So if you play the game on switch online emulator, the game will run at flat 60fps instead of the 60.0something from nes. That means the game runs very slightly slowlier than on nes. On gameplay, that makes no difference, but there's an arbitrary (about .5 seconds) time loss if you play there. Why is it like this? Sure, you could say something like "because we use real time timing not in game time". But let's say in nintendo switch 2 there's an nes emulator that runs in 60.1 fps, then, the game would be running slightly faster than on nes, and people playing there would have an unfair adventage over the nes. If that happened though, I'm 99% sure the rules would be changed to not allow that, because it wouldn't make any sense for people playing on the original nes to be unable to compete. So how come people that play on switch have a disadvantage, but no one does anything to stop that just because it's the minority who play there? It has gone like this because the nes has always been the one with the highest framerate, and since not many people play on switch it has gone unresolved. But the moment nintendo releases a 60.1 fps version of the game this will break. It doesn't make any sense to allow different framerates on the same leaderboard, when using rta timing. Just because a version of the game is "official" it doesn't mean you should slap it on the same leaderboard, when it runs at a different speed. I don't think it's allowed for me to make an emulator at a different framerate and play at the same leaderboard (as it shouldn't), but on different nintendo plataforms the game DOES run at a different framerate but no one does anything about it. What I think should be done is to translate the time from the switch's framerate to nes's, the game runs practicly at the same speed, so none of them are any easier to play. Or, if you'd really not want to do that, it would make more sense to not allow it altogether.

There is no reason to convert times. A speedrun is how long it takes you to beat the game. If you play on slower hardware, it physically takes you longer to beat the game, so that's your time.

for what its worth we did do something similar - the game and watch anniversary handheld does run at a faster framerate, and its banned for that + other reasons. we allow all kinds of platforms in the name of accessibility to the game (ie i started out on WiiVC many years ago despite the framerate issues) but theres not really any interest in converting times because the time you get is the real amount of time it took you to beat the game. its also a case of us not being able to just magically convert every time super easily. sure we can determine how many frames a run took if bowser throws the right hammers, but if not we're just having to estimate and do a conversion which doesn't seem ideal. this has been brought up many times, but i don't see the rules changing any time soon

That's a really dumb solution, you allow different versions as long as it's worse? That's the worst thing you can do in the name of accessibility

The truth is it’s never going to change… Once upon a time I thought it would make sense for the community to change their standards in the name of “accessibility” and in good faith for promoting fair competition accurate to the skill level a runner possessed. I did grind this game very hard to prove that even playing on an objectively “harder” console (input lag, no prac rom ect) people could get a “good time” with the switch. At that time I imagined if I got a “good time” maybe the community would consider converting that time after seeing how hard I worked for it. Obviously it didn’t happen and it discourages individuals who want to pursue excellence in gaming on the switch, because their hard work isn’t represented in the same way that runners running on “better hardware” are. I think it’s a difficult decision that the community made and it is tough to convert every switch/nes classic run on the board but there is other solutions. Another solution is just to convert times that would be higher level like “sub 5”. Ofc that would be a debate for the community but I doubt it would even come up for a “serious discussion”. Idkkkkkk just my thoughts…