Also, please remove, reduce in size, and/or move out of the way anything covering the game screen, like the Argentina flag.

The latest version of the game actually provides an input display (buttons pressed) as part of Speedrun Data, so you do not need your own. Even so, you can still use your own, and the size/position should be fine as is.

According to the rules, the timer starts as soon as you gain control of your character, and the timer ends when you lose control of your character (or if Robot X hits the ground from a throw/slam move). You started the timer about a second earlier and stopped it some time later than needed.

For those reasons, the time was adjusted.

Another thing to know is that you were actually supposed to show the list of active codes in the emulator (just to prove Shiva's code is the only active one), which I must ask that you do in the future since that too is a rule.

You can upload it to a storage site like Google Drive, MediaFire, MEGA, etc. and give the link.

If you are using continues and/or get the factory's bad ending, the run is still legal.

When testing myself, I was able to bring the pipe to Attary in Stage Practice.

What character and settings did you have? Did you start from the first area with the dobermans, or start inside the cabaret?

What other things have you found so far that, in Stage Practice, doesn't happen in the real game?

After some thought, I should be making some improvements to the categories for Fight'N Rage on Speedrun.com some time soon.

So what should happen is:

• Go from 9 life start to 99 life start for Free Arcade Mode
• Allow Individual Level runs from Stage Practice and have runners show difficulty and speed settings after the stage is completed
• Make Arcade Mode and Free Arcade Mode separate categories for the three main characters, 2-player, and 3-player (probably safer for now than just mixing them)

How does this sound to everyone? If there is a disagreement, please explain in reply to this thread or message a moderator for this game.

Stage Practice and FA 99 life start can be considered as well. I have also been wondering if it is better to just allow these modes for any category when unlocked as the mission for the runner is just to get the fastest time.

Now that you mention it, that is true and can be an issue. If you have the full run you can go ahead and upload it. This may require some more thought, but perhaps in the future runners should just use the full videos so we can see difficulty and speed settings.

I didn't expect IL submissions to go this way, but I do hate to see them get wasted just because they weren't done from Free Arcade Mode.

Runners submitting IL runs via a full Arcade video should write down in the description when the IL run actually begins and preferably share a link that starts the video at that certain time.

EDIT: As of 2/5/2023 all future IL submissions from full game runs must include full videos. Again, this may need more consideration before finalization, but for now let's do it this way so we can see difficulty and speed settings at the start of the game. It's written in the game rules for the time being as well.

Free Arcade Mode allows selecting a level and starting life count, so you don't have to play the regular Arcade Mode to run the level by itself. You can currently only start with up to 9 lives. ^ This mode is the best way to run for Individual Level categories.

If you do find yourself playing the regular Arcade Mode and getting a good time on a specific stage or more, you may also submit the full video from the start of the game (same way speedruns on here usually start).

But in the end, it's better and less complicated to submit IL runs from Free Arcade mode.

And yes, IL has been here since the Free Arcade Mode update if I recall.

EDIT: Post has been modified to match the following two posts in terms of submitting IL runs from full Arcade Mode videos. IL submissions using this method may need some more consideration before things are set in stone.

I think they should stay just in case people do end up running the categories in the future, and I would prefer not to take these options away.

I'll edit the times. Any future runners of Super Skate, please start the timer as soon as you gain control of SUPER Skate, not regular Skate to avoid incorrect submission times.

The Bombed City Ending isn't worse than City Hall if you consider that saving the chief means you did better in the game. In that case, it's the second best ending.

I recommend not allowing super characters in regular 2-Player runs. If anything, we give the Super Characters category a Co-Op section of its own.

Also, we should label Good End and Bad End differently, because even if you play the factory level, you can still get a bad ending. If the intention is to play either the factory or city hall stages, we should label them Factory and City Hall.

Why have a Shiva category if you're just going to skip over parts of the game without him despite being unlocked already? The point is to use him as soon as possible after he is unlocked. However, there is one thing I have been thinking about regarding rules. Should we start the timer when the player selects Shiva instead involve Stage 1 and losing all lives?

If it's not more difficult to verify runs from Stage 2, perhaps the player don't have to worry about being fast in Stage 1 and learning a whole other character for it just to do a Shiva speedrun. The player should still be forced to avoid attacking enemies in Stage 2 until Shiva is unlocked so that the game won't progress until the character is active, but at least the timer can start when Shiva is actually being played. Probably the best way to start the timer is either as soon as Shiva is selected or he respawns and lands on the ground.

Otherwise, we just decide to allow Game-Genie/Pro Action Replay codes at the very least, but the player must show that he/she is only using codes to play as Shiva or Ash from the start of the game. If it's not too hard to prove, perhaps we can just do it this way. By allowing this method, we can also have Ash speedruns.

On a side note, I don't think Roo should be placed under Miscellaneous because he is playable from the start from a legitimate, in-game code. This is just a minor thing because we still have the category, but only now it's listed as Miscellaneous.

I wrote down that the player should not attack enemies at the start of Stage 2 so that he/she is forced to switch to Shiva as soon as possible. If you could start using him in Stage 3, it wouldn't be the earliest point to switch and would kind of defeat the purpose of playing as Shiva as soon as he is unlocked. Not having Shiva playable from Stage 1 was a huge mistake by the developers, so this is the closest possible way to have legitimate runs for this character and use him as soon as the game could possibly allow. I don't think the mods will want to involve out-of-game methods such as cheat devices and modding, although I wonder if cheat codes should be shown in the runs and verified.

I'm glad to see Shiva has finally been added. I just think the Shiva rules should state that the player must not attack any enemies until Shiva is selected, and part of the speedrun is how quickly you can switch to Shiva. Because the player must not attack enemies at that point, the player is forced to switch to Shiva as soon as possible and cannot continue the run without him from any later point in Stage 2.

Using the grenade is helpful for losing one of your lives, but it's not going to use a continue right away. I just didn't think that part was very clear, so I thought I'd explain it.

• Start the timer from Stage 1 after picking any character.
• Defeat Shiva in Stage 1 and hold the Attack button (normally the B button) until Stage 2 starts.
• The player loses lives without hurting enemies until it's time to continue, then selects Shiva with the timer still active.
• The run continues until Stage 7 is cleared like normal.

I think the run should just start from Stage 1 as it would for the other characters, but you have to switch to Shiva without hurting any enemies in Stage 2. By not hurting any enemies at that point, the player is forced to change as soon as possible, not being able to play the game any further with the initial character.

If anything, this could even be a miscellaneous category if not a regular one. However, with the case of misc categories, I wonder if hacking/cheat devices should be allowed as long as there's proof of only having only the code for Shiva or Ash.

Hopefully with these rules, we can at least have Shiva's category added either as regular or misc.

I understand Roo is a hidden playable character, but you can select him from the start of the game using the Title Screen code (Hold [Up]+[Attack] and press [Start]). I can understand not having Shiva and Ash because you can't play as them from the start of the game by normal means, but I feel that Roo should be an exception due to being on the character select screen via an in-game code. I hope I'm asking this question in the right place.

I suppose what you say about the fastest path and the updates makes sense. Another thing to think about is the use of mods, since this game has been proven to be modded in terms of things like graphics, sprite collision, enemy placement, scripts, etc. I believe that cosmetic changes like costumes and level graphics shouldn't be a thing to worry about, but things that alter the gameplay should make the run invalid. More info on modding Fight'N Rage can be found here in its own Steam discussion topic: https://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/1489987634014699750/

I haven't really moderated a game on speedrun.com before, but if nobody else plans on co-moderating the game at the moment, I suppose I could give it a shot if it's okay. You could also post on your Steam discussion topic, "The Official Speedrun page!", that the page needs some more people willing to help moderate. https://steamcommunity.com/app/674520/discussions/0/1693785669869568379/

I also wonder what the developer himself, sebagamesdev, thinks about how speedruns should go.

Another thing to consider is the game changing version. If we have an update that alters the game, (like when Gal got her buffs) will runs from older versions of the game still count? And wouldn't we have to tell/show what version we're running?