I was pretty annoyed when a run died to this! After toying around it appears that if you destroy a target on the frame the smokebomb lands, it gets cancelled out. Beware!

While researching the Island dungeon puzzles I came across this longplay of the game featuring an interview with one of the developers that you may enjoy :) The dev says the switch puzzles are bit-masking: so some switches re-press others. For the 3 x 5 one, the outside hint seems to be best; go left to right in the top row, then the same on the bottom, then re-press the leftmost switch and the rightmost in that order, as they re-activate each other. For the 2 x 3 one you can get around in nearly one pass: start at the bottom right and go clockwise around (left through the bottom row, right through the top row), then you only have to re-activate the top-left corner. For the one in Mermon's Fortress, start with the second from the left in the bottom row, then the third and fourth. Then hit the bottom-left and continue around through the top row, and loop from the top-right back to the bottom-left for just one re-activate and done.

Hiya, just want to ask about a point of runs before I submit. I get overwhelmed sometimes so in my first run I paused a few times to stop myself glazing over; I only do that to take a few seconds rather than stop the level timer. Is pausing like that alright by you? I'm unsure I'd be able to finish the game without doing that but if it's a gray area in the rules I'm happy to work it out. :)

Curious what everyone thinks about adding a new category. There are only 5 moonstones and a few are already near the any% path so it may be a tad trivial; would it make more sense to create 100% and mandate grabbing every heart/both sets of daggers too?

My livesplit sound effects are responding differently than I wish at the moment. In Splits, I have delta to PB, and split time to PB (accuracy seconds). In Settings/Active Comparisons, Best Segments is checked for the Best Possible Time window. But sometimes when I'm ahead/gaining time, the behind/losing time sound plays and I can't work out why! Does anyone know what the program is comparing to and how I correct this?

Hiya! I was asked to do some admin on the board after we noticed an existing run may have the wrong time submitted. As good housekeeping I'll double check the times of every run and edit this post with any changes I need to make once that's done.

EDIT: done, changes to a couple of runs' ms to reflect the end point being results screen, each run has a note explaining whether there was a change. Thanks!

Just some firm data about frame timings for Arcade Mode to make it more transparent. Marking the frame you press START on the splash screen as f0, the run starts from f+133. You can see Rifle's shadow appear at f+135, and on emu it disappears every other frame, so that you can always tie your start time to these points. Run ends when the final boss explosions animation stops/you lose control: marking the frame boss HP goes to 0 as f0, this is expressed as f+254.

Hi,

I've been working on a full calculator for WOFD SNES, you can find a link to view current progress in its forum.

The project is going so well that I wanted to ask whether other communities are interested. The structure of the calculator can be used for other game versions but it would require volunteers to extract all a game's answers from memory, either by hand, or if you can use TAS tools, that way.

Then we could transfer the calc structure to a new document template, whack them in, and destroy every version.

Hi guys,

I'm having a lot of trouble with my thumb to the point where I'm beginning to be unsure I can use it a lot for runs. I wanted to ask do mods/other runners have any thoughts on if I started to run using keyboard for my d-pad movement. In theory that would be slightly advantageous as it may sometimes prevent unintended ducking or such. Quarbit, I'd especially like to know your position, because I don't want any advantages for getting the wr back. <3

EDITED. Youtube sometimes plays shenanigans with low-res videos and encodes them at 30fps. Any submission for Any Ending category can be literally frame perfect so that this is not a space for fudging, so if a vid is ever a top time you may need to send a raw file or increase the res for YT to show a 60fps encode.

Another thing: NES rules for example currently mention half-frames: I propose to remove such nonsense from our timing standards since it is very easy for mods to use tools to establish precise start/end times, that has been done before. I propose we re-express the start/end times for NES and GEN as functions of a solid on/off rather +- x frames, rather than fades. Fades are very hard for runners to judge and a clearer demarcation can make the runs more transparent. Does anyone have any objections? The run time would be the same; just the verbage would change, and I have no intention to retime historic runs unless requested.

If you pause the game you can enter various codes that can be useful. When I started running the game, without thinking, I entered UUDDLRLRBA to change character. I later researched and found other codes including health restore, suicide, etc. And one that beginners will find VERY useful for practice!

Pause the game, press Ax5 Bx5 times Xx5 Yx5 Lx5 Rx5 <LR shoulder buttons> and unpause. Now, hold Start to pause the game and while holding, press the directional keys to move anywhere on the stage map. If you wish, press R to remove the map from the screen.

What does everyone feel about exclusively using the character change code for runs?

I think it makes the game a tad more accessible, it's still an RTA cost. My use at Metalbee costs me approx. 10 seconds RTA, and it's very clear you can't do it much without haemorrhaging time you wanted to save. By analogy we already have a very easy method to get powerups back both in natural gameplay and by return to exits: and whenever we do that, we cost ourselves 6 seconds RTA of animation.

If the game had a character select between stages, I'd be less tolerant of this idea, but I can see new runners finding it very useful due to Winbee's twitchy control: the very last notched jumps in Factory 1 for example, or mis-charges of rocketboost. Having to die just to change seems a tad unfair.

As a followup, what do runners prefer the board to be tracked by primarily: IGT, or RTA? We may get a scenario one day where a significant run has a discrepancy between the two.

Ripped off the idea from the 100% TAS:

Just an extra bit of info on timing for transparency.

Timing begins at the frame you press on START. From that frame 0: -The screen goes black at f+3 -The scene text appears at f+16 -The level appears at f+175. NB: That's the first frame the game recognises a jump, if you jumped here, Jonathan's first frame is a duck at f+178 and a jump at f+182. -The game status huds: hearts, etc, appear at f+177 -Jonathan appears at f+178

Timing ends at 'Game Completed!' which appears 1 frame after 'harder skill'

I prefer you show framecounter on an emu and record at 60fps but these points make it easy to perfectly retime runs either way.

JkLoser introduced a couple of us to this game in a race this weekend, and we set a goal of 5 Missions. I think it would be helpful to have that as a subcategory of the game to encourage new runners, it can certainly get quite difficult to do a full run.

Following Mod discussion I have effected a streamlining to game category/subcat presentation. We've also made a timing change: Mayhem Mode runs now begin when you choose your first character - no more RNG fail pain. I've retimed all the old runs to reflect this.

For Mayhem Mode, we have a sub for Lab, any map, and Cycle Levels now, so former and new non-Lab times have a place. I also added a marathon mode: win at 8 maps with just 1 team and its extra character, but when a character dies you can't use them across the run anymore.

For teams I've opened up TvT and AvA, added 8s for using the unlocked characters, and made all of them non-obsoleting variables. So currently, we have all runs of the same difficulty/map in the same tab, to avoid a huge number of selection dropdowns, however, when you view the board you can filter by these subcategories as you wish. The aim is to promote more runs with less eye-time. Feel free to do TvT and AvA runs and explore other maps.

I've renamed Strategy First 5 Maps as Strat5, and the full game as 100%. Eventually when we route everything we can create a true 100% category including full rounds of the 6 game options at each difficulty.

I'm very open to feedback on how this new layout looks, particularly whether runners prefer the teams to be a dropdown. Thanks!

I think the game has scope for a new category, that forces full exploration. Perhaps all the pans/artbrushes etc each level would be a good starting point? Thoughts welcome.

as per https://www.smspower.org/Games/JamesPondII-SMS the game was released in Brazil hence why C.H.E.A.T runners use 60fps/NTSC, but so far any% has been played at 50.

What are everyone's thoughts, is anyone uncomfortable with the full game at 60 and what are the reasons if so?

I found that you can see the answers in the game rom. I played some games normally first. Apparently this version has 4,000 puzzles or more. Since I am bored, I could pull them all into a text file and upload it for everyone, but I wanted to check whether there's an etiquette preference first among runners. I know Baldnate's run has some logical guesses based on past answers for example, and I welcome discussion on we want the game to be complete deduction, or to remain memer as is now. <3

Anomaly Log Connect 4 Leaderboard 9/11/22

First off, the WR has 'changed': it was never Fire Mario's run, it remains Alfygator's of 5 years ago now tied by BeetZero.

This board has been wholly mismanaged. It's a meme and a bit of fun, but mods and runners must always practice good housekeeping. Forgive me using a bit of privilege to post this in public; I am definitely not the speedrun police. SRC is the problem, not the mods who are unsure when things are mistimed - but this butchery should be kept here as an audit cleanse.

Responsible user: Cantrick

Failed to accurately retime run https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/zn43l4vm , runner disadvantaged.

Responsible user: SickMyDuck

Misinput subseconds run https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/z1pdw5gz , runner not at fault. Failed to accurately retime runs including: https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/yv6r2pxz , runner heavily disadvantaged as this is his actual PB! https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/yok7epjz , runner not at fault. https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/y67j1e0m , runner disadvantaged. https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/yor7qk5y , runner heavily disadvantaged by a second on PB!

SickMyDuck also self-verified a super choppy vid of his own. This is not good practice except as a last resort and the quality is so poor that a manual retiming adds half a second. As this run is at the bottom I have retained the original submitted time - a mod who can be so useless as you see above is incapable of cheating a run such as this.

Responsible user: yp General failure to maintain the board as the super.

Failed to accurately retime runs including: https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/mk3q273z , which is NOT the WR. https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/m3d2kggz , runner heavily advantaged, runner not at fault. https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/mk30pe1z , again affecting a runner's displayed PB as above, runner not at fault.

Misinput subseconds run https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/yv65vd4z , runner not at fault.

1 run had some choppy video but has a frame counter clearly displayed throughout, which made verification possible!

3 runs started from a savestate to the splash screen. It's impossible for them to have gained an advantage. No penalty.

1 run's video is no longer available. No penalty.

As a counterpoint to that, a special thankyou to JoePulito and DBcade - the only two runners on the entire board who showed a reset and the difficulty setting they played at. New runners can check their runs for excellent examples of clear videos, well done gents! Doughnuts are on me if we're ever in the same place.

Melwing's run with the start chopped off has been re-rejected as it was originally self-deleted. efhiii's run is kept as I have no reason to disbelieve the submitted time.

Runners should always be sure to submit valid videos.

Addressing points raised in another thread about specific runs:

1. "Second thing, frame counter and timer, that guy on 5th place have, skipped like 100 frames at the end of his run, for some magical reason. And his actual time is 11 or 12 seconds." MortimerNova's run has a video quality issue that makes a vid-frame based verification impossible, but the run shows the mGBA frame counter. Mortimer submitted a correct time of 10.76 and the run was mistakenly marked as 10.076 - any run marked without subseconds to 3 places bugs and the site marks it with leading 0's in the wrong places. His run frame counted to 10.748 and he was innocent.

2. "And finally, 6th and 1st places started their timers when "Player 1 is on blacks" appeared." This is true but moderators are always responsible for retimes. Both runs have the start point in vid so they have been correctly timed.

3. "(also, 2nd place used save state, so he could eliminate RNG and always start with black, but I guess it's not that important)" Agreed as a principle. Runner gained no advantage except sanity but a rules edit has been added to prevent this in future as good practice.

I have now confirmed all retimes. Again, big apologies for the shift. Now we have a pretty and accurate board, so please feel free to start new runs. If anyone wants to know more about the run times, please ask. The board can be transparent because I don't want anyone doing shintysixthousand resets for this.

Runs START on the black frame after 1P start is selected, before 'black red first' screen. Runs END when Connect 4! appears. Any run from now that uses a savestate, or doesn't show a save and quit from the game, or doesn't show a start from the game choice screen, will be rejected.

Any top time ~10.1s or lower MUST have a 60fps recording and a frame counter, or be rejected. That's going to prevent this clusterfuckery recurring. You can send raw 60fps files to my Discord if YT won't encode that for you. Please don't use YT Shorts as I can't use the YT frame timer with it.

Because this game is being timed down to the frame, I have taken the run times and re-expressed them as multiples of the frame rate.

Thanks!

I have now gone through the whole Perfection! board and retimed runs accurately. Connect 4 will follow over the next few days. There are new start and end points that I wish to specifically point out for this run. More importantly I must explain some of this retiming and clarify a few things, so let's do that first while I have your attention.

Looking through the game Audit Log and past verifications showed former mods had in some cases completely failed to retime runs. Most shockingly, this: https://www.speedrun.com/c4pt/run/yjpjnl3y which was marked as 31 seconds by SickMyDuck but comes out at 45. This is why he was removed as a mod, and as a long-serving mod of SRC I'm deeply sorry this was going on in your board for so long.

NB! User DBcade has done nothing wrong here, and the former board rules were very unclear. I'm especially sorry to you that the run was marked so wrongly. On that point I have noticed similar potential anomalies at C4 and will update this post about that when retimed.

In the same vein I have used mod privilege to edit-reject an old obsoleted run which started from a savestate. This is cosmetic as RNG is frame based, but is the fairest solution given the rules update.

Point of order: to all mods. It is NOT a permitted standard on SRC to use a timer on-screen either as a basis for timing, or to use the absence of one, as a reason to reject runs. Yes, that has happened! This seems to be a very common misconception on the site. If anyone ever wants pointers in timing runs I'd be glad to help and advise.

To enable a uniform standard of timing, runs now start at the first black frame after A is pressed, which is 2 frames afterward. This also makes sense as the splash screen only accepts input every other frame, so any runner timing via pressing 'A' on input display was hitherto disadvantaged.

A run ends on the first frame that your final piece changes texture/opacity, as this is 1 frame after final input. Picture: https://imgur.com/a/3xKjDUF

By using an n+2/n+1 timing, it will be easier to have a harmonious board - runs timed at 30fps will be more accurate, and the reference points are very clear for all.

The final Perfection! retimed board is now up. Happy to field questions/comments.

Thankyou for reading!