I've unbanned you. Sorry for not seeing this sooner.

UPDATE JANUARY 11 2021:

Bizhawk version 2.5 and onwards only have mGBA available as the core. This means that if you're playing on version 2.5 or newer, you do not need show core (you can skip step 1 in the first post). Be sure to remember all the other steps.

UPDATE AUGUST 22 2020: The following versions of Bizhawk are now banned from submitting RTA after a community vote: 2.4, 2.3.3. All runs submitted with these versions prior to this date will still be on the leaderboards.

List of bizhawk versions: http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html

I have also clarified that "end of the run" means when IGT shows up. So please don't show emulator settings before IGT and % shows up.

November 30 update: TAS profile is no longer a requirement. However, showing what Bizhawk version you're using is now a requirement. The rules have been updated to show this.

Also, while it is not a requirement, it's always appreciated when you provide time stamps for the soft/hard reset, as well as when you show the settings, in the submission text!

If you don't want it to be shown on the leaderboards themselves, we can edit it out when we approve the runs. This would save us a bit of work when we approve runs and would be much appreciated.

(That being said, if your submission video is a huge chunk of video where we have to look everywhere to find relevant information, we reserve the right to reject it.)

Yep, that goes for all the leaderboards. Mind you, you're free to compete for IGT if that's what you want, and you can click "in-game time" at the top of each leaderboard to sort by IGT, if you prefer that.

Just a heads up, I've added a 4th requirement, though it was already mentioned in this sticked topic and in the Rules tab on every category, so it's nothing new. Apologies that I did not add this to the topic before, it really should have been in one place instead of two different topics.

We're still receiving a fair amount of submissions that do not follow the rules, and while I'm sure most of them do follow the rules, we need to see it displayed to verify it. Sorry for the trouble!

Pressing down with 2 different buttons is possible with the Game Boy Player too, if you feel like dealing with multiple controllers.

(But yes, please don't do anything stupid with button mapping)

Ideally sub 55 on any of the outlined RTA routes, since there's more to compare with.

I actually posted in this thread yesterday, but apparently speedrun.com ate my message.

Masmurp, it gets more and more difficult to do a proper comparison the slower your time is, so if you have under 30 IGT that would be ideal, but I don't think anything 35+ would be helpful, unless there is a bunch of console runs around a similar pace with video I can compare to. It also gets more and more difficult to keep track of deviations from a "proper" (using the term loosely here) run the slower it is. Not just for me, but also for yourself, I can imagine.

The culprit is mainly more door transitions making it difficult to keep track of IGT/RTA discrepancy, but also because IGT runs slower than RTA (it takes 64 frames before the game counts it as an IGT second).

MrDino, that's fine; other people have suggested that Retroarch with mGBA core is probably a viable alternative. Like I mentioned before, remember to post all your settings if you do submit.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm no emulator buff, so looking at technical documentation probably wouldn't tell me much.

I seem to recall that one of the profiles produced bad results (it's entirely possible that I'm misremembering or confusing it with the other settings), so I think having it be the standard is fine for this. As long as we have a standard that produces satisfactory results.

We definitely noticed that no bios produced bad results, but once again, thanks for the heads-up.

We figured mGBA probably produced the same results as bizhawk with mGBA core would, but I'd still like to see some test results before we allow it.

Thanks for the post; it's nice with input from people who are knowledgeable about the subject.

Feel free to submit to the thread - just mark exactly what options you're using. I'll check the times out when I have the chance.

I'm guessing the SNES Mini has homebrew options that allow you to play Zero Mission on it?

Instructions in other languages:

French, courtesy of Destructor German, courtesy of Rocky712 Spanish, courtesy of SN_Idiot

If you want to submit RTA with your emulator speedrun, here are the requirements:

Use Bizhawk with mGBA core and proper firmware. Find Bizhawk here. We cannot link to the firmware, but a quick Google search is usually enough.

No emulator-specific functions used: No fast forward, slowdown, savestates etc.**

Full video of the run.

Before the run or at the end of the run, you need to show the following settings in your submission video:

1. mGBA core (either in status bar or settings; example 1, example 2) (If you are playing on Bizhawk version 2.5 or newer, you can skip step 1.)
2. Proper firmware (example; make sure the hash matches this one)
3. Bizhawk version. Avoid using 2.4 or 2.3.3. Use the newest version if possible. (Help -> About)
4. **Soft or hard reset visible at the beginning of the video. See this topic for details.

If showing these settings at the end of a run, please wait until "see you next mission" is on screen at the end.

Setting up Bizhawk, courtesy of Dragonfangs

Tutorial for showing settings, courtesy of Destructor

(Longer and more detailed version, if you want to be on the safe side or need some help with screen capture in OBS: Link)

If you have questions, feel free to jump into our Discord server and ask: Link

If you do not follow these rules, you cannot submit emulator RTA, but you can still submit IGT, assuming your run is single segment.

I responded to you on discord already, but I may as well sum up here:

Zero Mission is primarily an RTA board, IGT second, as mentioned in the rules. You can still compete on IGT if you want, and the leaderboards can be sorted by IGT as well. Currently we do not allow RTA for emulators, that is why they are missing in certain places. This might change.

We verified Destructor's run based on trust. We've raced with him before and believe he's legit. In an ideal world, everyone would have video evidence, and I did tell him a couple of times that he should definitely get a recording setup. If we see a good time coming out of left field, we'll usually do some digging around (or reject it).

We believe the VC version might lag ever so slightly more in a few places, but no one's really done extensive testing.

Reserving another post just in case

Sample post

Console

any% 38:28 - 26:19 - JP (use EU/NA/JP) - bizhawk version Notes: no early farm in Tourian, sam strat

2nd run

3rd run

etc

100% 1:10:42 - 50:15 - JP - bizhawk version Notes: late Brinstar, has 2 extra door transitions in Ridley, sam strat

(Feel free to add other categories, but chances are the data set will be incredibly small and not useful. Also feel free to add videos to whatever runs you post, it helps)

Currently, emulator RTA is not allowed on the leaderboards (EDIT: It's allowed now, check the other sticky post for details). This is because emulators historically have had inaccurate RTA compared to console, often being faster. Since Zero Mission primarily goes by RTA now for a bunch of reasons, this means the leaderboard currently is a bit of a mess, unfortunately.

Using bizhawk and particular settings have shown very promising results, however, and so we hope that it is accurate enough that we can allow it for the leaderboards sometime in the future. In this thread, I hope to collect data that will help us determine whether or not the data for this particular emulator with the correct settings is accurate enough to allow on the leaderboards. I also want console data though, so even if you play on console, feel free to contribute.

HOW TO HELP If you want to help, make a single post in this thread that you edit with runs. ALL OFF-TOPIC POSTS WILL BE DELETED.

Specify at the top of the post whether you're playing on console or bizhawk.

Make a separate subheader for every category. If you're running a different route than the top runs, please don't submit. 100% is a little complicated, but either of the current best RTA routes will do (early/late brinstar, early ice).

Then simply post times under the right category. It doesn't have to be PB runs, it can be any old run, but we're mostly interested in somewhat competitive times - keep this in mind. Post in the following order (simply list them off):

RTA - IGT - version (EU/NA/JP) - bizhawk version Notes: Notes should be whether or not there might be any discrepancy between your RTA and IGT. IGT doesn't run during text, door transitions, etc, so that's why we're mainly interested in runs using the "correct" routes. If you do things very differently from the top run(s), don't post. If you simply have a few extra doors, forgot to skip a cutscene, etc, make a note here.

Well known RTA/IGT discrepancies you should note: Early farm or not in Tourian any% brinstar super or no in any% Late/Early Brinstar in 100% Sam strat Extra doors of any kind Any pauses (If you fail glass tube in 100%, consider not submitting it, since that's a hot mess. Same goes with anything else that involves shorter transitions.) Try to be as descriptive as you can, in any case.

I'll make a sample post to show how it's done.

The project might lead to nothing, but ideally it will serve as a good base for allowing emulator RTA.

If you do not know how to setup bizhawk, please refer to this video by Dragonfangs - ALWAYS TRY TO GET THE LATEST RELEASE.

If you have any questions regarding this, please make a separate topic. Feel free to claim a post now that you edit in the future. If you don't contribute any data, post will be deleted.

Off the top of my head, the main difference is that you take half damage and the fact that you can do more damage to Mother Brain before she closes her eye. There might be other minor differences I'm not aware of, but none that should affect the speedrun in any meaningful way.

We can add it if the interest is there.

The main thing that's changed is that we've found that bizhawk with mGBA core (and some specific settings that I don't know off hand) is a lot more accurate than VBA, which is what people used to run on, for the most part.

Emulator RTA is still disallowed because, well, no one's really bothered to test whether or not it's completely accurate, and in the interest of fair competition we can't just allow it on a feeling. That's my stance on it, at least. I'm not sure how you'd go about testing it.

It'd also be virtually impossible to check whether or not people are using the correct emu, core, settings, etc for every single run, not to mention they might perform differently on some computers. Bizhawk (and/or the mGBA core?) still gets updated once in a while too, from my understanding.

Adding an arbitrary amount of time to your real time afterwards is a silly patchwork solution that doesn't really help anything. Then people could just purposely pick an emulator that runs fast for a better time, and we'd essentially be discouraging going for accuracy. Depending on what emulator is used, how much time it saves can vary a lot. It gets further complicated by the fact that it might only gain time on specific things (like say, door transitions and whatnot), and those probably vary between runs.

Unfortunately, GBA emulators have just historically been pretty inaccurate, but at least there are people working on accurate emulators now. We might see something in the future.