Grew up with the All-Stars version, have heard that SMB1 plays MUCH better on NES re speedrunning - is there a similar discrepancy in SMB2 or any other significant differences to be aware of?

Just to mention that in the course of adding new runs from Nicovideo and other sources I am coming across some anomalies so apologies for any agitation of the leaderboard while this is ongoing.

I have now resolved the status of previously posted Tokumi2008 runs. One of them is duplicated on a nicovideo channel which duplicates other runs in other courses. Based on the volume of good runs I have found, and research on a mame forum, I am inclined to believe Tokumi (deceased) is the rightful owner of those two times his youtube claims. I have also found another youtube channel which duplicated existing runs without giving credit - no runs will be submitted from that channel nor from any place which does similarly.

If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to ask. At the very least this will give new runners far more meat of a ladder to tackle in terms of climbing their way up as well as providing more useful information in terms of how top players tackle different corners.

I am adding runs I find on Youtube which meet the board requirements, both here and in SHO Arcade. In light of the fact that a great majority of these in Genesis especially are very casual, I feel like this is a nice way to showcase skill from all sorts of parts of the gaming community and the extra places on the board will help new runners to measure their progress.

In case anyone reading is able and willing I would very much appreciate any help possible in researching runs from Japanese communities. I have found a few runs but it may take me time to work out what is what regarding settings and validity, but similar to Tetris, SHO has a good community particularly in the MAME version in Japan and it would be awesome to find any hardcore Genesis runs to add to our number. If anyone is skilled or able to understand Japanese better then please feel free to link me to anything you find of note.

Posting here to request site help in handling an issue which has been raised. I am the super for Mercs Genesis and a new runner has questioned the legitimacy of my runs. These were cross-verified by the other mod but the new runner is also suspicious of his runs. I have attempted to explain these things to the runner but they are not satsified and have not fully engaged in suggestions to investigate basic issues with explained methods to reproduce results. So I am duty bound to request an expert/someone in authority in the site from outside our group verify the relevant runs/look at the issues complained about, ideally who is expert in matters of TAS tool detection, splicing, and also in knowing/perceiving where audio desync or input lag occurs during Sega runs. If someone appropriate can contact me privately I can share the relevant info securely and allow them to take over the process from there to prevent bias.

It would be great to have a subforum for mods/supermods only: it might be a useful way to exchange info/support in cases where someone needs help and wants to avoid public posting as well as providing a useful repository of case histories/best practice for newer mods to go through.

This is a post to request outside verification of a history of runs which has been questioned re legitimacy. I would welcome guidance from site staff but it would seem apt to have this done by a moderator of one or several Genesis games who is adept at understanding emulated runs including issues such as lags and is also capable of investigating splices, or TAS use.

I was born premature, so I was speedrunning straight outta the womb.

Have you guys ever considered also trying Genesis Super Hang-On? It's a bit easier because there's no gears/manual shifting, I'd love to get some cross-pollination going here!

I'd say Super Hang-On is great for a racer because the first course is only 6 stages, it's so accessible and short to reset between runs. All you have to do is get used to braking and being defensive of big offs or crashes, avoid big knocks into other riders, learn the game, and you can easily get halfway up the leaderboard and more. And the game challenges you to whatever highest level you want, with no mechanic more complicated than tapping the turbo button to keep your average speed, and giving you the option to play as you like - either weaving through traffic skilfully, or focusing on good technique in corners and letting the rest take care of itself. I recommend the Genesis version first since the frame rate is slower than arcade which can be a bit much for newer players.

Hey! :) Is a DS4 the PS wireless controller? If so then I would go with Square for A, Triangle for B, and Circle for C, but it will be a pretty uncomfortable time probably. I use my Genesis pad and I think it would be reasonable to use one for any port of the game. Turbo tapping isn't so important though if you have quick reactions, and especially in the arcade version where it's a bit more forgiving for the time interval you need between taps. All you're looking for is the speed to maintain at 324 and not go down to 300 something during your corners. The best advice by far is to play smoother and more defensively in terms of avoiding any knocks to other bikes, before worrying about maximising your corners - if you go wide in a few it won't make much difference.

I am delighted that we had a few really strong new runners join our ranks so far this year! I would like to grow our little game even more since our output seems to be quite seasonal and comes in spurts. I was wondering if anyone wants to do some races, or if anyone is interested in creating extra categories.

For races I would think the best method would be first to complete a course N times, which makes for far easier streaming side by side and avoids our problem of IGT bugs. We could also then harmonise emulator use and get them broadcast on SRL, and it would also open us to being able to enter marathon events in a consistent way. I would love to get SHO featured in a marathon sometime and I feel like a race would be slightly more amenable than a showcase.

Is anyone interested in a marathon category or has any other ideas they'd like? Something like 'N in a row' for each race would be a nice way to measure skill in a more balanced way without traffic/single accidents hampering strong runners' top times.

In Mercs (Genesis) Original Mode, one of the critical moments is the Desert Tanks boss in Mission 5. It used to take about 12-13 seconds when you had bad RNG. Three tanks go right across the screen, central then the outers. You have no space to fire across all of them without taking massive damage - and then they start moving up and down in concert with fireballs and missiles. We found a trick that we think was not intended, and switch character from Rifle to Laser. His weapon is narrower and concentrated. It alone can damage the outer tanks while they are off-screen. There's a blind spot you can hide in and fire across two of them, then you used 2 Megacrash bombs (having picked one up at time cost) to gain i-frames and go inside the third to finish them off and just end the fight with barely any health left, and now it takes about 7 seconds. We then found a higher blind spot that meant more firepower throughput and reduced it down to just 1 M required. It also saves time because you aren't using the Megacrashes that Rifle otherwise badly needs for other tight spots, saving travel time to get more in the levels.

Timing is defined as starting on the frame you press (1) on the title screen (after you collected CHEA and soft-reset, unless you're some sort of masochist) and ending with the final hit to Maybe.

Take your framecount and use f/60.

When there are frame drops or ambiguities about that in runs, we can reference that point as: -Screen fades from f+3 -Screen goes black at f+11 -Pond appears at f+69

With C.H.E.A.T having become near perfectly optimised, it makes sense that we should adopt an endpoint which can be perfectly defined - it has been difficult in the past to be sure when a final hit was delivered because flashing animations have often stopped and started very quickly, and not all runs showed a frame count.

I would very much appreciate future runs being submitted with 60fps recording, and showing a frame counter. I may be able to interpolate the correct time for a 30fps recording but I cannot guarantee it and I would prefer never to have to deny someone a WR by one absent frame.

The intended 'stop' point of runs already on the leaderboard corresponds to the frame after the 50,000 point bonus is added on. This makes a very easy reference point for future runs and allows absolutely no ambiguity. With that in mind I have retimed the top runs so that they all end at this point. If there are any further points arising from this please do discuss them!

I have added difficulty as a variable so that the boards are far easier to navigate and 1st place runs are properly marked, thanks to AlrightSally for pointing that out to me.

Since the Original Mode WR has gotten so optimised I have added milliseconds on it, in anticipation that future runs will break the record by less than a second barrier. If two runners tie WR to the same second, the runs will both hold first place regardless, since grunt hit luck and speedboat RNG are highly variable.

(Edited) I've started using ms for Arcade Mode runs beneath 10:10.

1. Mercs (Genesis) Original Mode has been my major project since October 2018, doing nearly the entire routing, trick/exploit finding, and grind myself. It's now getting near the point where WR runs aren't possible if the RNG (which we can't yet control) in Mission 4 goes against you.

2. Favourite game: Mercs, though Super Hang-On runs that close. Mercs has a number of elements which to me make it a really underrated all around speedrun: -High level of reaction/pattern recognition required for enemy patterns - enemy patterns will literally change completely if you exit a transition one frame different, while the structure of the patterns is always comprehensible and allows for a necessary mix of knowledge and skill to succeed. -More technique/technical skill required: we don't allow autofire so mashing is REALLY critical on bosses, and learning to flick-fire into angles to maintain faster vertical movement takes a lot of mastery. -Routing is reasonably open even at the top level, so it's common to have to work out what you will do on the fly as a run progresses, and be able/willing to make command decisions about those things based on the range of outcomes. It's not so dry as many other games in that regard.

Here ends the advert, I would love to get some new runners especially for Original Mode. There really is nothing like it.

3. Competence is not always an indicator of WR levels. Early when I began work on Super Hang-On, I got an outstanding PB wr time, but I was far from the best player at that point. It took another year of work to be able to match/surpass that one run and truly feel like I was the most able player thus far. What matters is your journey, your growth, your effort. If you measure your skill by an outside yardstick such as an arbitary WR, you aren't truly speedrunning as much as trying to one-up people. True speedrunning (and forgive the Miyagi-do shtick this sounds like) comes from improving yourself, challenging yourself, and letting the outside results reflect that progress.

HOCH HECH! ENDUT!

I am hoping to do a gaming marathon for Macmillan Cancer Support, Monday 17th, 9pm GMT to 3am to try and get UK+US viewers, on Twitch. If successful I would be glad to do more of these with different consoles or themes of stuff to play. Plan is to play various SMS/Genesis games for entertainment and speedruns. I would be super grateful if anyone interested could please spread the word, my Twitch channel is tiny!! 😂 Also feel free to send me challenges/advice/requests! I've never done anything like this before so I'm starting with a goal of £50 donated. Any help you can give to make sure this goes well would be superb. https://gameheroes.macmillan.org.uk/fundraising/petaQ

I noticed a few errors in my past submissions regarding subseconds: apologies for those inaccuracies. Whenever you make a submission please be sure to use Three digits for your subsecond time. For example, a time of of 3'26"03 should be submitted as "3m 26s 030ss" with 030 all written. I inadvertently misrepresented subseconds on a few submission times by only writing in the two decimals: by doing that the system was turning '03' into '003' for example. I checked all other submitted runs and none were affected.

Hi, posting here in case it was missed in the series forum - thinking of learning EWJ 1 and 2 in future, got good experience in platformers and reasonably technical things, which would you recommend I pick up first?

I've got mostly the hang of everything but is there anything particular we can do in Good Princess Castle with little movements to clip through the floor/ceiling early, or is it down to luck?

Oh and can anyone explain in some better detail the rng manipulation in Lake? I must be losing a few seconds there.