"Emulator runs are accepted if the speed is the same as the original game"

I'm sorry but this run is clearly not the same speed as the original game. In one frame, the yellow ant covers 3-4 squares both in the nest and on the surface, teleporting every frame of animation. Even the red ant in the video is moving 3-4 squares per frame of animation as the speedrunner goes to the red nest. Also the red queen dies and immediately gives the "Game Over" text. These visual cues are easily proof that the game is running at a higher cycle count than the original, almost double! This run needs to be removed, as it does not comply with the rules in the category.

I'm all for someone beating my WR, but they should do it legitimately with the same speed I played the game at. This is cheating.

I just played on DOSBox and used the in game speed options, the cycles were set to auto and I checked the rules before submitting, I'd be glad to redo the run if the rules need to be adjusted though.

I apologize if I misinterpreted the rules. The only reason I interpreted it as okay to use the in game speed setting was the other forum post where oddtom said "You can play on the slower speed if you want. That's perfectly fine and acceptable. It's just a thing you could do to improve the time. You showed me some improvements in yours that I could use to improve mine, like skipping the step of swapping with the queen." It read to me like he was saying that adjusting in game speed is fine, just not increasing cycles. If this is not actually okay, then I'm fine with redoing the run, but the rules should be updated to reflect what in game speed option is allowed (i.e. Normal, Fast etc.) just for clarity so this doesn't happen again.

I appreciate your response Izumi. I'm curious of the difference between DOSBox with "Auto" cycles, and the website linked in the "Resources" tab. Because the game at https://classicreload.com/simant-the-electronic-ant-colony.html runs at 3000 cycles. I feel like DOSBox runs faster at "Auto" but I will test this out. Your red queen defeat prompt is immediate, which I cannot duplicate on the website even with "Ultra" speed. This tells me DOSBox might run the game at a faster speed, rather than the cycles being manually adjusted to be faster (which I initially thought was the case). So I do apologize a bit, as this discrepancy could genuinely be DOSBox vs. website.

Okay so after doing some tests, I can verify that DOSBox runs "Auto" at 3000 cycles. I tested a few runs at the Ultra speed. Here's the video showing 5 different frame-counts between the last frame showing the yellow ant fighting, to the first frame showing the full "Red Queen dead" prompt:

I frame-counted each of the endings, and here are the results: 1st Ending: 2.717 secs 2nd Ending: 1.350 secs 3rd Ending: 1.083 secs 4th Ending: 1.550 secs 5th Ending: .833 secs

Izumi's Ending: .283 secs

In all fairness, the first ending was longer because the yellow ant was engaged in another fight after killing the queen, which extended the wait. Izumi's frame-count comes in at .283 seconds, which is insanely fast but overall I'm convinced I was wrong.

You followed the rules. You're not required to prove your DOSBox is set to "auto" or 3000 cycles. It functions identical to what I saw at 3000 cycles on DOSBox anyway. The only thing I haven't been able to personally replicate was your super fast red queen prompt, but it may be possible with a few more attempts. Also you are correct, the 3-4 squares the ant moves is purely due to in-game speed adjustments.

I apologize for the assumption. Also, GGs on the WR!

I could have typed a thing instead, but then I couldn't play with Davinci Resolve

EDIT: IDK how often the game checks for win conditions, but I didn't see an issue with the time between end of fight and game won window

I thought the Game Over prompt was very fast too, I don't exactly know why as I only just picked the game back up since I was a kid. Sorry for the unintentional controversy though! I only put in a few attempts, so the time is likely beatable.

Oddtom nailed it on the head with that video. I'm just an idiot who never realized you could change the in-game speed. I came here initially a year ago to run the SNES version which is the one I grew up with. The SNES version is much slower than the DOS version, but it also has options to change in-game speed so I should have known.

While I didn't put a lot of research into the DOS version myself, I feel pretty stupid now. It's a bit hilarious that none of the runners prior to you realized we could change the speed to Ultra.

But once more I'd like to apologize to you Izumi, for the assumptions and ignorance. And I'd like to apologize to Oddtom too, because I now realize he definitely does his due diligence when it comes to verifying runs. Thanks for the replies!