- Always record new movies from power-on. Starting from an emulator savestate is not allowed.
- Movies that start with in-game saves (aka SRAM-anchored) are allowed, but they require a verification movie that creates the necessary SRAM. This verification movie does not need to be optimized.
Your TAS must be reasonably optimized. It should beat or match all known TASes and human speedruns of that game and category. It does not have to be perfect, but it should not be easily improvable.
Your goal choice should be clearly defined and sensible, especially to those who do not know your chosen game.
Prototypes are only allowed if gameplay is significantly different to the release version, or there's no release version at all.
ROM hacks must meet an entertainment standard as well, and are only allowed in Moons.
This includes Game Genie and Action Replay cheats as well as direct modification of game files, such as on a PCor Linuxgame.
You are not allowed to run a console or PC game in an unintended environment, including modifyinganemulator settings (?) for unintended speed advantages.
You are not allowed to arbitrarily swap discs at any other time for an unintended speed advantage.
USA ((U)) versions are preferred, as a majority of our audience is English speaking, though any NTSC release can be used interchangeably.
Games that run in PAL60 mode (like on GameCube)
The(?) original hardware allows it (see above)
Passwords are allowed for bonus content, such as extra levels not normally playable in-game, or harder difficulties.
Judges and Publishers will attempt to verify that your input file syncs on an officially released build of an accepted emulator. Use development/interim builds at your own risk, as input files created on them may not sync even on the next official release.
Check places such as YouTube or NicoVideo for speedruns, as well as the Games section of the forums and our site Userfiles.
If you find improvements during the later stages of making a run that can save time in earlier parts of the run, you are not required to redo the entire run to implement them, though they should be mentioned in your run's submission text. If it's feasible to implement those improvements without having to redo the whole movie, please try.
Esoteric goals can be obsoleted by better completion of the goal, i.e "low%" can be obsoleted by a movie that obtains a lower%completion percentage.
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Is maxing out the visible score counter considered a valid "maximum score" goal for a game with no clear ending point? If the answer is no, maybe it's better to explicitly state this in the rules as that can seem ambiguous.
- If there's no clear ending, end after all unique content (enemies, level layouts, game mechanics, etc.) is exhausted.
- Alternately, after completing all unique content, you may end when the in-game difficulty (enemy speed, AI, etc.) stops increasing.
