Are there any rules forcing certain emulator settings to be used? On top of that, are there any recommended emulator settings to use? I'm using Nestopia 1.40.

Thanks

There aren't certain settings you need for nestopia that are required for smb1 that I can think of, but I do recommend turning off vsync so your fps doesn't lock at 60 instead of ~60.1, so you don't lose time.

Hello! o/

Rules? Yeah, you can check them on the Leaderboard page, next to the "Submit run" button. There are some emulators that aren't allowed for speedrunning, because they may provide unfair advantages over original hardware.

Settings? Yes, there are a few. Make sure you DISABLE "Allow more than 8 sprites for scanlines/No sprite limit" so you don't skip the lag a normal console would suffer under certain circumstances.
Also yeah, make sure you don't use Vsync.
Don't use any kind of turbo inputs. I could recommend you using an emulator that has Input Display like FCEUX 2.2.3, so every input you execute is visible on your videos, which is useful when your runs get verified, but that's not mandatory. Some people use cameras pointing at the keyboard/controller to also show the buttons they press.

I think that's all you need.

Good luck in your runs! :>

Thank you both for the advice, I will definitely turn off both of those settings. I will probably use Nestopia over FCEUX because I know lots of top runners use it and prefer it over others.