You may not be able to submit runs on non-official versions, but nobody's stopping you from learning/practicing on them. The gameplay and strategies are unchanged and the game has plenty of visual tells and similarly named items to make it easy to transition over to Japanese without too much re-learning. And when you reduce the game to a speedrun route, it removes even more complications.

My recommendation is do most learning and refinement on your language (in this case English, though there may be other languages later) then submit runs on the Japanese original after you've refined it quite a bit. You'll be surprised at how intuitive it becomes.

You can change Gimmicks between Levels 1 and 7 once you have it. The current route has them at Level 7 at all times. Thing is, it may be faster to have them at Level 1. It's not much less damaging, and the Gimmick Microgames are shorter, which adds up quite a bit each time you use them. Maybe have most Gimmicks at Level 1 most of the time and only put the easy ones (or shorter ones) at a higher level at crucial times such as bosses. If this isn't necessarily faster, it can be used as a safety strategy, particularly when it comes to Gimmicks doing WAY less damage when you get them wrong, maintaining AWE Meters, and having them not be impossible when your Gimmicks get Janked.

Found anything yet?

I have a few to start us off:

Get Cookies, Milk, and Pudding to heal both at the same time. It’s even worth selling off items that single heal for more HP to get these.

Alesa’s TomatoRobo Mk 2 is very useful because it heals both DeMille and Alesa and does damage based on how much HP it heals who uses it. Best of all, the enemy’s defense doesn’t matter. This is great for the robots in Gimmick Palace as well as preventing bosses from buffing (such as destroying Oops’s Magic Mirror before she gets the defense buff and making the battle a lot faster).

It’s not just about damage- certain Gimmicks also have bonuses. The MagMitt can slow enemies, while the Pop Horn can make them sleep. These even work on bosses, even on inanimate things that don’t “sleep” such as Ouch’s microphone. This gives you more opportunities for damage and less of a need to use up healing items.

The quiz in Tartar Valley is required. The first two rounds have fixed answers, while the third has random questions. Button mashing is a reliable strategy.

Running Ecco on Dreamcast isn't that simple. You need a specific version (PAL) to run the game the fastest due to it having the most glitches. But there is an issue- the Dreamcast isn't region-free, and many speedrunners might not be used to games where PAL is the fastest.

You could bypass the region coding with a boot disc, but there is a better solution- simply buy a region-free Dreamcast (This doesn't necessarily apply to PAL players).

VMUs are region-free. You will only need one controller, though you may want two VMUs (one in both available spaces) for multiple practice saves. This game has interconnected levels and the possibility to miss glitches or power-ups vital to the run, so when practicing, you may need the extra space. There are VMUs which can simply be plugged into controllers and do not require batteries.

As for languages, I'd stick with English as it seems to have the shortest and fewest text boxes. It's a negligible difference though.

I have tested a few glitches involving Perils of the Coral Reef's out of bounds.

First off, getting out of bounds. You need to pass the jellyfish to do it. A little triangle opens up next to three rocks (a big one with two small ones on both sides). Normally this triangle is blocked by a black rock, and when you either die (and get a checkpoint) or exit to Trial Without Error, you may not be able to get it to despawn again.

I tried swimming to the 4 corners. This is less efficient and runs the risk of exiting before collecting the two Powers. It doesn't even protect you from easily swimming back into a dark cave. I tried swimming down (it just re-orients you back upwards) and swimming out of the borders (it makes it so you can still swim above air, though your air will still drain if you don't have the power to breathe underwater. In order to fix this, go back under the water and come back up). This might be useful for traversing areas efficiently without risking going back inbounds, but only if you're fast.

I also exited to Trial Without Error without collecting the two Powers. If this happens, just reset. I tried going back to the out of bounds triangle but the black rock would not despawn.

Using the shoulder buttons to look around you and see where you are while swimming in an out of bounds void is useful. It helps you see where you are in relation to the level as well as collectibles. In some parts, this works even better than the sonar.

1 more: a very helpful camera glitch. Press up on the D-Pad a bunch of times and you will get a birds-eye view but it will still control like it did when the camera was close behind Ecco. This is useful because when going out of bounds, it gives you a much clearer view of the area and allows you to easily find Collectibles (such as the Powers). It also makes the game run noticeably faster since you aren't looking at a whole bunch of objects and walls the game has loaded in. This type of trick is used in other 3D games, and now Ecco has its own variant.

This currently only works on the Switch version of Star Fox 1, but you can re-map the buttons to give the game controls from Star Fox 2. And you can also swap the L and R buttons to be the cushy ZL and ZR ones while you're at it.

Go into the Switch's Options menu to change the controls. Rotate each face button once so Shoot is B, Boost is Y, Bomb is X, and Slow Down is A, then select Control Style A on the Main Menu. The game will now play like Star Fox 2's Control Style A. Remember, if you did it correctly, X should choose things in the Switch Main Menu. If B chooses things, you rotated them in the wrong direction, so Reset and try the other way. If you get it correct, Save the controls in 1 of 5 Save Slots. You will now have Star Fox 2 Controls, the best controls you can have in Star Fox 1- and it's currently only on the Switch version.

When you pause, you have the option to "return to map". When you return to map, you keep the special items you collected and hardly use any Time. You can re-enter and collect the same Special Item or two, then exit. The maximum is 9, and you have that number of whichever the last Special Item you collected was. In a casual playthrough, this gives you plenty of Hearts or Shields and is fantastic for struggling new players. In a speedrun, this may be useful for using an ample supply of Bombs on Flotillas or Base Cores or Star Wolf Members, or whatever else could be dealt with much quicker. This also helps greatly reduce the overall urgency of the game.

Also, you can press Select to swap between characters. Having Fox/Falco as your second character gives you 3 free Bombs for Flotillas.

YES. I have it. It's the real version, and probably the one that will continue to be produced on SNES cartridges. It is faster on the other ones though.

Real SNES cartridges with this game on it exist.

Nin-nin also has a time of 21:00 on Map 16.

If you're looking for a run on Military Madness (which is different), Ace1000Ks1975 has a sub-hour run on Map 16. It's not nearly as fast as the Nectaris run, but it beats the current posted WR- and isn't even classified as a speedrun attempt. If you're starting the time from the second the player gains control, I calculate it as a 57:15, which beats the current MaxisMozark PB by 20 minutes- and it's from 5 years earlier (2016). Keep searching the internet for more playthroughs that beat posted WRs.

There really needs to be a separate Japanese Nectaris category/leaderboard. It's a different game. It's much more difficult and slow (and cheaper) and forcing Japanese players to compete with it isn't fair.

Warping only costs 5 more Diamonds than Hovering, and it has the chance of bringing you back to the room with a Friend in it, skipping everything after the Vader look-alike. It is random, but a lucky run that gets good warps on all of them (in or near the Friend room, skipping the Hover) saves time. Possible on Kessel and Tina (the ice planet) so there isn't much of a need to reset too much. Saves a minute or two and makes sub 15 (or even 14) possible.

A possible reason for the game's lack of activity is that the best console to run this game on is Wii U. If this game comes out on Switch and is faster, will it become active again? And will 100% get more runs?

New category? I've got one.

I propose 999 Rings. Time starts when you enter Training Mode, time ends when you get the 999th Ring.

It would give Training Mode a reason to exist.

There are no Dreamcast categories. There should be, and there should be separate categories between the English and Japanese of the first game.

So far, OverBlood 2 has only been run on PAL Emulator. Emulator is slower than PS2 and PAL is slower than Japanese. Japanese is cheaper and so far the only runners have been North American, so it’s NTSC as well. Could this get the sub 6?

Be sure to time text and cutscenes, they might be edited differently.

The Turbografx-16 is a console that rarely gets mentioned in the 16-Bit Generation. It’s still a very obscure console full of hidden gems with appealingly “free” WRs. Most Turbografx games have only started being ran recently and have developed rapidly due to most Turbografx runners being already experienced with speedrunning, so while the records are free, they tend to be improved to near optimization very quickly.

Only 100 TG games are on SRC, and very few players use original hardware. Original hardware for Turbografx is expensive and confusing. I’ve already done the trial-and-error heavy lifting, so here’s my recommendation-get a region-free Duo. It’s expensive, but you save more in the long run due to not having to buy the other ones. There’s even going to be more of these units and they’ll get cheaper, and there’s an HD version of this, so don’t settle for less.

Controllers, you’ll want the grey turbo controllers, which help in text-heavy or button mashing heavy games. I don’t think you’ll need the multi-tap except for co-op runs. Turbografx controllers are very durable and comfortable too, so there’s no need for special controllers either. There’s also region-locked controllers so don’t get the black ones with “Turbografx” on them, even if you prefer larger.

Now that that’s done, here are some of the most popular games:

The Bonk series

Ninja Spirit

Splatterhouse

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Street Fighters 1 and 2

Prince of Persia (Turbografx one has great music!)

Dragon’s Curse

Ninja Ryukenden (Ninja Gaiden 1)

Shinobi

Here are some less popular ones that I recommend

World Court Tennis and Final Lap Twin

Double Dungeons

Military Madness

New Adventure Island

Faussete Amour

The Valis series

The Ys Series

Neo Nectaris (Military Madness sequel)

And ones not on leaderboards yet. Have a good time!

An essential skill. Makes the game much faster.