I had my first S3&K run submission rejected because I didn't record the game audio. (I don't stream, and tend to listen to Spotify or podcasts through my PC while playing emulated games. From some brief googling, apparently it is possible to use Virtual Audio Cables to get OBS to record only specific applications rather than all Desktop Audio, but I haven't looked into setting it up yet.)

The run rejection comment from @BenInSweden said that the S3&K rules have now been updated to read: "Game audio is required and must be at an audible level throughout the run."

Although I would have preferred to have known this was a requirement before I submitted it, I'm not objecting to this rule change (I appreciate that audio can be a way of identifying spliced runs) or to my run's rejection (it wasn't exactly a great time)!

Two questions:

1. Now this this rule update has been applied to S3&K, will the rules for any other classic Sonic games be updated to have the same audio recording requirement?

2. If so, should other Sonic forums get threads formally announcing this rule change, to notify anyone else who might miss it?

I watched Games Done Quick's video "Community Spotlight: Sonic 3 & Knuckles Edition":

They use the slope glitch to complete Ice Cap. At 21:15 (video time, not game timer), one of the commentators says that if they softlock in Launch Base, they'll get sent back to Ice Cap and this time, they won't be able to use the slope glitch again.

Sure enough, at at about 26:45 (video time) Launch Base is failed, and because there was no save, they get thrown back to the start of Ice Cap Act 1, and have to play through it glitchless.

My question: why can't the glitch be used second time through Ice Cap?

Does something prevent the glitch from activating at all? Or is it to do with which sections of the level are loaded; you can activate the glitch but can't use it to go anywhere useful? Is it the lack of saving at the end of the Zone that causes this - how?

I posted this in the r/speedrun thread for this run, but I'm reposting it here as I think these observations might be of interest to people here too.

The thing that struck me upon watching Zaxon96's new WR run was that several of the levels seemed less smooth and clean than I remembered them being in Mike89's 14:58, with more immediately obvious mistakes. (For example, coming to a momentary dead stop upon hitting the star post platform wall in Emerald Hill 2, missing the first capsule hit in Aquatic Ruin 2, making a mistake getting the speed shoes in Casino Night 2, and jumping straight up at the start of Hill Top 1.)

So I was puzzled by how exactly Zaxon96 ends up with a faster run overall - surely with mistakes like those, the 12-0 on the final boss couldn't have made that much of a difference? I was also curious to see how much of a difference the route changes made.

So I rewatched both runs and compared the times on each level.

It turns out that at the end of CN1, Zaxon is 6 seconds behind Mike's pace. He then catches up over the next few levels, so that by the end of Hill Top 1 he's 1 second ahead. Loses all of this advantage in Metro 3 and Wing Fortress, falling 4 seconds behind overall - then the 6 second improvement on the final boss makes all the difference!

Lvl -- Mike89 - Zaxon96 (Diff)

EH1 -- 0:20 - 0:19 (-1) EH2 -- 0:36 - 0:37 (+1) Zaxon96 takes higher route, which seems slightly faster, but hits platform wall upon leaving the cave, coming to a dead stop. Also just misses hitting the capsule at :36. CP1 -- 0:22 - 0:22 (=) CP2 -- 0:40 - 0:39 (-1) AR1 -- 0:21 - 0:22 (+1) Mike89 jumps fast horizontally across the water toward the shoes; Zaxon96 jumps up high, which might be enough to make the difference? AR2 -- 0:38 - 0:43 (+5) Mike89 gets the fast boss flee animation but Zaxon96 doesn't. Zaxon96 also misses the capsule hit. CN1 -- 0:28 - 0:29 (+1) CN2 -- 0:58 - 0:55 (-3) Zaxon96 makes a mistake getting speed shoes but catches up later, by doing a pausing trick to avoid the need to bounce three times on the bumper. Also a slightly faster boss kill I think? HT1 -- 0:40 - 0:38 (-2) Zaxon96 jumps up to skip the first seesaw. But Mike89 is smoother through the lava cave door HT2 -- 0:56 - 0:56 (=) Zaxon96 does a different route going up the vertical cave but I don't think it saves time MC1 -- 0:33 - 0:31 (-2) Zaxon96 takes lower route after invincibility boxes MC2 -- 0:42 - 0:42 (=) OO1 -- 0:32 - 0:32 (=) OO2 -- 0:41 - 0:42 (+1) MZ1 -- 0:54 - 0:53 (-1) MZ2 -- 0:16 - 0:15 (-1) MZ3 -- 0:45 - 0:49 (+4) Zaxon96 comments that he has a poor boss pattern, taking an extra cycle of the boss returning to the ceiling compared to Mike89 SCZ -- 2:06 - 2:06 (=) WFZ -- 1:41 - 1:43 This is the first time I've seen the glitch that Zaxon96 does to spindash above the platforms... but it doesn't seem to save any time. DEZ -- 0:49 - 0:43 (-6) Mike89 does the 10-2 hit pattern; Zaxon96 does the 12-0

Sum of all bold times = 14:41

Let me know if I've made any mistakes above, or if I missed any other differences between the runs that contributed to the changes in times!

The rules state:

"Any deaths also count towards your in-game time. Add the amount of time lost (time at death minus time when when you reappear)."

However, this is slightly ambiguous. In 16-bit Sonic 1 to 3&K (and probably CD too; haven't checked that), the on-screen timer keeps ticking for a few seconds after you die until the screen fades out and you reset to the last checkpoint.

So which time does "time at death" refer to? The moment when Sonic collides with the killing hazard and enters his death animation? Or the last time shown before the screen completely fades out?

So far I've been timing my runs using the latter, just to err on the side of caution.