I have been looking into getting a rom-hack set up that would allow the starting character to be set (ideally this would be the only change that resulted from the hack) for hardware/flashcart runs. During the initial investigation phases, it was found that at a minimum, Bizhawk 2.8.0 was always Wolverine on hard reset, cyclops on soft reset, 2.9.1 was always Nightcrawler on either reset, and Mame 0.264 was always Beast. Retroarch and Gen-GX were random.

I was also curious if this kind of hack would be allowed for the single character/any % runs since the only goal is for it to reduce the amount of resets before a run could start (and also allow for other emulators to be used in runs as the initial testing has shown). If there has been any other research into this type of thing, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I am planning on running this game some time next year, so I at least wanted to put feelers out for this kind of project or if I should just reset mash the cart.

Hi, emulator runner here. Most of us that I know who do run on emulator use Kega Fusion 3.64, always random on reset every time. I think with the exception of Joe, all of us who run on emulator use Kega for this game.

That being said, I wouldn't be opposed to this either, as my views on my live attempt streams tend to tank whenever I have to reset and am waiting on getting Psylocke again to start. I think another question to ask in regards to that, is would that rom hack make Magneto playable from Siberia? (Looking at you Topaz ;3) I ask that because if, in theory, this type of rom hack is allowed, that would potentially drastically change things for Single-Character Magneto runs.

As far as research into forcing a character on startup is concerned, the TAS is able to force Nightcrawler to start, but from what I remember reading about it's due to an input you can't do yourself normally (like up + down and that kinda stuff). To my knowledge, we haven't found a live way to do it naturally.

Sorry if this is not so helpful to you, but I at least wanted to give my own thoughts on the matter as well as give you a reply. Plus it's just nice to see someone else having interest in running the game!

Hey Lynn, I'm glad to hear you are going to give the run a go and thanks for posting the results of your emulator testing.

I agree that multiple resets to get your target character is annoying, but I don't think we should address it with a hack. There are emulator options that appear to work as expected and, with the possible exception of older models, flash carts seem to work fine as well.

As Val mentioned, the TAS has a way to influence the character given at the start of the run. If a way is found for humans to do the same thing (with valid controller/console inputs), I would be all for it. Here is a thread on the topic if you are interested:

https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/11094?CurrentPage=2&PageSize=25&Sort=CreateTimestamp

I look forward to watching your runs. Shoot me a message if you want to go over anything. I love talking about the game/run.

I know the general consensus is to not accept hacks but if anyone's interested, I made a tool that does just that. I tested that it doesn't modify anything else by playing a movie of the entire game using different characters and setting breakpoints, and the code that I updated is never run save for the start of the game. So, the rest of the game remains the same :) .

Sure, I'll bite. I'd like to test it just to see it for myself, if nothing else.

@velpachallenger, would you be willing to share it in the SegaCrew Discord sub-channel for the game as well, or allow one of us to? Most of the game discussion tends to take place either there, or on the runners' streams (although we are happy the forums are actually seeing some use! <3).

Of course! The more people to test it/provide feedback, the merrier <3

I didn't know about that Discord lol, I think I found the right one, will leave a message there!

It sounds like we may have a new batch of runners getting started with the game. I would like to get something in the rules to note that it is expected that any rom/platform the run is played on provides a random character on startup/reset.

This wouldn't close the door on discussion about this point going forward, but will clarify the current rules. I don't want someone to grind runs on an emulator or flash cart that provides their target character and we end up in a weird spot during verification.

Thoughts or objections?

I think that's reasonable -- if nothing else just to clarify the current rules -- though I do hope we can find a way to alleviate resets in the future. I personally have heard from quite a handful of other users on Twitch and YouTube that they'd actually be open to running the game IF the reset rules were changed to something with much more run-start consistency.

Though with that thought in mind that you just mentioned, A_Frame, the rules currently state that "All runs must begin with a reset that is visible in the submitted video." If we are going to clarify that the rom/platform must provide a random character on startup/reset, would we we be required to do at minimum two?

I could see an instance where a run is submitted, and although it is with a reset, it is only one reset. One reset wouldn't necessarily confirm that a random character is being provided on reset. Would we have all runs start just on power on, and then at least one reset to visually confirm?

Hey Val, my thought is that we could stick with requiring one visible reset. I hope we can state our expectation in the rule set and trust that runners will respect it. If we find that someone is using a character-select hack or similar, we can ask that they switch to an accepted rom/emulator to have their runs included on the board.