PLEASE SPECIFY if you are NTSC or PAL. NTSC Load times are about a second slower on each level, so subtract 17 seconds from your NTSC time if you're doing an individual lab, or 168 seconds if you're doing all stages.

After looking at 16 stages and averaging the difference in load times I concluded that the gain for pal games is 1.2 seconds per level and 20.4 for the 17-stage Astro Lab. This is by no means an exact value, since the load times vary based on the complexity of the level too, so on the pal game I might get a 17 second level switch time on one case and a 15 second one on another. The 20.4 compensation was calculated from the best runs of present by me and orango. New calculations might be necessary once new pbs are made - I think it might be a good idea to start using the in-game level timers (calculated from the mercury percentage p, score s, par time t and bonuses b with the formula(level time = t-s/1000+2b+5000-p/2)) at some point if the competition gets fierce - though i do not know if the percentage seen on the in game meter is accurate, i think the mercury can be split in sixteen parts and thus 6% means 6,25 % in actuality - but I am not sure about that. Time will tell.

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