obviously i know older versions of emulator are not allowed. However since it is close to accurate of the original nes hardware, and its not listed of "acceptable emulators" can it still be considered a valid option?

If it is not listed on the acceptable emulators list I wouldn't recommend using it. Only use an emulator that is on the list for any game or category so your runs can get verified.

I can confirm that Mesen is NOT an accepted emulator for RTA runs. I've submitted past runs on Mesen and they have got denied. Highly recommend an emulator like Nestopia or FCEUX.

mesen was banned upon realisation that run-ahead was a feature and that it gives an advantage as well as there is no way to confirm that one isn't utilizing that feature.

I got banned from the Discord server by being overly curious on this very topic.

I made this video a while back demonstrating Mesen's "run ahead" feature, which is undetectable to know if it's been used in a run

According to Maru, I was trying to find ways to circumvent that rule.

What does run ahead even do?

To simplify: it emulates one (or more) frames in advance in order to "reduce input lag", which can cause the emulator to "have" even less lag than original hardware, which is obviously against the rules.

It is more technical than that, obviously. Which I will leave to more technical people to explain. XD

Also Run Ahead is super intensive on your CPU. So, Using it to emulate lag only introduces more lag.

Why not just pick one of the allowed list? It's much easier.

And my ban is a perma-ban. It happened almost a year ago, and I still can't get in there due to me being overly curious, too much for Maru's liking.