Alone in the Dark (1-3)/Game Mechanics and Glitches

Tricks common to all the three games

(move tricks here if you know they're present in all the games)

clipping through walls: You can clip into objects and into walls under some circumstances. How you do this is simply run into a suitable corner (always between an object and another object or a wall) at an angle that's about 20 degrees into the wall or object you're trying to enter. When you're almost through you can just "burst" out.

level wrapping: once OOB you can warp from one end of the map to the other. In rare cases causes crashes. Usually not necessary for anything.

OOB actions: you can fire from OOB to inside bounds and also perform some actions like closing doors. No known uses.

continued running: after picking up an object or performing one of many other interactions, if you instantly hit up again you don't stop running. When opening a door it never makes you stop at all.

fast item cancel: just press esc to quickly select leaving an object that's in your way.

mid-air rotation: release space when jumping and you can change your movement direction.

pre-rotation: as you're performing certain actions such as using the key on the drawers you can get a faster rotation afterwards by just holding down the arrow key as you're doing it.

damage cancellation: you can't get hurt while drinking a potion. You can make the animation last longer by hitting space.

"slow" death abuse: after taking mortal damage you can still perform certain kinds of actions (instantaneous effect ones) such as wielding an item or placing an item into its slot. No known uses.

resurrection glitch: if you take healing after taking mortal damage you will survive but be in a zombified state. To get out of it you have to select some action first. Going through "death" prevents you from collecting items that you normally pick up just by running into them probably making the game incompletable. However if you then save and load the game it should have removed this effect.

Doing the resurrection glitch with the lantern in hand will enable making dark spaces be lit as if you were still holding it.

item order: every new item gets placed on the top of the inventory. You may want to use items like the fuel canisters straight away before they get dropped further down. You can manipulate the order by dropping and collecting items but unfortunately this loses the menu time in either case.

easier running: if you adjusted your CPU cycles in DOSBOX you could start running more easily, however this is ofc not allowed.

fighting techniques: the left punches and swings are the fastest but have the least reach. The kick has the greatest reach but is slowest. The right hand punches are in-between. If you can get a monster to spawn inside you (e.g. chickens crashing through windows) or get them against a wall you can prevent the knockback from affecting them. The pirate is best fought by allowing him to start an attack on you and then hitting him after it's too late for him to block it. Alternatively you can fake one attack (e.g. left swing) and when he's blocking that quickly switch to another attack. Releasing the arrow key after you've hit the monster and pressing it again is faster than waiting for the animation to finish.

stair animation skip: when you hit a staircase it takes a few seconds for the character to be facing the right direction before climbing up. If you were already facing the exact right angle this gets skipped and you ascend instantly.

when you save and load the game the camera angle sometimes changes in-between. Could be useful somewhere OOB?

Some cutscenes can be cut short, at least if you get hit by a fireball or the deep one after using the talisman or throwing the lantern you get your movement back early.

Vortices: the swirling monsters that are created from the ghost or the dancers can't follow you into certain places at all. This includes the downstairs dining room.

Loading a saved game doesn't perfectly restore the game state. Instead some things like the state the bathtub monster is in is carried over from before saving. No known uses.