I got curious and came back to these boards. Decided to download source videos from youtube and check frame count and timings. Here's what I found, video frame counts and frame rates taken using VirtualDub:

i_o_l: 63 frames@ 29.97fps = 2.102s Xaephod: 63 frames@ 30.00fps = 2.100s DotSFC (me): 128 frames@60.00fps = 2.133s

technically Xaephods run beats i_o_l's run but thats just due to frame rates. They are tied.

I did time the WR run. 47 frames @ 29.97fps = 1.568s.

But that seems impossible. How can a run suddenly be half a second faster than the rest? just gonna say that I would like to blame that on the emulator, not the runner. It looks to be some inaccurate flash or HTML based emulator. I may look further into what emulator its based off of because that isnt entirely fair to just stomp on the rest of us because of a emulation problem.

Any thoughts on all of this?

It most likely is the emulator (or this game itself might've had early inputs, I wouldn't know), as when I was running the game I could put in the inputs moments before the start, although what everyone else used I'm not sure if you can do it on all emulators or if anyone even tried to attempt what I did by pressing a button at the very moment you can (I don't know if this actually was a thing in the game itself either), that is something that would for sure have to be tested, I spent a decent amount of time with input timing

by the looks its probably your emulator. I made a comparison.

going frame by frame, i think yours might be clearing blocks faster.

See yours here has 17 cleared, and we have 9 and 11 each. video frame rates alone wont make that big of a difference in such a small time.

I_o_l and mine and xaephods differences are probably just frame rate things like posted above. I_o_l and Xaephod actually have same frame count but xaephod beats him due to frame rate. What do you think of this stuff? I'd like to hear some thoughts on my data. If i am incorrect, hey stuff happens but I'd like to find out whats goin on

I don't think it's that it clears faster, I mean technically it does yes since it's a faster time, but it's because it starts earlier from an earlier input before the actual start, I'd like to know what emulator everyone used just to test the quick input on

If it's any consolation I also mashed the button across the board while it was clearing blocks, I actually just realized I had a different pattern than the other three as well with no mine in the way of me going over each block to the right and hitting A if that even makes it any faster, you can also tell it's from an early input because I'm already on the second block to the right when it starts while everyone else is on the starter block

"because it starts earlier from an earlier input before the actual start" eh? the boards all load at the same time so they are starting at the same time. earlier inputs? do you mean because of input lag? that is a thing. having to press a bit early so it registers on time

I used Gambatte r571 and xaephod used VBA which is known to run faster.

what im saying is that the game itself appears to be clearing the blocks faster than they should

The boards load at the same time yes but you can see that I was able to start while it loads since I'm already on the second right block already clearing blocks while everyone is on the first one still, sorry I am bad at phrasing what I'm trying to say what I did, it was a very specific timed input since I spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to do that run, when I get home from work I'll test it on both of those, record it and and show you, if I can't replicate what I did on those then I'll take it down, I understand why you think they're clearing faster, but it's because I started clearing them earlier before the other runs, you can't see that pausing all the runs at a specific frame and showing how many I have cleared compared to everyone else's

Xaephod's run is on VBA, which everyone says is really bad, so I tried to get the same pattern on emulator and took the framecount from there (and my run is timed by framecount too). Testing all possible 256 boards on the lowest difficulty, I thought my PB's board + holding right and A while it loads is the fastest simple strat (there are a few that are faster but require manual inputs), but Tron played on a higher difficulty, which I didn't test. I'll try to replicate Tron's board on emulator tomorrow.

I dig it, I'm still gonna test out how quick I can start the board before it actually shows on those other emulators since it would still be unfair if it's only doable on that web browser

Also, pardon my ignorance but are you able to select the board if you're able to test it that thoroughly without going insane getting duplicate boards?

No, I just have to insert 1 frame before every test to cycle through the boards. I found the same board and it always solves in 1.775 seconds with A held down. I don't know what you mean by starting boards faster. When I try to mash or delay the A input, it's always slower or the same.

Test it out with the browser from emuparadise, I'm on my way home now so I'll try it out myself, when you tried that board does it start you on the second right block or the first too

I tried with the browser again and I'm still able to start early just to make sure, got a board with a mine directly to the right so when the board actually is visible it already shows MISS, I'm gonna download those emulators now to try on those (if I can do it on those then I'll record it if not my run is RIP)

alright cool. this is what I used for emulator http://www.mediafire.com/file/rkh8801mo2i40sr/gambatte_qt_win32-r571+%281%29.zip

Gotchu fam, I just tried on VBA and it looks like I'm not able to do what I did with the browser version so far, gonna try that one next, thank you for the link I was having a little trouble finding that emulator for some reason

Welp that is a shame I spent so much time on the browser one, I noticed it loads differently as well, VBA is pretty damn fast too with those loads. Anyways I can't replicated starting the board early like in the browser version, the board itself looks like it completely loads onto the screen before I can do anything unlike the browser one, went through the frames on that comparison video and what I had recorded to be sure, sorry to waste your guys' time with that, confirmed RIP run? Most likely not gonna do another since it took so long to even find a good board

Also to note it might be good to put it in the rules about the browser version in case someone ever uses it