As of today I am all done re-timing both categories on the board. I added Polsvoice as a moderator so we can have two active mods on this board (hoping to hear from Zephyrz as they were crucial in teaching many how to run this game from what I learned) and hopefully we can breathe some new life into this board with new and returning runners.

If anyone has any questions, comments, concerns, or otherwise please feel free to reach out to me using this sites DMs :)

As I work my way backwards through the board to re-time obsoleted and final run times I am noticing a few things:

1. Not everyone uses the most recent rule for the ending time (prior to 4/22/2022 update), leading me to believe the ending time rule must have changed more than once throughout the years before I got here.
2. Some runs seem to have other small errors or oversights that require me to make a judgement call on the fate of the run, be it obsolete or otherwise.

In most every case I will try to reach out if the impact is on a final submission though in some cases I have decided to make the call be it to re-time with a note or reject the run with a note. If you feel you would like more explanation please contact me through this sites messaging system :)

A simple coordinate display can be enabled with the Game Genie codes XAKKEZXY UGKKOXXK. Note that all other status bar updates will be disabled until you change screens, due to a lack of Vblank time.

The first set of values is for the boy, and the second set is for the Blob. Each value represents the character's current screen number, X position, and Y position, respectively.

(I think there would be at least a few people who could get some use/fun out of this!)

An early preview of the game in Nintendo Power featured a grape jellybean that turned Blobert into a wall, instead of the ketchup one featured in the final. A later issue then revealed a "code" to turn him into a wall by giving him a honey jellybean then switching to ketchup and tossing one in the opposite direction while the blob is transforming. This will result in a brick wall, which no longer has any use in the game.

Category name update to better reflect the requirement of the run. Grabbing all the treasures for verification, as well as the vitamins from the health store to defeat the final boss.

If it turns out that you can buy the vitamins with anything less than all 22 treasures than a new category could be on our hands. We will tackle this as/when it comes up.

The times, they are a changing... No, literally. As I gain more experience as a mod I can start to see the need for a better Start time.

Since not everyone uses an input display (an extra piece of equipment for those on real hardware) and the original Start time is based on pushing the start button I feel like that is not the most solid way to time the run.

As per the run I received this morning (4/22/2022) I feel like the more reliable (findable, provable) start timing for this wonderful game should be after pressing start at the first appearance of the Blob.

I noticed there are a few frames between the title screen transition to the screen with your house/street, but then it's a few more frames before The Boy and The Blob appear on screen (including the icon next to the lives, which appears at the same time).

So it is on me to go through and re-time all the runs on this board, mostly it will be a matter of milliseconds but still, this is a short game and every frame counts.

I expect this will take my entire weekend. To help I plan on adding another mod. who has helped me mount this task before.

So if you notice the board is all shook up and looks wrong, please be patient! I will post again here in the forum when it is completed so everyone knows all is well.

As of April 3, 2022: the rules for the end timer have been changed to reflect a more accurate means of measuring the runs. Current times on the board are being retimed to fall in line with future submissions. Thank you all for your time and effort in making this game and its speedruns take off like a rocket!

Thanks everyone for all the confirmation. I wasn't recording so I couldn't be entirely sure, it all happened so fast and I was confused. But I am happy to hear that was indeed was happened, I don't think I will be getting that in a run any time soon :)

I will leave this one up to the community as a whole, it is a unique completion requirement. If possible perhaps a better name for the category (again, community input).

Is there a known glitch where if you get a double hit on Wart's last two health points that he goes flying off screen immediately? I was playing on my Raspberry Pi when I got the last hit during the previous hit's animation and it seems like he just flew off screen and didn't have the hit animation.

We have finally given the Game Rules a much needed overhaul after learning many things about how this game runs. These updates include: time start/end clarification, allowed/banned emulator rules, and other standard rulings that will be familiar to most if not everyone.

Category rules are almost totally hammered down other than a couple tests for the conditions to trigger the best ending. Other than that, have a Great Gatsby!

*Locked to keep this post short & sweet :)

I couldn't agree more, this game is picking up speed quick. Let me get the final draft of the rules finished and posted as my most immediate act, then we will coordinate a server and work on the invites.

Working on the final draft of the incoming rules updates. They will be final until someone discovers something game breaking or otherwise requiring another update. I will be very happy once we have everything squared away and everyone has the same experience going in.

Sorry, I had meant to weigh in when I reacted to the posts earlier but got busy with life. I very much appreciate all the activity this board's forum gets, you all are amazing and have made this experience much more fun than I ever anticipated.

For my two cents, I agree with everyone that I would prefer runs start with power on/reset as that is one of the "standards" of speedrunning and have always felt it provides the most level playing field.

At the same time, I very much appreciate CrabbyCrab101 offering their knowledge & experience from the Super Mario community. That's definitely one series that has a solid base in speedrunning rules & regulations so it's great having insights from someone who knows what they are talking about.

We are in the process of updating the rules and agreeing on a format but to answer the question it will be time start when you gain control of Nick. You can use a -5.00 second timer as you press start on the title screen as that is what polsvoice determined was an accurate delay for the splits.

Sorry I have not updated the rules yet, I will get it set in stone ASAP which is hopefully tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone for their support in this, we will incorporate this to the upcoming rule changes (thread will be locked after this to allow for new threads should this come up again).

I look forward to seeing what the results are of these tests, thank you Beard & Zarc for your investigation into this. If you are satisfied with the results then we will set about making all the changes.

I think ultimately being able to figure out when to toss your hat at which group of enemies to get multiple kills with less hat throws will be a time saver. I feel like the hat does contribute significantly to the lag and the less you throw it for the most enemies killed the better.

Thank you Zarc, very informative. I now have the appropriate emulator and will be using that for my NES runs as much as possible.

Thank you for the excellent insight CrabbyCrab101. I have been hearing about the recent goings-on with Mesen so I am glad to have all the information from someone who is up to date on everything.