I've added "Extreme Legends" categories for what's currently just the Extreme difficulty runs on the board. A base game run could not compete with XL runs for Easy, Normal, or Hard. Also it didn't make sense to have Extreme be the default difficulty for the base game's page, so I changed it to the most run category (Wu, Easy, Base game).

I realize Denotu's WR runs no longer have available videos. I never got the chance to see them. Unless anyone has concerns about legitimacy of the runs I'll leave them alone.

Also new runs will need to show difficulty before each run. It's difficult to distinguish difficulties just by watching a run. Existing runs are grandfathered.

I wanted to have seperate difficulty drop-downs for XL runs and base game runs (adding beginner and expert for XL categories) but the way the site is set up I'd have to more or less rebuild the board from scratch and I don't want to risk losing folks' runs doing that.

Any thoughts or suggestions I'm always open!

I'd like to ask everyone how they'd feel about going forward runs being required to show the difficulty settings before each run. It's next to impossible to really tell what difficulty is being used without that, particularly for Expert mode (though the Extreme Legends main menu screen at least shows it's available).

I also feel that it should be standard that "Easy, Normal, Hard" difficulty runs are base game only, as XL has options for more powerful weapons and the Power Scroll.

Without changing the actual timing rules, but for clarity:

The start frame would be the first frame the blue oval behind "Start" goes away and the "Equipment" text has started moving left.

The end frame is the first frame the battle UI vanishes on the last leader hit (HP/Musou bars, etc).

Yeah, that frame's only about 40ish frames earlier than the full fade to black frame. I've hit one run that didn't actually have the current end-frame included so far. Was able to time it from the first frame your robot's standing on two feet after the jump(s) to the all black frame, they're 542 frames apart. I may lean into that timing after I do the current retiming project, as it'd be a technically simple adjustment once all the runs are already standardized.

I've elected to grandfather that run w/o the video capture actually showing that fade out frame since it was submitted (well) before this designation and would be unfair to penalize anyone when they otherwise display the full run.

Edit 5/20/25: Retiming is done for everyone except MrPupg who's video isn't available currently. You can view the sheet with the original times on the board and everyone's new times here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YESpkmR-FSgN9gEfiMgLZmN0aflqknFNjvSGIhfnAwM/edit?usp=sharing

Noting the lack of (currently) clear rules on timing, I'm planning to set them as follows:

• Time begins when selecting difficulty (first frame of fade).

• Time ends on first full black frame after defeating the final boss.

• Emulator runs need to state name and version. Input display, frame count, and FPS are all strongly recommended.

I've already noticed inconsistencies between several runs that were approved for start and (mostly) end timing. As such I plan to retime all runs with the above timing to get everything consistent. I've selected these times as they're commonplace options in many games and very easy to identify. The last hit in this game isn't always clear when that happens, and timing on the first jump back frame has been difficult to identify as well.

I'm certainly open to discussion about the end time. Having it at first empty frame after last boss might give advantage to runs ending with only one hop instead of two. I'll certainly be looking at comparing that before I go retiming everything. If there's generally a clear visual cue for the last hit, please do share!

Thanks for everyone's understanding!

Sounds good. All the reset options (Core, Soft, Hard) forget any save/progress data and I'm still not sure why. Guess I'll stick to Emulicious.

Regarding Fusion though - it seems like it runs faster than Emulicious for this game. I did a 2nd run after my PB on it and was getting golds almost across the board for what felt like worse stage movements. I'd have to do some exploratory recording and comparing I guess. I haven't messed with any settings in Fusion either.

SRC rules disallow using save-states in runs. As such if used for this run would invalidate this run. Could you please review and redo the run without save states?

Opening this up since this is rare in how I've had problems with multiple emulators for it.

I usually use BizHawk with the Genplus-gx core. The problem I run into with this one is when you soft reset (or reset in any way aside from dying) the game forgets your progress.

My backup has generally been Fusion. I've run into two painful glitches with it so far:

1. The duel, it'll glitch out and slow waaaaay down during the Jester duel, which persists until you defeat the Joust Knight.

[Edit]: I just had this happen with Emulicious too. Is this a problem with the game itself? Getting hit too far into the left side corner seems to be what triggers it. BizHawk didn't slow down here for me at all, just occasionally I'd stop taking any damage from his rocks.

2. The path from Pharazon to Suma's Cave doesn't show up sometimes, even after getting the proper dialogues.

I was pointed to Emulicious recently for another game I was having problems running. So far I haven't had any glitches or problems with it. Of what I've tried for SMS emulation this works. Just wondering if anyone else has tried anything else, or had these same problems on BizHawk or Fusion.

I have a run done with the unlimited continues inputs if that works for adding the SMS category. I don't see why it wouldn't be okay. Anyone who beats it with fewer continues will have a better time anyway. At least this way more people might actually try the run.

Been working on doing runs for SMS games that presently don't have anything on SRC. I have one done for this game if a SMS category could be added please!

Good idea, added, glad you enjoyed it enough to suggest this :D

Nabbed from: https://www.smspower.org/Cheats/TransBot-SMS

Secret Command

Hold 2 on controller one while powering on the system. Release the button when a screen with the numbers one through four appears. (takes about 10 seconds)

1 (Press Up on D-Pad) = 10 Lives

2 (Press Down on D-Pad) = ARM doesn't deplete (special ammo)

3 (Press Left on D-Pad) = No POWER loss (damage)

4 (Press Right on D-Pad) = Slows down the letters after picking up a ? bubble.

Sometimes it takes a few presses to get it to toggle to "On." Once on though the only way to turn them off is to reset (power off) the system.

Press 1 or 2 on controller two to exit after the desired options are selected.

Here's the map with the gnome skip:

I couldn't get through the wood on the gnome screen like Vyse and TAS do, so I rerouted to get the egg instead. Obviously slower but more doable than the TAS trick. This is kinda messy but I made up this route map to follow to help me along. Maybe it'd be helpful to someone else. I can provide a clean version (no lines/text) if someone wants that instead.

Yeaaah... I was trying to get through it and this was the result of my brain wondering, "What do these power-ups actually do?"

So here's an update:

Top 5 Bass are all that's counted still. The game sums the total weight and stores it.

Start out rank C8 (200). When you choose to end the day it sets your rank to 65 (101st).

From there it takes the total weight of your five largest Bass and stores it @ 014E. After that it randomly generates five fish and stores that weight at 014C. [Highest I've seen for this was A9 or 16.9lbs] If your total > random total, you'll get rank 101.

It also/then compares your largest bass to three randomly generated weights. So, your 1,2,3 v. A,B,C. Here's the general loop:

1A, 1B, 1C
2A, 2B, 2C
3A, 3B, 3C

Each of these loops can lower your rank a few spots. So if by weight you're say rank 120, if you're largest fishes are bigger than those random fishes you'll likely get enough bonus points to get rank 101 still. It's pretty convoluted and I haven't had the time to force a total weight low enough to really sort out how much of an impact this can have. I'll get to that later and report back.

Obviously also need to figure out how large that 014C value can get in Class B and Class A.

Though, with just this, I can hopefully safefully extrapolate that with three big bois and a couple less than ideal ones it's possible to still end the day with the best rank if your total is below what'd give you 100% win rate.

Some new insight from Peco's run last night and I had a similar happening this morning: we both had well over 62lbs total for top five Bass but still ended up 2nd place. I know I was only 54th going into Class A/Lake More and I suspect that had a role to play with only getting 2nd place.

So, my numbers seem to only work if you get rank 101 and rank 51 for your promotions to Class B and A respectively, or at least that's the environment I was testing the numbers.

B7F3          INY                                      A:02 X:00 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:02 X:00 Y:03 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:02 X:00 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7F8          INX                                      A:02 X:00 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7F9          CPX #$03                                 A:02 X:01 Y:03 P:05 SP:F6
B7FB          BCC $B7E3 = $A0                          A:02 X:01 Y:03 P:84 SP:F6
B7E3          LDY #$00                                 A:02 X:01 Y:03 P:84 SP:F6
B7E5          LDA $0150,Y @ $0150 = $A0                A:02 X:01 Y:00 P:06 SP:F6
B7E8          CMP $0147,X @ $0148 = $90                A:A0 X:01 Y:00 P:84 SP:F6
B7EB          BCS $B7F3 = $C8                          A:A0 X:01 Y:00 P:05 SP:F6
B7F3          INY                                      A:A0 X:01 Y:00 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:A0 X:01 Y:01 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:A0 X:01 Y:01 P:84 SP:F6
B7E5          LDA $0150,Y @ $0151 = $A0                A:A0 X:01 Y:01 P:84 SP:F6
B7E8          CMP $0147,X @ $0148 = $90                A:A0 X:01 Y:01 P:84 SP:F6
B7EB          BCS $B7F3 = $C8                          A:A0 X:01 Y:01 P:05 SP:F6
B7F3          INY                                      A:A0 X:01 Y:01 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:A0 X:01 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:A0 X:01 Y:02 P:84 SP:F6
B7E5          LDA $0150,Y @ $0152 = $A0                A:A0 X:01 Y:02 P:84 SP:F6
B7E8          CMP $0147,X @ $0148 = $90                A:A0 X:01 Y:02 P:84 SP:F6
B7EB          BCS $B7F3 = $C8                          A:A0 X:01 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F3          INY                                      A:A0 X:01 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:A0 X:01 Y:03 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:A0 X:01 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7F8          INX                                      A:A0 X:01 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7F9          CPX #$03                                 A:A0 X:02 Y:03 P:05 SP:F6
B7FB          BCC $B7E3 = $A0                          A:A0 X:02 Y:03 P:84 SP:F6
B7E3          LDY #$00                                 A:A0 X:02 Y:03 P:84 SP:F6
B7E5          LDA $0150,Y @ $0150 = $A0                A:A0 X:02 Y:00 P:06 SP:F6
B7E8          CMP $0147,X @ $0149 = $8F                A:A0 X:02 Y:00 P:84 SP:F6
B7EB          BCS $B7F3 = $C8                          A:A0 X:02 Y:00 P:05 SP:F6
B7F3          INY                                      A:A0 X:02 Y:00 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:A0 X:02 Y:01 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:A0 X:02 Y:01 P:84 SP:F6
B7E5          LDA $0150,Y @ $0151 = $A0                A:A0 X:02 Y:01 P:84 SP:F6
B7E8          CMP $0147,X @ $0149 = $8F                A:A0 X:02 Y:01 P:84 SP:F6
B7EB          BCS $B7F3 = $C8                          A:A0 X:02 Y:01 P:05 SP:F6
B7F3          INY                                      A:A0 X:02 Y:01 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:A0 X:02 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:A0 X:02 Y:02 P:84 SP:F6
B7E5          LDA $0150,Y @ $0152 = $A0                A:A0 X:02 Y:02 P:84 SP:F6
B7E8          CMP $0147,X @ $0149 = $8F                A:A0 X:02 Y:02 P:84 SP:F6
B7EB          BCS $B7F3 = $C8                          A:A0 X:02 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F3          INY                                      A:A0 X:02 Y:02 P:05 SP:F6
B7F4          CPY #$03                                 A:A0 X:02 Y:03 P:05 SP:F6
B7F6          BCC $B7E5 = $B9                          A:A0 X:02 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7F8          INX                                      A:A0 X:02 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7F9          CPX #$03                                 A:A0 X:03 Y:03 P:05 SP:F6
B7FB          BCC $B7E3 = $A0                          A:A0 X:03 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7FD          RTS                                      A:A0 X:03 Y:03 P:07 SP:F6
B7E0        RTS                                        A:A0 X:03 Y:03 P:07 SP:F8

Other memory locations I could figure out:

05ED = toggles 00 or 01. 00 when you're low to the ground, 01 normal height. Didn't test extensively, but 03 you're flying sideways and can't get hurt but it's hard to hit enemies with your attacks.
05E6 = Dragon Type. 10 = Bronze, 11 = Silver, 12 = Gold. Changing this during play will immediately change the breath weapon but the sprite won't until you take damage. Other values make your attacks miss enemies with varying sprites and each has its own dragon color using what seems to be enemy pallets.
05E8 = direction you're flying from x0 flying right CCW to xB

06FA: Setting this to 00 makes Kraken, Wizard, Citadel, Bone Dragon, Efreeti, and Space Head Man Guy thing... all die in one hit.
06FB: Setting this to 00 makes it so you can't leave a boss room.
06FC: Setting this to 00 you skip bosses and castles immediately.

I was trying to find a "Power" stat since each color has a breath power scale (the B), but it seems it's more to reference how generally useful it is. Gold has a TON of projectiles, Silver gets a lot, and Bronze has so few it seems to take nearly twice a long to beat most bosses with him.

I've been trying to get some solid info on the power ups by watching the memory. So far this is what I've got:

Memory Locations for stats during play:

Current HP 05E7 (set to 60 for max HP always)
Armor 05F3 (setting this above 6A is bad. 6B freezes, higher resets the game when taking damage. It's AD&D, so lower is better. Setting it lower than 53 will also reset the game when taking damage.)
Current Speed 05F4 (Checks N of XN hex values. F is slowest, E is fastest but C-E moves too fast to turn and glitches the map after a while.)
Power Level 05F5 (0-3, or 11-13 with diamond. Values outside the X0-3 range change your attacks to enemy projectiles which do not hit enemies)
05F0 Orb Buff Timer: Mage Spells pass through you (including Stage 8 Boss).
05F1 Amulet Buff timer: Dragon Breath Attacks pass through you.
05F2 Arrow Buff Timer: Arrows/Stones/etc pass through you.
05EF White Potion timer: Combines Orb/Amulet/Arrow buffs
05F6 is your breath attack cooldown timer. Forcing it to zero doesn't change overall fire speed though. Forcing it to anything > 0 you can't shoot at all.

Wing: +1 Speed. Blue Potion: +2 Speed. Can't get more than +3 total with Wings and Blue Potion.

Shield: Supposed to buff defense permanently, but it's bugged. It reads the AC memory location (05F3) but does not change it. I'm guessing since the game will crash or freeze if the value gets too high or low they just made it a static stat for each dragon that can't be changed in-game.

Blue Heart: Heals 1-11 HP (randomly determined when spawned)

Red Potion: Heals 7-17HP (randomly determined when spawned. May heal more but never saw any heals over 17 or less than 7)

Red Heart: Heals HP to Max

Diamond: +1 Breath Power Level until hit

Arrow: Arrows/Catapults/Etc will pass through you while active (Red Aura)

Orb: Magic (Including from Stage 8 boss) will pass through you while active (Blue Aura)

Amulet: Dragon Breath (Including Dragon Queen's) will pass through you while active (Yellow Aura)

White Potion: Combines effects of Arrow, Orb, and Amulet buffs while active (White Aura)

I've only gotten two of the input codes to work, start at level 2 and skip to the end. There's one to start with more gold that doesn't seem to work and one to view the map indefinitely by pressing up on 2P that also doesn't seem to do anything at all.

the text of the Tree Scene intro, hit A button seven(7) times on Player-2 controller then hit start on Player-1 to begin the game normally. ```

This does start you at Level 2, but only with 18 HP. Seems low honestly, but having the advantage of being Level 2 for damage/defense stats might be considerable? It's been a while since I looked under the hood at how exactly level impacts everything.

I'm definitely curious if it could be allowable. Regardless I'm curious if it's advantageous to start at level 2. I've tested it works both FC and NA versions.

version only: Pressing Left and Right on Player-2 D-pad simultaneously will jump immediately to the ending screen.```

This is "technically" any% valid, but given I don't think the claim that there's a FC controller than can actually legitimately do a Left+Right input is true, and it's really against the spirit of "beating" a game, I'm sure and would agree it's not. Just a silly meme style "run/category" at best.

It's interesting, but I originally thought it tracked your top 10 fish, but I found soon as I entered ANY value in 014C I was always in the top rank for the class. Even if I had caught zero fish.

I couldn't find the exact place in memory where it basically rolls the other competitors' weight totals to compare yours against, but it seems like a static number modified slightly by what frame you confirm to end a day on.

I got the above by initially setting all the fish to 75% max weight catchable for the lake and incrementing the weight of one fish .1lbs at a time (not going over the max for the lake). I found that I /could/ start winning at about 16lbs/32.5lbs/60.5lbs total for each respective class, but odds were a coin toss as best. Anything lower and I wasn't finding any frame windows I won or got promoted.

The above total weights I was not finding any frame windows where I didn't win or get promoted. going .1lbs total below there started being a small window where I wouldn't get 1st or promoted.

I have a feeling the game checks the ROM for the other fishers' base weigh-ins and does a little RNG dance to add to their totals. It does all this without showing it so it's a lot harder to figure out, but it's how the other hot-b fishing games work and they do show it there (EG: Super Black Bass).