If you have an opinion on this, please let me know.

The general consensus on this seems to be that a run is considered “tool assisted” if it cannot be done with the physical console, the original game, and a regulation controller (one that came bundled with the system).

If a player has access to information that cannot be accessed in the original console, if the technology intended to mimic the original hardware or software is enhanced in any way, or if a player interacts with a game in any manner other than through gameplay, the run is considered “tool assisted” and should be placed in a separate category from those that are not tool assisted.

Common examples of this are the use of hex editors to edit input stream segments, using a precise timer to count individual frames, using save states to undo unwanted actions, and using an autofire or turbo-fire controller that did not come originally bundled with the console. This should be distinguished from players that use tools that do not affect the game itself, such as a notebook to keep track of menus or a calculator to keep track of experience points. If the item a player is using to help him play the game does not interfere with the game itself, it is ¤not¤ considered tool-assisted.

The use of third-party controllers is generally allowed as long as only features present on a standard controller are used. If a run uses a controller input that is not possible with the standard controller, such as hitting both up and down on a SNES D-pad at the same time, it is considered tool-assisted.

The use of a turbo-fire function will almost always be considered tool-assisted. The only exception to this rule is for systems such as TurboGrafx-16 that featured turbo-fire controllers in the official release. If you feel that it is a gray area for a certain console or game, consider why the use a turbo controller is preferred over a regular controller. If it gives an unfair advantage over players using a standard controller, use of a turbo-fire controller is considered tool-assisted.

A run that takes advantage of additional hardware or software is considered tool-assisted if it alters game parameters in a fashion that would give that player an unfair advantage over those using the original console, including the enhancement of audio or visual output. However, the use of the use of hardware that doesn’t alter gameplay from the original, such as modchips or boot disks commonly used to play imported games or officially released add-ons, such as the PS2 HDD, are not considered tool-assisted.

A run where game settings are changed during the run is ¤not¤ considered tool-assisted if it can be done using the commands accessible through the game or in-game menus. The exception to this rule is the use of cheat codes. Runs that use cheat codes that give an advantage over those that don’t use the code are considered tool-assisted. However, runs that use cheat codes that do not give the player an advantage, such as a code that simply changes the character’s outfit, is not considered tool-assisted. It should be noted that even cosmetic changes can create shorter load times if the sprite used requires less memory than the default sprite. In this case, a run that uses this code would be considered “tool-assisted”, even though the change only appears cosmetic, because it gives the player an advantage over those that didn’t use the code.

A run that uses glitches is ¤not¤ considered tool-assisted if it can be reliably performed on the original console with a standard controller. A glitch that can be reliably performed on an emulator, but not on the original console ¤is¤ considered tool-assisted. In this situation, the emulator itself is the tool being used, because it is functioning is a way that the original console does not, creating an unfair advantage for those using the emulator over those using the original console.

Hello everyone! (all three or so of you, lol) Hey, so I've been mapping out an all-photos run, but I can't get OBS to record the game sound. I've gotten used to it, but I don't really want to spend ~10 hours grinding through this thing only to have it rejected for something so trivial. (Also, the music to this game is maddening after X hours of listening to it on repeat. Is that part of the challenge? Heh.)

So anyway, the question I have is if, by the time I get around to doing this, I still haven't figured out all of the inner workings of OBS, would it be enough to stream it live or am I going to have to find some other streaming program to work with?

So it has come to my attention that (at least in the version that I use) the backgrounds aren't static. For instance, if you start a new game and go directly left, you'll get a different background every time you start a new game, even though it is supposedly the same screen. I haven't been recording this, but I thought I'd bring it up, because there might be some kind of correlation between the background used and whether or not there are gems / puffer fish on that particular screen.

I was just watching Bioice's speedrun of the original Starcraft, and I noticed an interesting tactic used around 36:30.

https://www.speedrun.com/run/zn88lkvz

A little background here: the goal of this level is to bring a certain object to a certain destination, which sounds relatively simple, but because this destination is in the center of the enemy encampment, and because only the weakest unit can carry the object, the implication is that you have to destroy the enemy encampment to achieve this goal.

However, the game also gives you use of a certain unit that happens to have the ability to put a protective shield around any other single unit. By putting a protective shield around the weak unit and marching it straight into the camp, he beats this level in about thirty seconds. It's not a very straightforward tactic, but because the only requirement for this level is to transport the object, it is a brilliant approach.

So I was wondering what other interesting / unique approaches you all have seen in speedruns? I'm not talking about glitches or game physics abuse, but where someone uses the tools provided to them in an unorthodox manner to achieve some goal much faster than it might have been done the conventional way. I'm really interested in that kind of stuff, and I would very much appreciate any recommendations for runs that employ imagination rather than brute force to solve a problem.

Thanks! You guys and gals are awesome!

I'm not sure if you can, but if you changed the trophy icons to the same ones given in the game for beating each level, that would be kinda funny. Just a thought.

There's a game I'm working on that has random item drops, but if I use a probability density function based on the information given on the first stage (requires a calculator), I can calculate the most likely route in later stages. Is punching numbers into a calculator considered tool-assisted?