To clarify, the issue here is not necessarily the un-official nature of the flag being used.

The issue is that flags in NI are divisive and used as reflection of identity and certain political opinions. I cannot speak for everyone and I will not go into my personal beliefs. However, there are people in Northern Ireland who would not identify with this flag. This flag can be seen to represent one community and not everyone in the country. However, on this website it is being used to reflect everyone in NI even if you don't identify with it.

I will also highlight that the flag for NI has been changed to the current flag as it used to be St Patrick's Saltire.

Clearly personal identity is important on this website as an option for pronouns has been introduced and I suspect that in this case I've raised that it was either an oversight or lack of awareness of the sensitivities.

I'm not going to make a big issue out of this and this is a real world issue which doesn't need to be dragged onto this website. However, to highlight/create awareness: the flag which has been assigned to NI is arguably contentious.

Northern Ireland has no official flag and the flying of flags in Northern Ireland is highly contentious as they are politicised.

The flag which is used on this website has not been an official flag since 1973 and is generally associated with one particular community in NI.

Some NI runners not from this community may have issues with this flag automatically being assigned to them based on their geographical location.

This is a complicated issue but I recommend this is looked into.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Northern_Ireland

Why are the race stages not done in any of the runs?

All the discs of the game are 1.00.

If you want to run with the old skips then get a copy of the disc and run it. I don't really see what the issue is here. This is a widely accepted precedent across multiple games.

Save before the level? I don't see an issue so long as you load the same save you created. The time you spent loading would be a part of the time though. I'm referring to the games saving mechanism and not save states to clarify.

Okay so we are not going to have a glitchless category at the moment. The runs will be filtered into the relevant category.

It is considered that glitchless runs are basically slow versions of the standard runs. Therefore it is not recommended to speedrun on glitchless.

The other issue we have is how glitchless is defined as there is a degree of disagreement on what is and isn't a glitch (and in that respect, what a glitch is even defined as).

Not to go too much into it but one definition is:

Glitching is an activity in which a person finds and exploits flaws or glitches in video games to achieve something that was not intended by the game designers.

another is

An error or malfunction. A glitch tends to be a small error that can affect an entire operation from running smoothly or efficiently. For example, a web designer may find a small glitch in his programming which may alter the font color of a web page.

These are two different definitions of what a glitch even is. One relates to programming faults, the other relates to the exploit of any flaw in the game.

For example, under one definition jumping over the straw in Scarecrow fields to get the life bottle is not a glitch because it isn't the result of a software or programming fault (it was a conscious design by the developers to place the corn in such a way) so by this definition it is acceptable.

Then under the other definition, it is a glitch because it's an exploit of what the developers intended - you are supposed to get the machine part and cut through the corn (they may have placed the corn in that way but it doesn't matter cause it's not what they intended).

Then take inventory glitch and level looping:

The fact that you can double tap to close and reopen the inventory and move in the space between it opening and closing is not a programming fault. It was just poor design on behalf of the developers - the game was designed in such a way, it was an oversight on their part. So in this respect it is not a glitch.

On the other hand, it's an exploitation of what the inventory is used for and travelling out of bounds is clearly not what the developers intended.

To discuss another game: Pokemon Red/Blue. In their Any% Glitchless category they allow you to use Poke Doll on Marowak and dig inside buildings. They are not developer intended but they are allowed. By one definition they would be a glitch and other not.

So if they are allowing you to use Poke Doll and skip an intended Key item in that game (Silph Scope) which skips a whole game area. How is that any different to say wanting to skip a whole level out of bounds?

You can now understand why it is difficult to determine what is and isn't acceptable. The category would be a long list of you can't do this but you can do this and it will probably never be agreed as to what is acceptable unless you ban absolutely everything which then again could be challenged. Considering that a "glitchless run" would be a slow version of what is now the accepted routes for this game we are not adding glitchless to the leaderboards.

I am currently discussing with the other mods regarding the requirement for a Glitchless category.

I haven't rejected your run - I was tidying the leaderboards and it must have auto-rejected it cause I deleted the category.

Will let you know the outcome on the glitchless category and you can submit then.

EDIT: in fact for now I will put it into any% and if it gets changed I will move it.

We don't use the spreadsheet anymore - in fact I forgot that it even existed. It will be retained for archive purposes. I have now specified that it is no longer in use.

There are no glitchless categories here because no one runs them anymore. Everyone jumped over to glitched because it is significantly faster. From what I recall (4 or 5 years ago) there was very little to no difference between 100% and Max%. That's why if you look at the spreadsheet there are hardly any runs in the "glitched" 100 and Max categories because there was so little tech that the runs were basically identical. At the time any% was so ridiculous that it made the current any% look like a cakewalk. Any% glitchless was different to any% in that there wasn't sequence breaks or large skips but was difficult in a different way in that you had to conserve health a lot more.

With respect to adding them to the leaderboards: there are issues that there are already too many categories and to then have glitchless categories for both console and emulator and then their respective runs is simply unnecessary. There are further issues that there are no longer any videos for the glitchless runs from the leaderboards to add them in.

Simply put: the glitchless runs are noncompetitive and I would not urge anyone to run them. If anyone wants to run any%, 100% or max% without using glitches then we will just put them into those categories as they still fit the same category definitions.

EDIT: for clarifications

KrazyRasmus - Today at 9:53 PM uhm looks like I bugged the game or something looking at the replay, I should've died in the last level, but I got full health and the timer went to 999 I might've accidentally cheated, indeed http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/Mercs-SMS ahhahahahahaha I must've accidentally done that

Reported to twingalaxies.

Cool "community" for this game.

You all hackers anyway.

Kind Regards,

Alowishus

Stop playing this game.

Thanks.

Experience as a runner (selection process and actual run time)

• As a runner, I have no real complaints though the general consensus was that the selection process was a bit too long - I have no experience from submitting to other marathons but it did seem to drag out for ages. When doing the run it was fine, no tech issues, everything was good.

Experience as an attendee (arriving, checking in, venue, cleanliness, etc)

-Arrival and check in was easy. Was kinda surprised that there were no lanyards on arrival but we got them later so was fine. Someone marked me down for a 2XL shirt which I didn't request but was easily solved. A major gripe was that the stream was not on a projector. You shouldn't have to be at the couches to see the stream. The couch setup was comfy, though there was generally a lack of chairs throughout the venue. Non-speedrun material should also probably not be located in the main stream room. Having the practice area behind the stream was great but it was both hard to practice and sometimes annoying hearing the persistent shouting of people playing smash or other fighting games. I have no issue with those games though it would have been better if it was in a different room. Even during some of the runs on stream you can hear shouting in the background.

Experience volunteering at tech or hosting,

-To comment on the experience as a tech volunteer: My first tech shift was essentially being thrown into the deep end. I did not really know what to expect and how to essentially do anything. There was no guidance on how to use any of the software or hardware. Thankfully JohnUK89 stuck around to give me a steer and btrim (shoutouts to both) was able to assist but the fact that i couldn't do anything really on my own initiative or at least follow a step by step process made me feel like i was basically useless and that volunteering my time was pointless. It's not clear if i was meant to know how to use all the software (xsplit and speedcontrol) before volunteering though in that eventuality, the requirement to have this knowledge before volunteering was not specified and it should be mentioned for any future volunteering. There should be an explanation for everyone on what to do and/or information for at least general problems at the tech station.

-In one instance which I found both insulting and infuriating was to be essentially scolded like a child because "that's not the way we do things" when I was not told any of the processes to follow or how to operate anything. How am I meant to know that? Use my magic crystal ball?

Experience of accommodation (be it your hotel or mass housing).

• I stayed at the Scandic. I don't have any real major complaints about the hotel. The lack of air conditioning was noticed due to the persistent heat at the start of the week, the rooms were constantly warm. I noticed in comparison to some of the other attendees rooms that my room was substantially of lower quality. It was close to the venue which was good.

I just want to comment generally on some of the other comments from other attendees. Mainly in relation to the location of the event in general, the location of the venue and the hotel. By some of the complaints raised, people seem to want to fly into an international airport in a major city, take two steps out the door of the airport into their hotel and then another two steps out of the hotel into the venue. Those expectations are unrealistic and makes it sound like picking a venue is like throwing a dart onto a map and saying we will pick there.

I am not saying the complaints are not valid but finding a venue which can hold approx 400 people, have good internet connection, hotels nearby, mixed food outlets nearby, pubs nearby, have space for mass housing, good public transport connectivity and doesn't cost a fuck-ton to hire and cause attendee fees to ramp isn't exactly the easiest thing. In a nutshell: you can't have everything.

Generally, I hope I don't sound like I am whining. I had a good time and the event was fun. Look forward to attending in the future.

Can someone contact me on discord (I am in the discord group) to discuss the Magical Quest 3 run. Thanks.

Please change my estimate for Magical Quest 3 from 40min to 35mins.

Updated runs on my speedrun.com and on my twitch page.

Thanks.

EDIT: There are other runs on my twitch page so you can get a feel for the run.

My other run Medievil I am not likely to offer anymore as i haven't practiced it a huge amount.

Could I please request that my Clockwork Knight submission be removed?

I want to focus on the other games which got past first cuts.

Cheers.