz Room or Business Center.
On the wiki, you'll find tons of room strats documented on the individual room pages, then you can practice them and see if you can upgrade to a faster strat while keeping your consistency.
Yes, SNES Classic is allowed on the boards, there are several runners who use it. You can select SNES Classic Mini on the leaderboard filters to see those runs listed, and you can select it as the platform you submit your run for.
For timing differences, Dotsarecool did a comparison for Super Mario World which you can see here: https://www.speedrun.com/smw/thread/8w7yc
There may be differences in loading or lag times for Super Metroid, but I don't think anyone's investigated that. From framerate alone you're only losing about 5 seconds per hour of gameplay.
I agree, especially since the helicopter missions are a major point where my Any% runs die. This category would help me practice the second half of the game without forcing a heli mission.
Just to be a little more explicit with that... the rules say that ZSNES and Snes9x 1.43 are banned. Almost any other emulator will be legal, but the most common are higan, Snes9x 1.53 or greater, and Retroarch.
The top runners tend to play on original console to reduce input lag, but a ton of us in the community play on emulator, it's certainly not uncommon.
If you're controlling the game frame-by-frame, that's called a "Tool Assisted Speedrun". You can find the latest one for Any% No Major Glitches here:
You can use the emulators commonly used for TASes on the leaderboards, like Bizhawk and lsnes, you just need to control them in real time. Almost all emulators support save states, but you can't use them in a run.
I'm in favor. For games that only use whole seconds, like Super Metroid, while there might be Tied World Records on occasion, people are still interested in who's faster to the frame. And that's in a run several times longer than this one.
Alternatively, it could just be the Save the Animals category, with the base category of the run being a filterable field -- Zoast's WR RBO run could go up, for instance.
Thoughts?
"1W+PT" doesn't necessarily mean you never change clubs, because you can use the putter outside of the green.
I thought the main category name was clear. Golf is normally played 18 holes at a time...
There is the newly-formed Category Extensions page as well, which I imagine would have better odds of accepting this category.
https://www.speedrun.com/super_metroid_category_extensions
0% may only have one runner, but the glitched categories in general have fewer runners, and that's really just "low% glitched", which seems like a logical "normal" category for this game.
Yeah, I'm interested; it seems like a good beginner-friendly category. In trying for an AK run, my success rate at making it to hammer in 1CC is about 50%.
Door-fairying can also allow for skipping some of the more hazardous areas of certain dungeons, while the 100% portion of the category means that you have to pick up all of the heart containers anyway, also helping the run be safer.
I'll be running this category, though it may be a while before I actually finish a run.
I know this is an old thread, but I'm interested -- why not allow emulator runs, but have them in a separate subcategory, possibly with very strict rules?
Some of the most popular games on this site do this, such as Mario 64, ALttP, and Mario Sunshine -- restricting the emulators that can be used, and putting strict requirements on how they must be used. If PC Emulator runners all had to use the same emulator, they would all be on even ground with each other. Virtual Console and SNES Classic runs could be on even ground with each other.
Any chance of this happening?
In my opinion, SNES and Genesis should be different categories. For the fastest speed on each, SNES takes 28 frames to go down a second of game time, where Genesis uses 25 frames. That makes for a 12% inherent advantage, similar to the advantage NTSC has over PAL, and plenty of games have separate categories for PAL.
In this case, the differences between the ports is more substantial than that as well -- the AI on Genesis seems to be more aggressive, and the block and steal mechanics feel different.
About the rule "Only one action can be mapped to any given button. For example you cannot bind Up and Right to the same button."
I use a Logitech F510 as my controller, and it seems like it registers Up-Right as a separate button -- pressing the D-pad that way hits neither the Up button nor the Right button. In order to make my controller act like an SNES controller I have to bind those functions like this: 
Am I allowed to use this controller, or would I need to go another route, like playing with my keyboard?
