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Edit history:
Enhasa: 2008-04-10 09:09:15 pm
everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
I didn't really want to make this thread, but I know someone would do it anyway if I didn't. We have new rules, FAQ, and submission pages.

Some changes, new changes thanks to this thread in bold (please read up on the details though):

- Some types of games that used to be banned, aren't now. Fighting games, adventure games, etc. Also "major publisher" has been relaxed to 3rd party retailer, although it was already sorta like this.
- Clarification on some categories like multiplayer, low%, 100%, etc.
- Elimination of save warping as an extra category.
- Death abuse category becomes just "with deaths."
- More glitches allowed like out of bounds (OOB), "mysterious" warping, clipping, etc.
- Out of the box runs no longer required first.
- External scripting now banned.
- Probably more I forget.

Because we are already making changes now, might as well take care of all of them. We have considered all of these, and discussed with a fair number of people for some of the decisions, but there are a couple things that could possibly change if *everyone* is against them (please note the likelihood of these changing is very low, maybe 1%). Here are examples:

- real name being required (seems like a good rule, fake name is a known workaround)
- no freeware games (no good solution I think)
- 1/2 sec quicksave penalty (prevents tas-ness... we allow external scripts which is also tas-ness but too late to do anything about that)



We want to "finalize" things soon before asking people to translate, so discuss the rules and make suggestions here. I've spent forever with the wording and such for these pages, so please only suggest something if it is a concrete error, not merely if you think something could be worded in another way.

The biggest reason for making this thread is actually to see if we left anything blatantly obvious out of the FAQs. I don't want to have a ton of FAQs that overwhelm people, so any suggestion has to be amazing and obvious to get included. But please think back to when you were a newb and what questions you had then.

Honestly I'm already regretting giving out the impression that these changes are more malleable than they are, because they are pretty finalized already in my mind.
Thread title:  
wise fwom yo gwave
ZOMG THE SITE IS BROKSAUCE EVERYONE RUN SOON THEY WILL BE ALLOWING CC AND CD STREAMING ZOMGZOMGZOMG11111!!!!!1111
Edit history:
YautjaElder: 2008-03-29 10:13:13 am
Speed is the key.
Gogo alttp in 5 min! Grin

Edit: Oops, should've read the rules page first, nevermind then. Tongue
So, the rule of submitting your real name may be changed if demand is high enough, if I read correctly? I can't think of why this would be a bad idea: anonymity on the internet is always a good thing, and a fake name won't result in any complications as such, will it?
Edit history:
TheThrillness: 2008-03-29 10:28:20 am
thethrillness.blogspot.com
Rules seem fine.

FAQ page won't load. (404 Not found)

Found out why,

http://speeddemosarchive.com/faq.html

Will work ^

http://speeddemosarchive.com/FAQ.html

Won't ^

Just need to change the FAQ to faq in the hyperlink.
Speed is the key.
Quote:
FAQ page won't load. (404 Not found)

Try this:

http://speeddemosarchive.com/faq.html
thethrillness.blogspot.com
Same post time Wink
everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music
Blech, at least it was correct in the news. Tongue
The new rules look good to me. Will old runs which were not submissable before now be added to the site? (various metroid prime * runs etc.)
Oh wow. "Max playtime" speed run might be kind of awesome. I would never watch such a run, of course, but...
Edit history:
Archer: 2008-03-29 02:23:13 pm
This was brought up in IRC, but nowhere do the rules or FAQ talk about pausing (except to switch tapes)
Why should you have to pause?
contraddicted
In the rules it says video footage has to be provided from "title screen" to the end of the run.

Shouldn't that say "system power up" ?
It takes a lot longer in games that you can soft reset instead, plus it would make running PC games unbearable.

Also, since any cheat codes that are put in the game via the title screen can be easily spotted during the run, I don't see any reason to require boot-up sequence.

Of course, I don't represent the official standpoint of the site, but I asked if boot-up sequence is necessary (back when the old rules applied), and I was told it was not necessary.
Quote:
Why should you have to pause?


Bathroom break, controlling lag, help with a glitch, or just pausing for no reason.
yeah, we need the title for the screenshot on the game page. also it makes for a better video.
contraddicted
@ 65

I'm thinking of that with the SNES in mind. You could use an ARP and it would remain unvisible.
Of course, the usual codes can be seen easily during a run. But look at those neat things the TAS community researches about randomness mechanisms in games. If you know the exact memory adresses where random numbers used for calculation are stored you could easily alter them. And switch the ARP on just when you need them for certain item drops or critical fights.
Yes, this is very unlikely to happen, but I'd rather require that at least for consoles if I put a "verified no cheating" badge on the video Grin

With PCs and maybe up to date consoles you're right. If someone wants to use cheat tools here they're either noticable in the actual game footage or easily made unvisible during start up as well. So this would just bother everyone for no benefit.
I'm sorry if "system power up" was mistaken as a special reference to PCs.

Well, either way that just came to my mind when I read the rules and I'm sure this has been discussed well already, so its up to the site officials to tell whether that's been overlooked or not.
Everybody loves Hypnotoad!
I'm thinking savewarping should no longer be a separate category.  If you can savewarp, you should in a segmented run.  The non-savewarping route will be in the SS anyway.

As for deathwarping, well, I'm really not sure.
Edit history:
Satoryu: 2008-03-29 06:20:19 pm
Visually Appealing
Quote:
I'm thinking savewarping should no longer be a separate category.  If you can savewarp, you should in a segmented run.  The non-savewarping route will be in the SS anyway.


i agree. i also never understood save penalties either.
Edit history:
65: 2008-03-29 06:29:24 pm
Quote:

Bathroom break, controlling lag, help with a glitch, or just pausing for no reason.


Do you know something that I don't? 'Cause AFAIK pausing just damages your time. Don't know about bathroom breaks, though. Or games' timers that do not count the pause time.

So, assuming I'm not wrong, one would be stating the obvious and thus, wasting time.

Quote:
I'm thinking of that with the SNES in mind. You could use an ARP and it would remain unvisible.
Of course, the usual codes can be seen easily during a run. But look at those neat things the TAS community researches about randomness mechanisms in games. If you know the exact memory adresses where random numbers used for calculation are stored you could easily alter them. And switch the ARP on just when you need them for certain item drops or critical fights.


Don't you need to have frame perfect input to do that, or does this device simply change the RAM address on the fly?
Visually Appealing
you know what would've been nice? i think this announcement should have waited a few more days. it would've been an awesome April Fools prank.

you'd be fooling us (at least, those who didn't hear of the news early) by not fooling us.
I know you said stuff about not suggesting wording suggestions, but I just felt like pointing out two things (one very minor):

1. Under "How do I record my run?", I noticed that frame 20 (the blank one) isn't stated as a Gameboy Player recording requirement. Has that changed or was that just forgotten?

2. Right under that is a small error (I think): "I'm using a DVD player..." should be "I'm using a DVD recorder..." instead.

Sorry to nitpick.
Edit history:
Manocheese: 2008-03-29 06:45:23 pm
Yes, a cucco riding the ground.
These pages are much improved. I just have some small suggestions:

Rules:

Quote:
If you're not sure what this rule means, think about it this way, don't mess with your system while playing the game.

I think it should be "this way:".

Quote:
We might require video proof in this case.

This was under the section about games that force a reset. It is a bit unclear that it means video proof of the actual player.

Maybe mention in the section about IL's that you don't need to show the title screen in that case.

FAQ:

Quote:
When the hard-working Alastair encountered too much stress working for SDA, he left the site on January 2008.

in

Quote:
This way, visitors can read the runner's comments, explore other areas of the site, and yes, click on ads.

Maybe the bit about ads should be removed... It might make people say, "screw those greedy SDA guys, I'm linking to the files directly!"

Quote:
I'm using a DVD player, and the single-segment run I'm about to attempt is over two hours. Am I allowed to switch discs?

Recorder

I also noticed that there was no link to the rules page on the FAQ page. It might be a good idea to slip one in somewhere.

Quote:
i agree. i also never understood save penalties either.

In some PC games, saves will put you exactly where you were, so someone could make a segment every few frames and have, essentially, a TAS. I don't think the rule should apply to games without this sort of thing, though.
My feelings on The Demon Rush
I can't believe I missed that typo with DVD player and recorder :-/

Manocheese: Save penalties only apply to games that let you save anywhere.

Petrie911 and Satoryu: I agree about save-warping. I don't remember why Enhasa and I didn't change it.
train kept rollin
I'm a little confused about this soft resetting business.

When recording a run on a Snes, if i fail and just hit the reset button(or turn it off and on again to quickly) it takes me straight to the title screen, is this allowed or must the company logos and the like be recorded?