How about we remove all Sonic 2 rankings, as not everyone has a Genesis or the game to use it with? Come to think of it, not everyone has a computer to submit stats. Let's just shut down TSC and be done with at (as an added bonus, that means you won't have to tell your mommy on us!)
Some players simply have an advantage over others. This may be a material advantage (having multiple copies of a game for different systems where there's a version difference in one or more levels) or a mental advantage (knowing a little something extra that can save a few seconds off your time). TSC is not a communist state; our goal isn't to hold everyone to an equal level--especially not one that drags everyone down to the lowest common denominator--but to let the best shine through in the most spectacular way possible. This may seem unfair to those that didn't think up such things, and may not even be aware that those tactics exist, but it's the nature of competition. You can move forward and accept what we do, or be left in the dust trying to cling on to a primitive state of mind, rejecting the progress that makes this site what it is.
The checkpoint system is easily understood, and it's what the game goes by. In Wild Canyon, from the start of the run to the collection of piece 3 is 0.17 seconds. This time is locked in as soon as I grab the piece, so that when I die at 11.something, I go back to start (in a non-hunting level I would be placed at the checkpoint instead) and the timer starts up on the next life at 0.17, not 11.xx. Piece 2's segment takes the timer to 0.79 when I grab the piece, and even though it breaks 12 by the time I die, the excess seconds are disregarded since the only checkpoints are the collection of the pieces. The final segment starts from 0.79, and the piece is collected at 1.39 (actually 1.35, but that's another story) to end the run. Note that the life totals shown in the video are discontinuous. Are you going to suggest that the several hundred failed runs where the pieces weren't in the right spots (and the times where I ran out of lives and started digging up a bunch more) should have to count against my time, putting it over an hour?
Once again, Pumpkin Hill is done without any codes. Rayku pointed out the technique and wrote a guide about it. You have to glide to the edge of the level, get turned around, drop down, get blown back up, and--while still holding against the edge--drop down. After Knuckles falls through the kill plane, watch his spot on the screen. When Knuckles falls low enough that he disappears, tap A twice and you'll start the next life being blown into the air. I demonstrate this technique at the end of the second segment in my video, and SuperSonic101 shows it in his Chao video for the level.
Paul Corby is someone who sleeps in your bed at night and controls what you dream. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
