Just curious about how PAL Kung Fu is different.
My understanding is that it runs at a different frame rate/speed, which is slower than NTSC. After watching JoshKeys' run, it appears to be the same game otherwise.
I'm wondering why it has it's own board if it's not actually a different game.
Thanks in advance!
It runs at a different speed! So it's not really fair to PAL runners to have them compete with NTSC.
Forgive my ignorance, but isn't it easy enough to just get an NTSC setup? I don't see how this is much different from people running a particular version of a game because it's faster or like making time adjustments to a run depending on your setup to run gameboy games.
It's just that something irks me about having a separate board for a game when the only difference is the speed the game runs at.
Seems odd to make PAL it's own category when it has no actual gameplay differences. It's the same game, just because someone chooses to run the slower version of a game doesn't mean it should have it's own category.
It's easy to get an NTSC setup if you live in parts of the world that used the NTSC television standard. In parts of the world that used PAL or SECAM it's not so easy, and gets very expensive. If you're running NTSC then the PAL board doesn't affect you a bit, so what's the big deal?
Shouldn't everyone get to run the versions they grew up with?
Absolutely everyone should run the versions they want. My issue isn't what version he runs, it's that it has its own separate board. I know of no other leaderboard that separates versions with the exact same gameplay. For example, games where text from one region may run faster or cutscenes shorter, they aren't each put on their own leaderboards, everyone is listed under the same one because it's still the same game. Rather than the Kung Fu PAL board signifying that there is a difference with that version of the game, it is essentially an 83.3% Speed category.
The Blaster Master board: http://www.speedrun.com/Blaster_Master is a great example of a reason to have separate boards for each region as each version has speedrun tech and tricks unique to itself.
We could solve this by using in-game time, but I don't think anyone wants that. Why do you want the PAL times compared with NTSC when they're absolutely, provably not comparable? Who does that benefit?
PAL is just a meaningless category, requested by someone that wanted a free "WR". There's a reason no other boards have PAL categories, because running the PAL version is pointless for almost every game, including this one. At the very most it should be a Misc category but I don't see the point. PAL runs are just a meme, they don't need their own category.
I'm not looking to benefit anyone. I'm not trying to put down the PAL runner. There is nothing personal about my argument. I'm just trying to discuss a general point that I think is integral to speedrunning.
I don't agree that the simple fact that a version of a game naturally running slower is deserving of its own category. It doesn't matter if we're talking about different regions or different consoles or whatever else. If it's the same game, same gameplay, same strats, same spawns, etc., I think it should be the same board.
WhiteHat, you don't even run the game.
KyhYang, who does it benefit to merge PAL times with NTSC when they're not comparable? If we had a way to calculate a comparable time, and speedrun.com had a way to post a time conversion column, then I could see doing it. But we don't, and the site doesn't even support that.
PS since WhiteHat decided to slander the runner in question, let me tell you the timeline of how this happened:
Runner: Please add a PAL board,I have a PAL cart.
Me: PAL A or PAL B?
Runner: (looks it up, sees that his cart looks different from PAL B )
Runner: Never mind, I have an NTSC cart.
Runner: (sends picture)
Me: (sees that picture is PAL A, UK/Italy, even with a bilingual English/Italian sticker on the back and two Seals of Quality)
Me: That's PAL A. I'll add it.
What does me running a game have to do with recognizing dumb categories? And I mean it's not slander if it's true.
It matters because the board exists for the people who run the game, not for you to try to stir up trouble. So your opinions have been given all the weight they deserve.
I don't think there should be a PAL category. I don't see PAL categories when I look at popular NES games like Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Metroid, Zelda, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, and Castlevania. I don't see why Kung Fu should be different in this regard. In my opinion, the games I mentioned (and others) demonstrate that there is a consensus on this issue in the speedrun.com community. It would be odd for the Kung Fu leaderboard to be different from that standard.
On the other hand, PAL categories make sense for games like Blaster Master and Super Metroid, because those games have tricks that can only be done on the PAL version.
When someone submits a PAL run, my opinion is that this is exactly why we have the region indicated in the "Platform" column. If the categories were merged, then the region flag would still show everyone that JoshKeys has the fastest PAL run in the world. (Incidentally, I noticed he has submitted speedruns for some other NES games in NTSC format recently, so maybe he would decide to try Kung Fu NTSC sometime.)
I thought my post was reasonable - what part looked like a witch hunt? I don't know JoshKeys, but I was happy to see a new runner playing Kung Fu. I watched his run and enjoyed it.
What the runner has done in other games, or at all, is irrelevant. If continued attacks on that runner appear in this thread I'm going to start deleting those comments.
Especially they come from drama queens who don't even run the game.
For what it's worth, I do run this game (maybe your comment wasn't directed at me). But I'll stay out of this discussion from now on. Cheers.
It wasn't directed at you since you do run the game. It was directed at someone upthread who came in and started in out of nowhere.
