Currently there are no listed rules for River City Ransom on speedrun.com. The goal here is to change this by ensuring rules are codified so timing can be consistent, and potential new runners can more easily find this information before they plan their own attempts.

I've heard multiple allusions to "SDA Timing" for River City Ransom. I've probably Googled for a course of 8 hours across three separate days, including manually trawling the speeddemosarchive.com forums for what timing may be. I cannot find a written record of SDA Timing for RCR. If someone knows where it is, bringing this information forward would greatly simplify this. In particular, if Darkwing_Duck_SDA or Feasel are willing to chime in, your input would be greatly appreciated!

Since there is no existing record, I have used existing runs by Darkwing_Duck_SDA and Feasel to infer timing, of which I believe my understanding is accurate. So using these runs as a guideline, I propose using their timing as a baseline, which is as follows:

"Timing starts when the player(s) gain(s) control outside of the Cross Town High scene. Control is gained when the scene has faded to full brightness, and "Th" of the gang announce text (ex. "The FRAT GUYS' turf!") is visible. Timing ends when the screen fades to black after Simon's post-defeat exposition, which is the exact frame when control of the player character(s) is lost."

That's pretty much SDA timing (first to last frame of player control). I'm new to running the game but for what it's worth I like that ruleset.

For consistent start timing, I recommend runners start a countdown timer of -6.83 seconds when pressing the Start button to dismiss the ransom letter that is before the Title screen, then let the Title screen run its course.

Good evening, CapnGoof! I use LiveSplit, but I can't seem to get the times to go out three decimal places. So I can set my timer to -6.83, but not -6.833. I looked through the LiveSplit setting, looked around the LiveSplit site, and tried googling a bit, but couldn't figure out how (or if) LiveSplit can get that extra decimal.

Do you have any suggestions?

Edited my post to be -6.83. Forgot LiveSplit doesn't maintain more than two significant digits of precision.