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In light of this recent post right here on the Metroid 2002 / Metroid HQ Forum, we, several important members of the Speed Running community, have decided that runs created using any form of emulator (e.g. NESticle, ZSNES, and especially Visual Boy Advance) will no longer be accepted for hosting on Metroid 2002 or Speed Demos Archive. Said runs may still be hosted inside individual user accounts on Metroid 2002, but will not be converted to MPEG-4 or any other format for distribution as if they were real runs.

We have several reasons for this decision. Firstly, as the above post demonstrates, at least one prominent Speed Runner saw no problem with using settings while recording that are known to cause massive slowdown on all existing computers. Playback of such VMU files will not demonstrate the same level of slowdown as was observed on the recording computer unless the same emulator settings are used on a similar system. Obviously, any boost to a player's accuracy due to slowdown not present when playing the actual game is unfair and should be considered cheating.

Further, said slowdown cannot be entirely eliminated even with optimal settings. Certain unavoidable rooms in both Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission will slow the emulation down no matter what settings the player uses, and so any complete run through either of those games using an emulator is automatically cheated.

Third, alternatives exist to emulators for recording runs. Using a VHS VCR, anyone can record themselves playing any video game, and sending that tape to me (address available upon request), whether it is NTSC, PAL, or SECAM, will result in a full data video of the legitimate run, which Radix and I can then post on M2K2 or SDA. We realize that the small size of emulator videos is an advantage to those who still use dial-up connections, but we are also aware that several individuals on dial-up connections have downloaded Radix's 100% in 1:37 Metroid Prime run in its entirety, which is over 500 Megabytes in size. The longer time dial-up users will have to wait to watch Speed Runs is simply the price we have to pay to insure that all available runs were fairly produced. As an added bonus, virtually anyone with a computer can watch these so-called "full data videos," as opposed to emulator-based runs, which are currently limited to playback on <i>some</i> computers running Microsoft operating systems.

Fourth, the illegality of emulated runs is not in question: unless the player and all viewers of the run physically copy their cartridge's ROM to their computer, the law is broken every time an emulator-based run is recorded or watched. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act it is illegal in the United States to copy games unless you physically own the original cartridge and desire to make one backup copy of the cartridge on your computer. Since both Metroid 2002 and Speed Demos Archive are based in the United States and are run by United States citizens, we cannot legally condone emulated runs.

Although it is theoretically possible to submit cheated runs based on consoles, we feel that this does not in any way allay the above listed points. There is simply too much going against emulated runs to allow them to be treated as if they were legitimate.

Again, we sincerely regret this decision, but in light of the above evidence, we could no longer ignore the situation.


As a footnote, Sesshoumaru's 1% Showmanship Run, although emulator-based, will continue to be featured on Metroid 2002, as it is more of a technical demonstration of what is possible in Metroid Fusion, not a Speed Run (i.e. the final time of the run, whatever it may be, will not be added to any High Scores listing).
Thread title: 
Quote from DominicanZero:
Question, then: Since emulated runs on emu file format are not allowed anymore, I'm wondering if you still accept MPEG-4 movies.

if you desire to capture yourself playing the actual game to your computer and compress the video yourself, then yes, that is allowed. however, nothing involving emulators will be accepted.
直死の魔眼使い
Question, then: Since emulated runs on emu file format are not allowed anymore, I'm wondering if you still accept MPEG-4 movies. After all, they are recorded with the slowdown and all, and cannot be modified, so the player can perfectly see what s/he's against. Maybe I'm misunderstanding some of the points and clauses you mention, but I wanted to make sure.
I've actually kinda felt that that's how speed runs should be captured in the first place.  Sucks more bandwidth and videos take longer to download, and what have you, but there's a better chance of it being legit than not.  Not that I doubt the legitimacy of all emulated runs, I just have kind of a common sense that tells me when the system's being manipulated, such was the case with the run mentioned above. 

I'm all for it.  Plus I prefer .mp4 video runs anyway.  Trying to figure out which version a video will run right in is just annoying :P
lol. mental note: never change the server clock in the middle of a heavy posting session on the forum.
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Ready and willing.
Quote from njahnke:
lol. mental note: never change the server clock in the middle of a heavy posting session on the forum.


I was wondering how you did some psychic answering...  :o
I'm all for this ruling. We have to keep things fair, after all. I'm happy that the community (at least those that speak for it) appear to agree that although emulated runs are disallowed for competitive purposes, they are still viewed as fair play for informative/entertainment purposes, though.

I'd also like to hear the official ruling on playing through a gameboy player, playing classic metroid through the Prime bonus, and plying classic through Zero Mission through a gameboy player.

I think it would save a little time answering questions later if a guide to how to capture a video from a console could be made and put in a prominant place.
I am very glad of this, becuase i do not own any emulators, and i was never planning on downloading one either.
I should hopefully finally be able to view some of those videos that i really want to see.

and thats ignoring the whole cheating/stealing aspect of it.
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Ready and willing.
Quote from Light of Day:
I'd also like to hear the official ruling on playing through a gameboy player, playing classic metroid through the Prime bonus, and plying classic through Zero Mission through a gameboy player.


GBP is almost definetly gonna be allowed; without it, you'd have to be a rich bastard to make a GB game run. Prime probably will be allowed, and maybe ZM, tho I doubt people will really be using ZM much for classic cause everything's all squishy.
Quote from Yoshi348:
GBP is almost definetly gonna be allowed; without it, you'd have to be a rich kraid to make a GB game run. Prime probably will be allowed, and maybe ZM, tho I doubt people will really be using ZM much for classic cause everything's all squishy.

I'm guessing they'll all be allowed, but if I'm quite honest the answer will have a near zero chance of ever effecting me, since I will probably never attempt a speed run. I thought it would be nice to have an official answer anyway, though.
Yes i also agree on the non-emulated runs.  And i dont knpw what the big fuss is the original game is ALWAYS better, even the NES metroid on prime/zm is not beeter than the original cartridge.
Will you be deleting all the runs made on emulators you already have?  If you answered this already, I'm sorry, I didn't read everything.
Quote from RoboBlob:
Will you be deleting all the runs made on emulators you already have?  If you answered this already, I'm sorry, I didn't read everything.

that's fine. and the answer is yes.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever been contacted by anyone in authority about your emulated videos?

I assume not because sites that make emulators or roms available are still around and all you're doing is making videos that run on emulators available.

I guess I won't be recording anything any time soon. Even so, I suppose it's a decision that had to be made.  Nothing is as official as the real cartridge and the real system.
So which speed runs are emulated and therefore gonna be deleted? And yeah, I decided that emulators just suck, VCR and GBP are perfectly fine. Well...I don't have a GBP, but it's still better than the ROM.
Quote from Faust:
Just out of curiosity, have you ever been contacted by anyone in authority about your emulated videos?

nope. also, both nintendo and retro are aware of metroid 2002 and have decided to let it continue to exist, so that's heartening, i guess.

and as for runs that are being sent to the guillotine, really only the 15% in the zero mission section right now.
Have a nice day.
Strategy Guide Writer
Quote from njahnke:
also, both nintendo and retro are aware of metroid 2002 and have decided to let it continue to exist, so that's heartening, i guess.


:?  :?

Why wouldn't they let it exist? We're promoting their franchise in a positive manner. Granted over the emulator runs, but there's nothing else that is really against any of their policies...

I'd laugh at Nintendo if they asked me to take down Samus.co.uk...
Quote from Andrew Mills:
Quote from njahnke:
also, both nintendo and retro are aware of metroid 2002 and have decided to let it continue to exist, so that's heartening, i guess.


:?  :?

Why wouldn't they let it exist? We're promoting their franchise in a positive manner. Granted over the emulator runs, but there's nothing else that is really against any of their policies...

I'd laugh at Nintendo if they asked me to take down Samus.co.uk...


.. What if someone watches a run of MZM, before buying it, and goes like "I've seen it all, whats the point of buying it?"..
Quote from TRH:
Quote from Andrew Mills:
Quote from njahnke:
also, both nintendo and retro are aware of metroid 2002 and have decided to let it continue to exist, so that's heartening, i guess.


:?  :?

Why wouldn't they let it exist? We're promoting their franchise in a positive manner. Granted over the emulator runs, but there's nothing else that is really against any of their policies...

I'd laugh at Nintendo if they asked me to take down Samus.co.uk...


.. What if someone watches a run of MZM, before buying it, and goes like "I've seen it all, whats the point of buying it?"..


Then its their fault they decided to do that.
Not impossible
just highly unlikely
Actually, their complaints would probably be with using the copyrighted logo. That shows up awfully lots on m2k2.
Quote from Toozin:
Actually, their complaints would probably be with using the copyrighted logo. That shows up awfully lots on m2k2.

... for the reason that it makes me appear to be nintendo.

no, seriously.
Despite the fact that all of my speed runs have been done via emulator (I do own the games on console), I have to agree with the decision.  There's too much room for cheating.