I have had some DuckTales 2 runners asking me if we could make "Any% Easy" the main category since it's faster than difficult. I have thought about it and there is in fact no real reason to keep difficult as main category because easy is the fastest way to complete the game.
Yay or Nay, please vote!
(I am saying "Yay!")
hey,
I have checked the "world record" run and unfortunately the runner has been using Visualboy Advance (VBA) which is a very inaccurate emulator and therefore banned in almost all GB/GBC communities/leaderboards. I already informed the runner about the fact that he has been using VBA for his run and I also tried to reach out for failed sail but unfortunately he didn't reply.
I am informing you guys again, stop using VBA for GB speedruns as it is not a good emulator (more informations about VBA here: http://www.speedrun.com/Speedrunning/thread/4sdl9 ). Use more accurate emulators like Gambatte, BGB or BizHawk.
Hey gameboy speedrunners,
since there are still a lot of gb speedrunners out there using inaccurate emulators (like Visualboy Advance/VBA) for their gameboy speedruns I would like to remind and ask you to stop using VBA and switch to emulators like Gambatte or BGB instead.
VBA is running Gameboy/Gameboy Color games at slightly higher frame rate than usual gb hardware and other accurate emulators and additionally can't emulate lag properly making it running the games faster and smoother.
While it might sound tempting to use a faster platform, it's still unfair to people who are playing on original hardware (Super Gameboy 2 or Gamecube GB Player) and accurate emulators (Gambatte or BGB).
How you as a gb speedrunner can help?
1.) Try to spot people who are using VBA and inform them about its inaccuracy and help them to switch to more accurate alternatives. I can understand that this doesn't sound easy at all since there are not always clear indicators what emulator is/was being used but in case of doubt just ask them.
There is one indicator (which I know of) that helps you to spot a VBA emulator and it's the red emulator notification in the left lower corner which usually shows up when you reset the game or turn it on and load a rom.
2.) To all the moderators of gameboy game leaderboards:
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Always (!) define rules for your leaderboard and don't forget to turn on "Rules shown by default" in the leaderboard settings so one can see the rules as soon as you visit the site (like here for example: http://www.speedrun.com/ngsgb )
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Include an explicit rule which bans the use of VBA and points out what emulators are allowed (for example: "Visualboy Advance/Visual Boy Advance-M (VBA/VBA-M) in any variation IS BANNED since it emulates GB games inaccurately. It is recommended to use BGB, Gambatte or BizHawk")
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verify carefully and try to spot VBA users
I have noticed that it is getting better in general and people start informing about accurate gb emulators before they actually do runs but unfortunately there are still some who are taking the easy path and just google "gameboy emulator" which unfortunately leads to VBA as first result since it is the most known one.
Thanks for your time and reading!
I haven't seen a video yet which compares the timings of the different Game Boy players available for different consoles so I felt like fixing that. In my video I have compared the original Super Game Boy (SGB1, top left recording), Super Game Boy 2 (SGB2, top right recording) and Game Cube Game Boy Player (GBP, lower recording). All 3 devices have been recorded with the GV-USB2 capture card at 59.94 frames per second. I have used Amarec 3.10 as capture software and the raw files have been encoded with Yua. All recordings start and end at the same frame of the game to ensure accuracy. As game I have picked Castlevania Legends as it features an in-game timer which doesn’t just go for 5 minutes but a bit longer. I have disabled the audio of the Super Game Boy 1 because it is running way faster than the other 2 devices and that would cause one big mess with the audio (audio is already a bit off because of different speeds of SGB2 and GBP). Not to mention the disturbing high pitch of the SGB1.
The Super Game Boy 1 and 2 have been attached to my Super Famicom and the Game Boy Player has been used with my Game Cube.
Lengths of the recordings in the video:
Super Game Boy 1: 40434 frames (@59.94 = 11:14.34), Super Game Boy 2: 41413 frames (@59.94 = 11:30.54), Game Boy Player : 41379 frames (@59.94 = 11:30.20)
It was already known for years that the Super Game Boy 1 is running faster than original Game Boy’s frame rate so no surprise here. SGB1 is running 979 frames (00:16.20) faster than the Super Game Boy 2. What surprised me a little bit though is that the Game Boy Player is also not as accurate as the SGB2 (GBP is running 34 frames faster or 00:00.34 than SGB2). It’s not as dramatic as the SGB1 but still worth mentioning.
Also I wanted to say that I have tested different games as well (Super Mario Land 2 for example) with similar results (SGB1 running like crazy, GBP several frames faster than SGB2) so it’s not an issue of a single game and seems to be hardware related (or maybe software related/ GB Player disc?). This needs additional testings from someone who is more knowledgeable than me.
What I haven’t tested yet is the GBI (Game Boy Interface, http://www.gc-forever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=2782) for the Game Boy Player which is said to fix the „speed issue“ of the GBP. Would be nice if someone with GBI and SGB2 could test and compare them.
Hey,
I know that the original Super Gameboy is slightly overclocked and therefore banned in a lot of communities/leaderboards. Is the use of the Super Gameboy 2 also not allowed for Pokémon speedruns?
I am asking because I haven't seen any Pokemon runs done on an SGB2 which would be my preferred hardware for Game Boy speedruns.
