Hey everyone, tl;dr: ¤ How are categories of games handled, where different platforms have different levels? ¤ Are emulators allowed / good practise for speedruns or should the console be used? If emulators are allowed, is DeSmuMe approved as DS emulator? If not, which ones are? ¤ Do you have some tips on getting into speedrunning?

Long version: I have always enjoyed watching speedruns and especially love GDQ. I was thinking about joining the speedrunning community, but I want to run a game, which I loved in my childhood. Last AGDQ I saw altabisuit run New Super Mario Bros., which I spent hours on. But I always liked N+ for DS more than Mario (mainly because I was able to beat more levels than in Mario :) ). So the last few days I tried out N+ on DeSmuMe and I'm really enjoying the game. I would like to speedrun it.

N+ is already a game on this site, but only the XBox version has been run yet. The categories are defined based on the XBox version, where you have Columns to beat, each one containing 5 levels (). In the DS version, you have episodes to beat, also containing 5 levels, but the levels are completely different from the XBox ones. That is why comparing the times between the XBox and the DS version is not possible. In addition the XBox version has 20 columns and 3 DLC Packs, whereas the DS version has 40 Episodes. How are categories handled in other games, where two console types have different levels? Should new categories be defined for the DS or should I use the same categories, making the times incomparible between different platforms?

Some more information about the DS Version: In addition to a tutorial with 12 levels, there are 40 different Episodes from 0 to 39 (http://imgur.com/a/blTjY). Episodes 0-3 are playable from the beginning, episodes 4-9 are unblocked once 2 episodes are completed. Episodes 10-17 will be unlocked if 7 or more episodes have been completed. 18-27 can be played after 14 and 28-39 after 23 episodes have been completed. The game does have an ingame timer, which shows the time needed to complete an episode in milliseconds. It includes time spent in the ingame-menus (when a level is loaded and the game asks you to press A to start), but excludes deaths. So for a speedrun, this timer may not be suitable.

Currently I'm playing using DeSmuMe and an XBox 360 controller on Arch Linux. As first PoC I created a render test and uploaded it, the splits are just to get used to pressing space at each door: (I know the sound is async). As stated in http://www.speedrun.com/Speedrunning/thread/19h43/1#d2pte DeSmuMe may not be allowed for some games, as it is faster in saving and loading than the DS is. In N+ the game is saved after an episode is completed. The maps are not that complex so I won't see loading as a huge problem here (may need some testing though). Is it allowed / good practise to use an emulator for runs instead of the console? Or should I rather use my DS? If emulators are allowed, is DeSmuMe approved as DS emulator? As I like playing on the XBox controller more than on the DS, I would like to use a comparable emulator instead of the DS.

Newbie question: ¤ When to start the timer? At the start of the episode or at the start of the first level? ¤ Do you have some tips on getting into speedrunning?

BR oberien

PS: Is there a search function for the forum, to search for posts about a topic?

I can't begin to address everything in your post, but if the "same game" has substantial differences between versions on different consoles, they could perhaps be listed as entirely different games. There's three different listings for Zelda Ocarina of Time for instance

http://www.speedrun.com/oot http://www.speedrun.com/ootmq http://www.speedrun.com/oot3d

You could also ask the game's mods to set up different categories for DS. One of my games is PS4/PS Vita, and while they have the same levels in both versions, the control schemes are fundamentally different for the two. So I set up separate categories for each console -- http://www.speedrun.com/escapeplan

The thing with Ocarina of Time is, that they are 3 different games, released in different years. N+ has been released for all platforms at the same time, so I think different categories would fit better, as it is still the same game and not a rerelease.

Hi and welcome to speedrun.com first of all :) Glad you show interest in doing runs. Let's get to the points:

1. Usually these platform issues are solved either by a special category by keeping all platforms in one game, or separating each platform into it's own game. You can see examples of it on the Harry Potter Series, where each platform is an own game: http://www.speedrun.com/harrypotter I can't find a good example of the opposite case, but that exists as well. Just like the most stuff regarding games, it's community driven. That means that the community/mods are responsible for the game and not the site-admins, so if you have questions about a game either ask it in the game's forum or contact an game's moderator.

2. This is also community driven, but in 99% they either deny it or do not allow it for WRs. Ask the game's moderators for that.

3. Practice and patience. And try not to burn out :P IMO you should not solely run games and take your time off from it as well. Bascially, stay open-minded.

4. When you have to start the timer depends on the game's rules. Some when the console is started, others when the character/new game is selected or something completely different.

Thank's for your answers. Seing how it was done in Harry Potter I start liking the idea of splitting up the games, because they have completely different levels, which will result in completely different categories for them. In addition currently there are already 8 different X360 categories. Adding several more for a different platform may result in a huge mess.

Regarding the community driven parts, there is my problem :) At the point of writing this, there are only two people who have run N+ for X360 a year ago, and there are only 7 different runs submitted. Noone has run the DS version yet, so basically I'm the only member of the N+DS community ;)

In about 3 weeks I get hands on my DS, so I'll be able to do some testing and compare DeSmuMe to the DS.