I was told Cannonball was not acceptable because it is "not an arcade port". Is anyone able to expand on that? It seems demonstrably false. We know exactly who ported it. They left extensive documentation in a public forum format and have made the source code freely available. It requires the original arcade assets to function because it pulls all the sprites and other elements from the original roms.

I would like to use Cannonball because after extensive research it seems to be the closest port to the original when played in "original mode". Is there an advantage that Cannonball original mode provides a runner over the original arcade version or other ports? The Saturn port has Extra Easy traffic which is not available in the arcade version and provides a significant advantage when speed running the game. If that's not an issue I don't understand why using Cannonball in original mode is not acceptable.

Unless there is some advantage to Cannonball that I'm unaware of I would request adding a rule that says something like "If using Cannonball show "Set Original Mode" at the start of the run". A lot of hard work went into creating this freely available easy to install port of OutRun arcade and I think it would be a shame to ban it without good cause. Thanks!

It's an fan-made enhanced version. Sure, it does use assets of the original game, but so does the M2's Switch/3DS version. In that game you can also match the settings to somewhat represent the original feel, with timer intact, 30 fps and all that. And we don't allow the Switch version, there is a seperate board for that game. If you really want to run Cannonball and if for some reason you can't install Mame I suggest you create a seperate board for this fan-project. I might do a run or two as well.

Submitting a Cannonball run here is like submitting a Streets of Rage Remake run on the SOR2 boards with the comment "I matched the settings and used the SOR2 route & character".

Or using a SMB hack version not licensed by Nintendo claiming that it can match the original for the entirety of the run and submitting it to SRC as a SMB run. It's not even about advantages or disadvantages at that point.

I'll adress it in the rules, ruleboard update is incoming anyway.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your time. I think the trick with Cannonball is that it's both an emulator and fan hack. I was looking at it more like an emulator and in a way all emulators are unofficial "fan hacks" but we generally allow them. But since it is an emulator that only plays one fan hack it makes sense not to allow it. I totally understand I just wanted to address it since it does seem to be a popular version. Also I couldn't get my controller to work in MAME. :)

Thanks!

Nice to have final official word on this. As Series mods, I think it'd be interesting to create a Cannonball leaderboard @JFred99 I'd definitely run it.

FYI, a Cannonball (Enhanced Mode) leaderboard has been created here: https://www.speedrun.com/cannonball I'll definitely run it and I already have a run from last year, I hope more people join in!

I agree the Cannonball-specific leaderboard was the best solution here. Cannonball is a tricky one, but I don't think those runs belong in the Arcade category, just as the Switch one's don't.