Out of safety, I've refrained from using Mesen, and haven't included it as part of the AutoSplitter. But I'm curious what's the official call from BMBU mods concerning Mesen. With this post in mind: https://www.speedrun.com/smb1/thread/5koox

I would agree with the SMB1 mods that run ahead features to reduce lag should not be allowed. I do see that it is possible to disable the run ahead in Mesen's emulation settings by setting the Run Ahead value to 0 frames. The issue I have is that it does not appear to be obvious from watching the emulator whether this feature is enabled or not. As a result I would lean towards not allowing Mesen for speedruns. I would also add that RetroArch should not be used as the last I was aware the lag reduction features that were implemented there are not able to be disabled.

it does not appear to be obvious from watching the emulator whether this feature is enabled or not

This is my feeling as well. The fact that the feature exists is fine imo (anyone could do their own build of an emulator). But it's indistinguishable, impossible for mods to know if it was left one, and a user could very well leave it on by accident.

Thanks for the official answer.

I think it would be a good idea to specify in the rule which emulator and version are allowed to avoid confusion with some new runners. I definitely agree that Mesen and Retroarch should not be used for speedrunning.

Good call, I will add an allowed emulators section to the rules. I think we should also allow FPGA consoles such as the Analogue NT Mini, retroUSB AVS, and MiSTer. My opinion on them is that they are hardware emulation and unless we find inaccuracies in them, they should be allowed.

Update: I moved the timing from the Category Rules to the Game Rules and added the approved emulator info the to Game Rules as well. I added some notes about the difficulty select to the Category rules. I also added these FPGA consoles as platforms that people can use to submit under: MISTer, Nt, NtMini, NtNoir, and AVS.

I'm wanting to run this game and have a Super Retro Trio clone Console with a custom made cart. Would this be allowed? As far as I know it's similar to FPGA as far as hardware emulation.

The Super Retro Trio by retro-bit is still a SOAC, even in its 2021 revision. It is not a FPGA system.