I'd like to cover some of the different timings people may use when playing these two games.

Ninja Gaiden 1

Traditionally, English speaking runners have used "SDA timing" for Ninja Gaiden, where the timer begins as soon as you gain control of Ryu, and it ends when you lose control after defeating the final boss (which is the same time as the "ding" sound, when your time and Ninpo count hits 0). I believe Japanese runners have traditionally timed it from pressing Start on the title screen. Note that you have to press start again a few frames later to skip the "Act 1" intro animation as well.

Assuming you have perfect timing in pressing Start on the Act 1 intro animation (3 frames after pressing start on the title screen), then the timing difference between Press Start and Gain Control of Ryu is: 162 frames, or 2.7 seconds.

Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos

Again, English speaking runners have traditionally used SDA timing. Note that you can hold the Start button from the title screen to instantly skip the Act 1 intro animation, too. Japanese runners have traditionally started the timer from the title screen, I believe. The timing difference between Press Start and Gain Control of Ryu is: 106 frames, or 1.77 seconds.

The main discrepancy I've seen is that people use different timing for when to stop the timer. After the timer/Ninpo countdown and "ding" sound at the end, you still have control of Ryu for a brief time period. I'm not sure what the SDA runs have traditionally done, but when Sinister1 and I started playing, we used the "ding" sound - I believe Ohon does the same thing. But, some recent runners have been ending the timer on losing control of Ryu (on this frame, the graphics begin to fade to black as well). The timing difference between timer/Ninpo reaching 0 ("ding" sound) and losing control of Ryu is: 50 frames, or 0.83 seconds.

Also, under certain conditions (and correct me if I'm wrong), I believe you can lose control of Ryu even faster - although, I think it only happens when you beat the boss with a low timer, so on almost every good speedrun I've seen, it looks about the same. Still, it's worth mentioning.

I'd like consistent times posted here, especially since the top times are extremely close. Is there a community consensus on what to use? I'd personally prefer SDA timing for timer start, and "ding" sound in both games for timer end. Thoughts?

http://ninjagaidenrta.wikia.com/

I created a wiki way back in the day with lots of information on NG1 and 2 (never got around to 3), as well as some leaderboards. I'd like to move them over here.

http://ninjagaidenrta.wikia.com/wiki/NG1_Leaderboard http://ninjagaidenrta.wikia.com/wiki/NG2_Leaderboard