Race Information

RESULTS FROM THE FIRST TRIPLE M RACE on AUGUST 12-14th, 2017:

SRL Results: http://www.speedrunslive.com/races/result/#!/200926

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The first “Triple M” race will be held on August 12, 2017! This is a full-on Mega Man series race of the following games in their original version:

• • Mega Man 1 - 10 and Mega Man & Bass (Rockman & Forte)

  • Mega Man X1 - X8

  • Mega Man Zero 1 - Zero 4

This is a long category. You can enter either as a solo participant (the most street credit), or you can enter as a team relay of three people, one for each series Classic / X / Zero. On race day, everyone will play all in the same SRL race, but we’ll divide rankings later based on solo & team participants.

If you are considering participating, read everything on this sheet. EVERYTHING. Make sure you fully understand categories, exceptions, and what you need to do to actually complete the challenge without disqualifying.

The category is generally “any% all stages” for all games. Completion timings will follow commonly accepted methods on the Mega Man Leaderboards. You’re welcome to collect as much as you want in any game, but realize you only need to finish by defeating all stages & the final boss. The game list below & the additional rules at the bottom will dictate specifics per game:

Game List:

Classic series

• Mega Man

• Mega Man 2

• Mega Man 3

• Mega Man 4

• Mega Man 5

• Mega Man 6

• Mega Man 7

• Mega Man & Bass (Mega Man only)

• Mega Man 8

• Mega Man 9 (Mega Man only)

• Mega Man 10 (Mega Man only)

X series

• • Mega Man X

  • Mega Man X2

  • Mega Man X3 (any character)

  • Mega Man X4 (any character)

  • Mega Man X5 (any character)

  • Mega Man X6 (any character)

  • Mega Man X7 (any character)

  • Mega Man X8 (any character)

Zero series

• Mega Man Zero

• Mega Man Zero 2

• Mega Man Zero 3

• Mega Man Zero 4

Timing starts on Mega Man 1 start screen confirm.

Timing ends on Mega Man Zero 4, final hit of Weil II. 

There is no requirement to have original consoles - you can play on whatever setup you have, in whatever language you prefer for each game. If any placing in the race turns out to be very close in time, we can visit console switch timings based on each player’s particular setup, but given the length of the event and likelihood of people completing, this will be a case-by-case basis.

The starting day is slated for August 12, 2017 at 12PM EDT. If you have questions, for now you can join the Classic Mega Discord https://discord.gg/KGDewCq or PM me (cleartonic) on Discord.

Additional Rules & Comments:

• • The race will take place on August 12, and will extend into the weekend. There are no time limits on breaks you take, but there is a hard cap of 72 hours to be considered part of the final roster for completed runs. Breaks are welcome, but extended breaks (i.e., sleeping for 8 hours) are not part of the spirit of the race (but do as you see fit). 

  • As evident above, this is a very long category to try to attempt solo. In preparation for race day, please do your best to adhere to the following:

  • Do not feel like you have to rush to keep up at any point, and take as many small breaks as you need. This is a marathon, and a completed run counts, where burning out early does not

  • Consider your food & water in-take situation well in advance of the race

  • Make sure you have all of your console setups figured out well in advance of the race. Likely you will be doing a lot of swapping of game capture feeds - make sure your OBS/livesplit is ready to accommodate (specifically for aspect ratio changes), and do a thorough test of all game captures

    • Strongly recommended that if you have doubts about your console setup, that you have emulator as a backup option reasonably ready in advance. (You will not want to scramble for 10 minutes configuring an emulator during the race if something happens.)

  • Consider your audio setup for voice calls - it may be helpful to have a buddy or two to speak with during the race

  • Lastly, think about each game and make sure you fully understand what you need to generally do to complete without incredible difficulty. Are you aware of back-up strats in case you run out of weapon energy/lives/e-tanks/etc? Even if you are less comfortable with a game, spending some time up front to get yourself to a place where even if its slow you can reasonably complete, is very important.

• Most games are very straightforward in Mega Man style, where you complete the first set of stages, then naturally move on to the final set. Mega Man Zero 1 is the exception, and you need to understand specifically how to not disqualify yourself:

  • In Mega Man Zero 1, if you either 1) quit out of a stage or 2) game over, you will skip the mission you are doing, which is not in compliance with the "any% all stages" ruleset. Unless you are extremely familiar with Mega Man Zero 1, it is strongly recommended you save after every mission, so that if you do accidentally game over (or quit the stage), you can reload a save.

    • Side note: Whenever you save, you will save with your set number of lives. Try to avoid the situation where you have 0 extra lives, then save, then get stuck in an awful loop. Learn your backups for safety lives. 

  • Once you enter Neo Arcadia (all missions done), you don't have to worry as much about this. 

  • Anyone who finishes will very specifically be checked for correct completion of Mega Man Zero 1

  • For solo participants only: There will be two mandatory 10 minute breaks between series. This is designed to allow people to not feel like they should not take a break, and standardize it across all runners.

    • The two mandatory breaks are after Mega Man 10 and after Mega Man X8. Everyone will be 'penalized' equally for these 10 minute breaks (e.g., everyone will have 20 minutes equally added to their time as part of the break process). For anyone who finishes, we will check if the breaks were taken:

    • If you do not take the break, you will still be penalized the delta (so, you are wasting valuable break time)

    • If you do take the break for 10 minutes, no comparative penalty

    • If you take the break for more than 10 minutes, you only are penalized for the difference past 10 minutes

  • This is not at all implying these are the only breaks you can or should take. Take as many as you need. 

• For completion purposes of each game, each run should be treated as it's own separate run that would qualify for proper leaderboard verification. Again, the category is the equivalent of "any% all stages". This means:

  • Your start & end time must be clearly visible for each run, and you are not allowed to start a game before another finishes (e.g., you cannot start MM7 two minutes early while you finished MM6 to save the time from the intro cutscene.) Most games are generally on final boss defeat, but make sure you know each (for example, X8 is timed to boss explosion, not final input).  

  • You are allowed to set up your control schemes in advance when the option to do so is outside the game playthrough (this is not part of RTA timing for leaderboards):

    • Example: You can set up X4 control scheme before you start playing X4. This is not part of RTA timing for X4. 

    • Example: You don't have the ability to set Zero 1 control scheme in advance of game playthrough, because you can only do so during the run. So this rule can't apply

  • The race should be run in the order of games listed above (Classic, X, Zero). If for some reason you know a particular game is going to cause you trouble, you can elect to do it later.

  • For purposes of this race, if you start a game, you must complete it without switching to another (i.e., you can't start a game, save your progress, finish another one, then come back.)

    • In rare cases where a game crash severely loses you progress, exceptions will be made and you can either try again, or restart your progress later for any particular title. It's strongly recommended if you are concerned in any particular game about game crashes, that you save often (again, no save states of any nature, only in-game save files). If you can password in any game, you can get back to the closest point you were at. Please use judgment for these cases.

      • Strongly recommended you have the password sites bookmarked in advance!

  • One optional exception to the order is that MM&B (R&F) can be played before MM8 due to console swapping ease, but technically MM8 comes first. The original order has been changed to accommodate this (R&F before MM8).

• Any of the Mega Man Collections or Virtual Console games are permitted to use. As stated above, each game follows the standard 'any% all stages' ruleset, which inherently bans the usage of turbo and save states.

  • Because turbo is simply a button for some collections, it is advised that you do not use that button. If you make a mistake and hit it now and then, fine, but do not use regularly. Excess use of turbo will result in disqualification. 

  • All runs will be on the equivalent of “Normal” difficulty. Anything “Easy” or “Hard” will not be allowed, regardless of its benefits/challenges.

  • Mega Man 2 / Rockman 2 are both specifically allowed

  • All runs will be standard “New Game”, meaning no NG+ or any pre-loaded content (i.e., MM10 DLC) / carry-over save files

  • For the Zero series, you must play each game individually as new files. The DS Collection allows for ‘Scenario’ where you carry-over some extras, which is not allowed for this race. You can play the DS Collection if you'd like, however.

  • Sometimes in the later titles, you can skip cutscenes if you have completed the game before (MM9/10, Zero series). For all games, cutscene skips are allowed, so it’s recommended you have completed the game once on whatever console/emulator you're use, in order to allow you to skip them.

  • There will be specific cases where one platform/console allows for skips that others do not. In these cases, everyone must use the bare minimum available route for all platforms. These are hard to explain generally, and will be treated case-by-case:

    • Language specific differences, skips or tricks are permitted (MM3's top spin, MM7's cutscene differences, RMZ2's chain zips)

    • In X3, PSX/XC, you are not allowed to get the Z-Saber and go back to beat the Mavericks (this is because SFC/SNES cannot do so)

    • In any game (e.g., X4-X6), you cannot use any codes (Black Zero)