similar to the new rules on the myst leaderboard, since scummVM is included as an official version on the recently released 25th anniversary collection, you no longer have to submit scummVM runs as emulator.

since the recently released Myst 25th Anniversary Collection includes the ScummVM version, i am now fully considering ScummVM to be an official version of the game. therefore, runs submitted on ScummVM are no longer required to be marked as an emulator when submitted. thanks!

here are my proposed rule changes for both individual episode and full game categories:

1. change episode runs to 8-level IGT from now on, runs will be required to either include a demo or have a visible IGT autosplitter (i have one i can upload, i just need to work out a few kinks with it) to be accepted. existing runs without demos will be grandfathered in and will be manually timed on levels where IGT is not visible.

2. change full game runs to RTA RTA isnt ideal because different source ports have different load times, often being faster than DOS. but in the case of full game, there isn't a really good solution here; you can't record multi-episode demos and i dont like the idea of requiring all submitted runs to use an autosplitter. however, since this is a longer category and the load times generally add up to only a few seconds over the course of an entire run (as opposed to an episode run where a few seconds can be a huge difference), i think RTA is fine here.

please let me know what you think of these changes and any concerns you have. if everyone is fine with it, i'll go through and retime all the old runs on one of my days off. 7-level IGT is just terrible and we've already stopped using it for the most part in the small heretic demo community that still exists.

also, if anyone has any questions about how to record demos on chocolate heretic, i can upload one of my example .bat files. it's really simple to do, plus it's nice to have a "pure" record of your run without worrying about frame drops, mic noises, bad video quality etc

Hey, I figured I'd dump some of the information I've been researching here regarding opening the menu while walking (sometimes called "encounter skipping", but i prefer "menu stepping" because it has some other cool benefits besides avoiding encounters). It's possible none of this is new info, but since nobody is using it in runs yet, I figured I'd put it somewhere anyways.

First, let's go over the obvious: Menu stepping is when you open and close the menu while walking. This has two main benefits. First of all, it will avoid any encounters. Second of all, if done correctly, it will avoid incrementing the step counter. If you're unaware, the step counter is an internal value that determines your chance of getting an encounter. The simple explanation is that the more you walk, the higher your chance of getting an encounter becomes. Hidapipes slow this counter down by half (or 1/3rd, if in the Jet Scooter), and menu stepping stops it entirely. Finally, it lets you move and open the menu at the same time, saving a few frames each time you need to access the menu.

There are basically two types of menu steps, slow and fast. Fast is when the menu opens as soon as you press C, and slow is when the menu doesn't open until the party comes to a stop. The camera position is the determining factor; if the camera needs to scroll, you'll get a slow menu step. Otherwise it'll be a fast one.

This distinction is important, slow menu stepping is slow. It basically gets you the equivalent of a slightly below-average walk most of the time. Fast menu steps, on the other hand, can be just as fast as normal walking. In other words, if you pay careful attention to the camera positioning, you can take advantage of fast menu stepping to get several steps in with 0 encounter chance and keep your step counter from going up, at absolutely no time cost. It's not a huge game-changer or anything in terms of encounter luck, but it helps.

Here's a quick cheat sheet to help you in terms of camera positioning. From the default camera positioning after most encounter and map transitions, you're free to menu step this many times in each direction: Up: 4 Down: 1 Left: 5 Right: 4

In addition, here are the maximum steps you can get in a row if you scroll the camera all the way to one side Up/down: 5 Left/right: 9

Finally, here's a video of it in action so you can get an idea of the rhythm you need to use to menu step optimally. My timing in this video isn't perfect, but it should get the idea across.

Hope this is helpful!

It's been discovered that it's possible to skip to the credits from level 15 on UV and NM skill, regardless of whether or not cheats or level select have been used. As a result, some category changes have been introduced.

1. Speed has had its rules updated to change the objective from "beat all 16 levels" to "reach the credits". However, level select and cheats are still not allowed in this category. Effectively, this means you no longer have to play Level 16 in this category, but you still have to start the game from Level 1 and play up to Level 15.

2. A misc category has been introduced, called Any%, which requires you to reach the credits by any means necessary, including cheats. This is kind of a meme, but whatever. I figured I may as well put it on the board, if people feel like competing in it.

No changes have been made to Max. All levels still need to be completed with all kills/secrets. This includes Dis and Military Base.

Here's the video showcasing the glitch. It was found by Alexo and I've confirmed it works on console.

i'm getting random stutters in both of the allowed sourceports. my cpu and physical memory usage are both below 30% so it should be running fine. is this a common problem? is there a way to fix it?

additional info: it only happens once every 3 or 4 minutes or so, and it's happened during crucial tricks causing me to lose runs. it seems to be worse in joequake than in neaquake. vsync didnt help.

it's not written in the rules anywhere, and i'm not sure if it counts as a cheat, so i just want to clarify

i tried cleaning up the boards because they were ugly, and i cleaned them up pretty well but did things in the wrong order so some runs were lost. i re-added all of the runs i could remember but it's possible i missed some.

basically, if your run is gone, it didn't get removed because someone thought you cheated or something like that, it just got lost because i'm an idiot. re-submit it and i'll verify it again.

i've been experimenting with strategies for bosses and levels. here are a few of the ones i've found that appear to be faster than the ones used in the current run. i recorded these all on genesis, and they're all for level 1 non-shuriken

1-3 2:52

3-1 2:31

4-1 2:43

worth noting the 1-3 strat is 100% consistent. despite what it may seem, the falling rocks are not RNG. they're actually based off your position. so if you stand still at the start, the rocks will always fall in the same pattern.

me and popsicle (mostly popsicle, i just started the hunt) found this the other day but i just realized nobody ever posted it here. so i'll post just in case anyone else is lurking the forums besides us

unfortunately, the exit room doesn't load unless you take the elevator there. so this clip just lets you skip the elevator ride back down. also, it can only be used on the second page, because once you do the clip, you can't get back up to the top level (elevator is stuck up there).

the latest version of scummVM now supports Myst, and it allows you to skip cutscenes without modifying the game. this makes it the fastest version for speedrunning all pages.

http://scummvm.org/

as for any%, it's probably not faster than GOG even with cutscene skips because the fireplace animations now play at the correct speed, making them slower. loading times are also longer across the board. if you want a comparison, the fastest time i've been able to get on scummvm has been a 55 (compared to my improveable 53 PB on GOG).

i'm probably going to do any% runs on scummvm from now on anyways just because it's just a way better conversion compared to GOG and doesn't crash all the time for no reason.

i know there's probably someone who's going to wonder if we should be allowing scummvm to be used for speedruns even though it's third party software not created by Cyan, but honestly the scummvm devs have put way more thought and effort into this conversion than Cyan ever have in their modern conversions, so it should be allowed in my opinion.