United StatesHey,
If you don't know me, I'm a mod of Mario's Early Years: Preschool Frun. I made an educational Mario game speedrunning discord (since I doubt a discord could become active based on this game alone).
Invite can be found here (or in the sidebar of the game): https://discord.gg/KdQZFUc
I know the community isn't super active currently, but this can be a good place to discuss things in a matter that they are actually dealt with (forums on SRC are often a bad medium of discussion). Sorry if this seems spammy/self-promoting, I'm not trying to make it seem that way.
Hey,
If you don't know me, I'm a mod of Mario's Early Years: Preschool Frun. I made an educational Mario game speedrunning discord (since I doubt a discord could become active based on this game alone).
Invite can be found here (or in the sidebar of the game): https://discord.gg/KdQZFUc
I know the community isn't super active currently, but this can be a good place to discuss things in a matter that they are actually dealt with (forums on SRC are often a bad medium of discussion). Sorry if this seems spammy/self-promoting, I'm not trying to make it seem that way.
Hey,
If you don't know me, I'm a mod of Mario's Early Years: Preschool Frun. I made an educational Mario game speedrunning discord (since I doubt a discord could become active based on this game alone).
Invite can be found here (or in the sidebar of the game): https://discord.gg/KdQZFUc
I know the community isn't super active currently, but this can be a good place to discuss things in a matter that they are actually dealt with (forums on SRC are often a bad medium of discussion). Sorry if this seems spammy/self-promoting, I'm not trying to make it seem that way.
Based on an earlier discussion of the subject here: https://www.speedrun.com/smbtll/thread/1khju as well as Wii VC NTSC having a framerate for the SNES version here: https://www.speedrun.com/smbtll/guide/eqtig , I'd assume you'd be fine submitting the Wii version as long as you select Wii VC as the platform. Just keep in mind it is slightly slower due to the framerate so you are putting yourself at a small disadvantage.
Hey,
I made an educational Mario game speedrunning discord (since I doubt a discord could become active based on this game alone).
Invite can be found here (or in the sidebar of the game): https://discord.gg/KdQZFUc
I know the community isn't super active currently, but this can be a good place to discuss things in a matter that they are actually dealt with (forums on SRC are often a bad medium of discussion).
Hey,
I made an educational Mario game speedrunning discord.
Invite can be found here: https://discord.gg/KdQZFUc
I know the community isn't super active currently, but this can be a good place to discuss things in a matter that they are actually dealt with (forums on SRC are often a bad medium of discussion).
Old but still bots: https://www.speedrun.com/Katabon7/allposts & https://www.speedrun.com/secondtry/allposts
A minor suggestion I have on the wording of the submissions page for runs. Upon submission, you are treated with this message: 
"Before your run appears on the leaderboard, it will be submitted for verification by our moderators.
Run approval may take 1-3 weeks in some cases. You will be notified shortly."
This is fine, however the final sentence, "You will be notified shortly.", doesn't really make sense. I think it is trying to say "You will be notified shortly after the run is approved", but I can easily see most people reading this and expecting a notification that their run landed in some queue or something like that. Maybe removing this line or slightly changing it to what I said above would be more clear.
I'm not trying to single out specific people with this post, just trying to generate discussion.
I want to propose banning the use of SNES Mouse Emulation across all categories/games in the Mario's Early Years series. The reason for this is that while the SNES mouse's tracking speed/sensitivity is non-adjustable on the console, using an emulator with mouse tracking will allow for a runner to adjust the sensitivity of the mouse in a way that console players are unable to compete.
There is already precedent in banning emulators for games ran on a SNES mouse. If you look at the submission process for Mario Paint (Gnat Attack being the mode that uses the SNES mouse), emulators are banned for submission, presumably over the same issue: https://www.speedrun.com/Mario_Paint/editrun#Gnat_Attack_1_Loop
I'm not saying we ban emulators entirely, since the game can be completed using the standard D-Pad as well as the SNES Mouse with each being extremely easy to identify. I just don't think emulator should be given an unfair advantage, one that can literally never be matched on console. Correct me if I'm wrong on the latter though.
I don't necessarily think that we need more mods since this game gets very little activity as it is, but if @ebloodycandy does want more people to help lighten the workload I'm free to help out as well.
If you are savvy enough, you can potentially use src's api (as found here: https://github.com/speedruncomorg/api) to programmatically populate the contents of your site with the content of the leaderboard. This is obviously much more involved than embedding a YouTube video, but as far as I can tell, there is currently no feature to embed leaderboards in the way you desire.
So on the subject of the game in question, based on those rules I am surprised it didn't get accepted. Maybe I'm underestimating the complexity requirements, but it seems to have some unique mechanics compared to many Flash platformers, at least from a let's play I just watched for it. It also looked like it was polished enough to not call it a small experiment from the creator. I could also easily see it denied based on the submission not being clear enough in this aspect.
There's the possibility that either the moderator saw it live and therefore doesn't need to watch the whole video (maybe just the beginning and end to verify it was cut correctly), or really anyone saw it live and can vouch for the run. Moderators also generally assume good faith from long time community members. They kinda have to if the runs are relatively long (1+ hours), just due to the sheer volume of runs that come in. Echoing the taking off bad run sentiments. It's a shame that cheating in speedrunning is so overblown for views on YouTube and other drama now though, since it makes the consequences of removing fake runs so much more than it used to be.
I'd recommend looking at this list: https://www.speedrun.com/users#us/tn
From there, maybe hop in some runners' streams and see if you can become friends that way.
@theripper999 I think you are focusing on the wrong part of the article. I mainly linked it since it talks about the decline in manufacturers of CRTs and what that means about the supply.
I don't care about a lack of CRTs because games wont look nostalgic. I care about them because 1) a ton of speedrunners find any form of input or display lag unacceptable and would much rather play on a CRT because of this, and 2) most monitors don't have a spot for composite or other outdated video inputs (besides VGA), which requires console owners to either buy fancy upscaling equipment or heavily modify their consoles for HDMI out if they want to be able to still be competitive using their consoles off of a CRT, which is a legitimate issue. Newer TVs are not being made with composite inputs either, and most HDTVs have pretty bad display lag (think 2+ frames), with cheap upscalers adding significantly more lag.
I think a more pertinent threat is the death of the CRT. Sure, people can use LCD monitors and emulators, but for a ton of speedrunners or retro games, running without using a CRT isn't worth it. CRT's have a lifespan and aren't being manufactured anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next 30 years it became much, much harder to find a CRT monitor. Here's an article I like that explains it all in a bit more detail: https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/03/what-the-death-of-the-crt-display-technology-means-for-classic-arcade-machines/ (I understand Twin Galaxies is mentioned a bunch, that doesn't make it a bad article).
I personally don't use a CRT, I use a bunch of upscaling equipment and a low latency monitor for future proofing, but the issue is that these are expensive tools. You need an OSSC or Framemeister (hundreds of dollars), usually with an HDMI capture card (at least another 100 dollars), plus a good monitor (hundreds of dollars), which is significantly more than the cost of capturing gameplay for most people.
The "death" of consoles isn’t as big of an issue but it’s still an issue. I personally disagree about video game preservation. At least for the more popular consoles like the SNES, it’s hard to find a game with a non-working ROM for all the regions it was released in unless you go really, really obscure. There are tools such as flash carts and emulators that will allow us to keep playing these. And while they act like emulators, there are tools being manufactured like the retron 5 which play retro games. I think there will be enough demand for clone consoles even as time goes on, just because it isn’t as significant of an investment as making CRTs.
I think what is going to happen far in the future from these two issues is that 1) people are going to be playing classic games less, since retro in 2080 will be games from 2040, and 2) if they do it’ll just be more accepted to use emulators. In 50 years the SNES and other emulators will have to be essentially perfected, right?
My suggestion is to just start doing runs yourself. If it is truly an interesting category, you should be able to generate interest based on your initial runs. It certainly sounds like it could be fun based on your description. Considering Any% D-4 already has a Save and Quit, I don’t think it’s super awkward or anything to have that transition to the letter levels. I think there will probably be some concern about starting runs, as you need to beat the game 7 times before each attempt which would inevitably have people looking at using save states/modified versions of the game in order to get past this barrier, but that can be discussed after interest is generated.
My mentality when it comes to leaderboards is that new categories shouldn’t be added unless there are actual runs of them. Besides some obvious ones like Any% and 100% for most games, creating categories before runs is just speculation that usually ends up cluttering the board with very little benefit.
There’s that “If you build it, they will come” saying that is thrown around occasionally, I’d follow that.
