If you are having issues with the autosplitter you could try changing line 22 to the following and see if that fixes it:

int memoryReference = memory.ReadValue<int>(codeOffset) + (int) codeOffset + 0x04 + - (int) libretromodule.BaseAddress;

In the submission rules for 2 Player there is a line stating "If one of the players game overs the run is invalid. Two players must be present throughout the duration of the whole run. I have two questions about this:

1. If one player game overs, if they immediately steal a life is the run still valid?
2. Can an intentional game over be taken in the event that a player game overs/ no more lives are available to steal?

Looking at some of the 2 Player runs it looks like both 1 and 2 are allowed, but I'd like to be clear on the rules before starting learning the game.

I'm currently only doing co-op runs, and I'd prefer allowing people to rejoin when they want vs forcing them to immediately steal a life.

For full transparency I usually game over in level 8 and wait to respawn till after the climbing sections, so requiring an instant respawn would likely invalidate the runs I'm a part of.

Tracking version may seem unnecessary, but sometimes there are major changes to the way an emulator works or performs. In cases like that, knowing which version a run was performed on may be necessary for adjustments or additional restrictions.

As far as allowed emulators go, both Xebra and Bizhawk work just fine for me, and Bizhawk is still an extremely popular emulator. I've never really played around with Mednafen so I can't really speak to it, other than that I believe one of the PSX Cores in Bizhawk is based off of it.

I agree that DuckStation is likely going to be the preferred emulator going forward by runners though.

Black Zero is explicitly allowed because it's just a cosmetic change. Please stop trying to stir up drama. See this thread from over a year ago: https://www.speedrun.com/mmx4/forums/w1pfp

These rules predate me being moderator, I'm just enforcing them. There's no reason to personally attack me because you disagree with them. Please be more respectful in the future.

Your run was submitted originally as "PS1" without the emulator checkbox being checked despite clearly being performed on an emulator. Also no emulator or version was specified in the submission notes which is required per the rules. I specified what was required when I rejected your run. Your new submission is still lacking an emulator version. Please edit it to include both the version number and check the emulator checkbox or it will be rejected again. Next time please read the reason your run was rejected.

Relevant rule which can be viewed by clicking "Show Rules" on the leaderboard page.

"If playing on emulator, emulator name and version must be specified in the comment."

1 up counter is increased by dying to Sawbones. Trophy counter is increased when the hurry up timer plays, but the amount required to spawn the trophy also goes up as the game goes on. I try to take some advantage of this in the warpless run, but it's really hard to route in trophies due to the counter possibly increasing after a level is cleared but before the level moves on.

There's no official BBP2 discord, but I've disassembled the game and discussed it quite a bit in Jaek's discord. There's a lot of stuff I've found/mapped out if you're curious.

Put together an autosplitter for Retroarch that splits on screen transition after all major and minor bosses, and on last hit of Pete. You can find it here for anyone interested: https://github.com/Johnny-Go/Autosplitters/blob/master/MagicalQuest3Autosplit.asl

Put together some warpless routing ideas here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-gsUcZPrx6DMBDGrNhJcn5BBJOYf29_lj2GngUxrl9A/edit?usp=sharing

Here's a new guide for X 100% which is basically entirely up to date: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3TS9igI6II4394D2QnXWZR_krNolppMr

Here's an older guide for Zero 100%, I think it's pretty accurate still:

I currently only run Power Battle, but in my opinion having default be the main category makes the most sense, at least until there's enough interest in the other difficulties to warrant splitting them up.

Showing settings/dip switches should be required for basically any arcade games IMO.

Yeah the JP versions are totally fine to run. The main difference is all the bosses have voiced dialog in that version which loses like 30 seconds over the US version (https://megamanrta.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Man_X4#Mega_Man_X4_vs._Rockman_X4). Also, if Bizhawk won't work for you for whatever reason, a really good alternative is DuckStation if you still want to try to emulate.

The arcade difficulty ranges from 1-8, with the default being 4.

Chronicles of Mystara has four difficulty options, Weakling, Apprentice, Knight, and Master, with the default being Apprentice.

I was wondering which difficulty in the arcade version matched up best with Apprentice, and if it is allowed to change the arcade difficulty to match the Apprentice difficulty.

The reason for this question is the Elf has an arcade exclusive glitch that lets you skip the Mud Golem fight by using Ice Storm or Cloud Kill at the start of the fight, and this glitch doesn't seem to be present in Chronicles of Mystara, presumably due to the way the cutscenes seem sped up.

The DuckStation emulator is now allowed. Read and Seek speedup need to be the emulator default of "None". Standard emulator rules apply as well. Please make sure the emulator and version number are present in future submissions.

I think it seems like a good idea just due to the fact the runs are different.

As someone who's been interested in running this game for a while but hasn't pulled the trigger yet, I'd say it's generally better be more inclusive with categories than exclusive. Even if the run does end up being all the same times, is that really such a bad thing? It's not like the leaderboard is crowded with categories at the moment, and you can still leave Normal as the default category. In the event that counting frames is required, you could even require runners to count the frames in their submissions ahead of time in order to submit, then and just verify their calculations if needed.

Black Armor Zero is allowed in X4 runs as it's purely a cosmetic change.