In-Game Timer
The in-game timer is used by Goldeneye to track the amount of time passed in the level. This is used to calculate the end screen time.
Technical Details
Reliability
Streets timer is not super reliable[1].
Declan's 1:14 is a "scam" but not really.
Yendis synced them by last frame of menu and we see the timers are just a un-laggy frame apart, but Declan starts a decent amount earlier. Perhaps he cut cinema? video.
In fact the cinemas themselves can just vary in length. This is my simple rom which displays the (global timer - mission timer) in place of the spare ammo. This is basically the length of the cutscenes. The number is 1/60ths of a second, so this difference of 4 is 0.066s. And it's likely it can vary even more since I only did a few tests.
video: streets cinema variation
On top of this there is a slightly subtler cause of drift because the countdown appears[2] after the global timer passes 10s (600). With good lookdown at the start the framerate is 30hz so the global timer is stepping in 2s. As such the countdown can appear either at 601 or 602, adding another 0.016s of variation.
You can clearly see that Declan has more laggy frames as he looks down slower / is in wide at the very start. This could also nudge you from the global timer being odd to being even and cause that small difference.
TLDR: countdown timer is only 'accurate' to roughly +- 0.05
If you want to compare it's probably most accurate to sync runs by the last frame of menu and then see how the ammo appearing varies, and use that to adjust the timers. If you sync them like this the countdown timers should appear on the same or adjacent frames. Ignore this variation.
References
- ↑ Whiteted. "the-elite forum Goldeneye facts post on streets timer". Retrieved July 18, 2021.
- ↑ Ryan Dwyer. "Goldeneye and Perfect Dark function explorer". Retrieved July 18, 2021.
