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61
General Sonic / Re: What's your favorite zone in sonic?(Any sonic game)
« on: October 07, 2014, 02:30:59 pm »
Hydrocity
62
Wikkity! / Re: How you came up with your username!
« on: October 06, 2014, 02:14:21 pm »
Haha moustache awesome reason
63
Wikkity! / Re: How you came up with your username!
« on: October 06, 2014, 12:12:34 pm »
Me and my neighbour started playing guitar around 2005. His name was Sampras (like the tennis player) and registered on an online guitar forum as ZampraZ. When he showed me the site and I signed up, I named myself TimpZ to signify the fact that we were neighbours.
64
Wikkity! / Re: Earliest Sonic memory
« on: October 06, 2014, 12:07:48 pm »
When I was about 3 years old my uncle had a Megadrive with Sonic 2. I distinctly remember playing Emerald hill zone and trying to beat the special stages from the multiplayer menu. I remember playing chemical plant as well but I don't know if I actually beat EH or if my uncle beat it or if it was a separate occasion all together.
My dad also had a Megadrive and Sonic 1 when it came out but he sold it after a year or so so I have no memories of playing that although I'm sure I at least watched him play.
Later when the PC port came out for Sonic 3 I played that a ton. Literally every minute I could squeeze out of my parents letting me play it. Here's a photo of me playing on that computer (although I can't tell what game I'm playing at that moment):
Fun fact, this photo was taken December 18th, 1999 at 5:46:08pm GMT+1. Or at least the photo was transfered/scanned at that time. Pretty cool.
Edit: Actually it can't be taken in the year 1999 because my parents separated 1997 iirc so this has to be 1996-1997
My dad also had a Megadrive and Sonic 1 when it came out but he sold it after a year or so so I have no memories of playing that although I'm sure I at least watched him play.
Later when the PC port came out for Sonic 3 I played that a ton. Literally every minute I could squeeze out of my parents letting me play it. Here's a photo of me playing on that computer (although I can't tell what game I'm playing at that moment):
Fun fact, this photo was taken December 18th, 1999 at 5:46:08pm GMT+1. Or at least the photo was transfered/scanned at that time. Pretty cool.
Edit: Actually it can't be taken in the year 1999 because my parents separated 1997 iirc so this has to be 1996-1997
65
Competition Central / Re: Video deletion request
« on: September 26, 2014, 01:22:13 pm »
A few things I find weird about his description of how to pass through objects:
Pressing 2 spindash buttons on the same frame does nothing more than pressing a single button. Some form of piano rolling movement is the only possible way to gain enough speed (out of the possible 8 speeds you can get from a spindash I think only the top 2 allows this trick to work on flat ground but don't quote me on that).
The purpose of the second spindash is to manipulate the camera to get the object offscreen but this is mentioned nowhere. Also the timing for the third spindash differs depending on how fast you're going and how quickly you did the 2nd one after hitting the wall but that's not mentioned either.
Lastly, this is a very precise trick 7½ minutes into a 9 minute ring attack. To increase consistency he should've gone to the top of the hill so he could get more speed and thus have a larger window for the other spindashes but he stayed on the bottom.
Pressing 2 spindash buttons on the same frame does nothing more than pressing a single button. Some form of piano rolling movement is the only possible way to gain enough speed (out of the possible 8 speeds you can get from a spindash I think only the top 2 allows this trick to work on flat ground but don't quote me on that).
The purpose of the second spindash is to manipulate the camera to get the object offscreen but this is mentioned nowhere. Also the timing for the third spindash differs depending on how fast you're going and how quickly you did the 2nd one after hitting the wall but that's not mentioned either.
Lastly, this is a very precise trick 7½ minutes into a 9 minute ring attack. To increase consistency he should've gone to the top of the hill so he could get more speed and thus have a larger window for the other spindashes but he stayed on the bottom.
67
Competition Central / Re: WersterLobe uses TAS? (Proof?)
« on: September 23, 2014, 08:11:45 am »
First of all, he still does a lot of IL's on his youtube if you've missed that.
Secondly, I have to agree with the notion that the mods brought up 3 years ago. Werster has little to nothing with this site to do anymore and I remember I didn't make any threads about that one guy from SDA that claimed the Sonic 1 WR with a TASed run because what would be the point? I did however warn Flying Fox about him if she saw him submit any stats.
thirdly, what do you even mean with "exiled from socialising with other TSCers"? If he wants to skype with someone that's a member of TSC, what jurisdiction does TSC have to say that they can't? Even if he WAS banned from posting in the forums, he certainly wouldn't be banned from the internet.
fourthly, itsPersonnal never said anything about exiling anyone. He brought up concerns that this popular speedrunner on twitch and youtube might be TASing, because he makes no effort to try and prove that he isn't. And considering his history, it's not inconceivable that he would be. So who cares? Well he's more or less famous so a significant amount of the speedrunning fanbase put their faith in his record. Also, he have records, lots of them. We can talk about TSC records and leave it there but if he cheats in a SS run then he would hurt the game and the community as a whole and that is a problem in my opinion.
Secondly, I have to agree with the notion that the mods brought up 3 years ago. Werster has little to nothing with this site to do anymore and I remember I didn't make any threads about that one guy from SDA that claimed the Sonic 1 WR with a TASed run because what would be the point? I did however warn Flying Fox about him if she saw him submit any stats.
thirdly, what do you even mean with "exiled from socialising with other TSCers"? If he wants to skype with someone that's a member of TSC, what jurisdiction does TSC have to say that they can't? Even if he WAS banned from posting in the forums, he certainly wouldn't be banned from the internet.
fourthly, itsPersonnal never said anything about exiling anyone. He brought up concerns that this popular speedrunner on twitch and youtube might be TASing, because he makes no effort to try and prove that he isn't. And considering his history, it's not inconceivable that he would be. So who cares? Well he's more or less famous so a significant amount of the speedrunning fanbase put their faith in his record. Also, he have records, lots of them. We can talk about TSC records and leave it there but if he cheats in a SS run then he would hurt the game and the community as a whole and that is a problem in my opinion.
68
Competition Central / Re: Sonic 1/2/3&K SS(single segment) charts?
« on: September 01, 2014, 05:16:52 pm »Speed Demos Archive
There's SDA
SDA is completely irrelevant to the subject. SDA is not a leaderboard and not all runs are accepted. There are numerous cases where SDA has rejected to put up runs because the quality isn't of a high enough standard, the improvement isn't considered large enough to justify the hassle of putting the new run up and that's not mentioning the fact they only accept console-runs.
When it comes to other sites where you can compete, sure there are a few. Speedrun.com, PB tracker, congratsio, random google documents etc. The problem is that it's all so spread out and I constantly ignore to update all these because it's too much of a hassle (if I don't just plain forget about them). Having such charts on TSC just seems logical to me.
69
Beef / Re: A message to all — is our community dying? How can we help TSC?
« on: September 01, 2014, 07:33:19 am »
I don't feel like this community is dying. Compared to when I joined in early 2012 I think the activity seems to be at just about the same level with some few spikes in activity here and there whenever there's an actual topic to discuss like rule changes, marathon organisation or race night planning. The problem with this is that, like others have said, forums like these for other purpouses than organisation are largely obsolete.
Is the competition on the site dying? Well while not all games may have records breaking every week, which is perfectly understandable, we still have multiple stats submitted every day and if you think otherwise, take a look at the new stats page every once in a while: http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/new. Fresh games get leaderboards reasonably fast considering everything that needs to be agreed upon and they proceed to get filled with legitimately good stats within just a few months.
I see people bring up the fact that groups emerge. Look at SRL, it's too big to fit everyone so people divide into the zelda people, mario people, blind racing people, SRG, NES, Mega Man, Sega, flash games, TSC, whatever. This is not a sign that the community is dying, it tells us that TSC is too large and active to hold every member in a tight group, which is positive because it gives diversity enough that everyone can feel welcome.
When it comes to actual improvements, I feel like a lot of people are willing to discuss proposed ideas, but fewer are comfortable with bringing them up in the first place. It's important to newer members to feel like they can make a difference with sound logic, that they can bring up a topic without feeling like they are going to be excommunicated for it. There is no anynomous suggestion box so every one have their good name on the line when complaining about something.
Since this is a topic discussing changes that could benefit TSC, I'm going to put forward a few thoughts regarding improvements:
Prestigue in stats: Whenever I get a full-game time I'm proud of or a really good stat I want to submit, I feel good. I remember when Cronikeys started her leaderboard-type thing with twitter announcements and it was always a joy to know that the news of my achievement would be spread to everyone who was interested. I felt that being on the "new stats" tab or looking at the "records" tab in my own window, or just seeing my name on the "Record holder" tab in the rankings was a great feeling. Any changes to make this a bigger part of submitting stats has my vote on it, including twitter integration.
Full game runs: This is something I've brought up before and also seen plenty of others bring up as well. Integrating full game runs into the stats or even to a subsidary site would be nothing but benefitial to the site as a whole in my opinion. That is the most popular category among speedrunners today and there's no reason that I can see that would prevent TSC from introducing it in one way or another. If you look at the Mega Man center hosted by TSC, you can see that there's no submitted stats since, from what I can tell, december 2013. But it's still online for competitive use. No matter the implementation, I feel like full game runs are a long overdue natural progression for the site without any real complications either for the spirit of the site or the site as a whole.
Fan games and hacks: There is a scene for hacked Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Megaman and Sonic games. There is also a small scene for home-made fan-games of these like Rosenkreuzstilette. I've heard that the reason for the demise of the unofficial sonic center is the lack of final releases and consistency between versions but I feel like this could be remidied with proper moderation.
Online events and integration: I've always felt like there's a lot of untapped potential in the TSC stream. The best possible outcome I can see from this is having a sociable host that have a monthly program of sorts or at least hosts races or practise/run sessions of members that submit. Twitter integration with the TSC twitter seems like a great idea, especially for record stats. The marathons I've been involved with have been good and the only thing I'm lacking is more of this off-season.
Aestethically I think this site is great and while confusing at first, most of the things on this site makes sense and you will eventually find what you're looking for. Having an introductionary video of sorts or at least some form of document could be helpful but something this site needs more of is visible administration and planning. People are more than willing to participate in various events and such and this could be exploited more.
Is the competition on the site dying? Well while not all games may have records breaking every week, which is perfectly understandable, we still have multiple stats submitted every day and if you think otherwise, take a look at the new stats page every once in a while: http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/new. Fresh games get leaderboards reasonably fast considering everything that needs to be agreed upon and they proceed to get filled with legitimately good stats within just a few months.
I see people bring up the fact that groups emerge. Look at SRL, it's too big to fit everyone so people divide into the zelda people, mario people, blind racing people, SRG, NES, Mega Man, Sega, flash games, TSC, whatever. This is not a sign that the community is dying, it tells us that TSC is too large and active to hold every member in a tight group, which is positive because it gives diversity enough that everyone can feel welcome.
When it comes to actual improvements, I feel like a lot of people are willing to discuss proposed ideas, but fewer are comfortable with bringing them up in the first place. It's important to newer members to feel like they can make a difference with sound logic, that they can bring up a topic without feeling like they are going to be excommunicated for it. There is no anynomous suggestion box so every one have their good name on the line when complaining about something.
Since this is a topic discussing changes that could benefit TSC, I'm going to put forward a few thoughts regarding improvements:
Prestigue in stats: Whenever I get a full-game time I'm proud of or a really good stat I want to submit, I feel good. I remember when Cronikeys started her leaderboard-type thing with twitter announcements and it was always a joy to know that the news of my achievement would be spread to everyone who was interested. I felt that being on the "new stats" tab or looking at the "records" tab in my own window, or just seeing my name on the "Record holder" tab in the rankings was a great feeling. Any changes to make this a bigger part of submitting stats has my vote on it, including twitter integration.
Full game runs: This is something I've brought up before and also seen plenty of others bring up as well. Integrating full game runs into the stats or even to a subsidary site would be nothing but benefitial to the site as a whole in my opinion. That is the most popular category among speedrunners today and there's no reason that I can see that would prevent TSC from introducing it in one way or another. If you look at the Mega Man center hosted by TSC, you can see that there's no submitted stats since, from what I can tell, december 2013. But it's still online for competitive use. No matter the implementation, I feel like full game runs are a long overdue natural progression for the site without any real complications either for the spirit of the site or the site as a whole.
Fan games and hacks: There is a scene for hacked Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Megaman and Sonic games. There is also a small scene for home-made fan-games of these like Rosenkreuzstilette. I've heard that the reason for the demise of the unofficial sonic center is the lack of final releases and consistency between versions but I feel like this could be remidied with proper moderation.
Online events and integration: I've always felt like there's a lot of untapped potential in the TSC stream. The best possible outcome I can see from this is having a sociable host that have a monthly program of sorts or at least hosts races or practise/run sessions of members that submit. Twitter integration with the TSC twitter seems like a great idea, especially for record stats. The marathons I've been involved with have been good and the only thing I'm lacking is more of this off-season.
Aestethically I think this site is great and while confusing at first, most of the things on this site makes sense and you will eventually find what you're looking for. Having an introductionary video of sorts or at least some form of document could be helpful but something this site needs more of is visible administration and planning. People are more than willing to participate in various events and such and this could be exploited more.
71
TSC Race Night / Re: Just to say...
« on: August 30, 2014, 05:07:16 pm »
I don't like this. I know my attendance have declined the last few months but that's because the races are always in prime time party/movie night/SSBM tournament/whatever hours for me and having a job, girlfriend etc. just comes in the way a lot of the time. Adding to that, more than a few games were unavailable to me due to console exclusives etc. on nights I actually could join which was disappointing (but not on the organisers fault!)
I've really enjoyed RN because of several reasons. It has made me play through many sonic games and hacks I'd never play otherwise. It has helped me make friends and other contacts on TSC I'd probably wouldn't get to know otherwise such as FF or Mastakirby. It made me feel more motivated to be competitive and practise games I wouldn't against others who also just practised for that particular game.
Racenights won't be alive at least in the format it has been the last 2 years, but I definitely feel like the potential is still there. I do understand people being a bit bored of the format after about 100 racenights, same day, same time, same games. What we need is evolution, fresh ideas and more interactivity and flexibility. Some quick ideas I can throw out:
Mystery games: People don't know what game we're going to race until a few hours in advance. Should be reserved for games that are widely available rather than e.g. 06 that's console exclusive.
Flexible times: People joining the race should have a system for voting on starting time over the entire weekend, with a script calculating the most optimal time for everyone. Alternatively just make it sundays for gods sake :p!
Crew battles: People gather up in teams and their times are added up. The team with the shortest total time wins.
Monthly games: The same game is raced every week for a month. There's many ways of progressing from there; Biggest improvement, lowest added total time, adding your placement numbers and lowest # wins etc.
Afterparty: Online games after the races, other games/activities. Make it into a planned out all-night event.
TSC-stream: Every week a few people restream the top racers on the TSC twitch channel, preferably with some commentary. Could potentially be very revitalizing for the site.
The only reason RN's have been alive for as long as it has is because of the dedication of Flying Fox and Hypersonic7701. Letting it die now would be an enormous waste of potential. What we need is more volunteers, interactivity and fresh things to do.
Something I want to point out though; what I feel like was the absolute prime time for racenights was around 6-12 months in, during the winter/spring of 2012/13. We were a tight group of friends having a fun time, while playing games moderately fast. It was for me a highlight of my week to join the races even if I knew that I'd do bad. I feel the main reason it has deteriorated for me is the skype group, not the format itself. Also even if I do like everyone in the call, it's impossible to really enjoy yourself when 10 people try to talk at the same time. But this problem is the easiest to fix, I just wanted to point out that I think that the format of the skype group itself has been a very important part of letting this die for the moment.
I've really enjoyed RN because of several reasons. It has made me play through many sonic games and hacks I'd never play otherwise. It has helped me make friends and other contacts on TSC I'd probably wouldn't get to know otherwise such as FF or Mastakirby. It made me feel more motivated to be competitive and practise games I wouldn't against others who also just practised for that particular game.
Racenights won't be alive at least in the format it has been the last 2 years, but I definitely feel like the potential is still there. I do understand people being a bit bored of the format after about 100 racenights, same day, same time, same games. What we need is evolution, fresh ideas and more interactivity and flexibility. Some quick ideas I can throw out:
Mystery games: People don't know what game we're going to race until a few hours in advance. Should be reserved for games that are widely available rather than e.g. 06 that's console exclusive.
Flexible times: People joining the race should have a system for voting on starting time over the entire weekend, with a script calculating the most optimal time for everyone. Alternatively just make it sundays for gods sake :p!
Crew battles: People gather up in teams and their times are added up. The team with the shortest total time wins.
Monthly games: The same game is raced every week for a month. There's many ways of progressing from there; Biggest improvement, lowest added total time, adding your placement numbers and lowest # wins etc.
Afterparty: Online games after the races, other games/activities. Make it into a planned out all-night event.
TSC-stream: Every week a few people restream the top racers on the TSC twitch channel, preferably with some commentary. Could potentially be very revitalizing for the site.
The only reason RN's have been alive for as long as it has is because of the dedication of Flying Fox and Hypersonic7701. Letting it die now would be an enormous waste of potential. What we need is more volunteers, interactivity and fresh things to do.
Something I want to point out though; what I feel like was the absolute prime time for racenights was around 6-12 months in, during the winter/spring of 2012/13. We were a tight group of friends having a fun time, while playing games moderately fast. It was for me a highlight of my week to join the races even if I knew that I'd do bad. I feel the main reason it has deteriorated for me is the skype group, not the format itself. Also even if I do like everyone in the call, it's impossible to really enjoy yourself when 10 people try to talk at the same time. But this problem is the easiest to fix, I just wanted to point out that I think that the format of the skype group itself has been a very important part of letting this die for the moment.
72
Competition Central / Re: Sonic Generations Mods Competition
« on: August 23, 2014, 09:19:35 am »
Umm that link is not a run by you DGF
73
General Sonic / Re: Mega Drive help
« on: August 10, 2014, 12:52:46 pm »
If you look at the in-game timer and compare with the video timer you can see that the quotient is about 0.83 which means that yes it's running in 50Hz.
There's literally hundreds of 50/60Hz switch mod tutorials on the internet. Exactly what you need to do I think is dependent on the model you have but this should give you an idea: http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/md1switches.htm
EDIT: PAL60 is impossible because the Gen/MD doesn't support it. If your TV doesn't support NTSC or 60Hz then it's gonna be in black&white. Though you can get an RGB cable if it supports PAL60 and have it work I think (works with all Genesi and can be ordered for like 15€ or less).
There's literally hundreds of 50/60Hz switch mod tutorials on the internet. Exactly what you need to do I think is dependent on the model you have but this should give you an idea: http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/md1switches.htm
EDIT: PAL60 is impossible because the Gen/MD doesn't support it. If your TV doesn't support NTSC or 60Hz then it's gonna be in black&white. Though you can get an RGB cable if it supports PAL60 and have it work I think (works with all Genesi and can be ordered for like 15€ or less).
74
News and Updates / Re: 2014 schedule (final draft hopefully)
« on: August 08, 2014, 02:18:29 am »
I just want to say that nothing in my above was aimed at anyone. I was merely very surprised to see that in SB's video it seemed like the charity had already been chosen without as much as a community vote on these forums by the participants or even a heads up. Add to the fact that I don't like CP as a charity and I might have come off as a bit rude. Sorry about that.
75
News and Updates / Re: 2014 schedule (final draft hopefully)
« on: August 07, 2014, 05:27:56 pm »
Oh look at all these unprivileged children in poor countries that won't have the new CoD or Fifa to play during their hospital visit... They've only gathered $25 million so far because they only have like 50 big events aimed at them every year.
It's not like the money could be used in better ways like actual treatment in poorer countries. Or to educate people. Or literally anything else.
It's not like the money could be used in better ways like actual treatment in poorer countries. Or to educate people. Or literally anything else.
76
News and Updates / Re: 2014 schedule (final draft hopefully)
« on: August 07, 2014, 05:09:47 pm »
Child's play? Seriously? No.
77
General Sonic / Re: Tips for running the 2D games?
« on: July 24, 2014, 02:17:01 pm »
https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2
I've not gotten around to update S1 or 3 yet but most of the general stuff still applies. Watch runs for routes.
I've not gotten around to update S1 or 3 yet but most of the general stuff still applies. Watch runs for routes.
79
TSC Race Night / Re: Sonic's Birthday Race
« on: June 22, 2014, 11:50:18 am »
Sonic 1 no emeralds as sonic
Generations "any%"
It's 50 min after the supposed closing but no'one closed it with a post yet so just taking my chance on it :p.
Generations "any%"
It's 50 min after the supposed closing but no'one closed it with a post yet so just taking my chance on it :p.
80
General Sonic / Re: Views on Sonic X?
« on: May 09, 2014, 01:20:03 am »
Chris and most other humans are ass. Otherwise it's ok. Sonic SatAm is a better series imo.
81
News and Updates / Re: TSC Marathon 2014
« on: May 06, 2014, 12:57:42 pm »
I forgot, I'd be up for a race in Sonic Colours. I'm gonna practise that to marathon levels anyway since I'm doing it for ESA.
82
News and Updates / Re: TSC Marathon 2014
« on: May 06, 2014, 12:23:30 pm »
Fusion sucks
Use Regen
and boost that PSG baby
Use Regen
and boost that PSG baby
83
News and Updates / Re: TSC Marathon 2014
« on: May 06, 2014, 11:01:41 am »
COMBO!
I'd be up for Sonic 2 probably. Depends on the dates.
If SDM is gonna do S3K, please don't use Gens, especially not Gens+. Please....
I'd be up for Sonic 2 probably. Depends on the dates.
If SDM is gonna do S3K, please don't use Gens, especially not Gens+. Please....
84
News and Updates / Re: New rules regarding emulators
« on: April 10, 2014, 02:53:47 pm »
I believe I'm mostly responsible for this whole endless discussion since I created the Gens/Bizhawk thread earlier this year. The reason I made that topic was because the past year I had seen that pretty much every single cheater I came across used emulators in some way, specifically emulators with TASing functions (though that might just be because people who lie about non-excellent stats don't get caught as much). For every single case we had to gather a few "experts" to scrutinisingly and painstakingly analyze every bit of whatever videos there was in order to determine how likely it was that it was unjustly made.
After a lengthy discussion, we came to a democratic agreement that requiring videos in some form for emulators would be the best solution for the time being since recording them is a very small inconvenience but provides a better sense of security in the legitimacy in the site. Lack of this might encourage more stat-submitting in the short term and I admit I'm personally not the 690-stats-in-69-days type but I really believe it will hurt the site as time goes on. Quality over quantity. Twin Galaxies has a very different system than ours but I do think that there's a few things we can learn from them. First off even having to send a recorded VHS tape by mail to another continent doesn't stop people from competing. Secondly they have a single "verifier" per console who doesn't know anything about half the games he's verifying and thus potentially lets many cheats through, but the proof is not publically available and therefore most people have no faith in their stats. This is part of their demise.
What I would really like is for proof on this site to become more standardised to a list of emulators and video formats. This has a bunch of advantages to proof-calling and generally making sure that the emulation is adequate. To be completely honest, I wouldn't actually mind if people used TASing emulators at all if they recorded and submitted input files, since they're dead-beat easy to analyse. To use Genesis as the example, there's a few really good emulators and a number of terrible ones. Fusion is alright, but at least has a recording function. Gens11b is also alright and Gens+ is pretty bad, but they have excellent input recording features. Regen is really good AND has an avi recording function, wonderful! This covers the whole spectrum of computers today and these are all distinct emulators that with a decent quality recording could be distinguished between. This provides a few benefits if we say that Gens runs requires input files for example. If someone used gens but said they used fusion and submitted a YT video (to avoid having their L+R's visible or whatever), we could call them out. If someone said they used console but have a few suspicious stats we could ask for a photo of their setup like this:
Banning specific emulators is not unknown to the speedrunning community, for example Project 64 2.0 is banned on SRL. But in general, emulators have advantages compared to console speedrunning. Setup between attempts is non-existent and switching from left to right can consistently be done frame perfect. Therefore imposing a small inconvenience on it to encourage the use of consoles to me seems like a good start. Of course you could argue to ban all emulators, but I haven't seen anything in the discussions so far that would sway me from my opinion. First off it would kill all competition for a few games here, secondly it provides an excellent alternative, at least for beginners that are just starting to try out this whole "competitive gaming" business which is growing every day.
Some say this is against the spirit of TSC. VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN! No government or entity can start out perfectly nor stay perfect for all eternity. Technology changes society and changes need to be made to accomodate the new demands of tomorrow. I don't see how this would be different for The Sonic Centre.
Yes I wrote centre. Sue me.
After a lengthy discussion, we came to a democratic agreement that requiring videos in some form for emulators would be the best solution for the time being since recording them is a very small inconvenience but provides a better sense of security in the legitimacy in the site. Lack of this might encourage more stat-submitting in the short term and I admit I'm personally not the 690-stats-in-69-days type but I really believe it will hurt the site as time goes on. Quality over quantity. Twin Galaxies has a very different system than ours but I do think that there's a few things we can learn from them. First off even having to send a recorded VHS tape by mail to another continent doesn't stop people from competing. Secondly they have a single "verifier" per console who doesn't know anything about half the games he's verifying and thus potentially lets many cheats through, but the proof is not publically available and therefore most people have no faith in their stats. This is part of their demise.
What I would really like is for proof on this site to become more standardised to a list of emulators and video formats. This has a bunch of advantages to proof-calling and generally making sure that the emulation is adequate. To be completely honest, I wouldn't actually mind if people used TASing emulators at all if they recorded and submitted input files, since they're dead-beat easy to analyse. To use Genesis as the example, there's a few really good emulators and a number of terrible ones. Fusion is alright, but at least has a recording function. Gens11b is also alright and Gens+ is pretty bad, but they have excellent input recording features. Regen is really good AND has an avi recording function, wonderful! This covers the whole spectrum of computers today and these are all distinct emulators that with a decent quality recording could be distinguished between. This provides a few benefits if we say that Gens runs requires input files for example. If someone used gens but said they used fusion and submitted a YT video (to avoid having their L+R's visible or whatever), we could call them out. If someone said they used console but have a few suspicious stats we could ask for a photo of their setup like this:
Banning specific emulators is not unknown to the speedrunning community, for example Project 64 2.0 is banned on SRL. But in general, emulators have advantages compared to console speedrunning. Setup between attempts is non-existent and switching from left to right can consistently be done frame perfect. Therefore imposing a small inconvenience on it to encourage the use of consoles to me seems like a good start. Of course you could argue to ban all emulators, but I haven't seen anything in the discussions so far that would sway me from my opinion. First off it would kill all competition for a few games here, secondly it provides an excellent alternative, at least for beginners that are just starting to try out this whole "competitive gaming" business which is growing every day.
Some say this is against the spirit of TSC. VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN! No government or entity can start out perfectly nor stay perfect for all eternity. Technology changes society and changes need to be made to accomodate the new demands of tomorrow. I don't see how this would be different for The Sonic Centre.
Yes I wrote centre. Sue me.
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Information Kiosk / Re: The Official Grey Area of the New Rule
« on: April 09, 2014, 11:49:49 am »
Something I forgot, I think emulating emulators should be banned as well. Think for example using Dolphin to emulate Mega Collection or Desmume to emulate Classic Collection. It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever and only serve to increase the amount of potential errors.
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Information Kiosk / Re: The Official Grey Area of the New Rule
« on: April 09, 2014, 01:19:10 am »
If you argue that you shouldn't record videos of an emulator because you're playing on your phone then I don't even know what to say. iPhones, pads, android devices, whatever, have probably the least accurate emulators, contains the most programming shortcuts, hacks to make games work "anyway" and blablabla. If anything they are the ones that should definitely require video.
I don't like how you think you could just pick up your old tamagochi and play an emulator on that and be like "this thing doesn't have local recording so I guess I'm off the hook!" when that's completely beside the point of everything that has been argued so far.
I think that a minimum of 24 fps, 96p, full (256) colour video files of standard formats such as avi and mp4 should be the definition of video proof. If it's any less than that it's gonna be impossible to tell anything anyways.
I think official PC Sonic emulator games just are variations of the Gens emulator, or that's what I've heard anyway. I don't really like them though since they're relatively featureless and inaccurate compared to other unofficial emulators. If you're talking about PC games like Heroes or Generations I think it should be considered a valid platform, at the very least for the games that feature a stat-saving feature.
I don't like how you think you could just pick up your old tamagochi and play an emulator on that and be like "this thing doesn't have local recording so I guess I'm off the hook!" when that's completely beside the point of everything that has been argued so far.
I think that a minimum of 24 fps, 96p, full (256) colour video files of standard formats such as avi and mp4 should be the definition of video proof. If it's any less than that it's gonna be impossible to tell anything anyways.
I think official PC Sonic emulator games just are variations of the Gens emulator, or that's what I've heard anyway. I don't really like them though since they're relatively featureless and inaccurate compared to other unofficial emulators. If you're talking about PC games like Heroes or Generations I think it should be considered a valid platform, at the very least for the games that feature a stat-saving feature.
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News and Updates / Re: New rules regarding emulators
« on: April 06, 2014, 01:38:27 pm »
Being drunk while doing runs is a form of doping. I propose we hereby require a blood sample sent to Parax personally for analysis in conjunction with every submitted stat to prevent this.
Don is arguing that the lack of setup time is an advantage for emulators. This is true. However, the number of stats this is important for is negligible afaik (where setting up again takes at least a minute) and I don't think it's a valid enough concern to take such a drastic step at this time by banning all emulators.
And again, I think banning all unofficial emulators, but not official ones, is silly if adequate proof is given. Just create a list of emulators that are "approved" like Fusion and Regen and then require an input file from savestate if it's on Gens (to take the example with Genesis).
Don is arguing that the lack of setup time is an advantage for emulators. This is true. However, the number of stats this is important for is negligible afaik (where setting up again takes at least a minute) and I don't think it's a valid enough concern to take such a drastic step at this time by banning all emulators.
And again, I think banning all unofficial emulators, but not official ones, is silly if adequate proof is given. Just create a list of emulators that are "approved" like Fusion and Regen and then require an input file from savestate if it's on Gens (to take the example with Genesis).
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News and Updates / Re: New rules regarding emulators
« on: April 06, 2014, 08:10:29 am »You know, there are stat that are impossible to beat.
Because they're maxed.
Semantics >_>. Obviously I meant beating or tying. It does not change the fact that the stat you're trying to achive might have been achieved by someone else, only you might have to do an hour of setup while they didn't.
Also, Don, please... This is why we would demand videos for unofficial emulators. To promote more serious and fair competition in the event that you would use one of them. Ugh...
If something like a glitch or strat is only possible on emulator then obviously it would be banned. Savestates doesn't affect the game itself, it's a function outside it (and for competition irrelevant as long as you don't use them while attaining the stat).
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News and Updates / Re: New rules regarding emulators
« on: April 06, 2014, 05:58:15 am »
Just putting this out there, we should ban checkpoint abuse.
Seriously though I'm 100% with SDM on this one. I'm not sure what games other than S3K this is applicable for, but I think allowing such savestates and even allowing starting a stage from the transition at all increases the competitiveness of the stats. Not to mention, how unfair would it be to grandfather old stats for which using savestates was allowed? There'd be stats that would be practically impossible to beat.
Seriously though I'm 100% with SDM on this one. I'm not sure what games other than S3K this is applicable for, but I think allowing such savestates and even allowing starting a stage from the transition at all increases the competitiveness of the stats. Not to mention, how unfair would it be to grandfather old stats for which using savestates was allowed? There'd be stats that would be practically impossible to beat.
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Beef / Re: Concerns: Modded Wiis and Backwards Compability
« on: April 05, 2014, 10:18:30 pm »Now the thing is, loading the game from a harddrive does not change the game. At all.
Wrong. While it might not change the actual code, it changes how the code is read. In metroid prime 2, all rooms load faster than on disc which on one hand makes the game faster to play through but on the other hand also harder to glitch since some tricks rely on the loading time taking a while so you can set up while the next room is loading.
The same is true about most games off of a HDD rather than disc. Some even load slower. Can you say with absolute certainty that no games on this site are affected by this at all?
And like I mentioned in the other thread, the games don't get read perfectly either. Some games crash, others are buggy. Most work fine on a casual level but you can't tell with certainty exactly what is affected or not.
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