I made some maps for the game based on Zerfall's PB. I'm looking into routing but these might help anyone that is interested in learning/running this.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/455200980313702412/889643962795712562/Dick_Tracy.rar

2P categories have been added for all 3 main categories (Any% no ABBA, Any% Glitchless, no ABBA, and Any% ABBA Allowed)

Personally I don't like the idea of allowing soft resets... even if it can be convenient. Some games have RNG that depends on the frame you're on, especially on the NES. A soft reset could give a runner an unfair advantage, especially if they can find something that most runners wouldn't know. I suppose if the community felt that a soft reset was the best way to run the game I'd be on board with it, but since nobody's attempted that yet, I think it's safer to just say for now, that it's outlawed.

As far as PAL games are concerned, IMO they should only be ran at their native framerates. Running them at 60 FPS is an unfair advantage. If people in NTSC regions cannot play them on native hardware or at native speeds, they should emulate IMO.

(These are just my opinions, and I'm open for discussion for sure)

When in doubt, do your own research for what emulators are allowed. Obviously, for some consoles, we'll be willing to bend to maximize inclusivity, but overall we always will defer to the accuracy of the real console. If an emulator gives an unfair advantage, it's banned, no questions asked. If there's no other options, we can split the board.

It goes without saying, but cheat codes are banned. Any runs that use them will be denied.

Just so that future runs won't have any issues, I've taken the liberty of adding some rules to future submissions. GOING FORWARD, ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST:

-clearly include the game audio from start to finish. (if live streamed, commentary is perfectly fine. If music is played in the vod, it cannot cover up the game audio to the point of obscuring it) -show the reset before the run begins. -show the ending. -if, on emulator, must include the emulator name in the submission.

These are basically par-for-the-course for all NES speedruns, and for a lot of other speedrunning communities as well. Since these rules were not stated clearly until now, past runs will be grandfathered in (unless a separate reason is found to not allow them on the board). Please make sure you submit runs that match this criteria, or your speedrun will not be verified. Thank you!

Since nobody seems to know what the accuracy of 4DO is in comparison to the real hardware, and since it is apparent to me that it is indeed faster, for right now we're not sure whether or not to allow that emulator.

I've made a separate board for emulators for the time being. This is acceptable to me personally as a long-term solution, since I prefer accessibility in this case over exclusivity. However, if the consensus of the community is that that emulator is too inaccurate, or that there's a better solution out there, we can make that work as well.

Basically my fear is that we allow the 4DO emulator despite not being accurate, and then at a later date a better emulation solution comes out, and we decide to ban the emulator, and have to grandfather in an emulator that is inaccurate to the point that real hardware cannot beat it...

I just got back into town from vacation and saw we have a new plumbers runner. I was stunned he beat my No Second Chances time by so much (not because my run is unbeatable, I can't honestly say, but that there was that much time to be had). So I put his run side-by-side up with mine and immediately saw why: by the time John wakes up from his dream, my run (which was on real hardware with the real disk) was almost 25 seconds behind his. This is with literally zero inputs at this point.

I'm not sure about 4DO's accuracy but this is obviously much faster than real hardware. I think we should split the board.

Feel free to chime in with any input! I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on this.

I don't see why not... if a run was performed co-op, I could see a board being added. :D

Ah, I see. Perhaps unless interest is shown by someone, we can just table it for now...

As of right now, the GBC Trilogy category does not have a linked category; the 2 more popular speedruns are the required runs for the category. Would there be interest in a linked version as well? If there is, I'd love to make a seperate tab for those :)

Yes! If you look in the left hand column (on PC) you'll see, below the game's cover, all the platforms that are allowed. The NES Classic is allowed and is perfectly fine :)

I'll have to watch it later when I get some time (IRL has kept me very busy, so I haven't had time to do much gaming-wise lately), but my short-term answer is: as long as the game plays at the same speed as the original hardware, and the enemies, drops, and gameplay is identical, than it should be allowed.

Is this the case? That's the analysis we'd have to do, but you could check it yourself: put the game up alongside a run on original hardware. A good place to do this would be after you slay the final enemy, you could put this MAME emulator against the real hardware. The cutscenes should play frame-by-frame identically, taking into account any variables such as score, or where Link is standing when he kills the final enemy.

There was another emulator that has a tomahawk in the first room of the game (on Pica Pic IIRC). the real hardware cannot replicate this. That's an example of a reason it WOULD NOT be allowed. But there's always the possibility of another category if that's the case.

TL;DR until one of the mods (or anyone really) can do the analysis and make a conclusion, if this is the only way you can play the game, I still encourage you to do so! If it's determined that this is an unfair advantage to play over the real hardware or another emulator, we can always just make a seperate category. Don't let this stop you from speedrunning, if you truly want to!

^^^^ This.

There are ways to set up OBS so that you can stream your music, but you can locally record just your game audio. I don't personally know how to do this, but I'm certain it's possible. That way, you can play with music, and then upload your vods with pure game audio and submit those later.

If you don't care about streaming the music you play (in other words, it's for you, not your viewers), you could just listen in headphones, or mute the source in OBS and make sure your mic isn't picking it up.

I was unaware until today that our fellow moderator and Superman NES speedrunner StTommyBoy passed away in April 2020. Although I did not know him personally, do not know how he passed, or anything else, I did indeed research this game by watching his (among others') runs, and he seemed like a really great person.

His spot as moderator will remain indefinitely, as a memorial.

Rest in peace.

I suppose we could make a meme category. Would allow Gay%, Sandwich%, and any other uncommon ideas there have been for this game.

That is exactly what I said LUL

UPDATE: Today at E3, Limited Run Games announced a re-release of this game for the Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC. Since we don't know much at this time, I'll be creating a seperate leaderboard for each category that utilizes any of the 4 modern versions. These 4 will all compete on the same leaderboard unless it can be determined that a seperate leaderboard is unnecessary. The original PC version will be seperate from the modern PC unless it is determined that the 2 are identical.

Feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

(As an aside: I still think the mamba can be fastest of all the routes ESPECIALLY if you went 3-4-8-2, but it needs some route tweaking and manip backups to make it work. someday I'll return... I'm sure I will haha. The problem with 3-4-8-2 is the fact you have to menu, so you lose the manip the moment you bomb the first wall in 8... and 3-4-2 is fast but not fast enough to justify without manipping all the way to recorder)

I will say this: you're not wrong. This IS the future route. The problem is that this route is EXTREMELY volatile and that there is still time to save on the current WR routes. I've looked into this route with manipulation and it IS possible, but it would be a gigantic timesink and commitment for any Zelda runner to sub-29, let alone sub-28. You'd have to re-learn level 8 with white sword and less hearts... then stick with white sword for the rest of the run... it wouldn't be easy.

If you added a 0 to that sub-27 any% and sub-28 no up+a goal... you MIGHT get some interest... maybe... but not from me, not right now :P

(we're having technical difficulties with the Save RIP, please stand by. Anyone that can help test the files would be a huge help!)