United StatesWe have not had anyone submit on an Android emulator yet, but we did get a similar question about a year ago. We determined that runs on the Nostalgia NES emulator on Android would be accepted. That decision may be overturned in the future if emulation inaccuracies are found. For more details, check out this form thread: https://www.speedrun.com/zelda_ii_the_adventure_of_link/thread/uax33
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.
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.
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.
Just a quick update, I found that there's a way to hide empty columns and I turned this on. I also edited my PB time that had the Time with Loads populated so now this column is hidden. The column does reappear if you change the filter to show obsolete times due to my historical FDS run. The column will also return in the future in the event of someone submitting a run on the FDS version.
Hi! Sorry for my inactivity moderating the board lately. I've been a bit busy lately and have not been able to get around to dealing with the queue of submitted runs. I have added you as a moderator and I should be in a place now where I can get back to moderating submissions. Thanks for reaching out and for your patience, and I apologize again for the delays in getting runs approved.
Yes the load times column was added when I managed to get a PB on a play through of the FDS version. I have since beaten that time, however. I can look into removing the load times column for now, but I want to make sure that this doesn't have some unintended side effects on historical runs on the board.
The FDS version is the same as the Normal difficulty on the FC cartridge version. I believe the FDS version was the basis for all of the various Virtual Console releases as well.
After talking with the other mods and some in other communities and not having found deviation in Nostalgia.NES emulation as comparted to PC FCEUX, we have decided that we will accept runs done on the Nostalgia.NES emulator. As with anything, if inaccuracies are found with the Nostalgia.NES emulator, we may revisit this decision in the future.
Google Translation: Depois de conversar com os outros mods e alguns em outras comunidades e não ter encontrado desvio na emulação Nostalgia.NES como compartimentada para PC FCEUX, decidimos que aceitaremos execuções feitas no emulador Nostalgia.NES. Como com qualquer coisa, se forem encontradas imprecisões com o emulador Nostalgia.NES, podemos revisitar essa decisão no futuro.
Since I don't speak Portuguese, I'll respond in English and include a machine translation of my response at the end. I am not familiar with the Nostalgia NES emulator, so I am trying to do some research and discuss with the other mods before saying whether or not a run on Nostalgia NES would be accepted. I hope to have an answer soon.
Google Translation: Como não falo português, responderei em inglês e incluirei uma tradução automática da minha resposta no final. Não estou familiarizado com o emulador Nostalgia NES, então estou tentando fazer algumas pesquisas e discutir com os outros mods antes de dizer se uma execução do Nostalgia NES seria aceita ou não. Espero ter uma resposta em breve.
The first thing I will say is that double hits are an advanced technique and while they do save time are not required to be able to complete a Zelda 2 speedrun in any category. For example, runner cantaloupeme has a 1:16:32 (currently 15th place) in 100% All Keys and he does not use double hits at all.
Generally I recommend people get comfortable with fighting red dairas (the ax throwing enemies) with falling crouch stabs before worrying about double hits. Yes, this is slower but it also helps with learning how to read the daira to know when it's safe to attack and when it's not. On the bridge you have an extra challenge of dealing with the bubbles and the red daira at the same time - this is not an easy fight at 1-1-1 levels, even if you've speedrun other categories before.
As for the inputs required to do these double hits, I'll start with describing the actions in game language and then translate to what the buttons are. The red daira reads your d-pad, so it helps to let off the d-pad while jumping (your momentum will keep your motion in the air), this lets you get closer to the enemy. You need to be very close for the second hit to land. So when you jump, release the d-pad and do a falling standing stab, then when you land, you want to immediately do a rising crouch stab. To translate this to actual inputs - when you're walking, jump with A and release the d-pad. As link is falling press B to stab the enemy. Once link lands, immediately press A and hold Down on the d-pad to jump and crouch, very quickly after that press B to do the crouch stab. If you're close enough to the enemy and you did the inputs correctly, you will land a double hit.
When it comes to chaining multiple double hits together back to back, this using the same method as above, but managing your distance from the enemy with left or right on the d-pad and can take some time to get the hang of.
A few things to add:
The healer moves at a rate of 1 pixel every 2 frames (0.5 pixels/frame), so its possible you can talk to her on the correct pixel, but still be the wrong frame - frame perfect and sub-pixel perfect. So even if it looks like you have the first input correct it's still somewhat of a coin toss.
If you get the first input, and you attempt to do the second input and it's too early, you still have a chance to mash the B button to get the second input on the correct frame.
If you do get the first input on the correct frame, it is possible that on the second input the healer may turn around, but be too far from the door. In this case you can let her walk away a little bit, talk to her again (this time it is not frame perfect) and she will turn back around, giving you another shot at the second input. In this way you can sort of ping-pong her back and forth until you either get the second input for the glitch or you miss and she goes in the house the normal way.
I don't really use a visual cue for the second input, through lots of practice I have a sense of the rhythm of the button presses that I usually rely on.
The first healer glitch is the hardest one to get, each one after that gets easier until you develop a consistency at it. Using a CRT or low-latency display with either a RetroTink or OSSC will also help to minimize the input lag.
We don't currently have a speedrun discord server for Cardcaptor Sakura Tetris. There is a general tetris discord - https://discord.gg/0t7Pl8aUFfIHd970 - that may be useful. There are a couple of threads over on Tetris Concept with some information: https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/r-tetris-with-card-captor-sakura.1479/ and https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/tetris-with-cardcaptor-sakura.10/
I also have a personal stream discord server where some tetris talk happens, though it tends to be more centered around TGM than Cardcaptor Sakura, but if you'd like to join, the link is in my twitch profile or you can dm me on twitter or discord.
