Post subject: Alone in the Dark (1992)
Editor, Expert player (2477)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Alone in the Dark is a "survival horror game" for PC... blaa-blaa... Here's a demonstration of a rather complicated glitch: http://www.freewebs.com/aqfaq/aitdglitch.zip (4,3 MB; AVI) (The video is actually a part of a segmented speedrun by a friend of mine. It shows the beginning of the 2nd segment where the glitch is used to save time.) The purpose of the glitch is to get the talisman (necessary item) without visiting the library (where the talisman is located). It took me a while to reproduce and understand the glitch after it happened accidentally for the first time. I'm not revealing the mechanics behind the trick yet, so that you can try figuring it out for yourself. Explain the video if you can! :)
Editor, Expert player (2477)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Here's an old text file I have. Hopefully it's useful to someone. I can't TAS this game myself currently, but I'd be glad to help as much as I can if someone decides to try it someday. Dosbox seems to emulate it perfectly.
Alone in the Dark TAS walkthrough. Abuses in-game savegame feature. Estimated completion time: 5 minutes.

Take oil lamp
Go downstairs (maybe through the wall)

Take oil can
Use oil can
Open door
Open door
Run through the wall
Open door
Skip nightgaunts
Go downstairs

Open door
Take matches
Open door
Open door
Use matches
OOB into the clock room
Take false book
OOB into the library
Use false book
Take talisman
Open door
Go downstairs

OOB into the cellar
Take block
Skip Cthonian
Push boulder
Use oil lamp
OOB into the boss room
Take HOOK
Use TALISMAN
Throw OIL LAMP
Use HOOK
Run to the exit
Joe
Joined: 6/10/2006
Posts: 152
Location: Wisconsin
This sounds like a good game to start off with, given how short it is. Personally, I'd like to see all 3 done. That glitch definitely looks like a great time saver.
Editor, Expert player (2477)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Yes, the later games in the series have more fighting and shooting, so tasing them is a good idea.
Editor, Expert player (2477)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Here are four segments that I recorded some time ago with 5% speed and 0 rerecords. The run ends at the clock room, total lenght being about 2,7 mins. http://www.freewebs.com/aqfaq/aitd1.zip (1,5 MB) (Apparently, this file is missing.) http://www.freewebs.com/aqfaq/aitd2.zip (9 MB) (This file is missing too.) http://www.freewebs.com/aqfaq/aitd3.zip (4,3 MB) http://www.freewebs.com/aqfaq/aitd4.zip (1,4 MB) The movie format is ZMBV that comes with Dosbox.
Post subject: Forever Alone in the Dark...
Editor, Expert player (2477)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
I came to the conclusion that the "indian cover" may be useless in a TAS. Skipping it saves a few seconds. You then need to dodge the homing axe thrown by the cursed indian painting. It should be possible, because I can almost do it in Dosbox without rerecords. It may require saving and loading the game to mess up the trajectory of the axe. The player is invulnerable during the drinking animation which can be prolonged indefinitely by holding some button, so if all else fails, using the flask helps absorbing the damage. Oh well, I can't TAS this myself, but I can revive the thread with a well aimed triple post. RISE FROM THE GRAVE! *click*
Post subject: Alone in the Dark
Joined: 9/27/2011
Posts: 207
Location: Finland
So basically I've been testing and routing the game for a segmented speedrun. In the process of doing so me and someone I'm working with discovered a trick that can probably be used to create a credit warp-style run for the game, but it's looking likely to require astronomical amounts of luck and so maybe botting. This is why I wanted to post here in case any TASers have any interest in the game. I'm expecting lag management at least to offer a decent challenge (it feels pretty random) but overall the run shouldn't be longer than a minute. In case I don't immediately reply, since sometimes this site doesn't give me notifications, you can also try to PM me on SDA where I go by LotBlind. Thanks!
Active player (377)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
I tried running the Alone in the Dark demo in JPC-rr and got the following error:
Object in invalid state for operation (Missing Operation: 0xfeb)
writeOperation of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.optimised.RealModeUDecoder <RealModeUDecoder>
decodeOpcode of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.optimised.RealModeUDecoder <RealModeUDecoder>
decode of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.optimised.RealModeUDecoder <RealModeUDecoder>
getNext of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.optimised.RealModeUDecoder <RealModeUDecoder>
buildCodeBlockBuffers of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.optimised.OptimisedCompiler <OptimisedCompiler>
getRealModeCodeBlock of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.optimised.OptimisedCompiler <OptimisedCompiler>
getRealModeCodeBlock of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.DefaultCodeBlockFactory <DefaultCodeBlockFactory>
tryRealModeFactory of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.CodeBlockManager <CodeBlockManager>
getRealModeCodeBlockAt of org.jpc.emulator.memory.codeblock.CodeBlockManager <CodeBlockManager>
executeReal of org.jpc.emulator.memory.LazyCodeBlockMemory <LazyCodeBlockMemory>
executeReal of org.jpc.emulator.memory.PhysicalAddressSpace <PhysicalAddressSpace>
executeReal of org.jpc.emulator.PC <PC>
execute of org.jpc.emulator.PC <PC>
main of org.jpc.plugins.PCControl <PCControl>
run of org.jpc.pluginsbase.Plugins$PluginThread <Plugins>
It runs fine in DosBox. More investigation is needed to figure out why JPC-rr is throwing the error, but this at least gives someone a place to start from.
Joined: 9/27/2011
Posts: 207
Location: Finland
I'll ask the other guy (he might actually understand any of that) to take a look if he finds the time.