I prefer the options where you either freeze the game
Why?
The whole foundation of speedrunning is to complete the game. A speedrun that doesn't complete the game isn't. A "speedrun" that just goes half-way through and then gives up is worthless. (In this case it wouldn't be "half-way", but conceptually it would be the same thing.)
Castlevania: Symphony of the night's speedruns end at the last save point. The "swordless" speedruns traditionally end at gannon's room, and usually by using the freezing glitch, which is why it's one of the options given there. Moreover, we have TASes that don't complete the game such as the one from Rygar (movie ends just before the game's ending) and the Ghost 'n' goblins ones. Not counting the TASes from games that have no end, like Excitebike or Kung-Fu master. Even the Lemmings TAS was published without beating the whole game.
or play a "hack" that is basically the same game but that allows you to hit Gannon without the sword.
That would be even worse. It would go against all the principles of fair TASing. Or put it in other words: It would be cheating, as defined by TASing standards.
We had to fight for years to convince the general public that we don't cheat with the games. We certainly shouldn't start doing so now. Even suggesting such a thing is a horrible idea.
(Note that the above is not a statement against accepting so-called "hacks" which are, effectively, their own independent games, just built on top of existing game code. They are never considered the original game in any way.)
IHMO, it's not cheat if the ROM only competes in its own category.
Voting YES for replacing the (U) run.
Reasons:
1. This and the (U) rom are the same game.
2. While (U) is usually preferred over the other versions, the guidelines say there's an exception for version-specific glitches.
Examples (from the top of my head):
· FDS Mario -1 run (which doesn't compete with this run, but which is preferrable to the (U) rom for -1 world runs)
· Mario 3 (J) run
· Rygar (E) (and probably others)
There's not enough difference between (U) and (E) to justify having TWO separate any% runs.
So if he found a glitch that only worked in (E), he deserves the pride of obsoleting (U).
I like this concept, but in the execution I prefer the options where you either freeze the game, or play a "hack" that is basically the same game but that allows you to hit Gannon without the sword.
Not that I won't vote this game yes after watching it.
It's from Gradius 3 because the ships above them are also taken straight from the cover of Gradius 3. There are also tiny "asteroids" hidden at the bottom.
I think you can beat QFG2 without having to leave the city even once. However, fighting at least once allows you to skip Dinarzad, as I'm not sure if there's another way to earn the money required to buy the puzzle items.
Fool's mate can't be done. It takes too long to switch sides, and the computer's opening book does not allow an initial move of f3, f4, or g4.
Even if the computer was taken out from its opening book, there are only a limited number of moves that it decides to make. I was initially surprised that it would choose the move it did here.
I was not surprised, because I know that old chess games are programmed so that the first options they test are always moving the King piece. You stopped the decision tree so early, it hadn't got the time to consider any other move.