Alone in the Dark (1-3)/Game Mechanics and Glitches
From SDA Knowledge Base
Contents
Tricks common to all the three games
(move tricks here if you know they're present in all the games)
Alone in the Dark 1
- 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.
A table listing all the known places you can clip into. Incomplete.
- 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.
- The Cthonian skip: here's a video of how this works... Click here
- 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.
- health items: the 3 items for healing yourself are the two flasks in the two bathrooms and the biscuits in the kitchen. They heal you for 10 (2nd floor bathroom), 20 (1st floor bathroom), and 5 (biscuits) respectively. The game doesn't cap your health so you can use them pre-emptively. The maximum is 55 which lets you survive one Cthonian attack.
- damage cancellation: you can't get hurt while drinking a potion. You can make the animation last longer by hitting/holding down 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.
- Avoid camera transitions whenever possible to save the camera switch time. On the other hand there's sometimes lines that cause a bit of lag without the game loading a new view. This is probably the game loading new architecture into memory.
- 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. The vortices disappear during endgame.
- 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. Loading a save also influences the movement of flying arrows and axes, making them take a sharper curve towards you.
- gramophone skip: if you wanted to get the pirate's key from the ballroom you only need to anger some of the dancers to get around them, grab the key quickly and run away.
- corridor with the paintings: The portraits will spawn axes and arrows respectively when you get far enough into the corridor. There will usually be just one axe and one arrow at a time. They track you and the camera follows them instead of you when they're moving around. You can get through the corridor alive without using health items, just about. This is very very difficult or impossible without saving and loading, which can be used to manipulate the arrows and axes. You may have to take the first axe when you're near the library door to make sure the portrait never spawns a second one, but you can't be too far or you won't have time to dodge the first arrow. Then you have to go to the left side of the corridor and dodge the first arrow by running tangentially to it, then rush to the far door into the bedroom. After that the arrow and camera will behave quite erratically, moving in and out of rooms. You are still generally able to get to the door, open it, and enter the room. Get the false book (it's very likely to get hit here), and just hope you can dash back to the library door and get inside in time. Inside the library you'll have better chances of dodging the arrow. If you go up or down the stairs you can "disarm" the projectiles so it's easier to go through the library. None of this is likely to save any time though. Another thing to mention is whenever you get hit by a projectile this gives you the camera back so taking a strategic hit somewhere might be needed as well.
- [from LotBlind]I've succeeded in taking only 10 damage (one axe) from the corridor projectiles. The key is to run directly to the library door, open it (you'll get hit by an axe), and I think also you have to trigger an arrow to be shot after opening the door. That often happens anyway when the axe knockback pushes you away from the door. Then you have to enter the library quickly. This has strange effects that don't reset until you load a save game. You should experiment with it yourself. It's easier if you have a lit lantern in hand before you start your mad dash so you can see what's happening in the library.
- So after today's testings I think the corridor skip isn't doable without saving/loading at least once or twice. That seems to mess up the tracking. This let me get to the library without even the first axe hitting me (I saved after starting to open the door). Then I used the method of attracting an arrow, doing a bit of to and fro in and out of the library so it starts doing its circles, then just make sure that arrow never hits you (the axe probably will though), and you can get the book, do what you need to do and finally go downstairs and you'll get rid of the arrow for good. But yeah don't know how to do that without segmenting.
- arrow grab: there is an obscure glitch that lets you sometimes collect items that you normally run into to collect when the game gets confused about what entity is touching them. This works with the false book or the talisman at least. It isn't well-enough understood at current to make it a part of the run but it seems to have always happened right as the screen transitions into the room where the item was.
- escape route: you don't actually need to open either of the exits beforehand to be able to get out of the tunnels. You don't even need to unlock the cellar door or use the sabre in the study or anything. The study door WILL be locked though and you can't get out without the key.
Approximate time saved by skipping...
- the indian cover: 10 seconds in the loft + 2-3 seconds of putting it in place (minus the 1 second lost to taking an axe in the back if this applies)
- the sabre: 17 seconds
- the matches in the hearth room: 16 seconds minus time it takes to get another light source
- the study key: this saves about 7 seconds if you just pick up the false book
