I'm looking at any% no ACE and noticed clever runners hugging Dethl at opportune moments to take half damage rather than hit the arms, but I'm not getting it consistently. Is there a timing window, or does anyone have specific hitbox info for when the arms take priority?

I was added as super due to previous mod inactivity. I'd like to appoint one other mod who's familiar with the NES board, and another who is familiar with one of the other boards if possible. It doesn't matter if you haven't done modding or aren't experienced, I can run you through it. Just reply here!

I've verified my pending run and encourage runners to point out any discrepancies they see, or discuss any improvements we might make, be that timing, or other things. Thanks!

Is mismatching shoes/armor worth it for the movement speed compared to lag/making it harder to control? The pastebin is very messy and hard to glean info from.

Hiya, would like to run 30k punches, wanted to check before I attempt though: I'd be using a Genesis controller, so slightly larger button space. Would you guys be comfortable with that?

Awesome! @AlphaNerd submit me a time on your track to christen it then I can add the subcategory! Perhaps everyone else would like to make one track of their own and post them here too.

Following a close-call run on a second boundary I looked at the game and found some variability in the time to transition to black after selecting the game. I also found selecting new game via thumb and by the New Game option produce different results.

For these reasons I've edited the start point of the run to be the first black frame after the menu screen. All the old times remain the same and MSM's new run is a 42. This also raises the possibility of 40:xx being on the table if you frame-perfectly do everything, and/or if we find a way to get to the King animation faster.

I disagree regarding enforcing a race sequence for the run - a game such as super monaco gp has this feature but the freedom to route as you wish is built in to this game. If a runner wishes to spend a few extra minutes building a bank of points to use for upgrades on difficult tracks, that would only harm their IGT anyways. Failures still result in a game over so I see no reason to restrict our ruleset especially since free choice of track order opens up strategy such as souping up the car even more for Monaco etc.

Excellent! I'll add that as a category and add these runs to that board.

I've found specific ways to get to the big jump in Antarctica fast enough to jump over between wind cycles.

1. For wind of back, forward, back:

Be aware that for this one, you have to be pretty reactive for the next jump to avoid the swordfish.

2. For wind of forward, back, back:

In both cases, the jumps you do are pushing your x-pos forward slightly enough that you can get past that yeti then stop moving for a beat. Note that back-back screws you either way.

This should hopefully make faster cycles a bit more consistent and give us more chance of lower times.

In the Castle, Sacrieon a while ago found a way to skip the final Knight spear cycle. After looking into it, it turns out the flame's fall trigger is slightly before the last spear set. So the most reliable setup is to do some comfortable movement that drops the flame early. That gives you far wider margin to jump forward without being hit.

I've been appointed as super due to previous mod inactivity, and fellow runner AntBlueR has volunteered to join so we have a better setup now.

I've verified my run but I also wish to inform you that I created an OBS overlay of PNG's of map routes which I used to play. I feel like this is reasonable/legitimate tech because the game is very jumpy with input anyway, so route help far from guarantees a good time, but I'd welcome discussion of this and agreement of it. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

In addition to the free HP beside the round 2 star location, there are FOUR further free drops that are easy to get for beginners. This should make completing your first runs much smoother because you can avoid game overs and even consider some i-frame mashing damage on some bosses.

For round 1: drop your jetpack by the bird, crawl into the space, and shoot the back wall until HP appears.

For round 3: once you get to the underworld, kill the chyme (circled), grab its pointball, and fly over the platform for the HP to appear beneath it, drop jetpack, and crawl in.

For round 4, shoot the right side of the warp platform in the overworld after the Akubutsus.

For round 5, shoot the right bricks beneath the underworld portal.

NB: On more than one occasion I've seen the HP in 3 spawn in without the preqrequisite actions. I believe this is due to something I shot/grabbed in overworld, because I've also used the same idea to despawn bullets from the top cannon before the exit in 4 by doing a small delay after crossing the skull, keeping something on screen long enough that the game can't draw bullets for top cannon.

If you want to get enough score to get max rank and upgrades, avoid all stars - you'll loop back to the first stage and can grab HP ad infinitum. If you finish loop one with n stars, you will start loop two at round n+1.

NB: Don't die by falling in holes if you do this, or you lose all that precious HP.

Now that Beginner is getting optimised, I thought I'd ask what you guys want for timing: do we stick with seconds, or add ms?

GG! ❤

I see no reason to ban non-Fusion submissions for SMS, it's easy to show a reset and the "no movie active" prompt. Fusion is infamous for being inaccurate.

Due to previous mod inactivity I've been appointed as super. I've verified my pending run and I'm tendering for a second mod as best practice. You should preferably intend to run the game, or at least be an experienced SMS runner. Don't worry if you haven't modded before, I can walk you through it. Reply here or PM me any time!

I'd be interested in picking the game up, any setups, routing info, tech stuff you can share would be much appreciated.

Heya! I feel we need to discuss the new run submission. Andres, I think you're clearly fantastic at this run and if we grind we can take it very low, and wonder do we want to create a longer category too: a first thought would be max-score or 999999: something that people can point-press but that we can tear into as well. I really appreciate that you ran again, I love the competition, and I hope you understand my prior objection was not a function of your skill. <3

For this submission I have to raise the severe framerate drop in the middle of the run. It's normal for emu to do a frame skip and occasionally mark 49/51fps to keep things accurate. I've had CPU issues in the past where it's made things unworkable, eating input, etc, so I've experienced the frustration, thanks Windows! If a run has a momentary fps drop it's not an issue, eg at 7 seconds in.

However, there's a near 2 second period from 0:31 to 0:33, and 10 second period from 0:37 to 0:47, with massive fps volatility down as low as 35. This level of frameskipping by the emu could potentially introduce inaccurate emulation behaviour, and at this length of duration, it creates a potential advantage. I wish to emphasise potential, and it can also clearly hamper a run. But I do feel that the severity of inaccuracy/slowdown here is beyond a reasonable level for the run to be verified.

As the only existing runner, I can also see I have an unfair advantage in petitioning this, regardless of being a retro moderator. With that in mind I'd welcome our consulting others who are neutral to negate that if there are objections. I think we may be best served by appointing a second moderator in this vein so that any future issues can be dealt with outside my raising them, lest this become gatekeeping. <3