Uhhh good question. I don't think IGT is affected by emulators but I could be wrong. I usually don't mind emulators if the game is hella expensive, which a copy will cost about 30 or 40 bucks which is cheap imo. I'll see if anybody has anything else to say about emulators.

https://discord.gg/bp9utvV8gT if you don't see it on the side

I fixed it, thanks for the heads up

Well emulator runs are good, they are just their own separate category.

Feel free to join the discord also, found on the info bar on the left, if you got any more speedrunning questions. Or just make a thread and I'll respond eventually lol

Sorry for the semi late reply. As far as I can remember, weapons from costumes, you need to repick up on a NG+ playthrough. The best weapon in the game, the knight's rapier, which you get from the rusty sword (which you get from collecting the 5 special knives), is in your rubbish bin. Well the RUSTY SWORD is in the rubbish bin, which you can take to a box to get the knight's rapier.

Hope I explained that well enough lol

Sorry for the late notice on this lol, I added the discord to the game's page. I honestly didn't plan for people to make one or for this game to get popular enough for one to be made.

Hey, thought I'd give a response lol.

Um I have never tried the game using OPL. I know some game's audio and other things bug out with OPL, so I guess there is something wrong causing the rockband mic to do that.

Everything works fine with disc, which is still pretty cheap on ebay. Sorry if that didn't help.

Added an emulator category. I know wobbles wanted to get an autotimer/splitter for emu, but it never came about. I also know she was concerned about people speeding up the game's speed by a tiny bit when using emulator, hence why it was banned up until this point.

I personally don't mind emu, technically it should be faster then playing on a console, so separate leaderboards were made because of it.

Enjoy and have fun.

I'm fine with splitting up the categories (glitchless and oob)

Personally, a non-disc run is a ban for me. Just because you need to use a third party program to play the game. It would also be unfair to the current runs on the leaderboard because load times would be non-existent (I've tested the game via PS2 Loader).

I say stick to emulator and if you like the run, pick up either a new PS2 disc drive to replace the busted one or pick up a used PS2 with a working disc drive. If you do use Open PS2 Loader to learn the route, you better get used to the delay that occurs when you give orders to Rio.

On the microphone issue, Haunter and myself use a rockband microphone and it works just fine. You don't need to use a headset to play this game, unless you want to free up your hands to hold the controller. Maybe try picking up a used Rockband PS2 or PS3 microphone (make sure to clean it lol).

Hope this helps.

Well there we go case closed. Enjoy your runs, if you got any questions about the route or stuff, feel free to make a thread. I'll respond when I have time.

I guess wait and see if a mod replies, if not message one of them either on twitch or discord from their profile and ask the question, most like Liv, though Carci is active also, just busy.

I don't think playing a PAL version is banned, just playing on emulator is.

Liv, whom is one of the mods for the game, posted some info about using HD Loader here: https://www.speedrun.com/hauntingground/thread/ddowo

In terms of using something called swap magic, personally I wouldn't consider that a mod, since you are just allowing your console to play region locked games without modifying the hardware in anyway.

So TLDR: HD Loader = Emulator accodring to Liv Swap Magic to ME (not a mod) is not an emu run since you aren't modfying the hardware, but you NEED A MOD to confirm this.

Edit: So if you have swap magic, an NTSC or NTSC-J copy of Clock Tower 3 and the mod(s) approve using it, I see no issue then.

I assume PAL would be naturally slower because of the frame rate, therefore your RTA time would be slower. I mean, if you don't care for position on the leaderboards and just want to run the game, then have at it.

I had no clue you did your run on HDD lol. I already gave my opinion on HD Loader and how it is not a native first party program and how the PS2, I think outside of FF11, didn't have games that wrote to the HDD for faster loads, unlike the PS4 now. In terms of speedrunning the JPN version, you can use a NTSC PS2, just use swap magic. I see no big deal with swap magic, as it allows you to run the disc on native hardware.

I know you kind of want HDD runs, what do you say Rebcart? I talked to Niko about it and he is happy either way tbh, I just am not a fan of third party programs or modding a console outside of original hardware. Granted I have 2 softmoded PS2s with HDDs in them. I mean if you are for it Rebcart and Otonyshi is, that overrides my single opinion. I just want what is best for the speedrunning community and what not, what very little community there is for this game.

So I've allowed emulator runs now. I've banned emulator up until this point due to the reason of the game still being pretty cheap to buy. But over the years, I've seen the game rise in price, so I don't want to discourage people from attempting to run this game just because they don't want to fork up a ton of money to get a proper copy of the game.

Enjoy and have it at!

Alright, so I see SpaceCow's run was done on emulator.

So it is time to have the emulator talk.

First off, I'll straight out say it, I think emu should be banned for the follow reasons

1. It is faster then console (loads and your voice commands "load" quicker to Rio)
2. It uses a third party microphone plugin for it to work
3. Lifeline isn't a rare game, picking up a PS2 + Lifeline will cost you less then 100 dollars.

I wouldn't mind emulator if the game was rare or that an IGT was used. I can knock down my run by a few mins just due to playing on emulator.

If you don't want to ban emulator and allow it, can you at least separate them into different categories like the Haunting Ground leaderboards. https://www.speedrun.com/hauntingground

Thanks

The best way, maybe to get in contact with T3tsuya might be discord: T3tsuya#7408 If not try twitter: https://twitter.com/T3tsuyaV2 At if those don't work, you can always try a message on twitch.

Well I guess it is finally time for the discussion of emulator.

So emulator has way faster loading times compared to the PSN or even the PS2 version.

Examples: Train leaving LLT for WDT PSN Version ~11 seconds () Emulator/PCSX2: ~6 seconds ()

Going from the park to LLT: PSN Version ~18 seconds () Emulator/PCSX2 ~12 seconds ()

For people who aren't aware, Chulip does a unique thing for loading screens and plays a cutscene of the transition: i.e. the train or playing dangerously near traffic.

I can go on, but won't. Over the course of a 2.5 hour run, emulator has an unfair advantage against console/original hardware. So because of this I am separating emu from console. I don't want to ban emulator because that would discourage people from picking up the game, despite the game being on PSN for 10 dollars, it is still a rare and obscure game to own.

Japanese text, I haven't looked into yet but will try to soon to see if it is actually quicker then english text.

If anyone has any opinions on the separation of emulator and console, let me know.

Thanks!