At what point can we support at least moderators having the ability to edit forum thread titles? Do you know how many moderation requests could have been avoided if the title of that thread was changed to add 'READ THE FIRST POST'? I'm mostly flabbergasted that such a basic forum feature is absent.

Then again, I wish this forum was more like a proper phpBB/vBulletin forum, with features like searching forum posts, one-click quoting posts, and a listing of topics with new posts since your last visit. But now I'm just asking for something I'm vastly more familiar with that I'll actually use and, more importantly, will never happen so I better give up that pipe dream of this forum being useful.

For now, I'll just settle for editable thread titles.

Feel free to use this thread to post your findings of memory addresses within Panel de Pon. I will start with what I already had posted in my guide:

Addresses are based on BizHawk

000338 (1 byte) Stage Timer (seconds) 00037E (1 byte) Stage Timer (frames of second - 60 frames per second) 000418 (1 byte) flag for determining when opponent's screen should be shaking (0=no, 1=yes) 000420 (1 byte) counter for opponent's screen shaking 001860 (1 byte) Player 1's bottom-left tile 001960 (1 byte) Player 2's bottom-left tile 001A76 (4 bytes) RNG value 001A80 (1 byte) Player 2's CPU Speed 006D60 (2 bytes) Player 1's Stop Timer 006D62 (2 bytes) Player 2's Stop Timer 006D67 (1 byte) opponent's screen shake level

I think I have a different construct of misc categories than most. It had always been drilled in my head as I was getting into speedrunning that different main categories had different levels of meaningful game content. Having been the first to document speedruns of multiple games, I also ascribe to the idea that you don't need a community to speedrun so deciding main categories based on community preference at a particular moment in time is a disservice to new runners. My preference is to base main categories on ingame content and base misc categories on community interest.

With that in mind, having tried to complete the game both ways, I cannot think of anything that could convince me that manip runs and no manip runs have different levels of meaningful game content. Both runs complete the same number of duels in the campaign mode and only differ, at present, in the number of free duels, which I equate to grinding levels in RPGs and consider filler. Therefore, I could not split the two into main categories in good conscience.

But, if the community really wants them separate, then I think misc is the only place for no manip.

I feel it important to understand where I have come from in this game and speedrunning in general in order to understand how I have arrived at my positions.

I come into this discussion as someone who has lost their patience trying to beat this game casually. I resorted to RNG manipulation just to say that I could beat this game. I've only done it once because I do not have the time to devote to losing hours of my life to RNG on a regular basis thanks to my full time job. My primary speed games are the Puzzle League series (Tetris Attack, Pokemon Puzzle League, et al.). Once I have more downtime not devoting myself to those games a great deal by necessity, I want to revisit this game and improve my time. If my Panel de Pon exploits are any indication, I feel like I have something left to do in this game that piques my interest.

I also come into this discussion as someone who has successfully performed nearly full-game RNG manipulation of another Yu-Gi-Oh! game (Sacred Cards). I have also put in many hours of research figuring out how to best manipulate runs for the Japanese version of Tetris Attack, Panel De Pon. As such, I am a fan of RNG manipulation and find it to be a much more enjoyable way to play a game when done right. Other people are not interested in playing a game that way and I cannot blame them.

I also come into this discussion as someone who has gotten into multiple speed games without the support of an active community (Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, Monster Rancher Advance to name a few). I have welcomed the contributions of others, but I have not sought them out. I have never personally witnessed a place where substantial community growth has led to speedrun innovation; therefore I do not value it. Some people in this discussion do value fun and community growth. I have never found those factors to be of great import to me when I am sitting down in my bedroom with just my TV, my game, and my controller trying to go as fast as I can in the moment.

I also come into this discussion as someone experienced in games where categories are driven largely by game content, not by community interest. Community-driven categories in my speed games were largely created before I got involved with them. It was always driven in my head that separate categories have varying amounts of unique gameplay. In my mind, challenge runs are supposed to introduce new gaming content necessary to play the game fast under the self-imposed restrictions. I believe that categories driven by content should be the main categories and those driven by community interest should be miscellaneous.

I recognize that these opinions are a bit unusual and could be construed as contrarian, but they are shaped on my personal experience and are just that, opinions. Several of these opinions go against what other people perceive as speedrunning norms, but to paraphrase GFC from the Discord discussion, norms do not create the rules and, to stop paraphrasing GFC and put my own spin on it, should not restrict your way of thinking.

In applying my previously mentioned principles to Forbidden Memories runs with and without RNG manipulation, and having attempted to complete the game in both ways, I find that runs without RNG manipulation fail the content test. The extra "content" found in a run without RNG manipulation consists of countless extra duels played in Free Duel mode. I find all of these extra duels to be filler as they do not actually count towards game completion. Runs with RNG manipulation, or "manip" runs, as I will now call them, also can do Free Duels for Meteor B. Dragons like I did (can't recall if that is still the case), but if I remember correctly, they are not necessary based on the old TAS that GenericMadScientist obsoleted. What different skillsets are used to optimize these extra Free Duels is of no concern to me. None of them actually advance the plot of game, but instead make actual plot advancement that much easier. As far as I'm concerned, no content of value to the game's progression is lost by cutting out these Free Duels. I could not justify a separate main category for these reasons. The current flag that exists as an in-category distinction is fine for those that are interested, but I am not affected whether the flag is there or not so I will not speak to the necessity of that flag.

I do recognize, however, that there is growing interest in making runs without RNG manipulation, or "no manip" runs, grouped into a separate entity from the manip runs. I have trouble separating the two based on the constructs of the game itself, but the reason this thread exists and the reason this subject is up for discussion again is because the interest in a separate category is there. Since this category would be community-driven and not content-driven, I am perfectly content with it as a miscellaneous category.

Wall of text said, I am in favor of doing one of two things: -leaving the two groups of runs as is for having the same unique content, regardless of whether the flag is removed or not; or -putting the no manip runs in a miscellaneous category, not a main category, in the name of community interest.

I also recognize, however, that many people would find strange the idea that the most popular category is a miscellaneous category based on their own constructs of what miscellaneous categories should be. I am not interested in being completely blind to that perspective. With that in mind, my gun-to-my-head preference would be to keep things as they are.

EDIT 1 hour later: I remembered another point I wanted to make. To anyone who says that rules should be decided by what the community prefers: you don't need a community to speedrun. This is why I prioritize the constructs of the game, which are not likely to change, over the feelings of the people that play it, which is subject to change all the time.

The subject of the title taken at face value has kinda bothered me. I ignore the front page because I don't see when the runs were done without clicking on each one. That list of runs means nothing to me outside of my followed games. I would pay attention to it more if the date of the run was shown and the list was sorted by verification date. Can you imagine TASVideos sorting their publications by submission date? It wouldn't make sense there, but somehow it makes sense to do that here...?

After reviewing dokidokipory's run on the Retron 5, I have determined that it loads screen transitions far too quickly for original consoles to compete. Therefore, I am banning future runs done on the Retron 5 from future submissions. It's all in the name of a fair fight, just like in actual BattleBots competitions. Right?

https://www.speedrun.com/BattleBots_Design_and_Destroy

I did some runs of BattleBots: Design and Destroy today. I submitted my best run and noticed that @Altec, the only mod, has not logged in in 3 months, only has a Twitch contact and only has one video on their channel, that being their own BattleBots run almost a year ago. I tried whispering to them, but considering the lack of activity on their channel, I have no reason to believe that I will get a response in three weeks.

Let's rephrase the question, particularly to @news:

We know the result of every American version password ( http://www.ign.com/faqs/2004/monster-rancher-advance-ultimate-passwords-faq-554155 ). Is there a way to know the result of every Japanese paasword? The American version has 1 character set for passwords. The Japanese version has 3.

I just found myself wanting arrow-like buttons on a run page to go to runs of adjacent ranks instead of clicking back to the leaderboard. i.e. If I had the 3rd place run in a category open, there would be links to 2nd and 4th, probably below the video.

From what I've read, you're not alone. Not sure the game makes it clear that you have to fight Holly/Colt again. I guess I will find out when I finish my casual playthrough. So far, I'm liking the idea of building up Guts and just using a few attacks to one-shot everything as opposed to chipping away with cheaper moves. I have the Miracle team of Tiger/Gail/Suezo and I keep wanting to replace Tiger with Golem to have something else with high-attack cards. The Tiger combos and mid-range damage cards aren't cutting it for me. Maybe I'll put this on my speedrun to-do list sooner rather than later.

Having never played this game before, I had to do some research in order to give an informed opinion on this. It's why I haven't spoken on this for so long. My apologies.

You don't actually reach an ending by getting Master Rank. After getting Master Rank, you have to fight Holly/Colt until you start the sequence to unlock the Old Ruins. Once you get to the very bottom floor and defeat that boss in the final room, the boss reveals himself to be Tim and will ask you whether you will give up your cards and go back to the past to collect them all. After saying yes, the other player character enters the final room, both your character and Tim disappear, and then the game transitions into an epilogue of sorts followed by credits. That appears to be where the ending is. I also have the understanding that you have to do this at least once to get all the cards for the best ending. I should start playing this myself to be sure.

With that in mind, I would end the run either when you confirm the final choice with Tim or once you clear the final text box. One thing I feel very certain of, however, is that the game does not end at Master Rank.

I'm not sure for how long, but NicoNico videos no longer embed on run pages--as in they try to, but the player never loads. I have had to go into some runs and add links that don't auto hyperlink in the comments to see the videos, such as here: https://www.speedrun.com/run/1zx6vvez

RTA is the default. It's not like the saved time absolves you from the video requirement.

This was completed a while ago, but I still get the occasional question on how to "fix" the World Record component so I am updating this thread with the how-to.

To correctly set the World Record component of LiveSplit, you will need to change two places:

1. In the Splits Editor, change the Run Category to the main game mode you are playing (1P Stadium or Marathon, as applicable) and set the necessary variables under the Additional Info tab.
2. In the Layout Editor, in the World Record component, tick the box at the bottom to Filter Leaderboard By Variables.

Feel free to yell at me if you need assistance.

Someone should edit the thread title to add "READ THE FIRST POST" because I've seen too many people post here without doing that to have faith that everyone would do it.

I have started running Puzzle League as a standalone game without regard to actually acquiring a 3DS in a new game as CrazyCalv was wanting to do. I want to have a leaderboard with both Normal and Hard mode for Story Mode categories, but I'm kinda hamstrung by what you guys were planning to do with Puzzle League, if anything.

Actually, I just finished a runthrough on a mobile emulator of only winning Links. Unless MyBoy is borked, the game's only checking for a Links win. Then, all you have to do is win Mushroom to get the ending.

From what I recall (and the online walkthroughs are generally silent on this), you can place in the top 3 within the first four tournaments to unlock the next tournament. I believe there's an NPC that says something about that, too. However, you have to win them all to unlock Mushroom. That scenario hasn't happened to me in a long time, but that's what I remember happening.

Requesting two consoles/peripherals: Satellaview ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview ) and Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom ( aka SFCMini, I guess?, when that comes out with the SNES Classic; https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2017/170627.html ).

At first glance, Tetris Attack and its Japanese counterpart, Panel de Pon, appear to be mere reskins of each other. Their gameplay mechanics are very similar. However, there are enough differences in CPU and scoring behavior between the two that we have separated those leaderboards, which is great because Nintendo has released them on different platforms. Panel de Pon is on Japan's WiiVC, but Tetris Attack is not on North America's WiiVC, for instance. (Damn licensing issues)

This brings me to the Satellaview. There is a Japanese back-port of Tetris Attack (Yoshi's Panepon BS version, i.e. not Panel de Pon) that was broadcast through the Satellaview in November 1996 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Satellaview_broadcasts#Broadcast_game_list ) and the ROM can still be played via flashcart or specialized emulators. It doesn't have any significant differences with the English Tetris Attack (since text has zero impact on the speedrun's final time) so I would like to add Satellaview to Tetris Attack's platforms to allow it.

SFCMini is also a special case. It wouldn't be right to add the SNESClassic platform to Tetris Attack because that's not going to be on the SNESClassic, but Panel de Pon isn't going to be on the SNESClassic, either, so that doesn't feel appropriate. Besides, Panel de Pon will not be the only game on the SFCMini and not on the SNESClassic ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_Classic_Edition ).

One of the normal conveniences of using an emulator over console is that you usually do not have to sit through a BIOS screen. As a console runner, I do not have this luxury. (I am far from done with this game. I am just focused on other things at the moment.)

Effective today, NEW runs will be required to either enable the GBA BIOS or be assessed a time penalty of four seconds per reset during the run.

Considering how many times resets will happen during the current route, this will add up quickly. This new rule is simply in place to level the playing field. As a rule, I find that emulators should never have an advantage over console.

If you are unable to locate/dump the GBA BIOS, Google is your best friend. That is all I can say.

Any objections to this rule should be placed in this thread.