Valid Emulators
6 years ago
Staffordshire, England

It has less input delay and is better for making TASes

Michigan, USA

I was able to get access to an SNES Classic so I can now 100% confirm that it is legal for runs. I have update the document and spreadsheet to reflect this. Obviously, just like VC restore points, the rewind function is not allowed.

The cloud glitch isn't accurate, so the quick setup we have for it for original console will not work. More research will need to be done--by someone else because I don't own one.

United States

ZSNES versions 1.51 and lower should be banned for security reasons. For those who are unaware, multiple security holes are open in versions 1.51 and lower of ZSNES as made clear in this video:

Communities such as smwcentral have advised its users to not use those ZSNES versions because of this vulnerability. By allowing runs done on these emulators the smw community isn't doing enough to discourage use of this potentially dangerous emulator. Add on the fact that it is pretty bad at emulating cases of lag and such and there won't really be any negative repercussions of this decision. I am interested to hear the communities thoughts on why these flawed emulator versions are allowed.

Staffordshire, England

Security has nothing to do with a speedrun. If it's valid it's valid; it doesn't matter even if your computer could go boom. You did the speedrun and it's accurate enough to be accepted

Remz and IsoFrieze like this
Ohio, USA

I have a Super Retro Trio now (a hardware clone of NES, SNES, and genesis) would that be an emulator or something since it isn't really an SNES?

Adrian likes this
Michigan, USA

@isuckatspeedrunning - I don't think its been officially decided whether or not to tick the emulator box for those sorts of systems. Ideally they would be they're own console to select, but that's something that speedrun.com has to add themselves. If you want to be super safe, just note down the system you used in the run description.

@1ted59 - Obviously zsnes is a flawed program but as far as speedrunning SMW goes, it's fine. In fact it gives you a disadvantage since it lags more than it should. What @XanderWebb479 said. SMWCentral discourages the use of it because the main thing you do on that site is download other people's games and play them (putting yourself at risk), but in our case you're running the same, safe SMW as everyone else.

Edited by the author 5 years ago
Staffordshire, England

Yeah, most recent version is fine. There's no reason you'd need an older one as far as I know

Staffordshire, England

Yeah, most recent version is fine. There's no reason you'd need an older one as far as I know

Washington, USA

I̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶c̶k̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶d̶ After my old PC broke I'm having to use a Chromebook with Retroarch, Is this allowed?

Would a Retron console, specifically the Retron 2, be allowed for running. It's a NES/SNES 2 in 1 console that uses original cartridges to run the games. Thanks for reading

Obroe likes this
Missouri, USA

Would this heroku app emulator be allowed? https://cloudapps.herokuapp.com/emulator/

Staffordshire, England

I wouldn't recommend it. If you're going to use emulator, I'd suggest just using one of the standard ones rather than a browser-based one

Czech Republic

Can i used raspberry pi for speedruning.... i mean i know i can... but would the submited run be valid? iam running snes9x 1.52+ which is allowed, at full speed. I just dont like to play console games while sitting at a PC.. feels more natural on TV.

Texas, USA

Is there any determination on the MiSTer project? It uses an fpga to do hardware emulation, claiming cycle accurate.

www.misterfpga.org

I've been doing runs on it myself.

twins likes this

Yes I can use SNES 9x!

Chile

Xander OpenEmu is allowed ?

Staffordshire, England

If pigeon is right, then that emulator should be fine. I've not heard much about it though so I'd recommend using one of the ones mentioned in Frieze's post (start of thread) if you can

Raleigh, NC, USA

Has there ever been a ruling on allowing run-ahead mode? I’ve read some forums that don’t allow it, others than don’t mention it.

Germany

Is retroarch allowed if I use a Snes9x core? And if yes, which one?

Btw I am also interested about run-ahead mode because it just feels so nice.

plaabo likes this