The developer of Mesen has implemented a "run-ahead" lag reduction feature on the emulator, which unfortunately leaves us no choice but to remove the emulator from our allowed list effective immediately.

Runs already approved will not be removed. Any future submissions will be rejected and there are no pending runs in the queue.

https://www.mesen.ca/docs/configuration/emulation.html will show you this section:

Run Ahead: Run ahead allows the reduction of input lag by the number of frames specified. CPU requirements increase proportionally with the number of run ahead frames specified.

Run ahead is currently not compatible with movies or netplay - the movies and netplay menus will be disabled if runahead is turned on. Note for speedrunners: Using features such as run ahead to reduce lag typically counts as cheating for the purposes of speed running.

So we cant use features to reduce the lag if thats the only thing it do? Dude, if there is people that afortunately doesnt have almost nothing of lag, why should be not allowed to use that if that help to doesnt have lag? Now is just unfair for the people that have more lag than the other ones without the feature I dont udnerstand why that have to count as a cheat in the purposes of speed running

Because it reduces lag in other words, less lag (obviously)= faster run Not everybody has that in their runs

If you can disable it somehow, would you then be allowed to use it? Provided that you had to show proof that run-ahead feature is disabled.

@Mruns_05 well, but there is many people that have less lag than other without it, so they have unfairly faster runs And its not as easy to reduce the lag in many cases, but everyone can just got a feature to reduce it It is faster, but it is faster for all Is not logical to now say we cant redce the lag with that because it make the run faster, cause its just reverse: the lag make our runs slower; and, if its posible to change it, just better for all (in except of an egocentric that want to the rest have more lag tan him in their runs, of course) I dont understand that point of to be banned to avoid the lag with it

@KilleDragon did you miss the part where the developer of the emulator explicitly says "Note for speedrunners: Using features such as run ahead to reduce lag typically counts as cheating for the purposes of speedrunning"

Please explain to me why we should NOT believe the developer.

You also still have not posted a single run for this game, but yet you still seem to want to dictate how things are ran here.

@KilleDragon the point of an NES emulator is to in fact, "emulate" an NES as accurately as possible. The emulators that are accepted on this site are ones that are very close to performance on console.

Made a video of the feature, which is TOTALLY UNDETECTABLE - if it's enabled, you can't tell it's enabled. What run ahead does is make it so when you do an input, the next period in frames or time is removed... to "emulate" a reduction in input lag. On original hardware and CRT, when you press "B", mario literally jumps within an indiscernably small amount of time. On emulator, it takes a "lag" period. Input Lag. Mesen artificially removes that. However, if we turn up the "run ahead" to the maximum allowable value, you can easily see what it actually does. Watch when I JUMP. Mario literally goes from the ground, to several frames above the ground instantly. Watch what happens when mario shoots a fireball. The fireball appears several "frames" ahead of where it would ordinarily begin.

That's not even a hard decision. Of COURSE this wouldn't be allowed.

It's unfortunate, because Mesen is a good emulator... but when they make a feature that totally changes the order of frames, SKIPPING TIME, and you can't even tell if it's being used? Yeah, that's not allowed.

Would it be acceptable to run on an older version of Mesen? (Like I have version 0.9.7 for example)

@NateCC14 - it would be too difficult and laborious to runners and verifiers to prove what version you were using unfortunately. I agree it's a shame, but there's really no way around it.

what is a list of accepted emulators or rules for runs

Copied from the game rules:

Approved hardware/software (please specify in the run comment): NES Categories Original NES, Famicom or FDS Original NES or Famicom with Everdrive or Powerpak Wii, Wii U, Switch and 3DS Virtual Console, GameBoy Advance FCEUX, Nestopia, Bizhawk, OpenEMU Frontends used in conjunction with these emulators that can alter the performance (ex. RetroArch) are not permitted NES Classic Edition Analogue NT Mini

@cpb212 The list of accepted emulators is in the rules section.

thank yall as soon as i posted i saw "rules" in bold letters ......lol

Hello, I apologize for the necro post, but this is important information regarding the Mesen ban. A runner named SpaceColonizer has recently created a video to show that it IS possible to detect the Run Ahead feature. The Mesen ban should be taken into reconsideration.

I'm confused, I get input lag with MESEN but not other emulators. Does this only apply to keyboard? This is the only NES emulator I can run at full speed despite having a laptop that can run GC, N64, PS2, SNES etc all perfectly fine.

your allowed to use the modified version of mesen thats in resources

Super Mario Bros. - Resources - Threecreepio's NES Mesen Build - Speedrun