Finally completed a full run for all gems in one sitting so I'll get that submitted soon. While the run wasn't the best (I lost time to dropped link connections and made a mistake costing almost 20 minuets at the end) I now have a much better idea of realistic timings.

24 gems (from new game to the princess Dazzle coronation 'ending' cut scene) looks like it will take around 1.5 hours.

25 gems (collecting all gems) looks like it will take around 5 hours.

Given the length and potential routing differences I think 24 could deserve it's own category.

While I would run the category if it existed, personally, it's not one if find very exciting (as it's basically just the Survival, Flash and CPU NG+ categories back-to-back with a three minuet intermission and a link battle at the end). However if anyone is interested in that let me know.

So it can't have been two days since I created the categories. But I've been trying to plan the route for 25 gems and I don't think you actually need to trade to get all them gems. You do need to use multiplayer mode but you can use single cartridge multiplayer.

No one's run 25 gems yet, so assuming I'm right should the rules be updated? A few things that might be worth consideration:

1. Trading is much slower so does it even need to be disallowed?
2. It might be worth allowing a second game pak anyway for multiplayer (even though it's not needed). Single pak multiplayer is slow on real hardware (as it has to download the game) and seem pretty inconsistent on emulators (sometimes it takes multiple resets to get a connection).

I've been 3 weeks already! So it's almost time for the new categories. I've done some testing and watched a lot of gameplay. Seems like everyone agrees trading is required for at least 1 gem for 25 gems category. Although after working out the consistent method to get paralyze I think I might need to dig into the rom to double check.

I think the only adjustment that should be made is to the proposed survival master rules. Dropping the requirement to start on easy. It seems like most people prefer to start on hard. So it makes sense for the runner to be able to select whichever difficulty they want.

From my practices it looks like NG+ takes about 10 minuets, Master on survival takes 25-45 minuets and 25 Gems will take 2 hrs+. 25 Gems is the only one I've not done a full recording of yet. I'll manage a run eventually but I need a bit more time to prepare.

I've added my sequence prediction tool in the Resources > Tools section to help planning flash columns runs with consistent rng. I've also added a PAL save file with 5 of all 25 gems in the Resources > Saves section to make the NG+ easier to setup. (I'll get a JP save as well but it will take more time as I have to trade gems over and sometimes that makes the game crash for no reason).

One think I noticed while making the save file is the visual emulation bug with 'Quake' that Nost had mentioned before. I normally play the JP version with a JP bios and hadn't seen the issue before but switched both to Europe to make the save file. So it seems like the emulation bug might effect multiple emulators but only effect certain regions? I'd be interested to know if anyone's experienced the bug on the US versions.

Guides will be my next priority after this.

Good luck to anyone trying the new categories. I'll try and get things setup tomorrow evening.

No it’s not an April fools, I really do want to get these categories setup.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted my thoughts on new categories so I think it’s about time to turn them into concrete proposals. I’ve tried to look at categories people had already shown interest in and have proposals for 3 new categories in-keeping with the style of the current rules.

Please feel free to leave any feedback. It doesn’t matter if it’s a suggestion for a change to the category, interest in another category or change to make the wording clearer. I’d love to hear it.

I’ve created a poll https://forms.gle/xc2RSnsfJZaDfVok8 to help gauge interest and show what should be prioritised. (Results visible on submission).

I want to give plenty of time for feedback and changes but also don’t want these categories to get stuck in limbo. 3 more weeks should be more than enough for this so I want to get everything set up by then (i.e 2022.04.22 at the latest). Maybe sooner if there is general interest and agreement in a category.

Here are the proposals:

Run requires the player to choose Vs CPU mode on a save file with any previous gameplay. Choose either character

[RTA - Run starts as soon as the player presses start after choosing the gem selection screen. Run ends as soon as WIN appears on the players side after defeating Princess Pinch]

{A save file with all gems already collected could be made available to use on the resources section}

Run requires the player to enter survival mode and select easy mode. Choose either character

[RTA - Run starts when a character is selected. Run ends as soon as rank "MASTER" is displayed]

Run requires the player to acquire 25 gems on a single character after all previous data is erased.

A second Game Pak may be used to facilitate trading gems between characters however only gems originally obtained on the first Game Pak or character starting gems may be traded (Freeze and Wall to Alchemist (boy), Speed and Up to Sorcerer (girl)).

[RTA - Run starts when name selection is confirmed on Sorcerer (girl) naming screen. Run ends when the brown new gem icon is shown in survival mode after the other 24 gems have already been collected]

Currently working on some stuff to try and make flash columns runs more accessible (in between alchemist runs). Should be interesting for anyone who’s as excited about flash columns as I am. So look out for that in the next few weeks.

Happy running. (don't forget to vote)

So I did a flash run at the weekend and after some playing around I'm not sure how viable it would be to have separate categories / what they would be. I my run I used survival mode to do and arbitrary seed setup and avoided skipping stage intros. My thoughts were that any pre-planned flash run would be easily identifiable because of the setup and fact the stage intros were not skipped.

However there is a seed (215:0, not a great one) you can get for flash quite easily where the only prep is some tight menu navigation after power on. And while you can get consistent colours by not skipping intros you can also get consistent colours with perfect intro skips (alternate spamming 'start' and 'a').

I guess what I'm saying is there isn't any RNG in the game at all, it's all down to how well you navigate the menus. And if a runner is resetting from power off each time and retrying as fast as they can they're going encounter the same seeds multiple times just by accident. This is true for all game modes.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has thoughts on this?

I’ve got some thoughts on categories and wanted to make a post if people have any comments (sorry about the length).

I’m not sure if there should be two categories. Basically I’ve found the getting the RNG to get the seed you want is much easier that I initially thought. With a bit of setup I’ve gone from needed a few hundred resets to getting it with the first 10/20 tries.

With this you can pre-plan the entire run. This obviously speeds things up a but I’m not sure it’s really fair to compare against random runs where the runner actually has to think.

I should probably write a guide for getting the seed you want too. But I need to actually do my run first!

I saw the suggestion for first to certain number of gems burst. I think gems burst relates to level so there could be something like a fastest to level 100 run. However after a while gems fall at a constant speed and you have to burst them not to loose. That means the slower, early levels are probably the only place you could gain time.

I wonder if something like fastest to rank ‘master’ would be a better run? As rank is determined by all the factors on that are shown on the report card, like making long chains and double using black magic gems. If you play well you can get master rank before 2000 gem bursts but if you play badly it can take over 3000.

This is kind of how the in-game leader board works as well. The highest listed score is the one where master was achieved with the least gem bursts.

I think there are two possible categories you could do for this. A 24 gem 'Complete The Crown' run that ends when you get the crown completion cut scene (the main ending). And an 'All Gems' run when you unlock the 'secret' 25th gem.

The only problem I see with these runs is that I think you need 2 game packs to get all the gems with one character. So this would be required for both runs.

I think the main post game run suggested was beating the cpu as fast as possible using any gems you want. The only complication I can think of is that I think the cpu use different gems depending how many gems you’ve collected. Unless I’m wrong about that?? So maybe the rules would have to specify all gems being collected? Or maybe having exactly the right gems would be part of the strategy.

Another, less serious, idea would be an all gem powers cpu run. You start on a save with all 25 gems and have to beat the cpu as quickly as possible using every gem power at least once. idk I think it would be a pretty fun one as there'd be load of different way to play it.