The Game Boy is the system that the version was targeted for and therefor acts as the frame of reference. Every other platform that can play this version but at different speeds should either be:
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Not allowed. This can be platforms where the emulation is not accurate enough, or simply runs too fast.
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Adjusted for speed, in very few cases.
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Played at the runners own discretion. This is also true for region differences, and it wouldn't make sense to separate them into different categories.
As for the second point, the SGB1 actually runs faster than the GB. Many GB game boards still allow runs for it because the hardware is almost exactly the same except for this, but usually the runner needs to re-time their run by a factor of 1.024. It is therefor interesting that it would somehow be slower in this case, but I think the answer could be the custom border and sound font that the game uses for the SGB. Bottom line, I don't think it merits a different category.
Shooting Stars RTA was intended for when you complete the secret bonus stage found in the top-left of Red Alert on the SNES version, which skips the stage (PAL/NTSC-J only). I think the category would be valid for Genesis as well.
All Stars is Genesis-exclusive. You are correct in that it's a ridiculous challenge. I find Nightmare Buzz to be the hardest because of the random spread of stars that very quickly disappear. Buzz Battle is fairly easy and doable with a bit of practice, once you figure out Buzz's jump patterns you will know exactly when to move under him and grab the star at the same time. For The Claw, you can hit the claw, grab some stars until they stop spawning from hitting the claw, and then reset the stage by dying which will cause the stars to spawn again when you strike the claw. Instead of a split category as you suggest, I think it would be better to have a board for individual levels, essentially one for any% and one for all-stars in the particular level.
As for the third point, I'm only aware of SNES and Gen having invincibility mode. In my opinion, while an invincibility cheat could be used with the other versions, I would not be in favor of it because the difference would be that in SNES/Gen it's a built-in feature of the game.
I've been setting up an auto-splitter and I would like to know what the exact timing conventions for this game are. At the moment, the rules state:
"Time starts once you select first race, ends after Captain Braddock screen advancing from Bogmire Division A."
However, I've seen people end the timer at different points; during the victory screen, during the ship cut-scene, when the Captain Braddock screen fades out and even when entering the final Braddock screen, in this case leaving out the ship AND ending cut-scene altogether out of the run.
In my opinion, the timing should end when the last input has been made that activates the ending at the very least. That would be the frame that you press the advance button, and the rocket starts moving.
On another note, the timing for the start of the run seems to be very clear. But we have to be precise about this, especially considering how different some submissions are for when the timing has ended.
Super Famicom (J) and SNES (U) version shares the exact same romfile, yes. Only the PAL SNES (E) version is different from the other two.
Looks really great so far! My only nit-pick is that Game Time shows as (HH):MM:SS instead of the "classic" HH:MM. Having seconds (:00) looks ugly. But yeah, I know things are being worked on.
I was a bit inspired by the speed running communities that made their own Discord. So I made one for Toy Story related stuff.