I took those straight from SRL, which is what I'm used to being the case for other SNES games I've run, but I do like the way they have it laid out better.

Good call, always good to have everything clearly stated.

I have 0 idea about anything arcade emulator related, not sure what I'll be able to learn.

Those are generally on category extensions boards, and I'm sure there will be in due time. In the mean time there's https://blindfoldedgaming.com/ for all blindfolded speedruns.

After a bit of careful consideration I've decided to try to restructure the board to make Console and Arcade separate, unfortunately SRC doesn't allow sub categories to be a different amount of players so I'm leaving that bit as is.

I also want to make the timing rules more clear as some runs have been submitted with a time not reflected by these rules, so that comparisons between different runs aren't accurate. Because of this some runs will be retimed.

I want to be clear that I do not have a strong familiarization with the arcade version so my decision for the timing may not be the greatest, please let me know if you think there's a better option.

Changing the timing to keep with the rest of the series (edited above to reflect) also realized category could be called any% and have the story mode and all characters be subcategories or variables, I don't like how that'd look though.

I'm just quickly setting up the boards for now. As far as I see these are the options that can be changed, but any suggestions are welcome:

Timing:
Start is currently set to last input before leaving the screen, but gaining control of your character is an option. I much prefer last input.
End is currently set to final last hit on the final boss to be consistent with the rest of the series. (last hit is easy to discern because the screen flashes white, and is 6.7 seconds before the stage clear appearance.)

Variables:
Should difficulties be separate sub categories? Should each character have their own sub category in Free Mode?

Category names:
Could change to any% and have all characters + story mode being subcategories, I think it's fine how it is currently though

Looks like the series mod is currently inactive, might need to address that in some way.

Updating here for visibility since this is now known: This is caused by a flag failing to be updated, specifically from the Experiment Z57 fight, it's meant to prevent you from getting a shinespark before he does his flappy bird attack. If you leave the fight before that by death or reload or quitting to menu, the flag will remain, and any further play will be affected until it is updated by finishing the fight or reset by resetting the game.

Not sure where to put this to get the most visibility: I just had a problem with speedbooster that blew my mind, for some reason it was taking about an extra half a screen to start up, I eventually solved it by turning my switch off and back on, this is mostly a warning to others and wondering if anyone else has run in to this problem.

deertier.com is the original leaderboard, unfortunately a side effect of having separate leaderboards is sometimes they're not all updated, some prefer one and some prefer the other.

Just so you know, that isn't zoast's PB, that's here

The mods didn't verify them, and no it doesn't make auto verifications a bad thing as they can just as easily be rejected.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588362-gradius-iii/cheats

the relevant portion:

<B>Stage 3</B> - When you reach the lower level of the stage, there is a platform in the ceiling that drops down. When it drops down, fly just below the part where the platform was.
Prerequisite: Destroy all of the ground targets in the stage up to that point.

<B>Stage 4</B> - In the last set of Moai heads (they look like Easter Island heads), there is one laying down which will lift itself up. Fly behind it.
Prerequisite: Nothing must be highlighted on your powerup bar.

For the "destroy all ground targets," you need to kill all the dispenser enemies.

To be more specific, there is a setup that works on a single right facing one to the right of the big pink room just before the E-tank there. There is a method to do something similar as you would do with left facing ones, but there's no applicable right facing ones that works on in the original game, only in some hacks.

Standard emulator rules for SNES games are that ZSNES and snes9x versions 1.4x and before are banned. Later versions of snes9x are allowed (1.5x) and are probably the easiest to set up.

Here's some reasoning for/against each:

Speed Down: This is NOT a required powerup, but you get a similar effect by dying to go back down to 0 speed. Additionally, only 2 speed ups are required to beat stage 7, and so continually using speed ups after each death already uses more than the 2 solely required powerups.

30 Lives: Makes finishing runs more likely, but takes more deaths to get the first game over-continue saving time over not using it.

Extra Credits: This is solely for finishing runs, I honestly see no reason not to allow this.

I added Speed Only to the leaderboard, as of right now the rules are simply only speed up and speed down are allowed, 30 Lives and Extra Credits codes are allowed. Things I have potentially up to change are whether the following are allowed: speed down powerup, 30 Lives code, extra credits.

If you have any opinions or know of any runs that would fit in this category please post them.

Additionally, I already checked and it is possible to complete this challenge on Arcade difficulty, good luck if you want to try.

It's been a while since I've used an emulator, but I think most have an option in them that disables L+R and U+D at the same time.

I would love to see metroid 2 at a gdq in any form (not the remake(s)), it's been submitted multiple times but still hasn't been featured, I don't see why they couldn't use this although I have heard that they would rather not have flash carts used when not necessary.

Whether game modifications are allowed in speedruns depends entirely on that specific game's speedrun community. In general as a whole they're not allowed but of course there are exceptions. The bit about it being faster than the original due to faster transitions probably means that it would have no chance of being allowed. Basically anything that gives an advantage over the officially released game is not allowed.