That is the hotkey. In the Global Options under GUI there is the option "Return to launcher when leaving a game".

I found it convenient to put it on Alt+Q, because then you can just hold down Alt and press 1 followed by Q to save and quit.

This is interesting, because when I was working on the TAS, I was hopeful that you could save/load the game multiple times per frame on ScummVM, but it didn't work for me.

Now, the main difference I spot here is that you open the Global Main Menu to quit the game instead of using the Quit Game hotkey. I could see the quit via hotkey being restricted by the game's scripts' logic just like when you open the original save/load menu. You can only open the original menu directly before you enter the door or after, but there is no inbetween.

ScummVM's own UI is not restricted like that, only by the actual display FPS. Maybe the Quick Save input isn't either. It could make for a weird anomaly, where you actually saved in the middle of the RNG rolls, when the first one was done already, but I guess you still wouldn't expect it to be a 3 every time then.

50Hz would definitely kill any noteworthy advantage, but other than that I can only contribute: the German version has 'new kid' in the exact same place as the English original. Various other verbs are re-arranged.

I made a TAS of this game this year and I forgot to share it on here:

I made a save directly after game start and the same number still works after re-launching the game.

Maybe the number is generated the first time the game is saved after starting a new one. I think usually the first autosave is directly before you get the number inside of Matthius apartment. It's weird either way, but seems to work.

Since runs are using a pre-generated phone number from a previous game, I have a suggestion. How about we start timing from a savegame right at the beginning? Only the intro cutscenes would be dropped from the timing and you could always use the same number, instead of having to get a new one whenever you start the game.

It's still possible, that the theory is required for that part of the ending, where Walter has a successful career etc. It could be, that it requires delivering certain evidence to Armitage AND publishing the theory. Just needs more testing, which is a pretty long endeavor in this game :)

It probably makes sense to define a best ending category by which scenes you see at the end. That makes verifying whether the necessary requirements are fulfilled a lot easier, since you only need to check the ending.

We could just say: best outcome for each of the ending scenes is required. I think that would be the ritual (police raid), the attic (Keziah dead), Anastasia & child (warned her about the bootlegger guy), both friends present at the coffee house, and Walter's career.

I honestly really hope the theory has to be part of it, because having to squeeze in all that studying/writing is what makes the biggest difference compared to any%.

That all said, I'm taking a break from this game at the moment. Still very interested in future developments and maybe someone else will come along and chime in on what they think categories should look like!

Sorry, it was a discord link and those don't work for more than 24h anymore. Let's see how long this upload to SRC lasts (edited the OP).

I did another playthrough where I added publishing all three parts of the theory and it had no effect on the ending (compared to only getting the police raid at the end). So the theory by itself is not enough, at least.

I wish there was a list of what exactly is required for the best ending. Or an explanation on what even defines the best ending. I assume it's the part where Walter has a successful career together with Armitage, but who knows? There is an achievement guide on Steam, but it's not very precise either.

Is there any indication at the end whether you have collected all evidence?

I think the only evidence, that is necessary for the "best ending" achievement, is the note from the ashes in the cave. At least it is enough to hand that note to Armitage to get the police raid at the end.

A lot of the other evidence seems to be more like "intermediate objectives". For example, technically you don't need to get the story from drunk Joe at all, since you can just find all the things in the archive by guessing the right boxes.

It seems hard to tell whether you got everything in a run, unless there is some indicator at the end, that I haven't noticed.

During practice I once managed to accidentally call the security line early, because I was on a different savegame than I thought. It was during Part Three, so that confirms, that you don't need to read the book with the number to be able to dial it.

In theory you could try to guess the numbers of the security or fan service lines during the 10 minute wait for the agents' return. So I started writing down numbers from runs and my practice. I'll put the list here, in case anyone wants to further work on it.

• 1213 fan
• 1479 pidgeons, bank, security
• 1929 bank, security, fan
• 2067 bank
• 2242 fan
• 2339 bank
• 2493 lawyer
• 2686 lawyer, security
• 2783 pidgeons, lawyer(2x), fan
• 3750 security(2x), fan(2x)
• 4355 bank
• 4424 pidgeons, bank
• 4612 security
• 4616 lawyer, security
• 4735 fan
• 4739 bank
• 4753 pidgeons, bank(2x)
• 5042 fan
• 5533 bank
• 5770 bank
• 6953 security
• 7031 security, fan
• 7430 pidgeons, lawyer, fan
• 7531 fan
• 7685 security
• 8429 bank

Current rule says

Time ends on first frame showing points when the last family member exits the 4th house.

so I think we're good?

SRC: https://www.speedrun.com/hsp

You interact with a piano to haunt it and once the human character approaches it, it will start to play a creepy melody on its own. There are two pianos like this in the game in levels 3 and 4. The effect looks/sounds the same for either of them.

Evidence:

SRC: https://www.speedrun.com/underakillingmoon

Evidence:

Some clarification about this obscure version of the game.

As far as we know at this point, the Towns version saves a good six seconds over the DOS version. 4-ish, because the stage scene with Sophia at the beginning is pretty buggy and then 2-ish, because it takes less time to turn on the lights underground at the Sahara dig site.

All of this only saves time if you use the ScummVM-provided mod, that lets you disable "smooth scrolling" anyway. Without it the Towns version is minutes slower.

In case anyone is still interested, this ScummVM commit provides more information on what the "Lab Door Mod" is.

Long story short: The digital release from 2017, that comes pre-configured with ScummVM 2.0.0, was shipped with a way to remove the copy protection, that had bad side-effects. Years later in 2021, the ScummVM devs themselves fixed the issue. So if you want to run the "Lab Door Mod" category nowadays, you need to use the version of ScummVM that comes with the game (or at least one that is older than 2.4.0).

If you have a recorded run, we'll add it!

Did a bit of testing and I'm afraid it has to do with the framerate. If I run the game normally I get around 90fps and the above-mentioned ~4.4s. If I use a tool to restrict the framerate to 60fps, I get ~4.8s.

According to PCGamingWiki the game caps out at 100

The game doesn't seem to run at a consistent speed for different people. @LizJoon mentioned it and I timed how long it takes from the first click on the dead body until the screen changes to the close-up view.

• mikethev's run: 4.36s
• Fisottis' run: 4.73s
• LizJoon's run: 4.93s
• PitufoTilteado's run: 4.93s

We really need to figure out what causes this.

Haven't used Windows in many years. So, no clue.