The recent change to the movie rules have allowed "maximum score" as a valid standard goal for TASes, which is really neat. However, there's been something stirring in my mind ever since the rule change: how will these max score goals interact with arcade settings?
From my understanding from following arcade playing groups, the general rule for score attacks is that the DIP switches have to be left at what would be considered default factory settings or whatever the arcade owner manual defines as default. For the most part MAME has these set up already. This is how the MAME Action Replay Page generally sets up their rules, but they do have extra conditions for certain games. Those extra conditions are usually there to prevent infinite score leeching, such as not allowing infinite looping of the last stage before the true final boss of arcade Ghouls n' Ghosts.
How would arcade TASes aiming for maximum score as a goal handle that? Would they require default DIP switches and game setting, or would someone be allowed to adjust them for whatever reasons they explain? I know the general rule is typically to play on the game's hardest difficulty. Someone could argue that not playing on the hardest difficulty could be harder for score attacks by virtue of fewer potential points to be earned.
You are not allowed to run a console game in an unintended environment, including modifying emulator settings for unintended speed advantages.
Backwards compatibility modes, such as running Game Boy games in Game Boy Advance mode, are allowed if a physical console (or the game) supports it, unless there are noticeable audio, video, and/or gameplay-affecting glitches.
For PC games, environment settings explicitly supported by the game or its documentation are allowed.
If a setting is not mentioned in any way, it's allowed if it doesn't cause noticeable audio, video, and/or gameplay-affecting glitches.
Arcade games are standalone machines so they allow some unique configuration, but ideally it should be emulated the way it was intended to be played.
DIP switches can also be considered the same as in-game codes because they can enable features that give the so called "unfair advantage". I'm afraid there can't be a generic rule that handles all settings of all arcade games. It depends on what the setting is doing.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
I feel like most of the time, dip switches should either be 'default settings', or 'hardest difficulty' when that's interesting enough to show off. Lowering the difficulty on an arcade game feels cheesy like delibately not getting a 1CC would.
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We don't have a problem with lower difficulties in other games. At this point difficulty is up to the author.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
