Editting a save file, or similar workarounds

[LPSP]

Hi, new user today, with a specific question to ask everyone. Hope you're all doing well. I'll get stuck in with the hows and whys of the question topic.

I've been replaying through Yahtzee Croshaw's old games lately out of a bit of nostalgia. Today is 7 Days a Skeptic, and I started playing about two hours ago. About one hour ago in between drinks breaks and such, I reached the part where (SPOILERS INCOMING)

Spoiler

the escape pod door opens to the vacuum and you have to very rapidly press a lever to shut it in time.

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Now I remembered from my previous playthrough/s that this action occurs right after an extremely lengthy and unskippable cutscence, which was correct. So I had the bright idea of saving very quickly first when this event began so I won't have to sit through all that in the event of a retry.

So when the event started, I scrolled up to the top and hit save. When the mouse is hovered over the top bar in 7DaS, the action pauses, as is aptly demonstrated during other action sequences in the game. But it turns out, this is the one exception! So on finishing my save, I found that I have 0.5s to complete the challenge before getting a game over.

Try as much as I might, reloading and reloading again and again, I couldn't complete the challenge in this format. This was my only save file, and I had every reason to believe that this save sequence was fine given the prior standards established. A bit of a gip, you may say. Was I expected to simply sit through the massive horrible cutscene again and again? Was I not expected to work around this? It's a 15 year old AGS game so actually I don't really mind.

BUT what I do mind is playing through the entire game again to reach my old position. That's a nag, especially since I plan on replaying the entire thing anyway to read Yahtzee's commentary. I'm not playing through it three times, I have a life.

So what to do? What struck me as immediately viable would editing the save file itself. That would be a simple enough mechanical operation, identifying the variables in a hex editor and tweaking them to set the game back.

Equally viable, would be downloading a save file completed up to the point where I was at and then starting off from there. Both of these approaches would solve the end goal of sparing innocent me a third playthrough, thwarting the dastardly problem once and for all.

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So I spent the next hour browsing throughout the internet for solutions, and eventually after google et al proved useless (they've all dropped so shockingly in standards lately), I found myself washed up on these shores. Hello again! 

I took the time to search through the forums before making this post and have seen many people before me with variations of this problem. Some kind of glitch or game scripting oversight occurs and this results in a bugged or lost game file, and because it's late in the game it's wrong to play back through it all. So I know that I am among kin in this regard; very frustrating.

Yet full of hope all the same, because AGS is old software for pc and can be tweaked in a fashion much more easily than, say, a console video game. Hence, I submit my query to the forum for help and guidance.

TL and DR: I'm looking for a way to manually edit save files (specifically for 7 Days a Skeptic), and/or a save file for said game up to

Spoiler

the bit right before the escape pod sequence

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, in order to work around an error rendering my save file inert. All knowledge and insight welcomed with the utmost gratitude!

[Khris]

You can press the escape key to skip the cutscene (it's actually three in one, so you need to press escape three times). You can also skip dialogue lines by clicking a mouse button.

Saving in AGS during a cutscene will get queued until the current function finishes, this is why your savegame ends up saving when he's already being sucked out the hole.

Anyway, here's a save file right before the cutscene: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HPqBlcVQuo2pD4o6HwYwBbG9EChtdWvX/view?usp=sharing
You'll have about two seconds after skipping it.
Note that I played the game using the AGS2.72 engine, so you need to do the same in order to load the savegame:

1. download https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/finals/AGS-2.72.zip and extract it
2. copy acwin.exe into the game folder
3. copy/rename 7days.exe to ac2game.dat
4. run acwin.exe --setup (from cmd)

[LPSP]

Thank you very much Khris, for both the info AND for the save file.

As it happens, two days I just started another playthrough and hammered through the game very quickly to get to the end. I discovered that alternating between left-clicks on the mouse and hitting space or enter will make text blitz through, which helped make through the bulkier dialogue sections. I used the opportunity to explore an exploit that I'd never thought about before:

Spoiler

entering Barry's secret code into the console before you're supposed to have that knowledge. I never saw Yahtzee's little easter egg comment before, which was nice 

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. And then I went and played through it AGAIN, just to enjoy Yahtzee's commentary. Fun was had.

Point being, I asked for a way around the problem and you delivered - even if I just went through it another time between my post and your getting back to me, you still delivered and basically that's like a tiny kernel of faith in humanity granted, so thank you.

(love MSPA)