Hi all,

Currently, runs in the GB category are not timed exact enough. In this post I'd like to share why I think so and also like to make a suggestion on how I think we could improve timing and the current rules.

(I brought some of the issues up yesterday in the Discord but I'm not sure everyone's aware of the current situation for the GB board.)

Current top runs

Let's have a look for example at the top two runs, the one from poultfloyd and the one from Luzbelheim.

If we define an exact starting frame (which currently does not exist by the rules, I'll get to that later), like the first frame "Bertil Hörberg 2012-2015" is not (completely) visible anymore, we can time those two runs using any video software or online tool like the yt-frame-timer, and get the following:

• poultfloyd: 43s 767ms
• Luzbelheim: 43s 817ms

So there's a small, but clear difference (50ms, or 3 frames @ 60 FPS), and so the runs should not be treated as a tie, poultfloyd's run is faster and therefore should be first on the leaderboard.

If you don't believe me, I made a comparison video of the two runs, you can check it out here:

Both runs start on the exact same frame, and you can switch to the very end of the runs to see if they end at the same time, as the current leaderboard suggests (as they tie for 1st place). On Youtube, you can move between single frames with "," (forward) and "." (back) to get the exact frames.

I'm not sure if the timing was done relying on LiveSplit, which is started by hand and therefore inaccurate? As this is in the "optional" rules, I guess this is currently the case.

The speedrun.com Site rules however clearly states that this would be wrong: "The time of the run is the time in the video from starting condition to ending condition. It is not the time shown on the timer program, which is started and ended with human error."

Optional rules and penalty

There are some more issues to point out which I think are unfair.

My run (https://www.speedrun.com/gunmc/run/zqg0npxm) got a penalty, which is according to the current rules, but in my opinion not fair.

I'm running on original Nintendo hardware (Super Game Boy 2, using an Everdrive X7 to load the ROM), so I honestly don't understand why that should count less than an emulator.

Besides the obvious that I am not using Gambatte, I also can not track my input from the Super Game Boy 2, which would be required by the rules to not get a penalty.

(By the way: It is beyond my understanding how and why the "ss.x99"-penalty got in place, but it messes with timing, which should just not happen, it is the single-most important variable for a run on any SRC board.

Either a run is valid and follows all mandatory rules, or it is not and it should not appear on the leaderboard. Having "optional" rules is not a good idea in my opinion and I've never seen anything like this on another GB game or leaderboard in general. But that's just my personal opinion, see below for a suggestion.)

Suggestion

There would be one solution to all curent problems: Switch to frame-based timing.

• This would be much fairer (and more exact) and a situation with wrong timing like above could not happen again.
• This would need a clear starting frame (like already existing for the end of timing), which makes sense in any case. If there's no defined (frame-precise) starting point, why even bother measuring time in milliseconds?
• This would obsolete all the current "optional" rules and the penalty: LiveSplit is not needed anymore and 30 or 60 FPS doesn't matter (you can use 60 FPS for a chance to win a single frame - I could elaborate on that if needed). The "show input" does not make sense for running on original hardware.

About emulators

There is one additional point I'd like to make (not as important, but still) - some Emulators run far too fast (see here for an extensive comparison of emulators which Legs, me and some other GB runners have done), I think it would make sense to have at least one mandatory rule which emulators are allowed. (Currently, most GB games accept Bizhawk, Gambatte and BGB.)

If this new mandatory rule is not introduced, I could just use a faster emulator, some of which are up to 3.2% faster. For a 43 second run, this would give me nearly 1.4 seconds unfair advantage, and the current penalty would only give me up to 0.1s penalty. So it would only make sense to search for the fastest emulator, which is not a direction a speedrunning Leaderboard should go to. As I said, instead of giving some arbitrary penalty, it is more common (and also makes more sense) to only have mandatory rules, but instead enforce those.

Suggestion summary

• Switch to frame-based timing (and define a start frame)
• Drop the optional rules and penalty
• Introduce a mandatory rule to restrict allowed emulators

Thanks for reading! That was a bit longer than expected, but I think it's worth to have a detailed look at it, as I think the current rules & timing are unfair.

I'd be glad to help out or support transitioning the timing of the GB category to a more accurate, frame-based timing.

After discussing the whole issue with the Mod team, there was a consensus about new Game Boy rules which have been put in place yesterday, so the above is obsolete.