S3&K has been timed using the game's timer for as long as I have run it, but recently it hasn't sat well with me that (in particular) the act of hitting the signpost to try and collect a particular item on the act 1 boss map doesn't cost any time. To that end, I came up with a new timing system, which I've explained my detailed thoughts on here: http://pastebin.com/P71hmybW

Additionally I've polled the Sonic community at large to see what they think, and it appears the preference is for this change to be made, but only for this game: see https://www.strawpoll.me/10743592 and https://www.strawpoll.me/10743594 . (Feel free to add your voices to those polls if you're familiar with the game!)

Now probably my biggest question is, if I were to revamp the leaderboard in this way: how should I list the times? It's not strictly real-time and nor is it game time. The closest speedrun.com offers is "time without loads" which is heavily misleading, unless I can change it to "time without bonuses" or whatever it would need to be.

Thoughts?

As of now the timing has been changed over for this game (as well as 8-bit Sonic 1). This has actually affected the leaderboard for Knuckles, I was two seconds ahead of HDL by in-game time but now I'm three seconds behind.

When you go to submit a run there is now "time" and "in-game time" options. The "time" parameter is the one that will count. If you don't want to calculate the run without the time bonuses, just put your RTA time in here (from file select to fade to white) and one of the verifiers will take care of it. You can also submit an IGT but it's no longer necessary.