Now that I'm running the game more consistently, I've noticed that I kept getting the same starting positions on the clock handles, and the same melody on the pan flute minigame, things which I assumed were completely unpredictable. This worried me at first, because random number generation could be tied to hardware/emulation method.

After doing some experimenting, I managed to consistently get the same flute melody on both VMWare and PCEMU when performing the same sequence of actions. It appears the game's pseudorandom number generation is actually quite consistent, which opens the door for RNG manipulation.

From initial experimentation, here are the game features I believe rely on RNG and could be manipulated or predicted to some extent:

• The initial combination above the secret door
• The initial position of the clock handles
• The melody to play in the flute minigame
• The order in which wires must be burnt to blow up the dynamite
• The sequence of carts produced in the factory

Here are the mechanics that seem to heavily rely on RNG and may ruin attempts at RNG manipulation:

• Animal movement
• Woodlouse generation and movement
• Asteroid minigame
• Woodlouse minigame

This would explain why it took me so long to notice that I could get consistent RNG on the flute minigame: I had to do the exact same sequence of actions in roughly the same amount of time on all the pages with animals prior to it.

I will experiment some more to determine if my assumptions are correct, and reply to this thread with any insight gained.

I haven't practiced the game in a while but figured I should post my other discoveries before I forget them all.

• I tested and successfully reproduced the same sequence of events on French and English copies of the game. Both seem to have been made using mTropolis v1.1.2 which is reassuring.
• The sequence of the dynamite minigame is randomized. Good luck manipulating it however, as there are ants on the cellar page and I haven't checked if the jackhammer deals in RNG.
• The initial state of the frogger minigame doesn't appear to be randomized. The frog always jumps up during this minigame, but I haven't checked if a random jump direction is generated anyways.
• The initial state of the red-eyed statuette puzzle ("cloportes héroïques" page in French) can be manipulated. A lucky woodlouse spawn can save a significant amount of time, so it might be worth routing around that manip.

With all of that in mind, I highly recommend using starting runs with this route:

1. On the page with the frog, be very methodical and always repeat the exact same sequence of actions as woodlouse spawn here. If you leave this page just a bit too early or too late the game will make a different number of RNG rolls and you'll get another pattern for the next pages. You need to grab the camera, the frog, and likely the ladybug so it doesn't fly randomly.
2. Next, go get the jackhammer in the "Atelier". If everything went right the clock handles should be oriented the same way every time.
3. Finally, do the pan flute and woodlouse defense minigames as you can make the most out of the RNG manipulation on these two pages ("flûte magique" and "cloportes héroïques" in French). The melody on the flute should be the same every time, and if you get a good pattern you'll have a lot of woodlouse at the bottom of the page.

After that, the random events of that final page will likely cause drift and I doubt you'll be able to get consistent patterns on the factory carts or the asteroids.