First and foremost, the reason for extra categories is to expand the community's enjoyment for speedrunning TLOZ with new types of challenges. I encourage you to participate in the community by joining the Discord, and following the game and its players on Twitch, and also to invite others to join you in this activity.
**Discord: https://discord.gg/n3SQKFs ** **Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/The%20Legend%20of%20Zelda **
GAME PLATFORMS The allowed official releases are listed in the left side panel. To date, all the official releases are allowed.
Play the NA English version if you can† The Japanese cart is the fastest version, but almost entirely due to text length which adds up to as little as 12 seconds in some full game categories. Otherwise the gameplay is nearly identical. Nevertheless, it is the fastest version. However, most of the leaderboard's users are using NTSC-U hardware, not NTSC-J.
There are a number of ways to play another region's version. Flash carts, pin adapters, imported game and console, etc, but those are more prone to failure than using native hardware. We don't want to negatively impact our runners by requiring them to spend more money and take additional risks for the sake of text differences.
Yet, fair competition is essential, and we'd also be as inclusive as possible. So, a little compromise required to make that work. Additionally, moderators don't want to re-time a lot of runs to keep it fair, so please use the English version if you can.
If a player is in the NTSC-J market, they may submit runs on Japanese language versions. Submissions in Japanese text may have their times adjusted based solely on the time difference between English and Japanese text.† So, for the sake of the moderators, please use the English NA version if it doesn't negatively impact your attempts.
†Japanese is used for Co-Op. Since it is emulation-based everyone has equal access to the fastest version.
EMULATION Unofficial NES emulation is allowed. No emulation of Gamecube, GBA, Wii, etc. Your NES emulator should be accurate. Here is a list of reasonably accurate emulators: Mesen, Bizhawk (Neshawk), Nintendulator, puNes, FCEUX, Nestopia. Get the latest versions. Don't use overclocking features, don't use lag helpers (e.g. RunAhead), don't remove sprite flicker by allowing more than 8 sprites per scanline. Don't use any features that don't exist on the original game
CATEGORY DESIGN / GAME OVER WARPING Speedrunning is measuring how fast you can get from the beginning to the end of a game. The whole idea of this board is still to do that, but add an unusual restriction or requirement that provides an interesting speed challenge. Adding "No Up+A or Deaths" restriction to beating the game has already been done. We'll be focusing on other ideas here.
Between attempts, you should always reset or power cycle the console. Failing to do so will change enemy drops, spawn positions, etc., and your run will be rejected because your game environment was not even with other players in the field. For Online Co-op, you should be disconnecting from your partner between runs so that item sync info is reset.
Take care to get a proper reset when using virtual platforms (e.g. Switch) or emulation-in-a-box (e.g. NES Classic Mini). If enemy formations on the same screen are different from run to run, that's a sign that their formation value is not resetting between attempts as it should.
VIDEO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Complete video of the gameplay is required, including the last reset or power on. Please submit a Permanent Video -- Twitch Past Broadcasts are not permanent.
Both RBO and True RBO require you to kill the lvl 4 boss before you get the raft to get to lvl 5. IMHO, RTO or no revserse cat in 2nd Q.
One solution would be to run it through the randomizer with open 9 as the only flag and set the seed to 0
RIght. The issue lies in that Dodongo in LVL4 is required to get the raft, which is required to get the Bow, which is required to defeat Ganon and Gleeok in 5. My $0.02 as stated above would be to only require Triforces. True RTO. Ganon Triforce, 8, 7 ... that way you can skirt around the LVL4 tringle to get the raft, and still be able to Ganon on down after getting all the required items.
