Steamed Hams Speedrun PB (1:07) (RNG Manipulation, Data Switch, Utica Skip)

This is my first attempt at running this category. I'm new to speedrunning, but I've been practicing for months before getting a run good enough to upload, and I feel like I've made significant gains in breaking this game.

For those uninitiated, this is an IL speedrun of the Steamed Hams level of the game "The Simpsons: 22 Shorts Films about Springfield." In this level, you play as Principal Skinner, and the goal is to convince Superintendent Chalmers that you are a quality principal by treating him to an unforgettable luncheon. A full level playthrough can be found all over YouTube, and a casual playthrough takes a little under 3 minutes.

Now into this run itself. The biggest achievement I feel I've done is I've managed to manipulate the RNG of Chalmers' interrogation (:17 to :37). Every time he suspects there may be something off with his luncheon, he will question you and you must respond. Most casual players will choose the "Lame Exaggeration" speech pathway, as this has the greatest chance of success. There is the option to simply brute force your way through his questioning, however this requires astronomical luck to pull off, making it nonviable before. By manipulating the RNG behind your answers, Chalmers will accept your answer and move on. As his most common question is related to Skinner's dialect, this is referred to as "Utica Skip" (note: this is a general term for skipping Chalmers' interrogation, not specifically the dialect question).

The game keeps track at how well you answer Chalmers' question with a normally-unseen "trust" value. This would normally have no impact on gameplay, but if raised high enough - as is done through manipulation - it can cause an alternate ending in which Chalmers doesn't look back when Skinner's mother screams for help, saving a few seconds.

RNG manipulation is surprisingly easy to pull off, but must be done within a 1-frame window to correctly cycle the RNG. This is where the intro comes into play. By buffering inputs during the scripted walking sequence, we can essentially break down the door and enter the dining room earlier than the scene expects. This has the positive effect of putting us on the correct cycle, but has come nasty data corruption effects as well. The beauty in this run, however, comes from using these corruptions to benefit the run beyond Utica skip.

TS:22SFS was programmed in such a way that when data in one save file is corrupted, data from another save file is pulled in to patch everything together. Most flags for story progress are marked as true in a null file by default in the game's code, then marked all false when a new file is created (I believe this is a holdover from the debugging phase). Therefore, when data is switched in (file 2 must not have a save file), it will mark certain story flags as completed. One limitation of this is that eventually the game will pick up where it left off, keeping the intended data of the file. In other words, there is currently no way to mark EVERY story flag as complete and skip the whole level.

This is utilized as the corruption starts once you enter the kitchen (:04). The story progress is pulled up until Skinner leaves to receive the Hamburgers. This is a MASSIVE sequence break, skipping the planning tutorial, musical cutscene, and exercise interrogation sequence.

Also, an interesting side effect of this data corruption is that any use of the word "No" from Skinner is erased. This is a minor skip, but enough to warrant research.

The final notable skip (:36) involved collision not working as intended when the camera is facing away from a wall. During Chalmers' second question, I position Skinner through the wall within the loading zone of the Aurora Borealis sequence, skipping Skinner excusing himself.

I plan on improving this run as much as possible, as there are still some potential places to save time:

1. Interrogation:
This is easily the longest portion of the run. Corruption doesn't last long enough to skip this. The loading zone for the AB sequence doesn't load until this completes. If this could be skipped, the run could almost be cut in half. However, this could cause problems with the RNG of Chalmers' Aurora question (run-ending if occurs) as well as triggering the slower normal ending.

2. "No" skip:
I've dug through the code and found no reason why Skinner saying the word "No" is deleted. Maybe these all count as a story flag? Checkpoints? I'm not sure. There is possibility for this to somehow be a time-saving skip.

3. Unloading Fire:
This would be the Holy Grail of this run. The fire is one of the main story sequences, and skipping it would essentially run the end much earlier, as Skinner could simply serve his roast. The fire is a physical object in the game, but there are very few ways to "put out fire" in TS:22SAS.

I'll keep grinding this until I find some skips.

Skip)