Lost Crown (7): A Lost World

After Ulcombe, I decided to just go ahead and finish the game. My favorite part is the search for the crown. Jonathan built a wonderful underground world for Nigel to explore, with some very nice puzzles to solve. These are more puzzley puzzles than those in the rest of the game, which tend to be item based.


But by the end of the Ulcombe episode we have all the clues we need to seek the crown. Nigel figures out where it is, and off we go. Jonathan has us tramp over the entire route, rather than simply shifting the scenes. I agree with that choice. This is close to the endgame (but it isn't!) We ought to work for the prize a bit.


I remember on my first playthrough that I got lucky just outside the mine and picked up an item that Nigel needs underground. I don't know what I would have done if I'd missed it. Perhaps Nigel gives us a clue that he needs this thing for players who missed it? Hope so, because the hapless, itemless player would need a hint to go outside again and find it. (I had a saved game close to that so I went back to check. Alas, no, there isn't any clue. If you miss the item you will be, ahem, stuck.) At any rate, if you've got the item it's fairly clear where to use it, and that turns on the waterwheel-driven machinery.


Descending ever deeper into the ancient world, we find some nice puzzles, none really too tough. There is another sound clue. Again, the hard of hearing can go to a walkthrough. Nice clues though:

I'm really impressed with how Jonathan depicted the Anglo-Saxon artifacts. They look quite real. Of course, the helmet is modeled on the one found at Sutton Hoo:

But best of all is the underground world. This isn't even the best part:

Great work. Love it! 


However, Nigel's adventures underground turn out not to be the endgame. Nigel learns that he hasn't made very good choices, and serious events result. Violence happens, seen in a seance:

Nigel decides he has to make things right. Jonathan takes the endgame mostly out of our hands. We have a few things to do, such as dealing with the Harbour Cottage ghosts. I found another ghostly snapshot to take and tape to record that I'd never found before. I still seem to be missing a few, as there were gaps in my collection. 


Once the real action starts the game runs in essence like a movie, and we watch, doing only a few simple actions. It's satisfying, but leaves us with plenty of questions. I will speculate in a separate post.


However, I did manage to find that last reference to Barrow Hill, and here it is in a blowup:

And then there is that last huge, major clue about what's really going on in Saxton. Nigel stands on the quay by Harbour Cottage--and there are rust stains in front of him. Nigel doesn't notice. On my first playthrough I did see that one, but I wasn't able to make any reasonable guess about why that was there.


So that's The Lost Crown! I'll go ahead and write a review, although I haven't changed my mind about this being one of the best adventure games ever made.


A+!


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Lost Crown (6): A Whole New Area!

I've finished one of the most intriguing areas of the game, with the sweetest ghosts, more mystery from Mr. Russet, that damned organ puzzle, and the least threatening action sequence (if that's what it is) in the game.


Not to say that the Ulcombe crypt area isn't scary. It is. The effect of the green view through the night-vision camera is enough for that. Add in the sound effects from the camera and some plague victims (could they still be contagious?), a nifty little puzzle with spinning panels and you have a nicely creepy effect. It's just that the monster-looking thing that we encounter is a bit cheesy--too much so to belong in this game. The rock throwing doesn't do much either. Aside from those two things, this is a nifty area to explore.


But before we get into the crypt, we meet the best ghosts in the game. Solving their puzzle really is nice. Very rewarding. Great emotional shot in the arm.


Also, we meet Mr. Russet again (I love this character, and Jonathan did a wonderful job with the voice, too). It seems that Mr. Russet speaks Old English. I would think that he was a native speaker, except that the book in the museum library identifies his name as French, which would mean that he came over after the conquest. I always found that rather odd. If anyone should be Anglo-Saxon it should be Mr. Russet.


Hmmm. I wonder if Nanny Noah and Bob Tawney speak Old English too? Perhaps the Saxtonites have tried to keep up with the times? At any rate, they're all pagans, which would make them extremely early Anglo-Saxons, before Christianity moved in.


Also, there's another huge clue in the background of the screen in which Nigel talks with Mr. Russet. I actually didn't see it the first time I played (nor the white flaw in the Northfield churchyard). Apparently it didn't fit in with my concept of the game world at the time, so I tuned it out. But again, Nigel walks behind this interesting clue. I will speculate later.


This area also has the game's most difficult puzzle. At least, I found it so. There are some excellent clues lying around. We get a recording of the tune we're supposed to play on the church organ--once we get the steam engine working--but that tune isn't enough for the player with only an average musical ear (my sister would have solved it instantly with just the tune to go by). Combining notes from Nathaniel Ager's book and a diagram of keyboard notes, it's solvable. 

However, I learned this time that you have to solve the puzzle twice if you do it too early. Before the organ puzzle, we need to get into the crypt. That turns out to be another sound puzzle. Hard-of-hearing players will just have to consult a walkthrough on these. It's well worth it though, because the payoff we get from finishing the Ulcombe area is the best in the game.


I won't spoil it, but: Hooray!


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Lost Crown (5): Spooky Night

Having put the bad stuff behind me, I had plenty of ghosthunting to do. Night Three is mostly using the technology in the cottage, and we get lots and lots of experience with that.


And then there's that telescope trick.


But first, the cottage ghosts. Nigel and Lucy had already set up the cameras, but now Nigel gets to really explore. There are certain tasks we need to perform on each screen, little puzzles, that aren't difficult, except for one that I remembered. Fortunately I got through that one with little difficulty this time, moving the cursor around the screen to get a sentence from the ghost. It's all fairly fun and not threatening.


I remember well, however, the first time I encountered Nigel's dream that night. Now, of course, it's easy. But the first time it scared me to death, as Nigel wanders around the cottage in a very strange manner. More I will not say.


The next day is, of course May Day! And there we have a surprise that again, I won't reveal. Others have not been as squeamish, but I remember the delightful surprise when I reached May Day the first time I played, and I refuse to spoil it.


I will, however, give you a photo of a teensy part of the fayre, the Punch 'n Judy Show:

But that's all you get!


So, I have gone to the May Day Fayre, had my fortune told, had my conversations, and have gone off to peer through my telescope and reveal the location of Ulcombe Church, which as I recall has the most difficult puzzle in the game, huge clues about what's really going on in the game (if I'm right, or close to right, about that), a not very scary action sequence, and the two most charming ghosts in the game.


I'll leave it there!


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Lost Crown (4): Getting the Rough Part Behind Me

Well I knew what was coming on Day Three, and I have put it behind me. I finally found the trigger to the rest of the day by just going everywhere I could possibly go. I'd done most of that earlier, but hadn't taken it all the way.


But this is the day not only of the awful scene, but also of the treasure hunt and Emily Travers. Nanny Noah's game I found to be both fun and pretty easy on my first playthrough, I remember. She sends you all around Saxton and a little bit beyond, setting up a few of the later events.


Also, this is the day we have another confrontation with Prof. Hardacre, and find the Saxton Bell out in the shore maze (again, thankfully, not much of a maze).

The Old Shore Bell

But of course, most of Day Three deals with the cat kidnapping, and with, it turns out, Frederick Ager's ghost. We will banish him just as we banished Thomas Ager back at Northfield. This really is the game's best "action sequence," if you want to call it that. In relation to shooters, of course, this isn't action. For an adventure game however, it is. Nigel gets caught in a confined space, and Lucy has to guide him to save him from the ghostly dark, which is chasing him (and possibly, her as well?). Quite frightening.


After that, however, we have that disturbing scene of finding the "Nightmare Room." Good description. Animal lovers will hate this scene. I disagree with Jonathan's choice here, and I just wanted to get it behind me.


Even so, however, I once again saw something I'd never seen before. At one point Nigel is attacked by flies, and in the background we see the face of one of the Ager brothers. I never spotted that before.


However, for the first time I ran into a nasty glitch in the game that I'd never before encountered. During the height of the fly attack, Nigel says, "I have to think fast" and I decided to grab the walkie-talkie. That sent me back to the original scene with the walkie-talkie, yet with the sound of flies buzzing in the background. I had to play through until I could reload. Fortunately I'd saved just before the action sequence, so I didn't have to replay the whole day. The next time through it all worked fine. Apparently you have to wait for Lucy to call you on the walkie-talkie. That is a really bad glitch, in a really bad spot.


Anyway, it's done.


On a lighter note, I had fun with the Lighthouse Cafe today, and just kept going in to see what leftover food I'd wind up with in my inventory. There are about six items to get, and they're obviously random. If you keep at it, though, eventually you'll get one of the cupcakes from Barrow Hill:

The only way to get rid of the leftover food in your inventory is to feed it to the pig. You also get a close-up of the food for a second or two. So, above is the evidence!


I enjoy the references to Barrow Hill in this. Mostly they come in the form of posters on the wall of the Celtic Corner and the Museum. I seem to recall that there's another one on the chalkboard of the Lighthouse Cafe on the last day. I'll have to watch for it.

Lighthouse Cafe (a really nice screen)

Speaking of Barrow Hill, clearly I'll have to replay that too! Can't get any screenshots of it though, as I'll have to play it on Dad's machine. It would load into my virtual XP program on my old Mac, but this new Mac won't accept the second disk. But I've got the game on my old Thinkpad, on Dad's Vista HP 'puter, and could even put it into the virtual PC on my old blueberry iMac.


But before that, now that I have the really nasty stuff in this game behind me, I'll zoom through the rest.


Lots more fun to come!


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Lost Crown (3): Finding the trigger . . .

Finished Night Two, placed all the cameras. This time it went faster. Now, though, on Day Three, I can't remember how to trigger the events with Lucy. I've spied on her at the Martello Tower, I've talked to Prof. Oogle and Nanny Noah (twice) and Bob Tawney. I've entered lots of photos in the Saxton Snappers contest and commiserated with Rhys about the missing Mr. Tibbs, his kitty.


Sadly, I know what I have to do in the game today. While Night Two is the scariest, Day Three is by far the most disturbing. Can't imagine what possessed Jonathan to include this event in his game. OK, it heightens the atmosphere, but really! At least it has a better action sequence than the few in the rest of the game.


But I'm going to have to wander around a bit more to find the trigger. It's been so long since I played that sometimes it really is like a new game to me. We forget how long it takes to trigger events. No doubt that's the major reason fans of shooters hate adventures.


Well, I still like to look at the scenery. And so I wander, and wait . . .


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Lost Crown (2): Night Terrors

It is the second night. The little game in the Northfield graveyard always manages to unnerve me. I'm sure that's mainly due to the short length of time we've got to place our plants around the church door before we're overwhelmed by the darkness, but it always gets my heart beating and did this time too. Made it on the second try, though. Best yet!


However, getting there isn't really that tough. OK, it's scary to walk down the train tracks at night after we've been warned twice not to do that. But the charm Nanny gives us works very easily. It's probably the easiest action sequence I've ever seen, and once I tried doing nothing. Nothing awful happens.


I'd forgotten just how much there is to do on the second night. Not only do we go through a major episode all the way out at Northfield, but we break in to the Museum and meet Lucy and another, really fun ghost there. Major stuff.


I saved just after Lucy joined me at Harbour Cottage. I remember that the next sequence is placing all the cameras in the cottage, and that takes some time.


I'm really impressed at all the work Jonathan put into some special shots just to enhance the atmosphere of the second night. This moon shot, for example, as we're walking out to the train tracks: 

(Click photo to embiggen)

And this one, on the train tracks:

I also noted with amusement that Nigel tells Lucy that ghosthunting "should be scientific." I'll write more about that later.


But till then, that uneasy, nighttime atmophere rules! And the kitties still rule the rooftops!

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The Lost Crown (1): Replay

I first played The Lost Crown when it came out, and enjoyed it, perhaps, more than any other game I've played, which is saying somethin'! As we await the next game in the series, The Last Crown, I decided to give this one another replay. After all, I hadn't yet played it on my new iMac. I've played it at least four times--once for Dad and a couple of times because I just enjoy it so much.

Yes, I had intended to start Gray Matter, but it wouldn't install on my XP program, so I have it on Dad's Vista 'puter. He's been using the 'puter during the daytime to listen to some marvelous old radio programs from the 40s (complete with wartime commercials) that I found for him at the library, and I've been drowning in Kirkus books, as usual. Gray Matter will have to wait.


So, replaying Lost Crown seemed like a good idea. I'll want to have the whole trilogy on this blog eventually anyway! I know the game very well by this time, yet I've already managed to find one or two things I missed (the phone in the museum elevator, for example--I never tried it before). Mostly, I'm looking for intriguing questions that weren't solved in the first game. We'll see if they're addressed in the next one. I should be able to zip through it pretty quickly. Plus, I think I'll include some screenshots, in addition to the cat pictures. I've discovered that even in full-screen mode in my virtual XP, I can take screenshots from my Mac base that land on the Mac desktop. Here's the first one:

Arriving in The Lost Crown
(click photo to embiggen)

The first thing you notice about this game is that it's in black and white, except for some splashes of color. That choice, I think, is absolutely brilliant. It not only gives a unique atmosphere to the game, but I suspect it may say something about the mysteries in this series. (Note also, the wonderful "particle effects" added by Matt Clark--they enliven the game with drifting fog, smoke, etc.) The grayscale, is, I think, a clue. Boakes did the scenery from photographs he took of the town of Polperro, Cornwall, a well-known tourist town that fairly reeks with old-world charm. (See Jonathan's website on The Making of the Lost Crown--scroll down on that link and click). Whitewashed houses and narrow streets. No cars. Perfect for a village that apparently has become lost in time. Birds fly overhead and insects swarm and buzz. Despite the fact that Lucy Reubans and a few other Saxton inhabitants appear to be contemporary characters, I don't think Saxton is a place we could find on any map. Everybody there appears to come from different time periods, all living together. Another part of the mystery. Where are we? When are we?

View of Saxton (my fave shot in the game as dandelions gently drift across the scene. I think this is a photo of the real Polperro.)

Nigel Danvers (a nod to Daphne du Maurier, who lived just up the coast?) was a character in the original Darkfall game, but this time he's the star. Obviously, he's modeled on Jonathan Boakes. I think it's rather a nice idea to have a main character that looks like a real person, frankly, instead of some impossibly handsome freak from the cover of a Harlequin romance novel. Helps us identify with the story.


Nigel slides along (it's Boakes' first attempt at third person) rather slowly at times. You can't double click and speed him up. That would drive me crazy in other games but in this one it's fine. There's so much to look at in the scenery that I really don't mind taking the time. Getting in to Saxton takes a bit of time, but not inordinately so. The "fens" are not a maze--there is a map. We do have to solve one puzzle to get through the Fenland Eye, which contains an intriguing gate that appears to lock in ghosts--something that isn't resolved in this game.


And do you notice that George the Dog has left footprints on the sand, but Nanny Noah and Nigel do not? (Nor does Lucy at the endgame.) That can't be an accident. I will speculate later.


Once we get into Saxton we have to find a place to stay, and we land at Harbour Cottage--a real place in Polperro. (The real cottage was up for sale last year and interior photos were posted on the web. They, of course, looked absolutely nothing like the interior of the cottage in our game. What a shame that Jonathan couldn't buy the place!) Inside we find a terrible mess and possible ghosts. That will become a major plot line in the game. Nigel is in the ghost business. He's stolen some papers from his employer, the ubiquitous (in Boakes' games) Hadden Industries (do visit Jonathan's fake websites). Mr. Hadden himself will be joining us in parts of the game, and appears to be guiding things along.


At first, in good adventuring fashion, we're limited in where we can go until we've completed some actions that advance the plot. Once new areas are opened up, there will be clues to lead us on. For example, when we finally can get to Celtic Corner, the little curiosity shop that will answer many of our questions, we'll be following a cat that suddenly appears (and Mr. Tibbs is a character in the game).


Speaking of cats, one of the major themes in the game is the cat kidnappings. A truly nasty character operates somewhere, in the shadows, and it isn't only cats that are threatened. However, at night cats perch on the rooftops, watching over everything in the town. I love that.


There is a maze in the game in the Saxton Caverns, but for maze haters, really, truly, it isn't that bad. I never got lost. Just keep going straight, folks. There are places to turn, but they're fairly obvious. This is the first time we get a first-person viewpoint in the game, as Nigel navigates by using one of his devices. Some excellent ghosts are here in the Saxton Caverns, in Grindle's Maw. We take a ghostly photo of them by the fire, and a ghostly recording that's a snappy sea shanty song. Very nice touch.


Speaking of time shifting, notice that when Nigel gets the equipment from Hadden Industries, the date of April, 1978 is on the lid of the box. Just something that's rather intriguing. Note also in the opening sequence of the game, the date that Nigel joined Hadden Industries, displayed on the right-hand computer screen.

Ager House on Raven Lane in Northfield

So far in my replay, I've advanced to the second night. I've explored Northfield, met the Karswells at Ager House (pictured above), explored the church, met the vicar (Nanny Noah says, "The vicar, at Northfield? That was quick."--Nanny knows something about time in this game, methinks) and Mr. Russet, one of my favorite characters. Mr. Russet always has a mask over his face. Nanny Noah says he's "as old as these fens," and I think that's probably quite right. (I also greatly enjoy Nanny Noah herself, and the Station Master voiced by Matt Clark. Great jobs. I do not like Matt's rendition of Professor Hardacre. Better to have found an older voice for that part, I think.)


I've explored the Museum, met the extremely odd Mr. Gruel and his "Jemima," and the wonderful Victorian handyman Bob Tawney, and his pig. I've experienced a nasty episode in the cottage bathroom and photographed Nigel as a ghost in the mirror (another clue?). I'm about to go exploring in the Northfield churchyard, at night, truly the scariest portion of the game.


I will add, though, another major, huge clue to the ultimate mystery in this game. When Nigel first enters the Northfield churchyard, there is a white scar running down the side of a tree. It looks like snow. But it isn't winter, is it? And Nigel walks behind the scar. Now, that isn't a mistake in the game. It's deliberate, and there are two other clues later in the game similar to that one. What could it mean . . .?


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