Hi, I noticed some runs on the board use emulator save states, for example the run of HopeTrash (start of run), Cheesehead302 (visible at 0:28) and Flamesabre (visible at 0:02).

These are Emulator-only features, and disallowed by the global speedrun.com site rules:

Tool-assisted emulator features such as save-states, re-recording, or frame advance are not allowed.

Save states give an unfair advantage to emulator runners as they are able to do a much quicker run restarts, and runners on real hardware are disadvantaged. (Not sure if RNG manip is possible for Shaq Fu but that would also be an issue with save states.)

To make sure that save states are not used, I think it makes sense to require the recording to include the game start/reset (as it is already the case on many other boards).

Hi, I was playing the GameBoy version of Loopz the other day and wanted to ask if that would also fit in here if I were to submit a run? Or should I try to request a separate game entry on SRC? From a first glance it seems like the versions are pretty comparable.

Hi All,

PLEASE VOTE HERE: https://forms.gle/zTVhGPc6hZ412KXV7

As you might know, there is an ongoing discussion about whether the "drag down" bug (or swiping down rapidly) should be allowed or not, as it slows down the game significantly.

There are currently 4 options on how to proceed:

Option 1: Don't change the rules (use current 1000m / minute average rule)

Option 2: Update the 1000m / minute rule to make it more strict This means we would work some more on the current 1000m / minute rule to make it more strict, as currently it still leaves a lot of room to slow down the game significantly. For example: the 1000m / minute rule must be enforced for every minute, not only the average. (The current WR for example reaches 6000m already at 3:30, which would not be allowed). Ideally, this would scale and take into account that the game will run faster the more distance has been travelled (and not linearly 1000m per minute). An idea would be checkpoints (1000m under 1 minute, 2000m under 1:50, 3000m under 2:40, 4000m under 3:30 etc.)-

If this option is chosen, the Mod team will come up with a reasonable suggestion (you can write ideas in the form if you like).

Option 3: Disallow swiping down (to slide) completely (unless used for an sliding under an obstacle) This will effectively disallow using the bug or swiping down for slowing down the game completely. (We would allow for maybe an accidental down swipe every minute.)

Option 4: Disallow swiping completely + also disallow struggling (which also slows down game) Same as option 3, but also running over obstacles like this is forbidden (because it slows down the game):

Also here there would be a minimal amount of allowed obstacles, as it can happen by accident.

Voting will be open for at least 2 full days (possibly longer, depending on the amount of feedback).

Here is the link to the poll: https://forms.gle/zTVhGPc6hZ412KXV7

YOU MUST SIGN IN TO GOOGLE IN ORDER TO TAKE THE POLL. This is so we can limit 1 vote per person the best we can.

Hi all

To make sure we can provide a fair leaderboard, new rules will be introduced for Top 10 runs. This is a cautionary measure to avoid cheating and improve the trustworthiness of top runs overall.

New rules for Top 10 runs:

• Must include audio
• Must show start & end of run

The rules have been updated accordingly.

Hi all As there are a lot of incoming runs we are searching for new verifiers!

To become a verifier you need to know how to re-time runs with milliseconds. You don't know how to re-time yet but you still want to be a verifier? Don't worry! Inside the test there is a video tutorial on how to re-time runs.

If you feel you could help and want to learn (or already know) how to time runs, please do the timing test here: https://forms.gle/HCoNvK12JDLVM6hk9

If you answer correctly, we will contact you and add you to the team.

You can join the Discord server in any case here: https://discord.gg/DbXpeYyAaS

Thanks and maybe see you soon!

STATEMENT REGARDING POKI / WEB VERSION (2022-08-20)

TLDR: Poki (web version of Temple Run 2) will NOT be allowed on the leaderboard.

As some of you have noticed, there are several Temple Run 2 versions on Poki. As some runners have started using them, we have investigated the ones available (Temple Run 2, Holi Festival, Frozen Shadows, Jungle Fall) to check if they are similar enough to the mobile versions, so they could be tracked on the same leaderboard.

However, while looking similar (and sharing visual assets effectively), these versions have been ported to the web (presumably using the Poki SDK) and are simplified, and not original Temple Run 2 versions like they are available on mobile.

For example, you can see the following differences:

• There are no hard left/right turns at all, only straight paths
• The tutorial can't be turned on/off explicitly, other menu choices
• Full keyboard support / Left, right and middle lanes which are fixed
• Missing revive and shop, different currency system, missing map choice etc.

The most important issue with these versions is the first one: They make the game much easier to run for "No Coins", as the upcoming path (and also the coins) are visible long beforehand. It therefore gives an unfair advantage to the offical mobile versions.

Also, these differences are not because an old version was ported. We have also checked against older version of Temple Run 2 on Android and were able to confirm that the matching theme versions (for example "Jungle Fall" / Nov 2020, or "Holi Festival" / March 2020) do not show the "No hard left/right turns" behaviour of the Poki web versions.

If you do not want to run on mobile, there are emulators available, for example for Android. Just make sure to follow the FPS limit according to the rules.

Hey Everyone!

We're happy to announce, together with the Subway Surfer community, the Subway Surfers x Temple Run 2 No Coin Tournament!

All information regarding the event listed on this web page here: https://speedrun-challenge.github.io/no-coins/

How do you register? In the link above, there is a registration form to be part of the event. After that, submit your no coin runs to each respective board. A team of verifiers will analyze each run before being placed onto the Tournament leaderboard. At the designated time and date (September 5th 02:59 UTC), submissions will be closed and prizes will be handed out accordingly

If you are interested in adding to the prize pool, follow the contact information linked on the web page, or contact me directly. Many thanks to @VyPr for the ideas and help.

Subway Surfers leaderboard: https://www.speedrun.com/subsurf Subway Surfers Discord: https://discord.gg/A3KjZ6zA

Current Prize Pool: $150

Hi all,

As you know, all runs will be frame timed, to provide an accurate leaderboard. This post aims to clarify how to find the key frames for "No Coins" category.

Start

Start: Timing Time begins when you press "Play!" (main menu) or "New Game" (pause menu) Key frame: first frame the coin counter shows 0

It is possible that the menu already vanishes a few frames earlier, in that case also the frame when the coin counter shows "0" is the first frame. If the start itself is not visible, take 0 as start.

End

End: Time ends when you pick up a coin or die Key frame: First frame counter shows 1 or more coins OR first frame the counter is not visible anymore

Picking up a coin:

Dying:

If the end itself is not on video, let the video finish and take that as end frame.

Calculating time between start and end frame

Now that you have the two key frames, how to measure the time between them?

• Youtube: You can navigate with "." and "," until you find the right frames and then put them in here: https://retime.mcbe.wtf/ Be sure to get the right FPS and it will calculate the time between the start and end frame.
• Video editing software: Usually some kind of timer is available which can be used to count frames or time directly. There's VSDC for example which is free and has a timer available.
• Twitch, TikTok etc.: Download the raw video and progress using the method above.

If you're not sure about your time, don't worry, as all times will be checked in the approval process.

Hi all!

Two topics about new categories and the future of the game.

1. To really allow for competition in a Wordle-sense, I would suggest to add a "5 games" or "10 games" category (or both). There is a Wordle discord and it seems also the webgame is run in both 5 and 10 games categories.

2. The game as we play it now - the ROM by stacksmashing - only features a really small subset of what the original Wordle game offers - only 212 words can be the word searched for (see source), and determining if a word exists in the dictionary is done via a bloom filter which has its flaws.

I tried contacting the original author via email and twitter but he did not get back to me yet, it seems from my point of view that like it was more of weekend project and not something they plan to improve.

As I really see this as a problem for having the "real Wordle experience", I had a look and there are forks of the original code which are actively maintained and improved, and one that stuck out to me was this one: https://github.com/bbbbbr/gb-wordle

It was developed on top of the work of stacksmashing, but features the full Wordle word list, full dictionary for checking valid words, and showing the correct word on losing and other small improvements.

I would be very interested in what you think of this. For me personally, the main issue is the small word list we have currently and I think it would be much more fun to play on a bigger/real word list. I would suggest to add a version with the real word list somehow on the boards, beside the current version.

Also, any idea how we could merge both ideas? One idea that came to my mind was having "1 game" and "10 games" categories with a leaderboard variable "Original ROM" vs. "Full word set", which would show up as a toggle in the respective category.

Hi, I saw that this game is listed with the platform GB too (besides GBC). I think this is wrong, there was no release for GameBoy and the GBC version is not playable on original GB platforms (as it is not a black cartridge). Could the "GB" platform be removed? Thanks.

Hi all, I stumbled upon this game by searching for Game Boy games.

Just a small remark about the game metadata: "Worms Armageddon" was never released for Game Boy (GB), only for Game Boy Color (GBC), so the platforms could be updated accordingly.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms_Armageddon

Thanks!

Hi all,

Since the top runs for the "Beginner" category are really close, rules for frame-based timing have been set in place a while ago, and this post aims to clarify how to find the key frames.

Start

Start: Timer starts after "class" is selected. Key frame: First frame that shows signs of fading.

End

End: Timer stops when Congrats screen is seen. Key frame: First frame the award ceremony is fully faded in, at which the upper part of the stage will be checkered.

Calculating time between start and end frame

Now that you have the two key frames, how to measure the time between them?

• Youtube: You can navigate with "." and "," until you find the right frames and then put them in here: https://slashinfty.github.io/yt-frame-timer/ Be sure to get the right FPS and it will calculate the time between the start and end frame.
• Video editing software: Usually some kind of timer is available which can be used to count frames or time directly. There's VSDC for example which is free and has a timer available.
• Twitch: No direct way to do this to my understanding, download the raw video and progress using the method above.

If you're not sure about your time, don't worry, as all times will be checked in the approval process.

Hi Mod Team,

I wanted to bring something to your attention I noticed while scanning through the GB leaderboard.

Apparently the run from Slamphibian is using save states:

This is about 10 seconds into the video.

Now I'm not completely sure what for example playing through the level and then making a save state (or waiting at the menu screen for a long enough time) does to the game's mechanics.

As it turns out this is not worth investigating, as save states are generally disallowed by the global speedrun.com site rules:

[quote]Tool-assisted emulator features such as save-states, re-recording, or frame advance are not allowed.[/quote]

The run is not complying with this and thus should be removed.

(Side note: regardless of the other issues currently discussed about the Game Boy rules, showing a reset on run start would be good requirement in my opinion.)

Hi all,

Currently, runs in the GB category are not timed exact enough. In this post I'd like to share why I think so and also like to make a suggestion on how I think we could improve timing and the current rules.

(I brought some of the issues up yesterday in the Discord but I'm not sure everyone's aware of the current situation for the GB board.)

Current top runs

Let's have a look for example at the top two runs, the one from poultfloyd and the one from Luzbelheim.

If we define an exact starting frame (which currently does not exist by the rules, I'll get to that later), like the first frame "Bertil Hörberg 2012-2015" is not (completely) visible anymore, we can time those two runs using any video software or online tool like the yt-frame-timer, and get the following:

• poultfloyd: 43s 767ms
• Luzbelheim: 43s 817ms

So there's a small, but clear difference (50ms, or 3 frames @ 60 FPS), and so the runs should not be treated as a tie, poultfloyd's run is faster and therefore should be first on the leaderboard.

If you don't believe me, I made a comparison video of the two runs, you can check it out here:

Both runs start on the exact same frame, and you can switch to the very end of the runs to see if they end at the same time, as the current leaderboard suggests (as they tie for 1st place). On Youtube, you can move between single frames with "," (forward) and "." (back) to get the exact frames.

I'm not sure if the timing was done relying on LiveSplit, which is started by hand and therefore inaccurate? As this is in the "optional" rules, I guess this is currently the case.

The speedrun.com Site rules however clearly states that this would be wrong: "The time of the run is the time in the video from starting condition to ending condition. It is not the time shown on the timer program, which is started and ended with human error."

Optional rules and penalty

There are some more issues to point out which I think are unfair.

My run (https://www.speedrun.com/gunmc/run/zqg0npxm) got a penalty, which is according to the current rules, but in my opinion not fair.

I'm running on original Nintendo hardware (Super Game Boy 2, using an Everdrive X7 to load the ROM), so I honestly don't understand why that should count less than an emulator.

Besides the obvious that I am not using Gambatte, I also can not track my input from the Super Game Boy 2, which would be required by the rules to not get a penalty.

(By the way: It is beyond my understanding how and why the "ss.x99"-penalty got in place, but it messes with timing, which should just not happen, it is the single-most important variable for a run on any SRC board.

Either a run is valid and follows all mandatory rules, or it is not and it should not appear on the leaderboard. Having "optional" rules is not a good idea in my opinion and I've never seen anything like this on another GB game or leaderboard in general. But that's just my personal opinion, see below for a suggestion.)

Suggestion

There would be one solution to all curent problems: Switch to frame-based timing.

• This would be much fairer (and more exact) and a situation with wrong timing like above could not happen again.
• This would need a clear starting frame (like already existing for the end of timing), which makes sense in any case. If there's no defined (frame-precise) starting point, why even bother measuring time in milliseconds?
• This would obsolete all the current "optional" rules and the penalty: LiveSplit is not needed anymore and 30 or 60 FPS doesn't matter (you can use 60 FPS for a chance to win a single frame - I could elaborate on that if needed). The "show input" does not make sense for running on original hardware.

About emulators

There is one additional point I'd like to make (not as important, but still) - some Emulators run far too fast (see here for an extensive comparison of emulators which Legs, me and some other GB runners have done), I think it would make sense to have at least one mandatory rule which emulators are allowed. (Currently, most GB games accept Bizhawk, Gambatte and BGB.)

If this new mandatory rule is not introduced, I could just use a faster emulator, some of which are up to 3.2% faster. For a 43 second run, this would give me nearly 1.4 seconds unfair advantage, and the current penalty would only give me up to 0.1s penalty. So it would only make sense to search for the fastest emulator, which is not a direction a speedrunning Leaderboard should go to. As I said, instead of giving some arbitrary penalty, it is more common (and also makes more sense) to only have mandatory rules, but instead enforce those.

Suggestion summary

• Switch to frame-based timing (and define a start frame)
• Drop the optional rules and penalty
• Introduce a mandatory rule to restrict allowed emulators

Thanks for reading! That was a bit longer than expected, but I think it's worth to have a detailed look at it, as I think the current rules & timing are unfair.

I'd be glad to help out or support transitioning the timing of the GB category to a more accurate, frame-based timing.

Did the typical "speedrun.com-green" just change or is my display broken?

Hi,

(cross-posting Github issue here - https://github.com/speedruncomorg/api/issues/108 )

I am running a WR bot for certain platforms and until yesterday, I could query newest runs of a platform like this: https://www.speedrun.com/api/v1/runs?status=verified&platform=n5683oev&orderby=verify-date&direction=desc

This gives the following error:

{'status': 400, 'message': 'Please query by at least one of: examiner, game, guest, level, user.', 'links': [{'rel': 'support', 'uri': 'irc://speedrunslive.com#speedrun.com'}, {'rel': 'report-issues', 'uri': 'https://github.com/speedruncom/api/issues'}]}

Do I understand it correctly that the API was changed to require one of the fields mentioned and that it's no longer possible to fetch recent runs by platform? Also, is this permanent or also just temporary due to the increased holiday traffic?

Also the examples on the /runs documentation give the same error ("GET /api/v1/runs?status=verified&orderby=verify-date&direction=desc gets all newly verified runs").

Hi all,

I recently became mod of this game and noticed some inconsistencies regarding timing. With the current rules, some existing runs are timed to fast, while others are timed to slow.

So this is an update for the timing of the NES category. I tried taking the existing rules and specifying them further down, so that it is consistent with the existing runs and for future runs, it's (even more) clear how to time.

Start

Start: "Timing starts when the screen begins to fade after selecting Set Features." Key frame: First frame that shows signs of fading / getting darker.

End

End: "Timing ends when the screen begins to fade at the end of the game." Key frame: First frame that shows signs of fading / getting darker.

Calculating time between start and end frame

Now that you have the two key frames, how to measure the time between them?

• Youtube: You can navigate with "." and "," until you find the right frames and then put them in here: https://mattbraddock.com/yt-frame-timer/ Be sure to get the right FPS and it will calculate the time between the start and end frame.
• Video editing software: Usually some kind of timer is available which can be used to count frames or time directly. There's VSDC for example which is free and has a timer available.
• Twitch: No direct way to do this to my understanding, download the raw video and progress using the method above.

If you're not sure about your time, don't worry, as all times will be checked in the approval process.

Hi all, I recently became Mod of this game and I'd like to share a few suggested changes.

As we now have runs on 3 different platforms, categories for the different platforms are added, as the games are not really comparable. New categories will be added if they're needed, this means that so far there are categories for GameBoy, SNES and GameGear.

Second, the rules for all categories were updated to define start and end of timing. I tried to make it as consistent as possible, feel free suggest changes so we can discuss these. For the SNES, there were no rules until now. The character selection makes most sense from my point of view, and the current existing run has been retimed to reflect that.

Thanks for reading!

Hi all,

As we track time in milliseconds now it makes sense to define some exact frames on where to start/stop the timing. So here's a little "tutorial" of how to properly time your run.

Start

Rule: "Timing starts when you press A on the new game screen.".

At the keypress, the menu will start scrolling down, and it's quite easy to spot, especially at the bottom. Start frame is the last frame where the menu is fully visible.

End

Rule: "Time stops when credits are fully faded in."

This one is easy to spot too, the credits will appear in 3 different colors, and timing stops on the first frame they're fully faded in (=black in most color schemes).

Calculating time between start and end frame

Now that you have the frames, how to measure the time between them?

• Youtube: You can navigate with "." and "," until you find the right frames and then put them here: https://mattbraddock.com/yt-frame-timer/ Be sure to get the right FPS and it will calculate the time between the start and end frame.
• Video editing software: Usually some kind of timer is available which can be used to count frames or time directly. There's VSDC for example which is free and has a timer available.
• Twitch: Not sure yet (please let me know if you know!) try with one of the methods above.

Thanks for noticing.

Hi, I have a run which I'd like to submit but I struggled a bit with the exact start of the timing.

The existing run seems to start the timer on emulator reset. As other emulators may have different startup times I think this is suboptimal. This also applies to real hardware, if someone would run it on a Game Boy (e.g. with an Everdrive), the startup takes far longer (fade-in of the "Nintendo"-logo). It's also difficult to precisely define the exact start frame, regardless of emulator or hardware.

I'd therefore would like to suggest another start of timing: Either

1. Timer starts on first input (quite common), which means on pressing Start on the "Daedus / IZMA 2019" title screen or:
2. Timer starts on pressing "New game" - this would even make more sense from my point of view, as the goal of Any% is beating a new game.

Both would allow for frame-precise timing.

Also, as the game is so short, could we track the times in milliseconds?