Just to be clear, I would not consider myself an expert on Retroarch, or any emulator really, and my caution for Retroarch comes from what I've heard from others. It is actually interesting to note that the Genesis Sonic leaderboards (1, 2, 3&K) all allow it to be used as long as the Genesis Plus GX core is used and the Retroarch main menu displaying the current core is shown before the run. The following excerpt can be found in the game rules for each of those games:

"Emulator Rules

The following unofficial emulators are allowed: Kega Fusion, Genesis Plus GX (standalone or through Retroarch.) Links to these emulators can be found in the Resources tab.

The Emulator used must be adequately identifiable at some point during the run (preferably at the start).

Examples

Fusion (only 1 needed) FPS Visible in the bottom of the window. Text in the bottom right either showing: Soft Reset Hard Reset x Startup (where x is either "Genesis", "MegaCD" or "Master System")

Retroarch Showing the Retroarch Menu that displays the Genesis Plus GX core and version in the bottom left. If not shown at the start of the run, please provide a timestamp in the run description of where this is shown."

So perhaps if the Genesis Sonic community has accepted Retroarch under these conditions, maybe it's not so bad after all? However, if you are able to perform L+R input this way, then it is not fitting our current criteria here anyways. I've tried to test it out myself, but I cannot get the dang thing to work on my end.

Sorry for the rant, but I figured this info might be of interest. :)

I feel like these requirements of input display and showing some sort of visible indication of what emulator is being used (probably through full window capture) are very simple to meet. I would lean more towards these being applied to all future submissions regardless of how fast the run is. However, if everyone rather have them only apply to more competitive submissions, then I'm fine with that as well.

Kega Fusion and Genesis Plus GX appear to be two commonly accepted emulators for this platform. Retroarch and OpenEmu (Mac) can both use a Genesis Plus GX core. I've often heard negative things about Retroarch in that it often sacrifices accuracy for stability in it's default options, so it perhaps some investigating should be done on that. OpenEmu is something I know little about outside of it's use of Genesis Plus GX as it's core for Genesis/MD.

I'm all for this idea, and is a common emulator rule in many established speedruns for basically the reasons that you mention. We can see if inputs are synchronized with the visible gameplay, and it allows us to pick up on abnormal behavior, such as perfectly timed sequences of inputs that you would see in macro usage. Furthermore, bizhawk should be banned, unless you require the "movie/no movie" toggle to be displayed on such runs. This would allow us to see if a TAS recording is being played back or not. Requiring a full screen display of the emulator may be necessary to let us know which emulator is being used, so that if bizhawk is used, we know to expect the "movie/no movie" display, as well as knowing if a banned emulator is being used or not.

I'd like to request that the game "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" receive a Series tag for the "Barbie" series. I moderate both the game and the series. Thank you.

Game -> https://www.speedrun.com/barbie_three_musketeers Series -> https://www.speedrun.com/barbie

With the release of Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King, which includes an emulated version of The Lion King (Genesis/MegaDrive), some changes have been made to the leaderboard.

First of all, PC, PS4, Switch and PC have been added as platforms. Secondly, a line has been added to the rules banning features exclusive to this new release, such as use of saves, level select and rewind. Another line has been added banning L+R, as it is generally a banned emulator function for most speedruns and should have been on the rules already. This new release allows for L+R, so this really needs to be clarified.

This new emulated version of The Lion King (Genesis/MegaDrive) appears to be accurate to the original game, so in the meantime, we will accept such runs on to this leaderboard. If significant inaccuracies are discovered with this new release, we can address them.

Since it appears that everyone who has submitted a run in the past several months has either voiced their support of the proposed rules here or via Discord, I have gone ahead and updated the rules for each category. I have also added in the line requiring a visible timer, as suggested by Insomnimatic, since that is a fairly standard rule for speedruns. AlfredoSalza was previously enforcing it as an unspoken rule as well, so it's not necessarily new either.

Thanks again, everyone!

Thank you everyone for the quick responses so far. As for having a visible timer, I personally prefer to see runs that have it, and it does make verifying runs a little easier to be honest. I don't think it is actually necessary, but I will add it to the list unless there are objections to its addition. I am also thinking that we can add a line to "Banned Functions" that simply states that level select codes and any use of cheating devices, such as Game Genies, are not allowed. Really just another common sense rule.

Side note: I do need to try out the Game Gear version at some point. :D

I forgot one important thing. No existing runs would be affected by the new rule changes.

I have come up with an updated, more defined set of rules that I would like to apply to our leaderboard. However, I am of the belief that mods should communicate such things with the community and allow for an open discussion to occur. After all, it is the community that makes the speedrun. If you are a past runner, and especially if you are currently an active runner, please post your thoughts and help make this the leaderboard that we all want. My proposed rules are as follows:

-----START-----

Complete the game from start to finish on the difficulty setting associated with this category. The difficulty selection does not need to be visible in your run.

Timing

• Run starts when selecting "START" on the main menu.
• Run ends at the start of Simba's animation for the final attack that successfully throws Scar off of the cliff.

Banned Functions

• Turbo is not allowed as it provides an unfair advantage.
• Loading from a save state at any point in a run, or to start a new run, is not allowed as it provides an unfair advantage and is not a native function of the original hardware. All runs must begin with a reset that is visible in the submitted video.

Video Quality

• Video quality should be reasonably clear.
• Excessive missing frames / lag may be grounds for run rejection. Mods cannot accurately determine the legitimacy of a run if portions of the video are missing.

Audio Quality

• The game audio should be reasonably clear.
• Missing game audio may be grounds for run rejection. Mods cannot accurately determine the legitimacy of a run if portions of the audio are missing.

-----END-----

My first goal was to make sure that the timing method is clear, especially since the rules have always been vague about "end of time". I am simply reflecting what most runners, including top runners, have always done in this speedrun. It is a good place to end time because it is also the point where we lose character control.

As far as banned functions goes, not allowing turbo should be an obvious rule, but it really should be stated in the rules. I feel like not allowing save states is an important one, since it is common practice for most speedruns to start runs from a reset. Besides being an unfair advantage over console runners who cannot just immediately jump right into the next run with the press of a button, it is simply just a function that cannot be performed on an actual copy of the game. Even by principle alone, this should be reason enough to not allow save states in runs. I realize this might not be a popular idea with some of the emulator runners, but please try to understand where I am coming from with this.

The rules about video and audio quality should be common sense, but these types of questions always seem to come up in speedrun forums. Even this forum has an old thread where the question of video quality was brought up.

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post.

Side note to @The_Retro_Challenger , I was going to run this by you first, but it does not appear that we use any of the same types of social media. :P

@cajink87 I migrated your Difficult run to the proper category. GG on the WR btw.

I also noticed Autobahn has some good runs that need to be moved, and I will check them a little later as well as look for any other hidden Normal and Difficult runs by other users.

First of all, thank you for adding the new categories Retro Challenger! Can't wait to try them out, now that they actually exist as categories.

I know you are working on the leader board later tonight, but I do have some suggestions just in case you miss something when you get around to it:

-Obviously, now that the difficulty modes are separated by category, the difficulty option should be removed from the Easy Category to avoid accidental wrong category submissions. -Nichole's 14:32 PB should be edited to have USA / NTSC as the region, so that it will automatically set her older PB on the board as "obsolete", thus hiding it from default view. -The categories should be named "Easy", "Normal", and "Difficult". -Time begins when the Start button is pressed on the main menu, instead of character control (this also reflects the SNES board) -Time end has always been vague in the rules, but every top run has always ended at the very beginning of the lunge animation that successfully throws Scar off of the cliff. This is essentially end of character control as well. This method method is also done in SNES runs. I feel that it is important to be specific with this rule so that new runners are not confused by when exactly to end time.

Sorry for the lengthy post here, but I did not see a good way to message you directly. Also, I'd like to throw out there that I would be more than happy to be added as a super mod so that I can help with any fine details like this, and to verify runs. I'm active in the community, I know the mechanics of the run thoroughly, and I already mod a couple other leader boards. PS: I also know the importance of mods listening to their communities. :D

Thanks again.

Lol what on Earth just happened here...

I will attempt some runs of at least difficult, maybe also normal if there is enough difference, because I am certainly interested. Unfortunately, there are only a few actual active runners currently, but let's see if we can at least get a few more difficult mode runs on the board. Thanks for the response, AlfredoSalza.

Considering the SNES version is divided by difficulty, I could see this one getting the same treatment. I for one have been relearning the game to get back into it, and I would be interested in learning a harder difficulty if there was another category for it.