Over the last year (really many years, but especially the last year) or so we've had a number of questionable runs come through (all of which were on emulator from memory). Obviously we get a lot of clearly faked runs, but some of them aren't so simple. These were runs that had no giant red flags in the gameplay itself, mainly just a number of suspicious parts. We would not have a strong enough argument to reject such runs on the gameplay alone. There were instances where the runner was gracious enough to provide an input file and it was only using that that we were able to confirm that the run was definitely not legitimate. I'm intentionally being vague here since clearly the technology exists to create a perfect run so we don't want to reveal the handful of things that we've relied on to catch some cheaters thus far. A controller cam would not have provided sufficient evidence in many of these situations (but it never hurts to have additional forms of credibility).

After facing these situations where we had to rely on a "cheater" to provide input files so that we could confirm they were "cheating", we realized a change was needed. Those runs would be on the leaderboard right now without those files. This is a very competitive game, and as has been shown recently in other communities, competitiveness brings along with it cheating (that in some cases isn't revealed until years later). Occasionally this leaderboard is used in the media/printed works when smb1 makes the news and it is a bad look not only for this community but speedrunning as a whole if the leaderboard lacks credibility. For example, there is a book on Amazon right now that literally has the any% leaderboard on its cover. These changes are meant as a compromise where performing runs is (in our opinion) slightly more inconvenient with the benefit of a more credible leaderboard.

These changes have been discussed for the last 3 months or so and went through multiple revisions during that time. Included in the mods that discussed these rules are multiple individuals that achieved sub 5 any% times on emulator, one of which was the record holder for an extended time. The rules aren't set in stone and if issues are brought up that turn out to be things that affect too many people and there are no other options for affected individuals then we'd certainly revise as needed. There are around 14 runners that have gotten a pb within the last year that would have been affected.

I also want to mention that we really should have included instructions for recording in each of the approved emulators with the announcement, so sorry about that. It looks like it's been done via replies though so I think all of the information is in this thread now.

I have resumed to 8-3 for any% numerous times and it has been correct (matches exactly what I see in runs that make it there)

Hi pellsson, I finally got around to testing this out (using Version 1.3 which I assume is the latest). This is very useful tool. Here are some things that we'd like changed:

1. When you use select when NOT paused to reset a level, the framerule is correctly reset as it should be, but the RULE display still advances, so it is no longer accurate.
2. Having select reset the level when not paused makes it impossible for us to set save states (since it uses Select + A) mid-level. My suggestion is to either remove the Select button functions with paused and unpaused, or to get rid of the game reset function and make Select while paused reset the level instead (and make Select when not paused do nothing special so that we can still make our own save states)

Great job on this. Apologies for taking so long to test it.

t2k emailed me about this and I included my thoughts in a reply which I'll include here: Hey, awesome work! Unfortunately we probably won't be able to accept runs done on a romhack, but the rest of the community may feel different. My suggestion would be to make a post on the Super Mario Bros. forums at speedrun.com, here: http://www.speedrun.com/smb1/forum . You'll get a lot of feedback there (I'll try to mention it to some people when your post is up). In my opinion, a more useful hack would be one that times each room by the frame (and shows the time when exiting the room or when grabbing a flagpole), this would let us test different tricks throughout the game to compare them and would make for a cool practice cart. Keep up the good work though - tools to assist with speedrunning are always appreciated!

Nice find, never would have guessed that the bubbles were on a global timer. I always approached bowser with the idea of trying to jump as close to his face without getting it, although I leave some space in case he changes direction after I jump.

I do check it occasionally. I don't have any new messages. Twitter and Twitch are the best ways to reach me.

another note about tennis - winning 6 games only wins a set if your opponent has won fewer than 5 games in that set. Basically, you need to win at least 6 games AND win 2 more games than your opponent.

For similar reasons to time ending on Mario saying TKO in MTPO last race, I suggest time ending when the scoreboard is displayed and flashing all symbols for the current set (indicating that the set is over).