So .. update to this:

While the skips do work .. I didn't realise that the room sequences are actually RNG and come in different orders in different playthroughs.

This means for example, in the above rave skip .. you might get the rave skip if the rave is in the next room .. but you might something completely different ... a lot of the time the next room is just one of the regular rooms for which u will port you into it.

On the ruins skip, I got a sequence that caused me to launch inside a wall in the next room and zip to the top / oob. Unfortunately that yielded no useable results as running to the next room caused me to fall to my death.

The only one that is 100% consistent is the sewers skip, as you are still technically in the same room after performing it.

So ... getting the perfect skips could be a matter of farming for the perfect level layout .. Theres also the possibility that other combinations of level sequences can give even better results. I think I will be blind trying them once every run.

Many thanks to @Bellwether for discovering the initial glitch. I have found a way to consistently abuse it in other areas of the game:

Sewers:

Ruins:

Rave:

Probably the biggest skip is the rave skip I would say, but they all net you a decent time save.

The main idea is that you do a roll "past the switch" and then turn as you grab the switch.

I believe what is happening is that the game has updated the direction that the character is facing but since it canceled the turning animation with a switching animation it entered a state of "negative acceleration" during the switch animation.

When the player comes out of the switch animation it is facing one direction but built up speed in the opposing direction which causes it to move backwards.

Since its moving backwards it does not check for collision on walls (because it thinks it only has to check in the direction you are facing - not moving) and this can put you through walls.

At least that's my theory.

The glitch is relatively easy to perform but you only get one shot, since after pressing the switch it can't be activated again until you respawn. If hitting these glitches becomes optimal (which I think it will) then you may see yourself resetting on them a few times, unless you're happy to take a death/respawn, which I think will probably negate any benefit of the skip itself.

The only one that is slightly tricky is the sewer one, as I found you needed to be completely in the next screen BEFORE you press the opposite direction to turn. If you began turning on the screen before, even though it cancels the animation you don't get the speed build up for some reason. Given the switch is pretty close to the entrance point, you only have a small window to get it right.

I did try to make the one that @Bellwether originally found work by approaching it from the opposite angle. Unfortunately, while it did trigger the speed increase .. it only worked for a short distance and then cancelled out. I believe the important factor is to get yourself into a wall using it, and the wall in that direction is on the other side of the screen. You just don't make it across.

That's all I could find for this one. Still plenty of other possibilities, not to mention the OOB I accidentally did on my first casual playthrough. Plenty more to discover I'm betting.

Unfortunately we have become aware of an inaccuracy with the in-game timer in these 2 games. It would appear that the in-game timer still counts loading time and is inconsistent across different platforms.

In order to maintain fairness, we have decided to change the leaderboard to count times without loads. This means that all current runs on the leaderboard for these 2 games, and any new submissions must be re-timed manually. Of course, this takes some time to accomplish.

In the interest of transparency we will be using the following guide for load-time removal:

https://www.speedrun.com/mka/guide/blpuy

Please note: All runners are still expected to submit their full run with loading times intact. Runs that are edited with load times already removed will be rejected.

Additionally, PS2/Xbox will be separated into their own sub-categories as with emulators and real-hardware.

We ask that you bear with us during this time, and apologize to anyone who has had their run verification delayed because of it.

Thank you for your patience.

Unfortunately we have become aware of an inaccuracy with the in-game timer in these 2 games. It would appear that the in-game timer still counts loading time and is inconsistent across different platforms.

In order to maintain fairness, we have decided to change the leaderboard to count times without loads. This means that all current runs on the leaderboard for these 2 games, and any new submissions must be re-timed manually. Of course, this takes some time to accomplish.

In the interest of transparency we will be using the following guide for load-time removal:

https://www.speedrun.com/mka/guide/blpuy

Please note: All runners are still expected to submit their full run with loading times intact. Runs that are edited with load times already removed will be rejected.

Additionally, PS2/Xbox will be separated into their own sub-categories as with emulators and real-hardware.

We ask that you bear with us during this time, and apologize to anyone who has had their run verification delayed because of it.

Thank you for your patience.

• Update: I have removed the "No cutscene skips rule" from genesis runs .. since no one has responded I assume no one has a problem with it. Anyone may discuss the issue here if they want it different but from now on skipping cutscenes on Genesis is allowed.

Hi guys,

I am thinking of removing the "no cutscene skips" rule from Genesis runs. I feel that in general skipping cutscenes is a part of the run and should be encouraged. It doesn't make much sense for a speedrun to be forced to watch optional cutscenes IMO.

Any feedback is welcome. If I don't hear any objections within the next few days I will make the changes.

@batmann

We have implemented some changes to the rules for Arcade Speedruns done on emulator for all of the classic Mortal Kombat games.

As of the 8th of January, 2019, the following changes are in effect:

• You are no longer required to stream live for a top time placement. However we are still requiring the submission of an INP recording of your run recorded on WolfMame.

• Top qualifying times are now governed by a time threshold instead of placing 1st/2nd/3rd. You are only required to provide a WolfMame INP if you score below a certain time depending on the game:

Mortal Kombat: 7:00 Mortal Kombat II: 7:00 Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00

For example, if you complete a Mortal Kombat run on arcade in a time of 6:59, you must provide a WolfMame INP to have your run verified. If you have a time of 7:00 you do not have to provide an INP.

We feel these changes are fair and hope to include a wider audience of potential runners. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

You can find a guide on how to produce a WolfMame INP recording here: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg

If you are still having any trouble getting a WolfMame INP recording to work, please message me or another moderator on Discord and we will do our best to help you get setup.

We have implemented some changes to the rules for Arcade Speedruns done on emulator for all of the classic Mortal Kombat games.

As of the 8th of January, 2019, the following changes are in effect:

• You are no longer required to stream live for a top time placement. However we are still requiring the submission of an INP recording of your run recorded on WolfMame.

• Top qualifying times are now governed by a time threshold instead of placing 1st/2nd/3rd. You are only required to provide a WolfMame INP if you score below a certain time depending on the game:

Mortal Kombat: 7:00 Mortal Kombat II: 7:00 Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00

For example, if you complete a Mortal Kombat run on arcade in a time of 6:59, you must provide a WolfMame INP to have your run verified. If you have a time of 7:00 you do not have to provide an INP.

We feel these changes are fair and hope to include a wider audience of potential runners. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

You can find a guide on how to produce a WolfMame INP recording here: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg

If you are still having any trouble getting a WolfMame INP recording to work, please message me or another moderator on Discord and we will do our best to help you get setup.

We have implemented some changes to the rules for Arcade Speedruns done on emulator for all of the classic Mortal Kombat games.

As of the 8th of January, 2019, the following changes are in effect:

• You are no longer required to stream live for a top time placement. However we are still requiring the submission of an INP recording of your run recorded on WolfMame.

• Top qualifying times are now governed by a time threshold instead of placing 1st/2nd/3rd. You are only required to provide a WolfMame INP if you score below a certain time depending on the game:

Mortal Kombat: 7:00 Mortal Kombat II: 7:00 Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00

For example, if you complete a Mortal Kombat run on arcade in a time of 6:59, you must provide a WolfMame INP to have your run verified. If you have a time of 7:00 you do not have to provide an INP.

We feel these changes are fair and hope to include a wider audience of potential runners. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

You can find a guide on how to produce a WolfMame INP recording here: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg

If you are still having any trouble getting a WolfMame INP recording to work, please message me or another moderator on Discord and we will do our best to help you get setup.

We have implemented some changes to the rules for Arcade Speedruns done on emulator for all of the classic Mortal Kombat games.

As of the 8th of January, 2019, the following changes are in effect:

• You are no longer required to stream live for a top time placement. However we are still requiring the submission of an INP recording of your run recorded on WolfMame.

• Top qualifying times are now governed by a time threshold instead of placing 1st/2nd/3rd. You are only required to provide a WolfMame INP if you score below a certain time depending on the game:

Mortal Kombat: 7:00 Mortal Kombat II: 7:00 Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00

For example, if you complete a Mortal Kombat run on arcade in a time of 6:59, you must provide a WolfMame INP to have your run verified. If you have a time of 7:00 you do not have to provide an INP.

We feel these changes are fair and hope to include a wider audience of potential runners. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

You can find a guide on how to produce a WolfMame INP recording here: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg

If you are still having any trouble getting a WolfMame INP recording to work, please message me or another moderator on Discord and we will do our best to help you get setup.

We have implemented some changes to the rules for Arcade Speedruns done on emulator for all of the classic Mortal Kombat games.

As of the 8th of January, 2019, the following changes are in effect:

• You are no longer required to stream live for a top time placement. However we are still requiring the submission of an INP recording of your run recorded on WolfMame.

• Top qualifying times are now governed by a time threshold instead of placing 1st/2nd/3rd. You are only required to provide a WolfMame INP if you score below a certain time depending on the game:

Mortal Kombat: 7:00 Mortal Kombat II: 7:00 Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3: 6:00

For example, if you complete a Mortal Kombat run on arcade in a time of 6:59, you must provide a WolfMame INP to have your run verified. If you have a time of 7:00 you do not have to provide an INP.

We feel these changes are fair and hope to include a wider audience of potential runners. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

You can find a guide on how to produce a WolfMame INP recording here: https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg

If you are still having any trouble getting a WolfMame INP recording to work, please message me or another moderator on Discord and we will do our best to help you get setup.

As stated when you click the "View Rules" button on the Arcade Category (assuming you're inquiring for Arcade):

Difficulty: Very Hard

We require that all top place times (1st - 3rd) be performed live. Permitted Arcade Emulators: -WolfMame In order to qualify for a top time, you MUST be running on Wolfmame & an inp recording must be submitted with each attempt to the appropriate moderator in the discord link here [ https://discord.gg/5CcDck7 ] A guide to inp creation can be found at [ https://www.speedrun.com/mk1/guide/euoqg ]

Permitted Arcade-Perfect Ports: -Official Arcade/MAME Revisions -MK Arcade Kollection (PSN, XBLA, and PC) -UMK3 for XBLA -Nintendo DS

Acceptable Arcade revisions: -Revision 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2

Special Rules: -You must select the Master II tower. -The timer starts when the tower is selected and stops when the final blow is delivered to Shao Khan.

*Please note: The use of TAS is strictly prohibited.

While I am specifically only a Moderator for Mortal Kombat 1, these rules are universal across MK1,2,3 and UMK3 for Arcade (although of course, allowed revisions and ports may vary). Please let us know if you need any clarification on anything.

Thanks guys! :)

@Skuzzize @MillsKohai @batmann

So, none of you up til now have been showing the options in your run. We've been pretty lenient.. trying to keep it casual, but in the interest of consistency and fairness I am going to start enforcing this more heavily.

If no one has any objections, I will leave the current runs where they are (None of them are close to optimized enough anyway .. they will most likely see multiple PB's overriding them.) If you think I should remove the runs without options displayed, please let me know .. I will leave it to the community to decide.

But any further runs not showing the options at the start of their run WILL BE REJECTED. The options MUST be shown in the video in one continuous segment.

Please respond to this post so I know that you have seen it. I will be trying heavily to contact all of you to make sure you have received this message.

Additionally, please join the discord if you havent already: https://discord.gg/RW2mE3F

This is true .. but on a modern system, even though Dosbox is pseudo "emulating" the game, you should still have a superior system enough to reduce the loading time to 0. Actual game speed appears to be completely unaffected - either using a fixed framerate or proper delta-time implementation. You can see how comparible my load times are to @Mr_R 's vs @Qanik 's.

The only reason this would be happening is if @Qanik actually has a really OLD system ... its overall processing speed would have to be comparible to a 386 to produce those kind of load times with Max Cycles. I dont know anything about Macs .. but I cant imagine that being true. The other possibility is that the Mac implementation of DosBox is just much slower or more processor intensive than that of the windows version. If he runs it on windows and gets better results it should prove/disprove that.

I am open to changing the rules to support fixed cycles though, but I really would only want to do this if absolutely necessary. Maybe we can find a fixed cycles setting which matches the load times me and @mr_r are getting .. I reallly dont want to go invalidating any runs, especially if @Qanik 's case is an outlier and not representative of the majority.

The other option is to go with a loads removal scheme .. but .. uggh ... lets exhaust every other option first lol.

yea ... try it on windows and see how you go.

One other possibility is you have a different version of the game (I wasnt aware of any different versions .. but its always a possibility). Can you join the discord server we posted earlier? - https://discord.gg/bmPm4Cg

It might be easier if we do this in real time instead of over forums.

That .. should be ok...

On PC if you run in windowed mode it tells you the cycles at the top of the window bar:

Do you have a way to do this on Mac ? .. this would help confirm.

I will verify your current run as 1:04.206 .. though I really hope we can figure this out. I wonder if its because you are on a Mac ?

@Qanik

Ok, I have received your new run. Unfortunately you seem to be losing time in the loading screens.. which points again .. to a cycles issue.

Here is a comparison video I put together of yours, mine and @mr_r 's red heat run.

To answer your question though .. the route DOES matter, as you can gain or lose time by exploiting the "jump-o-master" (where it says IDLE down the bottom right). On certain jumps you can force it to pull you ahead, and it will change from IDLE to IN USE. This is what I have done a lot in my Red Heat run which has made it slightly faster.

You can see in the comparison how my run pulls "slightly ahead" of @mr_r 's .. which is about what I would expect if everything is set correctly.

However, in your run you still are losing way too much time to loading screens ( the part where it fades to black). The correct timing for your run is actually 1:04.206 (you forgot to count the fade in from selecting the level at the start) ... are you absolutely sure you set the cycles to max?

Edit: On closer inspection I do see some amount of lag as well in your run .. particularly on Road 3. You can see the frames skip as you jump/move right and left. Your run does appear to be smoother than your original.. but far from what it should be. ..

What other options are set in your DosBox config file? .. can you please post the entire cycles section? I will compare it with what I have and see if anything is different.

Its still a great game! :D

Pretty hard though haha.