Hey everyone, tl;dr: ¤ How are categories of games handled, where different platforms have different levels? ¤ Are emulators allowed / good practise for speedruns or should the console be used? If emulators are allowed, is DeSmuMe approved as DS emulator? If not, which ones are? ¤ Do you have some tips on getting into speedrunning?

Long version: I have always enjoyed watching speedruns and especially love GDQ. I was thinking about joining the speedrunning community, but I want to run a game, which I loved in my childhood. Last AGDQ I saw altabisuit run New Super Mario Bros., which I spent hours on. But I always liked N+ for DS more than Mario (mainly because I was able to beat more levels than in Mario :) ). So the last few days I tried out N+ on DeSmuMe and I'm really enjoying the game. I would like to speedrun it.

N+ is already a game on this site, but only the XBox version has been run yet. The categories are defined based on the XBox version, where you have Columns to beat, each one containing 5 levels (). In the DS version, you have episodes to beat, also containing 5 levels, but the levels are completely different from the XBox ones. That is why comparing the times between the XBox and the DS version is not possible. In addition the XBox version has 20 columns and 3 DLC Packs, whereas the DS version has 40 Episodes. How are categories handled in other games, where two console types have different levels? Should new categories be defined for the DS or should I use the same categories, making the times incomparible between different platforms?

Some more information about the DS Version: In addition to a tutorial with 12 levels, there are 40 different Episodes from 0 to 39 (http://imgur.com/a/blTjY). Episodes 0-3 are playable from the beginning, episodes 4-9 are unblocked once 2 episodes are completed. Episodes 10-17 will be unlocked if 7 or more episodes have been completed. 18-27 can be played after 14 and 28-39 after 23 episodes have been completed. The game does have an ingame timer, which shows the time needed to complete an episode in milliseconds. It includes time spent in the ingame-menus (when a level is loaded and the game asks you to press A to start), but excludes deaths. So for a speedrun, this timer may not be suitable.

Currently I'm playing using DeSmuMe and an XBox 360 controller on Arch Linux. As first PoC I created a render test and uploaded it, the splits are just to get used to pressing space at each door: (I know the sound is async). As stated in http://www.speedrun.com/Speedrunning/thread/19h43/1#d2pte DeSmuMe may not be allowed for some games, as it is faster in saving and loading than the DS is. In N+ the game is saved after an episode is completed. The maps are not that complex so I won't see loading as a huge problem here (may need some testing though). Is it allowed / good practise to use an emulator for runs instead of the console? Or should I rather use my DS? If emulators are allowed, is DeSmuMe approved as DS emulator? As I like playing on the XBox controller more than on the DS, I would like to use a comparable emulator instead of the DS.

Newbie question: ¤ When to start the timer? At the start of the episode or at the start of the first level? ¤ Do you have some tips on getting into speedrunning?

BR oberien

PS: Is there a search function for the forum, to search for posts about a topic?