Hey all,

Ran this long ago, and got back into arcade emulation again recently. Just wondering what the rationale was behind not allowing MAME2010 (AKA MAME 0.139). As far as I'm aware, it is the only version of MAME that runs KI arcade accurately, without glitching on audio and FMVs. Versions beyond that one all seem to glitch and stutter on non-sprite content.

I simply wanted to understand if there was a specific reason in disallowing it. Thanks.

At the next NoReset speedrun event in Quebec, I personally aim to run what I like to call "The 16-bit Turtle Power Hour":

• TMNT Arcade (Arcade)
• TIT (SNES)
• THH/ROTS (Genesis)

Worked well at the Quebec City Comiccon this year.

Not sure what the requirements would be to get this added, but if it could, it would be sweet. :)

The MiSTer FPGA core for TMNT arcade has been released in the last few days.

Wanted to inquire if it was accepted as a platform to run on.

Thanks!

Just out of curiosity, and because I ran out of patience looking at each run on the board: does anyone know who has the fastest blue ring route run?

Quick question: is there a discord server for THH? I've looked for TMNT discord servers and most of the links I've seen in other games were invalid, so I wonder if those are around as well.

With that said, if there is none, I was wondering if there would be an interest in the community for one.

Thanks in advance for your feedback. :)

It has been brought to my attention that MESEN RTA's hit version 0.0.6, with a wide array of features that will help moderation. It retains MESEN's well-known accuracy while providing avenues for game moderators to ensure the game is being played clean. This fork namely does provide info on the ROM used, the type of reset used, the ROM's SHA1 hash to validate the rom being used as appropriate. More info in the video below.

SpaceColonizer's video:

Needless to day, this fork is most definitely approved and encouraged as the main MESEN fork to use for speedrunning purposes, and we would like to encourage our MESEN users to migrate to this fork.

Link to the RTA Mesen fork: https://github.com/threecreepio/mesenrta/releases

Mesen was previously banned due to what was believed to be an undetectable feature (ie: run-ahead lag reduction) that could yield an unfair advantage from a speedrunning perspective. A fairly simple detection method for run-ahead was brought to my attention, and I find that it's easy enough to warrant allowing Mesen back.

So from now on, Mesen is no longer banned. However, showing the input display will be MANDATORY. Mesen runs without the input display being shown will not be accepted.

The question here is simple: would you be interested in having individual level boards for each level? I personally believe there would be some merit to that, the same way there is merit in Punch-Out, for instance, to have IL boards for each boxer.

So yay, or nay?

Going forward, rog_pf will be permabanned from submitting runs to the Double Dragon leaderboards unless they accept to be proofcalled based on our standards.

I have been informed by several moderators of other arcade runs they plays that their runs were very suspicious. First of, their twitch account is fairly new, and then they claimed several world records in several well-known arcade games. Which would raise eyebrows, but by itself would be plausible, while still being improbable. Second, it appears that their YouTube channel is just as old as their twitch channel, with several runs being uploaded in a short amount of time. Typically, when something like this happens, we are dealing with a cheater.

Notwithstanding the above, several mods reported that Rog's runs are TAS-level perfect, which I tend to agree with. In their DD run, they seems to be able to consistently pull the punch-uppercut strat on Abobos, which requires amazing timing, and which is bound to fail quite a few times in a run. However, all of their twitch streams consist of him leaving attract mode on for a while, talk, then "run" the game perfectly and end the stream there. Which is definitely NOT how speedrunners play. Normally, you'd see quite a few failed runs, and more importantly, you wouldn't see the stream end 18 minutes in because the runner would get a WR. The fact that this patterns occurs exactly as described on all the games they ran not only indicates a pattern, but a modus operandi.

I am highly suspicious of these runs being rough TASes being played back. Done with just enough "skill" to beat current WRs while not looking all TAS-like. However, given how ridiculously lucky and/or precise one has to be for the Abobo punch setups, I am convinced that their runs are TASes being played back.

Furthermore, if I can be blunt, the reactions seen on the videos and their acting skills are... subpar at best? Plus, the presses and controller movements don't match what we see. Nor do the button press sounds.

Finally, when I asked him for further info, he would not respond. I bet they will now that this decision is enacted, but the terms will remain the same, and will not be negotiable.

As such, after discussing with the other mods, rog_pf is banned from submitting runs until they are WILLING and CAPABLE of demonstrating they possess the skill level required to match the performance they submit on a livestream to which one of our moderators WILL assist. This proofcall WILL include Rog having to perform arbitrary actions during his proofcall runs in order to demonstrate that this is not a TAS being played back. And the execution will have to be on par with what his runs show. Should he choose to accept this proofcall, we will of course grant him a reasonable number of runs as we all know that several circumstances could make it so that we don't get it right the first time. While we will be understanding on that front, we will also be strict on anything we find suspicious.

We will give rog_pf 7 days to decide whether or not they want to go through with this. Should they not respond or refuse to go through with this, the ban will remain, and no further chance for appeal will be granted.

In summary, unless rog_pf agrees to prove his skill level in accordance to our standards, he will remain permabanned from submitting to the Double Dragon leaderboards. Given his other run-ins with other arcade game moderators, we are confident that his submissions cannot be trusted, and that said submissions are a detriment to the integrity of this game's leaderboard.

Please note that due to its frame run-ahead feature, runs using RetroArch will no longer be accepted. Furthermore, all previous runs using RetroArch will be rejected, as this feature cannot be detected.

Thank you.

Looks like the site's borked again.

Clicking on any of my notifications redirects me to https://www.speedrun.com/run1.

FYI: There currently seems to be a bug with the leaderboards. My PC/Steam Easy run is showing up in Normal, and the board incorrectly displays me as 1st. The erroneous run has been erased, but still shows on the board for some reason.

I have notified ELO via the support hub and will follow up.

Hey everyone,

I'm MarthSR, and I've just been appointed as a new moderator for this game.

There were a few issues when submitting runs on certain boards, namely because the board would always expect 2 players even in the 1-player subcategory. So we've gone ahead with a complete overhaul of the board layout. While this effectively changes nothing in how runs are categorized, it did help with resolving the aforementioned issue and reorganizing the layout.

We've also clarified a few rules:

• In 2-player mode, the Player vs Player fight after defeating Willy does NOT count towards the run's total time. So no need to manage extra lives in order to "save time".
• All runs we are unable to properly identify difficulty-wise (either via showing the difficulty, or by determining how much damage the first few enemies take before dying) will be classified in the "Easy" leaderboards.
• MiSTer FPGA is now its own platform and has been added to the game's available platforms.

Should anyone have any questions, feel free to ask! I will be glad to assist however I can! :)

Hey all,

There is something I'd like to bring to the attention of the mods here concerning the arcade version.

https://tcrf.net/Ghosts%27n_Goblins_(Arcade)#Revisional_Differences

To sum it all up, there are gameplay-impacting differences between revisions of the board, which could potentially lead to runs not being on equal footing. Indeed, the japanese version of the game is different from the US/world (save for one revision), especially on later levels. For example, Satan bosses from stage 5-6 taking 4 hits to kill on the JP version, whereas on the US/world version, they take 8 hits. The number of unicorns (ie: level 1-2 bosses) changes depending on the revision. Furthermore, some versions allow for a glitch to despawn bosses from stage 4 and 5 by taking the screen as far as possible from their spawn point. And finally, some mob spawns in stage 6 are changed from one revision type to another.

While the other glitches mentioned on the link above are not relevant to speedrunning, the ones that are can make quite the difference.

Which brings me to my question: how should this be handled? Do we leave the runner the option to use whichever revision they like? Do we split the LB between 8-hp and 4-hp Satans (as the 2-unicorn variation really is a non-issue when you can easily d-boost to the platform above) in the event that some people would run it under the "harder" versions? It appears that the boss despawn can be done on at least one of each X-HP Satans variations, so I'd argue that's also a non-issue.

For reference, the WR seems to have been done on a "Japan A" revision. I personally plan on playing on Japan C to take advantage of the spawn glitch, as it seems to work far more consistently on Japan C for some reason.

Just thought I'd bring this up for the sake of transparency, and in the event that the arcade port ends up picking up steam at some point.

Thanks in advance! :D

Hey all,

Just wondering if the upcoming Jotego CPS2 core for the MiSTer FPGA platform would be allowed as a platform eventually. It is currently in beta, so obviously that wouldn't be an option right now, but given how generally accurate arcade FPGA cores tend to be even over MAME, I'd say it should be an option to investigate alongside the others currently under investigation.

Jotego has made various arcade cores, namely the Ghosts n Goblins and CPS1 cores, with the latter being accepted as a viable platform on the SF2 leaderboards.

Just thought I'd bring that option up. Thanks! :)

Hello,

Just wondering if the CPS1 MiSTer FPGA core is acceptable as a platform to play on. The main difference between standard emulators and an FPGA core is that the FPGA core is a hardware replication of the original hardware, whereas standard emulation attempts to emulate a platform through code.

The two main advantages are in terms of accuracy compared to other emulators, and no extra latency that standard emulators would incur.

Thanks for your response.

Hello all,

The MiSTer FPGA core for Alien vs Predator will be released shortly, and will be approved for future runs. They will still have to be classified as "Emulator", and will have to be mentioned in the run's description.

MiSTer FPGA is a system that replicates the hardware components of systems rather than emulate them through software, and is known for its accuracy and lagless gameplay. Ergo: it'll be the closest thing you can get to an actual CPS2 board of AvP. Therefore, as it will be far more accurate than MAME and/or FinalBurn, runs on MiSTer will be allowed.

Further information on MiSTer: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/MiSTer

Just discovered this skip that could save a few seconds. As opposed to other stages, once stage 5 is loaded (ie: when the "chibi-Scott" on the bottom right disappears), you can actually move. So simply double-tap left and steer your character's running to the upper-left (easier with the analog stick). That should lead said character straight into the door. So when the screen transitions to the stage, you'll already be past the door and you won't have to wait for the twins to walk past you.

This seems to work for screen transitions after which you immediately appear on-screen WITHOUT the computer controlling you (ie: stage 5, along with certain specific subspace zones, but NOT stage 6 oddly enough) instead of the "slow walk" entrances as seen in stages 1, 2, 4, and 7.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-the-game/release-date-pc

So yeah, looks like we'll have to add PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC as platforms once this gets released.

Holidays are not too far off! :D

I'm aware I may be opening a can of worms here, so I won't drop any names. I'll leave it up to those involved in this activity to identify themselves if they wish. And yes, if you, the reader, happen to do that, I'm ready to face criticism for bringing this up.

Regardless I've come across runs that have had the game's moderator add critique to the submission itself. Not just extra info or notes relevant to the run, but rather critique and comparison to said moderator's own run.

I wonder how people feel about this. Is it disrespectful? Is it no big deal? Should a moderator uphold their duty of impartiality when adding anything to a submission that is not their own? Is it stepping out of your jurisdiction as a moderator? Is this an abuse of privilege? Is it part of the privileges?

I personally believe this trespasses the bounds of moderation duties, and that it is at least morally questionable.

I think that could be an interesting discussion to have amongst runners and game moderators alike.