I just wanted to make a post to show some glitches I found in super sprint and see what the community/Yels thinks should be done about them.

Both of these glitches have to do with the way super sprint checks/assigns credit for laps. Very loosely, there are hidden "flags" on the track that the player must cross, in order, and then when you then cross the finish line (in any direction) super sprint does another check and gives you credit for a lap, then resets the mid-lap flags. There are two glitches I've found that revolve around these flags/checks in different ways.

The "backwards lap" glitch is done by hitting all of the hidden flags on the track, and then crossing the starting line backwards. In theory you shouldn't ever want to do this, but Super Sprint will still give you credit for a lap anyway. Here's an example of me running Track 0 backwards (it's may be impossible to win it with all backwards laps though)

Track 0 backwards:

Why would this ever be useful? On track 6 with the first loop that you can hit the two flags in, but not actually DO the loop. it is possible to use this exploit and get lap credit, and win, without actually doing the laps.

Track 6 non-full laps:

Only 3 of the 5 laps were properly completed in that video, yet I was still able to win the track. It's slower than performing normally, but could still be a potential issue as to whether the run is "valid" or not.

The most game-breaking glitch is the "pause glitch" that gives false lap credit due to exploiting the lap checking mechanism at the finish line. If you cross the finish line with all mid-lap flags triggered, and mash the start button as you cross the line, you can force the game to recheck and give additional fake laps. I didn't check if this works going backwards, but it probably does. Either way, it doesn't matter, as I put up a 4:01 in my second attempt with it.

See Video here:

Instead of the 35 required laps to complete one-loop, I completed it in 13 laps. You could optimize it to get it down to 7 laps only, for sure.

I'm obviously not a mod but I figured I'd try to bring these glitches to light before someone else finds them, submits a run (for WR or otherwise), and then we have to deal with it after it's already been completed.

I would definitely recommend the use of pause should be entirely ruled out for all three current categories, and if people wanted to run the game glitched then maybe new categories could be created (I can't even guess if people want to do that though)

The backwards lap glitch seems to be ALWAYS slower than performing well at the game, but you're still not actually completing laps. A 5:XX run could theoretically be saving time by making use of this exploit in a tricky area like the track 6 loop where AI cars knock you around in there.

Sorry for the very long-winded post, and thanks for taking the time to read it!

I'm a new speedrunner (I play ninja gaiden) and have noticed a lot of hype surrounding damageless runs recently. Ninja Gaiden obviously had Slackanater complete the first ever last year and there was hype for "damageless march" that resulted in Edo and CHX both putting up times alongside Slack on the Damageless scoreboard.

I noticed, however, that there is not a damageless category for Castlevania 2, despite what looks like ViggoTheeCarpathian submitting a damageless run. I found it in the Any% category. It looks like it's about 3 weeks old so I wasn't sure if it takes time to create/move the run to the category, or if there was no intention of making a damageless category for this game.

I realize that Castlevania 2 has many categories that I will fully admit I do not understand and appreciate the nuances of, as I am still a casual fan of the game and do not run it. However, can someone explain to me why there is not a damageless category now that a run has been completed damageless? There are other several other categories that have only two or three runs listed on them - is there a minimum number of completions needed to create a new category? I saw that Legend of Zelda has a "category extensions" where they keep damageless, but I'm not sure the criteria to make a category extension either.

Overall, I feel that damageless is a very awesome niche in speedrunning, and is extremely difficult to accomplish in any game. It's extremely easy for a newcomer to speedrunning to understand the rules of the category and enjoy watching the runs. The tension of "near misses" is also extremely exciting to watch, as well.

If there is an intention to create a Damageless category to put his run into and it just takes time, please feel free to ignore my post. I was just very curious as I've been extremely fascinated with damageless runs recently. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration in reading this!

*Important note - I have not spoken to ViggoTheeCarpathian or anyone else about making this post, this is purely my own curiousity on how the speedrunning community handles new categories and damageless rules are easy for me to understand. If ViggoTheeCarpathian sees this and wants me to remove this post, I will happily do so.