Hey guys!

First, let me express how happy I am to see that anyone actually cares about this game. It was my favorite PS3 games, and I still have it along with my old PS3 in a box somewhere.

But recently I got my Steam Deck, and one of the very first thing I did was to setup RPCS3 with only a single game - Hard Corps Uprising.

It works REALLY well. There are very few moments where it lags a bit (the last time I played, on my PS3, was like 6 years ago, so many those laggy moments were also present then, IDK), but absolutely nothing remarkable even for someone as extremely picky as myself regarding FPS, stability, and latency.

I have never attempted ANY speedrun in my 25+ years of gaming, as it never was a concept that interested me. Well, until now, but only for this specific game for some reason... The fact that it is SO obscure (in large part simply because they didn't add the name "Contra" to its title ; which is insane when you think about it!!!), but also SO good! But then I realized that there were many moves/abilities that I basically never used, and are designed for speedrunning! I suck at those moves ATM, but I am willing to try them and get better, and attempt full runs using them. Who knows, maybe I could be good at it and able to submit runs here?

So anyway, the question remains, is it acceptable to emulate the game? If so, are there guidelines? I understand that the speedrunning community around this game is extremely small, but if anyone have any sort of general advice about speedrunning, regarding acceptable setups, or any other useful comment, please do not hesitate to let me and anyone else who will stumble to this thread know!

From a few YouTubers that I occasionally follow, it seems to me that each speedrunning communities around a particular game actually set their own specific rules on what is acceptable and what isn't, but I cannot seem to find you guys' rules/guidelines anywhere here (if they exist).

Finally, if emulation isn't allowed, do you guys know whether this game is available through either Sony or Xbox Cloud gaming services? I did check, but came out empty :( It is sold online there : https://www.xbox.com/en-CA/games/store/hard-corps-uprising/c30z07t9q9ct But it seems that I really need an Xbox to play it (I thought that we could now play basically everything they ever had on Live Arcade through their current cloud gaming service, but it does not seem to be the case). If anyone know of an official way to play the game without a physical console plugged to a TV, please let me know!

Of course, I really believe that a community around such a niche title would benefit A LOT by allowing members to play it using the most accessible method by far right now (emulation), as long as it is fair and, IDK, verified to be a legitimate way to play it and to submit runs (as a total newb, I must confess that wouldn't know how one would judge such criteria, but if all RPCS3's settings are "standardized", I don't see how playing it that way would give any unacceptable advantage or disadvantage...).

If it can be useful to anyone, I could write a little guide for people not used to RPCS3 in general, about the best settings to be able to run HC:U on basically any PC, and also one specific to the Steam Deck if anyone is interested. From there, I imagine that it would be easy to decide what exact setting people should have for submitting a run. Let me know!

Anyway; please let me know what are your thoughts if you have a moment. Thank you so much for your time!

Unholy.

the lag at start of stages & the lab through the first section is normal on 360/ps3 i don’t know much on the emu since i run on xbox 360/one & ps3 hardware but i know a few who run it. if you have it on xbox cloud it should still be there

Hey thank you so much for the reply!

Yeah I was sure that at least some of that lag was in the original PS3 game I used to play as well, and still own (in a random box in storage, but still lol). Thank you for the confirmation! I think that I will do a full recorded run and compare it from one on the PS3 or Xbox; my guess is that the game runs 99 to 100% perfectly on my setup.

I do not have an Xbox. In fact, I only have access to handhelds right now, which is why getting it to work on the Steam Deck was such a priority for me! And it works so well, constant 60fps and very little latency.

I don't know how familiar you are with such things, especially for speedruns of this specific game, but would it be acceptable for submission if I ever do and record a run using RPCS3?

Another game that I may try to Speedrun, Sonic R, does have submitted speedruns that were done on an emulator (it's not how I would play the game, personally), even though there are better ways to play the games imho, and that are accessible. Again, I know each community will have their own rules, but it is an example where it does not matter to them if a run is done on an emulator, as they are classified like any others.

Do you think that it would be the case here as well?

Either way, thank you once again for taking the time to reply, it's reply appreciated (especially considering how inhabited this particular corner of this website is :P)

yeah few runners use the emu submit a full run that was streamed over twitch and it can be checked over or we can watch it live

Awesome. Well if I submit something, I will make sure to have the most transparent setup possible. Like having 2 recordings (and maybe a stream), one using my Elgato, and the other using a camera pointed at my Deck while I play. Both will be able to sync perfectly. I wonder if there is something that I can use on the Deck that could display and also save ALL of my inputs during my run...

I must sound like the biggest newb there is (which I am:P) but for the very first time if find the idea of getting to know all of the tricks for this game and speedruning it very exciting :D.

Thanks again for the answer dude, really appreciated.

can’t wait to see your progression

if you want to see what the tricks are follow my twitch been playing the game blindfolded lately

Man THAT I would like to see!

Honestly, because of IRL stuff, I kind of disappeared from everywhere since the last 4 years... I am trying to get back closer to where I was, but man did things evolved since then. Meanwhile, I still have issue doing very basic everyday things (It's a bit discouraging when you go from someone with degrees and a career to this; insane how everything can collapse like that). I think that I will try to create a brand new Twitch account, and learn everything from zero. The same with other account that I had (For instance, I had a retro console modding, restoring, and soldering tips in general with around 15k subs that I abandoned).

Anyway. Yes, if I ever get the possibility, I will make a new account and absolutely check you out!

Also, I think that I already have everything I need to stream, but it never was a field that I knew well (OBS and all that stuff). I only used to record OG retro console game playthroughs with commentary, mainly Genesis/MD (using a Retrotink + component HD Retrovision cable, etc.). My audio-technica bphs1 should have a good enough mic (still probably one of the few headsets with an actual good enough mic that can almost rival an external one; not sure if it has been topped since then), and I have an Elgato hd60s and a cheap USB audio interface since the headset uses XLRM. And a bunch of cables too. Do you think that I am all set in you opinion?

Take care dude, thanks for the conversation, and I absolutely hope to catch you on Twitch one day!

i should start doing runs on the RPCS3 again bc i forgot and i was kinda lazy to keep going KEKW and yeah sorry about that Aaron xd, gotta do my best and you can watch it live if you want and do some research/analyse

I been testing, it is accurate.

And I have been publishing emulator runs lately, so, I guess they are accepted. Let me know if you continue playing, maybe we can setup the online so we can play together sometime and guide you through the ropes of speedrunning this game :)