As of this post PS2 emulator is allowed on the leaderboards for this game. Runs must be played on PCSX2 (Nightly) v1.7. or above (available here). Runs that were performed prior to this announcement that still adhere to these rules will also be permitted on the boards. Keep in mind that some of the required settings are exclusive for this game but not other Crash games. If any problems arise, get in touch via the OG Crash Speedrunning Discord server.

Required Settings:

Settings -> Bios

• Please match Bios to Region of the title

• Disable: Fast Boot

Settings -> Emulation

• Disable: Enable Multithreaded VU1 (MTVU)

• Disable: Enable Instant VU1

Settings -> Interface (to open it)

• Advanced -> Enable: Pause on TLB Miss (located at the top under EmotionEngine)

Tools -> Show Advanced Settings: Enabled

Quality of Life Settings:

Settings -> Interface

• Disable: Pause On Focus Loss

• Enable: Render to Separate Window

• Enable: Disable Window Resizing

• Disable: Pause on Menu [Within the NoGUI Menu]

Settings -> Graphics

• Use whatever renderer you prefer (Recommended: Vulkan then OpenGL)

• Enable: No-Interlacing Patches [NTSC-U only]

• Enable: Disable Interlace Offset

• Enable: Anti-Blur

If you're running a PAL/NTSC-J title set Deinterlacing to what you prefer, recommended is Blend (Top Field First).

As of this post PS2 emulator is allowed on the leaderboards for this game. Runs must be played on PCSX2 (Nightly) v1.7. or above (available here). Runs that were performed prior to this announcement that still adhere to these rules will also be permitted on the boards.

Required Settings:

Settings -> Bios

• Please match Bios to Region of the title
• Disable: Fast Boot

Settings -> Emulation

• Disable: Enable Multithreaded VU1 (MTVU)
• Disable: Enable Instant VU1

Quality of Life Settings:

Settings -> Graphics

• Use whatever renderer you prefer (Recommended: Vulkan then OpenGL)
• Enable: No-Interlacing Patches [NTSC-U only]
• Enable: Disable Interlace Offset
• Enable: Anti-Blur

If you're running a PAL/NTSC-J title set Deinterlacing to what you prefer, recommended is Blend (Top Field First).

Since we try to have loadless timing on the leaderboards to allow cross-platform comparisons, we have employed several measures (all of which are noted in the rules section!).

What counts as a load? Obviously, all blatant loading screens with an artwork and the text "LOADING" flashing above or underneath it are counted as loading times. Additionally all the lag/freeze frames preceding a loading screen or an FMV cutscene also count towards loading as those can vary very significantly depending on the platform.

How do I remove loads from my run? If you play on the Dolphin emulator, you are in luck. Just use the load remover found under 'Resources' and follow the instructions. It should do all the work for you. If you play on console, check the rules. I have added tables with fixed loading time values for most versions (obviously this is WIP as there isn't footage for every platform/region). The values are all based on runs using original game discs, therefore unintended methods of running the game via some sort of hombrew (e.g. OPL, Nintendont) are categorically banned unless the runner provides proof of their loadless time (for example by attaching a video with the loads cut out).

What problems are there with this? Xbox loads vary a fair bit depending on your console revision. There are different console runs with different disc drives (and harddrives) which significantly affect how quickly a game can load. The tables include the fastest Xbox loads known and Xbox runners are free to use that value as an overgeneralisation. If they want to know their accurate loads, there is no way but to time them manually. Additionally, the level loading screens on Xbox speed up slightly if the level has been loaded prior in the same session. To get the fastest and most consistent loading result on Xbox, enter every level once before starting runs/attempts. Another "problem" is that the load remover for Dolphin doesn't always track loading 100% as it visually appears, so it unpauses a bit sooner/later than you would expect. Realistically, Dolphin times would end up only a few seconds slower than they technically should be, but I guess that's made up by the game lagging less on emulator so it should be a non-issue.

What upsides does this have? Less clutter on the leaderboards, more competition, less reliance on having to obtain the fastest console/version.

--- NOTE: Crash Team Racing has a differing ruleset for emulators which can be found here. ---

When streaming/recording a run you must be able to capture the window to show what emulator is being used.

BizHawk is able to display the status bar below the game window. That must be displayed.

DuckStation will has specific requirements below. You are able to run without showing the window.

You must also state what emulator is being used when submitting your run.

Accepted Emulators:

• XEBRA
• BizHawk 2.9 or newer (Nymashock and Octoshock are allowed).
• mednafen
• DuckStation 0.1-6280-gcf760bbe or newer [Recommended]

Accepted Emulator on Mac:

• OpenEmu

BizHawk Setup:

Games can only run under the cue format.

• Config > Speed/Skip > Audio Throttle

If you're using the Octoshock core

• PSX > Options
• Select either mednafen mode option
• Deinterlacing the image is allowed. Select Bob in the same window. To verify that you are running with Audio Throttle enabled you must hit the increase/decrease speed keys [plus/minus] it will display a message on screen.

DuckStation Dedicated Rules:

These settings can be displayed by enabling quick menu (Default: Escape Key). You must show settings of the core settings before/after the run, you must match these settings.

Settings -> Bios

• Disabled: Fast Boot

Settings -> Console

• Disabled: 8MB RAM
• Execution Mode: Interpreter (Slowest)
• Clock Speed Control & Recompiler ICache: Disabled
• Async Readahead: 8 sectors (53KB/16ms)
• Read/Seek Speedup: None
• Disabled: Preload Image to RAM
• Disabled: Apply Image Patches

Settings -> Emulation

• Emulation Speed: 100%
• All Other Settings Disabled

Display -> Enhancements

• Disabled: Widescreen Hack
• Disabled: Force NTSC Timings (60hz-on-PAL)
• Disabled: Geometry Correction

Custom settings are allowed for anything that isn't mentioned such as internal resolution scale. We would allow enabling "Show Enhancement Settings" to simplify the user end side. However, some of the settings do not appear if they're enabled.

Quality of Life Settings: Settings -> General

• Enable: Render to Separate Window
• Enable: Disable Window Resizing

Settings -> Display

• Use whatever renderer you prefer (Recommended: Vulkan then OpenGL)
• Aspect Ratio: Auto or 4:3

If there are any uncertainties or problems, make sure to join the Discord server and contact a mod.

Over the past few months Raikzer has worked on a load remover component for LiveSplit that is able to detect loading screens in TWoC in real-time. You can download it from the Resources tab. At the moment, this is still a public beta so further updates are bound to come in the future. Please follow the instructions on the GitHub page of the project for a setup. If you're struggling to set it up with the instructions, feel free to ask for help in the Discord server.

The load remover is currently compatible with the following versions of the game:

• PS2 [EN]
• PS2 [JP] (further tests are being made here though)
• Xbox [EN]

More console (Gamecube) and language (PAL languages, Korean) support will come in the future. I will update this post whenever more features and version support is added.

What exactly does it detect? It detects the beginning and end of loading screens between levels and the warp room. It also pauses on every fully black frame. These show up before and after loading screens to transition into the level/warp room, but also before mask dialogue cutscenes are being loaded and during death transitions. All of these instances (even the length of the black screen after dying) vary from console to console - including different models of the same console - and sometimes from region to region. Removing this difference is the point of the load remover.

Finally, this will cause a few changes in the rules. From now on, players with compatible versions of the game are advised to use the load remover to submit their times. Using the old spreadsheet method (which, frankly, nobody liked) will soon be allowed no more unless you use a version that is not compatible with the load remover yet. Once we can safely consider the load remover out of the beta stage, it will be mandatory. Cutting out your loads in video editing could still be allowed under certain circumstances (such as when you're doing potato cam stuff) but that usually means more work for ya.

If you use the load remover and notice any hiccups (e.g. pauses during gameplay or undetected loading screens) please report them to either Raikzer or myself.

And last but not least: Do not cover your game feed in OBS with anything (that includes alerts) or it may wrongfully detect or ignore something that it shouldn't!

It's time for a quick announcement: Since we've had various polls to decide the look of the leaderboards we have come to the conclusion to merge the Nitro-Fueled mode runs with the Classic mode runs. The poll was quite the split, we can admit that, but all the moderators of the game - as well as various people who've put major time into NF - unanimously agree that the differences between the NF mode and the Classic mode do not warrant a category split. In fact, NF runs are virtually the same as Medium difficulty runs on NF. With that split out of the way, it is easier to have the traditional Any% and 101% categories as main categories for the boards, which an overwhelming majority seems to prefer according to a previous poll. Difficulties will no longer be separate categories either. Runs will not completely lose their designations though, a mode variable will be there which will allow you to select either Easy, Medium, Hard or Classic according to your setting for the run. Understand that this change is to be implemented to have a more streamlined and less cluttered leaderboard and to make sure it is also easy to navigate through it. The subcategories for Current Patch, Old Patch and Lap Skips will still be in place, the latter two being miscellaneous ones. If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to ask.

Recently people have been constantly asking if we'll allow runs of CTRNF from day 1. The short answer is no.

In order to figure out the load remover, in-game requirements for rewards and categories fully, we would all need to play and analyze the game first. This is what we shall do for the first week or so. You can speedrun right on day 1 but we won't accept any submissions (yet) and the run will be rejected later if it doesn't adhere to the rules that are not quite established yet. That's all for now. An update when submissions will be taken will be posted here and/or in the Discord server probably.

Since the PS1 and PC versions have (unsurprisingly) massive loading time differences, I decided to split the two categories for the moment. Ideally we'd have both versions on the same leaderboard with loadless times but we don't have a loadless timer and I dunno how to make one. If someone looks into it (should be simple because most PS1 runs are on emu) then let me know I guess.

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

English: https://cyberscore.me.uk/group/339/2310 Japanese: http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=gba2

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

English: https://cyberscore.me.uk/group/340/2312 Japanese: http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=gba1

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

https://www.cyberscore.me.uk/game/1352

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

International: https://www.cyberscore.me.uk/game/180 Japanese (Time Trials): http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=nc_gcps2_timetrial Japanese (Relic Runs): http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=nc_gcps2_timetrophy

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

International: https://www.cyberscore.me.uk/game/326 Japanese: http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=crash4

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

International: http://ctr4ever.joora.fr/home.php Japanese (Time Trials): http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=rc_timetrial Japanese (Relic Runs): http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=rc_timetrophy

We don't host the leaderboards for time trials/individual levels on here since there already is one that has been used for quite a long time before. Please look into those if you're interested in those kinds of runs for this game:

NTSC: https://www.cyberscore.me.uk/game/291 PAL: https://www.cyberscore.me.uk/game/800 Japanese: http://crashhouse.curahome.net/crashtime/?game=crash3

LMilliava on Twitter messaged me about two new little strats he found. Those have potential to somewhat make any% easier or even faster since there is a chance they can obsolete some of those ridiculous infinite jumps. Since nobody's really running this game though at the moment, this is just to archive the strat here for future runners:

Since we are fans of having the best player also have the best times on the leaderboards, we decided to add loadless times for speedruns of this game. That means that runners had better timed their loading times which may vary depending on the console type (PS4/Pro/Slim) and harddrive (HDD/SSD).

EDIT: Runs without the loadless and the real time will be rejected. Submissions must be complete.

To clarify, screens that look like this count as loading screens: Fade-outs and black screens before loadouts also count towards load times as of July 7th, 2018. The load remover tool should automatically subtract the time for fadeouts along with pausing during load screens.

The loading that occurs during the transition between games on the menu is no longer counted towards load times. This only applies to Full Trilogy runs.

(Runs done prior to June 29th, 2018 did have load screens during game transition count towards loadless timing; this is because prior to the game being updated, these screens lasted about 25-30 seconds. They now last about 4).

Please add them to the boards mang (any% and hundo categories too preferably)

Yo, might wanna add the game on here since it just came out and IL's are definitely a thing within the game (there is a speedrun challenge thing for each(?) level)

Just do this instead :^)