Hi, new prospective SM64 runner here and I just wanted to get a few things clarified before I make any official attempts. I've read the "Rules" pop-up and the points outlined there are understood.

Obviously, I know cheating of any kind is not permitted, but I am curious to know what else could be grounds for a rejected submission?

What I mean is, what are things that I could do during a run that would invalidate it?

Am I permitted to check a guide? Am I allowed to pause the game at any point? I know these things waste time, but I am not looking to dethrone cheese05 overnight. Baby steps.

I am also curious about the SM64 community's thoughts on "obnoxious" stream overlays, such as graphics or text that pop up for new followers, bits, etc. If something obscures the game visuals is that okay? And if so, how much of the game can be obscured by a notification or pop-up before it's a problem?

Thank you all for taking the time to read my concerns. I apologize if they seem a bit strange, but in my time as a runner of various games I've run into some really bizarre do's and don'ts. Like I said, I just want to make sure I get things off on a good start and don't have any verification problems with my first run (whenever I eventually submit it).

edit: This is for a 120 star run, by the way.

You may check a guide (there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be allowed to, since it’s not part of the game or the run itself). You may pause the game (runners do that to exit DDD and go back to the lobby after it and BitFS are completed). You may not pause the timer, since that would make the run no longer RTA (of course if you do pause the timer, the run could be retimed and that time would be used instead. The point of RTA is that the run is done in one sitting.). Idk what the community’s stance on alerts that cover the screen, but if you plan on having an alert, please keep it off of the game screen, or at least small and in a corner of it.

Gotcha, yeah the timer itself would not be stopped for any point even if the game is paused. I intend to let the timer run no matter what I am doing in-game, or checking a reference guide, etc. Good to know about the notifications as well, as I am redoing my stream's layout and am working toward finding that acceptable medium where everything still looks nice.

As long as you time it correctly and have a full recording (with game audio) you shouldn't have any issues.

Typical things that invalidate runs: no recording, no game audio, banned emulator, incomplete recording.

It sounds like the requirements for run validations in this game are pretty standard. I intend to play on original hardware and record the entire thing (of course) so really all I'd need to be mindful of is ensure that my capture card's audio levels are good and we should be golden.