I tried your savegame and it doesn´t work either, but I went to the end of the level in my game and can verify that trick with the fish statue. Edit: It also works with a long jump, should be slightly faster because no need to wait for Indy to holster the weapon.

Unfortunately I wasn´t able to do this extended long jump, not back then when it was mentioned and not now. No clue what he pressed to do it, the input he posted doesn´t seem to be correct since indy just kinda rolls on the same spot for me (also tried it with macros back then or I did something wrong). Besides what you already mentioned this trick would shorten Olmec Valley by a few minutes since we probably could skip activating the bridges! Hope someone finds a way to do it..

I tried your finds and they work, besides Nr. 5. I didn´t test it yet as I didn´t get there yet in my game and with your savefile I get some exception and game crashes when I select the fish statue. Also sometimes I can´t load your savegames it tells me invalid filetype.

The cog folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4amx4eeer7vaqtw/Cog.zip?dl=0

I usually bounce off the lowest platform and end up next to the hole, so I don´t need to climb it. Sometimes I get stuck too, so as you said there is just a randomness factor there. In your savefile I sometimes survive and sometimes die while landing in the hole, so even more confirmation that there is randomness. About the sounds I get constanty "Dr. Volodnikov!" by Indy from your files and even more other sounds appear when I try to finish the level, some of the sounds begin to run in slower/faster.

What levels haven´t been examined properly yet, "Infernal Machine" and "Teotihuacan" I think? Maybe we should focus on them, I tried to search for something in "Infernal Machine", but couldn´t find anything new. Well a useless thing you can do is to push down the Marduk robot (or let him fall down in the cutscene by placing the Marduk head before the Azerim part), but the level still finishes (good to know lol). What I haven´t timed yet is if it is faster to use the elevator where you put Urgons part in up to the top, jump across the platforms there and use the other elevator to get to Turner or to just use it once, drop down to the area where you start after the big cutscene, run to the other elevator and use that to get to Turner. That Turner fool himself is worthless, a few Machine Gun shots and he drops dead in a second... a disappointing "boss" fight honestly, but good for speedrunning I guess.

I tried it too some weeks ago and at some spot I could land near the hole so I didn´t have to climb the ladder, but it is pretty much pixel perfect. I will try to find that spot again and make a savegame, not sure if something can be done about the inconsistency.

[i]Edit: Here I found some setup which works most of the time, savegame here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4a2v27330569f66/lvl14drop.nds?dl=0

Coordinates: Pos: (9.08, 3.49, 0.17) PYR: (0.00, -170.76, 0.02) Sector: 1017.

It should be the "ideal" place to land since all you have to do is turn to the side and runjump forward. I also had different setups where I also landed on other sides of the ground and sometimes I was able to hang at the top platform but after climbing he just went to this hanging animation and I couldn´t do anything anymore. Best would be if Indy somehow lands on the edge of the top platform, then maybe he doesn´t get stuck in that animation and we can grab Nubs part right away, but so far no success.

Thanks for the comparison! I`m not sure what to make of the Pentium1 setup, is it faster than 20fps (it looks so after you decrease the resolution)? Then again it is probably the retail version and that has speed problems, maybe that is why.

The other versions look consistent "enough". So I guess GOG, Legacy and Steam versions are comparable and should be suitable for speedrunning. Maybe it might make sense to make an extra category for the Retail version and define some fixed fps (for example 30 like Soda did in his speedruns) so that those with only the retail version can run it too?

I only have Win7 and the gog version, but I prefer to play it in fullscreen anyway.

I don´t think OBS has any fps display, at least I don´t remember it having any. As for the stopwatch it doesn´t change anything in your game so it doesn´t matter.

Good job with the testing and what was the 8.1 fullscreen mode fps? I think it would still be interesting to see what fps it has on an older machine with Win98 (not XP). About the conclusion, I ran my game in fullscreen mode and it had 20 fps. It just had some lag because of the recording.

The Alt+Enter doesn´t work for me, the Alt button is a hotkey for the camera and if I press this combination during the menu or the briefing nothing happens either. In fullscreen mode the game seems to run without lag, until I start recording.

1. My run was recorded in fullscreen mode with OBS on WIn7, I made a regional recording or whatever it is called and made it record 1024x768 pixels in the upper left corner, so that it covers the whole game.
2. I think it makes sense since most games run at this fps. But how to make properly sure it does that?
3. Probably keeping it at 1024x768 max would be a good compromise, widescreen gives some advantage as you don´t need to scroll the screen that much in most situations and can click faster on further points.
4. I don´t remember that ever being an issue in any game. That is just personal preference.

I compiled a video with the critical parts inside the pyramids in order (sound is a bit off at some point): https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ug73ta7t92adpj/Indy3Dlv12Pyramids.avi?dl=0

Not all of this tricks are worth risking in a run though imo:

• I couldn´t get the jump in the snake room at the green pyramid consistently
• doing the clipping jump isn´t woth it, as samlab described
• going down the elevators at the yellow pyramid is 1 second faster than tracking back
• the forwards then backwards jump in the red pyramid is also a little bit tricky and the spiders can block you from pulling the block back or at the end messing with your whip alignment

Edit: About the block transfers for the yellow beam: Push the right block to the front and the statue block to the left (from beam point of view), you can just run into the statue and put in the eye without any crouching.

@Dick_Assman: I used Dxtory. It didn´t recognize the game first but when I used Commandos with dgvoodoo I could get it into windowed mode and then see the fps. I think it was mostly 20 fps, but as said it isn´t stable at all.

They only spawn when you get the crystal eye with the help of the kid, as q94471 mentioned it in his last sentence. Btw I was able to push out the kid a little bit off the cave and then run him over, but he is invincible lol.. weapons don´t do him harm either. He can get stuck behind the sign next to the cave though and he will be there forever. Completely useless, but funny nevertheless.

I tested q94471 idea and I think this way seems "best":

• park the car near the entrance, after getting out at least one hyena will come running towards you
• kill the three hyenas, they are normally all nearby
• go to the cave which is right where you are and it spawns 4-5 hyenas, which you can all kill with the shotgun(or whatever you think is best) and in case 4 spawn, the other hyena should be close to the shack or already on your way to you
• run to the shack and get your equipment, meanwhile new hyenas spawned and should be somewhere near the pyramid on their way to you, so you can kill those 3 right before climbing point

This video also shows why you should just leave the Jeep near the cave, it will be closer to you later: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ouh6wkcjd4a4zr/Indy3Dmeroe.avi?dl=0

I tried out your savegame and in 15 attemps i succeeded 15 times, so I don´t have a clue what is wrong. You just need to make a running jump, press Shift+Up+X(or Alt). But Indy seems to end up in the pit for you since you get the death screen.

I don´t plan to delete the video, so you can use it.

In a run I would just use Taklits part to bypass the eye, rolling glitch or clipping there doesn´t save any time. I will try to figure out how to deal with the hyenas best.

The Meroe route right now I think should look something like this:

• drive to the shak and get the stuff (maybe kill a few hyenas on the way)
• climb the pyramid and do the purple pyramid first, then the bucket
• then go to the yellow or green in any order
• track back inside the pyramid after completing them and after the red one, get out of it there
• run to see the kid and kill the hyenas, then run to your car and kill the rest of the hyenas
• drop down with the car and activate the digging site: get the wheel, then the watch and up again
• pick up the gasoline and get the eye with the help of the kid
• make a roundtrip to activate all those thingies: green-purple-yellow-red or red-yellow-purple-green
• go to the opened door, use wheel+gasoline and finish level

In Babylon I don´t know either, I would have done a run long ago if would know one. :P

Pulling out that block in Meroe can be a real pain, sometimes it works pretty fast and somtimes not at all. Don´t know why. As for the eye you can bypass that with the rolling glitch if you don´t want to use taklits part or you don´t have it. Made a little video which might show the aligment a little better: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aimeqq0056h1b5r/Indy3Dtricks.avi?dl=0

I remember that, wasn´t there a problem that some door is locked inside and you can´t proceed?

I tried to hold the chalk key while he was getting up and it indeed worked. Question is if it still saves any time or not, we begin with this pyramid and should end up with the red one as last, I think. Although I don´t remember this level too well tbh.

Just tried to replicate the massive skip in Peru and unlike the electric ball it is not frame perfect and I can get it consistently, which is pretty nice since it skips like half of the level. Amazing find!

About Meroe I´m not sure either what is better, some tests need to be done. I think it is better to shoot the first wave instead of driving them over after you spoke to the kid. Machine gun or the Shotgun seem like good choices. Maybe we can find a way to spawn the next waves consistenly, then shooting them should definetely be better I think.

The problem with the shaft is whenever I try to get up I instantly fall without having any time to make some input. And I need to do a side or forward roll in order to chalk. And about your softlocks and other shenanigans, the answer might be easy: you play it on Win XP ;)

The mouse movement is probably the reason why i sometimes saw it go over 100 fps. So what to do now? We need a retail version to be played on some older hardware on Win 98 to see the result and if possible on more than just one to see if it made a difference on different hardware in the past too.. I don´t have such hardware unfortunately and probably not too many people. lol :\ Or we agree to a certain fps rate (hopefully the "correct" one) and find a tool that can actually guarantee that the game is played at that fps.. otherwise makes little sense to speedrun this game.

I looked at the Peru level and the only time save I could find is at the end where you need to escape the boulder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eswb6jmtp6y4gfm/Indy3DperuStrat.avi?dl=0

• how it works: just before the trigger for the cutscene where Indy goes back and looks down the broken floor you can use the rolling-glitch to make it to the area of the boulder trigger while you trigger that cutscene. After the rolling glitch you have still time to make some input so make backward rolls x2 and go one tiny step ahead. The reason for it is if you don´t make that step you will end up standing on the part that falls when the boulder rolls upwards and you may not have enough time to escape. Also don´t go too far infront or the boulder will kill you which will make the level unfinishable. If everything goes fine you will see Indys double that was created in the cutscene fall down and you get control of your original indy lol. Time save for this stuff is 11 seconds.

• other minor stuff in this level: avoid to trigger the cutscene of the big blocks going back, before you enter the idol room by not walking over the pressure button

• Potential spots for time saves: Clipping through to the skeleton wall where you need to put the spear, didn´t work out for me. Another spot is where you pick up the spear and go up to the area where the falling boulder is. I tried to get some jump boosts with grenades/satchels but couldn´t reach the ledge. :(

Cheats and intended game features are not the same, why else would the developers bother to seperate it? If you want to play with cheats, you enable the codes by adding "megahit" or "improved" depending on your version. Skipping levels 1-3 with time penalty is clearly an indented game feature, otherwise it wouldn´t be available in the normal mode.