Okay, I just realized that I started with PicoDrive, and already had Genesis Plus X installed. I switched to that emulator at 1:26:40 of this video. (Link: ) You can see me adjust the screen size, but OBS wasn't immediately showing the window after I switched, so I didn't notice the change at first. It's more evident when I switch back to PicoDrive after having the same issue. At 3:16:40, I go into the game menu again, and at 3:17:42 it shows that the emulator being used was Genesis Plus X. I'm unsure what settings I need to change.

Thank you for letting me know! I also have Retroarch, so I'll run the same emulator and hopefully that shores up the issue!

Side note: my strategy to save a second is to wait until the bandits enter one of the houses before you do, to skip having to see the trap menu. I'm gonna attempt to run that later on tonight over at twitch.tv/willwagnermusic if you wanna stop by.

I just saw this. This would've saved me a buncha time :). Thanks!

So, I recreated the method by which the top times were achieved, and the clock is physically running faster in the games of the top times. While my emulators seem to run at about 61.5 seconds per minute, the top times have gotten it to slightly less, about 61 seconds. I've tested the clock in three different environments: outside, the ultra modern house, and the old house (where I originally did my run). I ran a whole stream of the various ways to run, including a potential time save, in the later ones.

I realized how the clocks differ, when I hit play on both the WR video, as well as my video, while the same amount of time is left on both in-game clocks. (Link to Test 1 - Old House: ). In my video, at 6:45 into it, the in-game timer shows 14:00 left, while the Livesplit timer is up to 6:13.14 (or about that). The WR run gets to 14:00 left when the Livesplit timer is at 6:09.88 (or similar). So, the final run should be 3.5 seconds behind or so. When both runs reach the 10:00 left mark, the WR time is at 10:13.17, but my timer is at 10:17.17. So, over those 4 in-game minutes, about 0.5 seconds were gained. When both runs reach the 5:00 minute mark, the WR run is at 15:16.77, my run is at 15:22.61, almost 6 seconds behind. At 1:00 minute remaining, the WR timer is at 19:19.33, while my timer is at 19:26.03. Over the course of 13 minutes, I went from 3.5 seconds behind, to nearly 7. This gain of 0.5 seconds per minute could be worth as much as 10 seconds over the course of a run. I turned off the in-game audio because I thought that perhaps the sound was making it run slower, but I also considered that "The Old House" might just make the clock run slower, but it didn't. I set everything back to normal, and tried testing by recreating the WR in "The Modern House".

Since I explained everything in the previous paragraph, I'm just gonna focus on the highlights here. (Link to Test 2 - Modern House: ) I click "yes" to enter the modern house before 6 seconds, and the modern house is loaded, before 9 seconds. There is 19:57 on the in-game timer. The speedrun opts to take a few more seconds outside, and they go into the house at around 9 seconds, with 19:53 left on the in-game timer. So, with 19 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 1:06.71, and the WR is at 1:06.29, about a half a second ahead of me. With 15 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 5:11.01, and the WR is at 5:09.44. With 10 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 10:16.07, while the WR is at 10:13.01. With 5 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 15:21.22, while the WR is at 15:16.64. With 1 minute left on the in-game timer, I'm at 19:25.10, while the WR is at 19:19.61. I was literally 0.5 behind the WR when I stopped touching the controller, and I lost time in a run where you don't move. I had one more test to check.

For my final check, I did one more run, with a 125% overclock. (Link to Test 3 - Overclock: ) So, with 19 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 1:04.87, and the WR is at 1:06.29. With 15 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 5:04.72, and the WR is at 5:09.44. With 10 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 10:08.82, while the WR is at 10:13.01. With 5 minutes left on the in-game timer, I'm at 15:09.64, while the WR is at 15:16.64. With 1 minute left on the in-game timer, I'm at 19:10.27, while the WR is at 19:19.61. So, at 125% overclock, I go from being behind 5 seconds, to being ahead by 9 seconds.

I don't think anyone's overclocking or speeding up something intentionally, but perhaps the issue is the emulator. I've used both MegaDrive and PicoDrive, but both seem to yield the same results. I'm confident that my method might save as much as a second, but can't be sure if the clock timers aren't in sync. I guess I could run the emulator at like, 102% overclock, but that doesn't seem fair, or right. I'd much rather be in agreement about which emulator to use, in order to ensure everything is by the book.

Sorry for the rant, but I only realized this issue after a handful of the updated runs weren't able to beat my previous WR time, in spite of it being a seemingly quicker method. I'm not sure if I can install Genesis Plus GX, but it might be the only emulator available to some.

However people wanna proceed, works for me. I just wanna make sure I'm doing everything as intended before I try to run the game again.

I noticed this wasn't on the leaderboard, is there something I need to do differently or update in order to enable that?

Does the clock start on the first bell?

They should probably be separate. I didn't know they were being put together, but GameGear and Gameboy are entirely different games, and need to be separate as well. No promo needed, because we agree!

That's part of the issue with the US version; you have to hold it, but not for too long, or it thinks you're trying to walk, rather than leave the ring. It's difficult enough where this is the only game I play the Japanese version on. You should be able to execute it one out of every two or three attempts, eventually, but it's still considerably difficult to get precise. Growing up, I had no idea how to do that, and I would always get counted out as Andre the Giant.

I have the US version open right now, and it should be just double tapping the direction towards the ropes you wanna exit/enter the ring from. If you double tap a direction and hold, you'll run, but if it's spaced right, give a slight hold on the second press when you're close to the ropes. I wish there was an easier way to do it in the US version, but my best call is to practice it in two player mode to get the spacing just right.

Hey! So, the Japanese version of the game has more fluid controls to get into and out of the ring. For some unknown reason, you have to hold the d-pad towards the ring on the second tap of your double-tap towards the ropes for it to register. That was my main reason to select the Japanese version of the game to run, because it isn't as difficult to nail the ring-out/ring-in.

If you look at my run, you can see the button inputs of the run, and I think if you play the Japanese version, the enter/exit controls will feel way more natural.

With a score-based %, that inspires changing weapons every shot, disassembling, and reforming, to maximize the weapon bonus within the houses, without ticking time off the clock. This will extend the runs by close to 2x, around 2 hours, as you will be in menus very often.

I don't mind if we do the category, it's just going to invariably take more time on those runs.

The variance between the two modes is small, because you need RNG in beginner mode to have them go to the proper house 2nd (as they always go to the same house first) and in the expert mode, it's available as their first location. This makes completion of the objective able to be achieved earlier in the expert mode (last button press) but the timer takes longer to resolve.

So, in short, if we're evaluating based on the last input, I would submit the expert version of the run, which allows earliest possible trapping in the bathtub. However, if its when the timer runs out for the end of the game, then I'd go with beginner, which is half the time.

I've recently completed a "most houses" run that might be a better fit for an alternate category. In this category, the objective would be to expel them from as many houses as possible. I've attached my "most houses" run here. I'm okay with however we'd like to proceed!

Tried To Submit A "No Ring Out" SNME Run Category