I know the title isn't the best :P

But as you know, before a run starts, you have to watch a title cutscene before each run, that (as far as we know) doesn't effect the final time at all. After resetting, this cutscene is around ~10 seconds, so I was wondering if you could just make a savestate after that cutscene that is still on the title screen, and just do runs from there?

So instead of having to reset, watch the cutscene, then hit start, all you would have to do instead is just load the savestate (which skips the cutscene), and then start the game.

The Super Mario Bros. All Stars (For The Original SMB) speedruns do something similar to this, where they load a savestate that is in the menu of the game so they don't have to watch the cutscene after each attempt.

I think this would just make doing runs a bit more tolerable, but it's up to us (but most importantly the mods) to decide if this is okay or not.

i'll let others chime in but for me i prefer to see at least a soft reset before any run. For me it's just easier if everyone is using the same method to start. I'm on console and just used to resetting after every run (or run dies) so it's not a big deal for me... but i'm totally open to seeing what everyone else thinks.

Soft or hard resets should be required in my opinion. We have them for dodge ball. Keeps everything on the up and up. Keeps everyone on the same level.

Personally i dont think save states should ever be used in speedruns. Most games / runs require the end of the previous run, then a reset for submissions. Just my two cents, would be a hard no from me.

Sounds good, thank you for the responses!

Sorry, I had meant to weigh in when I reacted to the posts earlier but got busy with life. I very much appreciate all the activity this board's forum gets, you all are amazing and have made this experience much more fun than I ever anticipated.

For my two cents, I agree with everyone that I would prefer runs start with power on/reset as that is one of the "standards" of speedrunning and have always felt it provides the most level playing field.

At the same time, I very much appreciate CrabbyCrab101 offering their knowledge & experience from the Super Mario community. That's definitely one series that has a solid base in speedrunning rules & regulations so it's great having insights from someone who knows what they are talking about.

Agreed. Crabby Crab, your questions and thoughts are very well appreciated!

Bit late here, but I can see three potential problems with allowing save states:

The first would be compatibility. Save states used on a desktop emulator are no the same as EverDrive N8 save states. In the interest of fairness multiple types of save states would need to somehow be made with identical timing.

The second issue is verifying on what exact frame the save state begins. A player could adjust the save state to be a few frames ahead which would give them an advantage. How would we check for this?

The third is RNG. The crabs at the end of the game are RNG and the use of save states may lock in the crab RNG such that it isn't different every time the way it is meant to be.

I agree with zarc0nis and kuma: we should start all runs with a reset. No save states.

I think the idea was to be able to just load a save state and press START rather than waiting, so really nothing would change but I really don't have a preference. You gotta wait in Chip n Dale, sometimes it's annoying but sometimes it gives you a little time to snack, drink, stretch, or just calm down and reboot.

If it were just that initial loading of the title screen then, yeah, there would be no fairness issue, but it could still affect RNG in ways we don't expect.

It's best to avoid save states entirely with games that have RNG.