Thanks, I didn't realize the Harvest Sprites actually do farm work. Eval mechanics are worse than I thought. Even if the releases are different in routing, the separation is confusing to new people like me. One example, Mortal Kombat combines 14 different games into one leaderboard and forum even though Game Boy and Game Gear/Master System are distinctly different.

Edit: Discord link works. I had to change my password to get anything to open.

Cool thanks. I made a webm of the end of year 1 and year 2 failing every requirement. Same exact message. No ranch expansion or cheese and butter machines available: https://webmshare.com/play/Ywx4A

No credits so not an ending. I think there are 2 tiers for end of year 1:

1. "I will expand your ranch and I will expect you to work harder than last year."
2. "I do not think you are ready to take over my position yet." No ranch expansion or butter and cheese machines.

Once ranch has been expanded, a new set of tiers applies for subsequent years:

1. "Ah! You have caught up to me!!" Ranch Master with mark/trophy. Triggers credits.
2. "Wow! You have made incredible progress, <name>...Please keep up the great work!!" Triggers credits.
3. "Well done! For your hard work, I will give a <special tool> to you." No credits.

Assumption: Ranch Master on GB needs 5 years minimum. Expand year 1, obtain special tools in years 2, 3, 4 then get tier 1 on year 5. Avoid tier 2 by keeping happiness below 250 since that grants no tool. If you meet tier 2 requirements + have the tools then you get tier 1 instead.

I think Any% is a good name if the requirement to trigger the credits is clear. Then Ranch Master getting the mark/trophy. None of the runs here eat 7 Power Berries. I wonder if that affects anything.

What's the current Discord? Everyone's link doesn't work anymore.

Feeling nostalgic about this game. What's with the categories? Shouldn't there be a Master Rancher category?

Gentleman and scholar Azure Blue with GBC gets the Master Rancher Mark at the end of Year 2 at 8:22 in this video. Right after can see Fishing Rod at end of Year 3, Pick Ax at end of Year 4 and Umbrella at end of Year 5.

Is GB bugged on getting Master Rancher Mark at end of Year 2? It's a trophy on the table next to the book. In my other comment I point out that GBC fixed the water can-infinite egg glitch. Also works with Super Game Boy. It's essentially the same game.

I tested that GBC fixed the water can infinite egg glitch but it's otherwise the same game right? Shouldn't the forums be combined and the leaderboard if GBC had any runs? The 3 mods there also mod here so seems straight forward to me. Can create a new no glitch category if such a run ever appears to keep GBC viable.

What's funny is I loaded a GBC save state into GB. Advanced from late Spring right to Grandfather's Year 1 eval that I passed with almost nothing. Super Sickle and Super Hoe appeared without waiting out the necessary time, 2 chicks and the horse grew up and I went from 0 to 345 hay.

On real cart in the late 90s I failed the Year 1 GB eval. Maybe that's impossible on GBC but Any% requires Year 2 completion so no issue.

There are several livesplit video tutorials, including English and Spanish on the github. If it's a popular game, there should be a livesplit to download on the speedrun page.

Really, you don't need to use any timer to get started. Can eyeball the time to the whole second and submit. Mods will retime if need be. I've used my phone's stopwatch with Auto-Lock set to never to pace myself. There are tutorials for how to add a timer in OBS. I've added a timer while video editing to nail start and end to the exact frames but that's completely unnecessary.

I've been meaning to investigate and you gave me the impetus. We could generalize everdrive to be a flash cart. It's not the same as real hardware but 99% of game communities don't care. Flash carts have slightly faster read/write speeds over the original 80s/90s/2000s chips. Flash carts are emulation when they emulate chips such as SNES Super FX and SA1. Yoshi's Island doesn't allow due to inaccurate Super FX v2 emulation. GB(C) flash carts can emulate quite a few chips. For games people actually play, problem is just Harvest Moon and Pokemon gen 2 real-time clocks. Harvest Moon allows.

I'm not sure what cheat menu you mean but I wouldn't bother showing unless it's a first speedrun submission to a hyper-competitive game.

Was hard to find games that ban flash carts. Not exhaustive and mostly N64:

• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
• Stunt Race FX, also uses Super FX v2
• Star Fox 2, also uses Super FX v2 + had no official console release
• Super Mario 64
• Mario Kart 64
• Goldeneye
• Perfect Dark
• Pokemon Stadium
• Harvest Moon 64, flash carts are treated as emulator submissions, as in, not 100% accurate
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, allows with restrictions:

EverDrive is allowed. However, it must be on v2.5, v3, or x7 and run the rom via the auto-boot function. There is no cap. 64Drive is allowed. However, if you reach the world record within less than 1%, you must play on official hardware.

• Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal:

Flashcarts such as the Everdrive are not allowed for console runs. The only exception is running minihack categories on flashcarts with MBC3 RTC chips (such as this one from BennVenn), which is allowed, as there is no other console option. Fake/reproduction cartridges and/or consoles are banned.

These are hyper-competitive games. Most also explicitly ban reproduction carts. I'm sure one reason for the bans is ease in running modified ROMs that would be difficult to detect. Faster read/writes on flash cart could give different RNG in games where strategies are heavily dependent on it. I suppose SNES Doom and Winter Gold with Super FX v2 aren't competitive enough to ban or even start the discussion.

Competitive games don't allow read speed x4 or even x2 (Quad Speed) and require showing DuckStation settings. To avoid a time advantage over real console and other emulators. Check out the DuckStation rules for Tekken 1 and Crash Bandicoot. I think I've seen x2 allowed in one game to try to match PS2's Fast Disc Speed.

That has to be balanced against driving away a new runner in a game with, say, under 20 players by requiring them to use slower emulation settings in your game that other games don't care about. No one likes pages of rules either.

Here's a short as a possible ruleset I proposed for a less popular fighting game:

DuckStation 0.1-6280 or newer (matching Tekken series and Crash Bandicoot min version)

Settings -> Console

• Enable Clock Speed Control: Unchecked
• Async Readahead: 8 sectors (53KB/16ms) - or less/Disabled
• Read Speedup: None (Double Speed)
• Seek Speedup: None (Normal Speed)

Settings -> Emulation

• Runahead: Disabled

All these settings are the default values and showing Runahead as Disabled is also required for RetroArch.

The 3 weeks / 21 days limit in the rules here shocked me. First I click on their profiles to see how many other games they mod. If it's not many then I DM them on this platform at 1 week. It's the letter icon. If they mod, say, 20 or more games then I wait 10-14 days. After 2 weeks, I look for a Discord they're members of or DM them directly on that platform.

At 3 weeks, you can submit a ticket to make yourself a mod or remove them from inactivity. I think the risk with removing is that mods tend to mod many games in the same genre and promote each other to mod status in the same friendly network. Be careful about making enemies. Posting in the game's Forum asking to verify makes them look bad imo so I haven't done that.

Other thing, their status showing they logged in 1 day ago but didn't verify your run isn't an argument to use against them. I don't have a life but other people do. I'd like to rules to shorten to 2 weeks to verify. If you can't do it then someone else can. Easy way to frustrate a new runner is making them wait and ignoring the Forum.

Easy to see the ordering is alphabetical in a popular game with no way to change other than altering the titles. This is obviously undesirable and even in obscure The Last Blade on NGPC the first guide is the least important. I shouldn't have to change the title to make it last.

I don't think a mod tool to allow custom ordering would be very difficult to code. Could go all out and instead make ordering based on a popularity system. I can't tell the views of the guides I wrote or if they're helpful or not.

By the way, a direct comparison of AndrewG's video and Metroidmcfly's 2018 was linked on Meester_Tweester's Reddit thread and Metroidmcfly's is faster as stated. Runs are removed by runner request or moderator action if the runner is banned or makes the video private.

I'm curious if the mods in hyper-competitive Super Mario Bros undid people's VCR lag penalty. Which I'd like to see proven. I don't think saying a clearly slower run in real time is actually faster is in the spirit of speedrunning but I don't play competitive games. I think it's a conflict of interest that AndrewG is a mod and would have a record of longest unbeaten run if Metroidmcfly's run is mathmagically slower. I'd prefer real time with priority over in-game time, given advancements in recording technology. I don't play this game though.

I found an ancient (2012) SDA thread about obsolete but powerful VirtualDub capture card software having settings to let it record incorrectly at 59.94 Hz for NES and SNES versus dropping frames. Same timing issue presented here. The poster is wrong about Super Game Boy 2 framerate, but 2012, can give a pass. There could be lots of games recorded with added time but most games aren't competitive to the second.

If we want to be exact, or pedantic, there's a mistake here and in the thread:

NES: 21477272.72 / ((2623412-1)*2) ~= 60.09881387708959) ~= 60.09881387708959 SNES: 21477272.72 / (261 * 1364 + (1360 + 1364) / 2) ~= 60.09881387708959

The crystals themselves used to generate the master clock are 21.47727 MHz ±30ppm and can drift 5pmm in the first year. My SD2SNES flash cart displays the master clock frequency and it's slightly different on every bootup. In other words, using 9-18 significant figures is fake accuracy.

21.47727 MHz ±30ppm is 21.47727 * (1 ± 30/1000000) = [21.4779143181, 21.4766256819] MHz. Given the crystal's printed 7 significant figures, we have [21477910, 21476630] Hz with rounding. Using either equivalent formula, NTSC NES and SNES are [60.09702, 60.10060] Hz and not 60.09881387708959 Hz or else with some arbitrarily greater precision. Some people's master clock drift is so great that they lose color in Composite and S-Video. As in, outside that range.

Then max lag of 603.233*(59.94/[60.10060, 60.09702]) gives [601.6210, 601.6569] seconds for 10:01.621 to 10:01.656 possible real NES time for a VCR recording of 10:03.233. Timing to whole frames, 0.621 to 0.656 is a 2 frame spread. 1 frame of uncertainly for every 280 seconds. Close enough to 5 minutes. Assuming VCR lag is proven.

I agree with your maximum amount of lag math if that is actually what is happening. NTSC NES and SNES have the same framerate so this is a wider issue.

How do you know the VHS doesn't just sample the ~60.10 Hz footage at 59.94 Hz or 60.00 Hz for no time difference? Like what capture cards do that record in digital video. VHS was very substandard Composite video. Nicer VHS recorders used time-based correction circuitry.

I think someone should record 10 minutes of VHS footage of the game at the title screen. Any game. Can passively split Composite video + audio with cheap Y cables. Record the other line with capture card or simultaneously record the television with cell phone camera. Close enough for audio. Then compare the video and audio at the end.

I really value the Console experience. We may not have that option in a generation for SNES or working lasers on PS1/2/3. I think also helps keep a level playing field to have this footage to know when emulators are running too fast and proof of what's humanly capable.

Thanks for responding. They're all emulation but I make a distinction for official releases. I've never seen a game tagged as "emu" on Switch VC since it's official. I'm curious that there's only one leaderboard here versus Super Gem Fighter separating everything. I guess this game is obscure enough not to have anyone compare loading times or emulation settings.

The Neogeo Mini and Arcade Stick Pro are AES with 4 continues and a training mode. I'd presume the MVS(X) compilations are...MVS. Both have the same 1-8 difficulty settings and Story mode.

There is one significant difference though: Only AES has Kouryu playable. The Annotation for character list is also missing Original/Unawaked Kaede and Hagure. Original Kaede is a distinct character from Awakened/Blond Kaede and not a sprite swap.

Easy enough to add the 3 characters but MVS players may not appreciate being beaten by a console-exclusive on the same leaderboard. Well, not a problem today.

I'm showing that they're selectable in Story mode off Arcade Stick Pro:

On submitted platforms, I don't see an option for:

• NEOGEO MINI
• MVS Mini Home Arcade
• MVSX Arcade
• NEOGEO Arcade Stick Pro

All contain The Last Blade 2. They should be added as official releases. Some differences in display settings and the Arcade Stick Pro that I own lacks a built-in LCD screen. Internet tells me the NEOGEO MINI uses an Actions Single Core ATM7013 1.0-1.2 GHz CPU with 1 GB DDR3 RAM. The expensive MVSX Arcade is ARM Quad Core Cortex A7, 1 GHz with 256 MB DDR3 RAM. Arcade Stick Pro has Actions Quad Core ATM7031H 1.3 GHz with 256 GB DDR3 RAM. I guess the 1 GB RAM was overkill.

The loading times might vary a bit then. I think excessive to list them all as separate platforms. I'd go with "Neo Geo Mini" as the platform since it came first and ask to describe which one is being used in the submission like you do for emulators.

Can there also be an update for permitted emulators? Not asking for existing runs to be touched.

I like the rules from Tekken 1 I quoted in part below. Namely, banning ePSXe due to inaccuracy and its plugin system which aged badly. I don't use RetroArch for what they did to byuu/Near but I'm not requesting you go that far.

For the quick answer on "why did we drop ePSXe?"

That emulator for PC has not been updated in 4 years and despite being the "most accurate emulator"^ it relies on plugins compared to the other four options.

^Due to being closed source, it was able to get away with faking the scores on the PS1 Test Suite. Games that are tested to what ePSXe states it "passed" has outright failed.

For the quick answer on "why did we drop RetroArch?"

Besides the core that was chosen not actually being kept up to date to the upstream version (mednafen), the authors behind LibRetro have committed a lot of fowl play that it's not worth supporting outright an emulation development team who harass other developers and create false narrative why "they're in the right" (they're not).

Competitive games have very finely detailed lists of DuckStation (PS1) settings so as not to give it a time advantage over real console or other emulators. Since this game is less competitive and the attitude is relaxed, I think the DuckStation requirements should be:

DuckStation 0.1-6280 or newer (matching Tekken series and Crash Bandicoot min version)

Settings -> Console

• Enable Clock Speed Control: Unchecked
• Async Readahead: 8 sectors (53KB/16ms) - or less/Disabled
• Read Speedup: None (Double Speed)
• Seek Speedup: None (Normal Speed)

Settings -> Emulation

• Runahead: Disabled

All these settings are the default values and you already require Runahead to be shown as Disabled for RetroArch.

I bought this game for Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium for $1.37. You don't have that listed as a platform. I believe you could just rename Arcade/PS2 to include it since it is the arcade game with emulated coin insertion. Can boot in either the English or Japanese (Pocket Fighter).

Here are the default settings for both. Difficulty is from 1 to 8 and Attack Power from 1 to 3. No 0 difficulty level as seen in Capcom Fighting Collection. I presume Attack Power 2 is the same as 2 JP / Normal INT in the rules. I also presume no one runs the PS2 version due to disc lag but I don't own it so no matter.

Any of this good enough for a News post?

• Skill Scroll Guide, including how to obtain them, is live! Next plan is to make a grinding Guide for points and time-locked scrolls.
• I discovered something important: Only the shoryuken moves with Forward, Down, Diagonal require diagonal movements. Can do Kaede's and Yuki's hadoken moves, for instance, with just Down, Forward + Punch. Especially helpful for Super Secret and Hidden Secret Slashes! I found all but shoryuken moves are easier to enter on the Switch's 4 button d-pad than the joystick in this way.
• I found the min way of unlocking Story 2 is done by beating the game with anyone besides Akari or Yuki then buying their ENDING1 scroll, then starting Story with that new character. Easy difficulty with 1 Round works just fine! You can go back to playing Story 1 with the original 9 characters or Hagure by selecting with the OPTION button.
• Not news-worthy but would be cool to remove the % in Story 1 and 2 categories. There's a suggestion under mod rules saying people don't like arbitrary %'s and that includes me.

Huh I never thought about what the role of moderators really is. Very true that often there are more platforms than runners. I've checked other runs for cheating when I'm not a mod because I have the platform and they don't. And the moderator self-verified runs.

I think you're right that what is realistically achievable is preventing obvious cheating. Keeping some level of standards should prevent most attempts to begin with, such as submitting a superhuman TAS.

Submitting spam/obvious garbage, I like that such runs can be denied. I didn't know. Crazy to me seeing a 40 min run on a 7 minute game. Like practice the game for a few days versus submit the first and only attempt you ever made. And we can't submit a deliberately, excessively slow run and expect to troll the mods by wasting their time.

I seem to play obscure games that are expensive in console form but have official digital releases on a Nintendo VC or PC. If instead all you've played the game on is an inaccurate unofficial emulator, should you be judging all platforms? Is the situation game and community dependent? I'd like there to be at least one mod who owns the release I'm speedrunning on so that they're familiar with the load times and could reproduce a glitch to determine if the platform has too much of a glitch advantage or is the result of cheating.