In part 11, we saw how hard it was to find a route with all the main skips when playing on ScummVM.

Playing the original game isn't any easier. In fact, it's harder. There's currently no known route where you can skip the beauty contest in the future. So, until someone finds a new route, everything on this guide will be dead ends.

Initial situation summary

All restrictions mentioned in the ScummVM route still apply. And there are additional ones:

• There's no known way to give the plans to Red and keep them.
• You can't use the gum glitch to get the contract or sign it.
• In order to send Dr. Fred back to the basement, you need to quantum-swap the plans. But you can only do so in the present basement; if you try it anywhere else, the game will crash.
• There's no known way to time travel thanks to the plans cutscene, other than Hoagie going back to the past.

There are good news too:

• You can use the gum glitch to get to the future thanks to the Franklin "Ready for another brush with destiny?" conversation.
• Alternatively, you can use the gum glitch to get an item slide during the mentioned Franklin conversation.
• There's another way to get the contract: the coffee cutscene.

Let's talk about the last point.

The coffee cutscene

With Bernard, pick up the coffee, and then get the item slide state and get Hoagie to the present thanks to the quarters cutscene (see part 13). Get Hoagie to Dr. Fred's office. Enter the basement with Bernard, and give the coffee to Dr. Fred.

Do not skip the cutscene. Instead, switch to Hoagie during the cutscene. After a few moments, the safe will open.

You can see the whole sequence in the coffee cutscene and the contract video. Note that this video is from Day of the Tentacle Remastered. In the original game, this glitch works the exact same way.

Dead ends

Dead end 1: use the gum glitch to get to the future

1. With Bernard, get the gum, the decaf, and the coffee.
2. With Hoagie, pick up the left-handed hammer and switch it to get the right-handed hammer.
3. Pick up the red paint and the mouse toy with Hoagie.
4. Get Hoagie to the present thanks to the quarters cutscene.
5. Get the contract thanks to the coffee cutscene.
6. Quantum-swap the plans in the basement to send Hoagie back to the past.
7. Give the decaf to Dr. Fred.
8. With Hoagie, paint the tree and talk to Franklin to get Bernard to the past.
9. Unlock Laverne by talking to Washington. Get Laverne outside.
10. With Hoagie, talk to Jefferson and switch to Laverne during the conversation to get the skunk.
11. Get Laverne to the room with the Chron-O-John and, with Hoagie, talk to Hancock. Switch to Laverne so she plugs in the cord.
12. Give the plans to Red, and teleswap the contract three times to get the battery.
13. Go to the fields and quantum-swap the crowbar.
14. Go next to Franklin to start the kite sequence and charge the battery.
15. Use the gum glitch with Franklin's "Ready for another brush with destiny?" conversation to get Hoagie to the future.
16. With Hoagie, walk to the clock so the camera switches to Laverne in the kennel. Teleswap the contract.
17. With Laverne, use the skunk, and get to the basement.
18. With Bernard, get to the chimney to summon Hoagie to the past.
19. With Hoagie (or Bernard) talk to Hancock and switch to Laverne so she uses the hamster. Plug in the cord.
20. Get Hoagie and Bernard to the fields and quantum-swap the crowbar.
21. Quantum-swap the quarters and get control during the cutscene thanks to Franklin's "Ready for another brush with destiny?" conversation. Get Laverne to the present.
22. With Laverne, get the video tape, push Edna, and get Dr. Fred arrested by the IRS.
23. Summon Bernard to the present by entering the kitchen with Laverne and going back to the living room.
24. Get Laverne and Bernard to the basement.
25. With Hoagie, talk to Jefferson. Switch to Laverne to sign the contract.
26. Send the contract with Hoagie to get two million dollars, and call to buy the diamond.

While it doesn't feel like the fastest route ever, it seems solid. And yet, it's got a fatal flaw. You can't use Franklin's conversation to gain control of your characters during the quarters cutscene. To do so, you'd have to walk towards Franklin and quantum-swap the quarters right when the screen starts to scroll. And, on ScummVM, this is possible.

But here we aren't playing on ScummVM. Which means that, when you quantum-swap the quarters, your characters will automatically start walking to the area next to the outhouses. And they will refuse to quantum-swap the quarters anywhere but there. Which means, they won't get near Franklin, and Franklin won't start the "Ready for another brush with destiny?" conversation.

So there's no way to get anyone to the present, which means nobody can order the diamond.

Under the hood

Just like a conversation with Hancock, giving the coffee to Dr. Fred is a global script that calls script 200 at the end. You can use that script to open the safe and get the contract.