The Lost Crown Silent Night 3: Finished with BONUS FOOTAGE!!!

It is New Year's Eve. I do not go out of the house on New Year's Eve, so this proved to be the perfect time to finish this wonderful demo of the new Lost Crown standalone game that will be released in Q1. Happily, the full game will offer a point and click option. Whew!

Because the only real difficulty I had in getting through the game was navigation. Even inside the church I had serious difficulty getting Nigel pointed in a direction I wanted, and then keeping him on track. I wound up just doing, mostly, short little turns and steps. Even then it was so tough that I considered quitting, but thankfully did not. The navigation problem will not be there when the full game comes out.

Another problem is that I discovered from the BONUS FOOTAGE that my game is way too dark. I remember when it first started they wanted me to slide a bar, but when I did nothing changed. Hopefully I'll be able to re-do that when I start over for the full game--because I'm positive that I missed a lot because of the navigation difficulty.

However! I encountered a couple of very good puzzles involved in turning on the lights. There was also an easy key matching puzzle which would have gone much more quickly if I had point and click.

Almost finished, so I'm not giving away much here

It's so nice to be able to take my own screenshots again! Yay! From these shots you can see how nice the game looks, even though my screen definitely was too dark:

Entering the Church

Just inside the entryway

With the altar behind

All over there are things we need inventory items to access, and clearly those will be in the full game when it releases.

I'm sure now that I was right that the character I met is a ghost. We have full conversations and it seems quite normal, but towards the end of the demo we get some major clues as to the actual status, although it isn't spelled out. 

One thing I noticed is that the crows are not only everywhere--we will find out one thing that they are doing in the course of the demo--but when we look at the photographs on the wall of the vestry, nearly all of them have crows in the photos.

And I saw a really, really nice thing that explained something major about Nigel's first visit to Northfield Church back in TLC1. He meet the vicar, who has forgotten something. We find that something and it's a flyer for a memorial for Evelyn Ackland. Then we look at the photos on the vestry wall. Only one is in color, and it is the same character we met in TLC1. The photo is labeled Evelyn Ackland. So, when Nigel met him, he was already a ghost, thus explaining Nanny Noah's comment, "That was quick." 

I really like that!

When you finish the demo, you will encounter a truly nifty snow globe, with the church inside and a clue or two lying around it. It's a really nice graphic:

Not endgame, but end Demo

Except for the navigation problem, I have to say that this is just a wonderful game! It's absolutely The Lost Crown! Fits in perfectly. I can't wait to play the whole thing!

And now for the BONUS FOOTAGE!!! On Saturday Jonathan and Matt Clark joined in a live playthough of the game on Steam, and the whole two-hour session has been released as a YouTube video! Don't watch until you've finished, but in it Jonathan and Matt tell a whole lot about how the game was made and about their future plans. (Warning: a couple of the participants use some rough language.)

I can't get the link to embed it, but here's the URL link. Jonathan and Matt join the conversation at 17 miniutes in. Enjoy!

NOT A GHOST: Silent Night

UPDATE: So sorry, the video appears to have been taken down. I'll leave the link up in case they put it back. But in case it doesn't come back, Jonathan said that if Blackenrock isn't out by Easter he's going to basically give up on life. He also said that they've already recorded all the voice work for the third TLC game, and Jonathan joked that he intends to get that out by 2060. Matt still is working on Bracken Tor, although he didn't give any kind of timeline for it. And Jonathan wants to do another Darkfall game, presumably Storm Warning. They discussed Glastonbury as well, coming sometime in the future. Both said that they have real jobs, and that's the reason it takes so long to get these games out. However, Jonathan said that he did Silent Night, from start to finish, in only three months. And he defended point and click, saying that if anybody criticizes him for it, well, he tried it the other way with this game, and all the feedback was, "We want point and click." So there!

Great fun! Great nostalgia and much much more to come!

The Lost Crown Silent Night 2: Poking Around

Not much playing time today, but I couldn't resist another try. So I hunted around in the church. Can't do anything yet in the vestry, but I did find an amusing item:

A relic from the past

It's the flyer from TLC1, that the vicar had lost. Sigh. Memories.

Also, I got a couple of shots of Old Nick, and these really help to show how excellent the graphics are in this game

From above

From the side

I mean, these graphics are fantastic, even though it's quite dark in the church. It seems that Old Nick has lost his hands again. Wonder if we'll be able to restore them in this little game?

I also got some shots of a couple of shadows lurking in the church:

In the middle

Again, in the middle

So far Nigel hasn't commented on these things. They were all over the churchyard too. Perhaps just atmosphere?

I also found some new areas, including a list of hymns, which no doubt will prove useful, a chart of the choirs from various years, which clearly also will prove useful:

Glad to have a shot of this!

And of this!

And, I found what must be a clue to something that I'll encounter later, because I couldn't interact with it at all.

230 Volts?

Also, I sent a link of this blog to Jonathan, and he responded and told me that you get the maps with the M key, and perhaps by clicking the scroll bar of the mouse. I recall that these controls are listed in the options section of the menu. I just forgot. 

Still can't open the sort of "backpack" that's in my inventory. It wants another inventory item. Hmm.

But that's all I had time for today. A teensy bit of progress, but I think I'm going to have to venture outside again next time, which no doubt will require turning off the Steam overlay. I might leave it on just a bit to grab some screenshots though.

This may be just a little side game, as it were, but I'm super busy right now so it could take me a week or more to finish, easily.

If I can, of course!

Next Entry.

The Lost Crown Silent Night - 1

If I can stop myself from dancing and turning handsprings, here is my first blog post on Jonathan Boakes' The Lost Crown spinoff mini-game, Silent Night. From my experience with it so far, it meets the story standards of TLC, and far exceeds the graphics.

The game takes place at Northfield Church, where, apparently, Nigel will not be going in Blackenrock. So it's wonderful to visit there again.

Jonathan made the game with the Unity engine, and the result is absolutely gorgeous. The graveyard, the church, inside and out, come across as just stunning. We still have black and white with splashes of color, except that the concept in this game works even better.

Outside the church. See the red on the right side.

Note, I am unable to take screenshots at all, so I've stolen all of these from Jonathan's blog and Facebook page. (Update: I have managed to get my screenshots working again, so my next blog entries will have my own shots. Yay!)

This section of the game is only a preview, with the full game to release, we fervently hope, soon. The preview is free on Steam and is supposed to run about three to four hours. However, I spent at least the first full hour just trying to navigate Nigel through the world.

Because . . . 

A controller. Gasp.

Although once the complete game comes out there will be a point and click option, in this preview you can use only a controller or WASD for navigation, and that make things very difficult, especially outside the church. I have owned a controller for about a year, but this is the first time I've hooked it up (yes, I'm that much a PNC adventure fan). So I'm not very good at it. Amendment: I'm not good at it. 

I don't seem to be the only player who had problems, however. As the game first downloads, Nigel, even when walking, is nearly impossible to navigate. He weaves wildly from side to side even if you can manage to get him pointed in the right direction, or, rather, a direction. Clicking on observable objects becomes a matter of luck.

Word came through on Facebook from Jonathan to turn off the cloud analizing, and others suggested running it directly from the .exe file to bypass Steam. Just turning off the Steam overlay turned out to be equal to the .exe file. I tried both. With the overlay turned off the game became playable, but still difficult.

I was lucky enough to get into an FB Messenger conversation with Jonathan on Christmas Eve when he responded to my Christmas gif, and he said that when you get Nigel inside the church the controls work much easier. That turned out to be true. On his FB page, Jonathan also says that he'll stick to PNC in the future. My input is that controllers are great for platformers and shooters (not that I'd ever play a shooter), but they make no sense for adventures.

And the church is wonderful. The graphics are so good that I rather hope Jonathan does stick with the Unity engine, but just be sure that the PNC option is enabled. (However, Jonathan is the artist. I will leave it up to him!)

Nigel outside, wondering where to go and how to get there.

Inside the church. Are these photos clues?

My major difficulty with the controller now is that it takes freaking forever to move the cursor over something I want to click on. I'm still having a little bit of trouble navigating, but I am learning the controls. I haven't yet figured out how to access my audio files (I do have one already) or the pics Nigel takes. Nigel takes pics now automatically—we only have the option of the nightvision camera, the EVP recorder, and the EMF meter as our optional ghosthunting gadgets. Also, Nigel has picked up several maps of the area and of the church, but I haven't yet figured out how to access those.

Despite those difficulties, I have solved an easy puzzle about lighting candles, and I have met what appears to be an actual person.

Needless to say, I am HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS of this character, apparently living, that I have met. What is this character doing here? Nigel clearly already has traveled into a different time slot in classic TLC fashion, and remarks several times that things are different. I'm pretty sure this person is going to turn out to be someone recently deceased who perhaps hasn't figured that out yet. 

Nice.

I now have a mission to go outside again (gulp) to find the generator, but I think I'm going to hunt around in the church for a bit longer instead. 

So I'm into the story!

I will happily do my best with this preview, hoping against hope that the full game will come out soon. And I am getting better at using the controller, so that will be helpful for other games. It's about time I learned to use one.

However, I will absolutely stick to point and click for adventures in the future. Absolutely. And I'm so glad that Jonathan agrees!

And I am back in Saxton (or rather, the area)! Jubilation!

Next Entry.

The Lost Crown auf Deutsch 3: Zu der Zukunft!

I did it! I played the whole game in German (well, I had to switch to English once to get by a bug, but only for a moment).

I'm rather proud of myself! After the first day I stopped looking at the English YouTube WT for translations. Sure, I didn't understand a bunch of major words, but I was able to follow the game very well in spite of that, and I was able to understand almost 100% in some scenes. 

Plus, I encountered a lot of conversational phrases that I had learned in my studies. It was really nice to see them actually used.

And they really did a fantastic job with the translation. Mein Gott, they spent massive amounts of time translating all the text that you read, including poems. It was a huge effort and it really works.

I still encountered a few bugs during the last couple of days, but I got by those fairly easily. I think it's because the cache is too full. Only once did I have to quit and reload--getting through the metal door in the Ulcombe tower basement. The middle hot spot wouldn't respond, but quit-and-reload solved the problem.

I almost achieved all my objectives: I did get all the photos, and I did get all the EVPs. I got the Steam achievement for the photos, but not for the EVPs--the "Spirit Voices" achievement--until I finished the game. Then after I got the achievement for finishing, about one second later the achievement for the Spirit Voices unlocked. How weird. But it worked and I got it!

I missed the "Good Listener" achievement because I missed the first night of listening to the phone. My list of achievements didn't show it until I was past that time (yeah, I should have read through the whole thing first). I went back to a saved game and did the action, thinking that Steam might record it, but it didn't.

Well, I guess I just might have to replay those four days auf Deutsch at some point. It was a really good experience, so I think I might, just to get that last one!

Update: I did it! I replayed the days (which is about half the game at least) and I got the Good Listener achievement. I got 'em all, as well as all the EVPs and the Photos, which was my major goal. Yay! And it was good for me to get that much more exposure to the German.

So I'm quite pleased! 

This game really is a masterpiece. I knew it was good, of course, but somehow this playthrough impressed me even more than my earlier ones. 

And now I'm ready for Blackenrock! (Although I might also play Midnight Horror auf Deutsch too! Update: Turns out that Midnight Horror only has German subtitles. They didn't do new voices. Still, I'll play it! Up-Update: more than subtitles! They also translated a lot of the reading material. Nice!)

Ja! Zu der Zukunft!

The Lost Crown Auf Deutsch-2: Getting by the Bugs

Well I thought I'd had it. 

So I've been getting by the bugs by quitting and reloading. Yesterday I had to quit Steam and reload, and that solved my problem.

The bugs are that I'll get to a point in the game where I have to click on a hot spot, but nothing happens. That's where I was all day yesterday. (Also, just occasionally I have to click way, way on the outside edge of the hotspot to get a response. The teensy pixel can be really difficult to find.)

I'm on the second night in the Museum. I'm downstairs. I've loaded the fuse, I've met Verity (well, Nigel doesn't know who she is yet). I've looked around at objects in other areas downstairs. Time to get on the elevator and go to the first floor

Bug: I can't click on the "1" in the elevator--the same problem I had on my first, daytime visit to the museum. I can click on the "2," which brings Verity into the elevator to take me back downstairs. I can click on the "0." I can even click on the phone button.

But there is no click on the "1." Therefore, I can't get to the first floor and the game is over.

So I uninstalled the game and reinstalled. Steam kept my achievements and my saved games--hooray! 

But it still didn't work. 

I thought I was done. Just to try it, I went back to the English version. Took ten minutes to download, but when I got into it I still had the saved games from the German version! I tried to get the elevator to move and voila! It worked right away!

So now I'm on the 1st floor where I'm supposed to be! I got by it! 

I'm now in the process of switching back to the German version, which takes another ten minutes to download--again.

But it seems from this experience that the problems in the game are in the German version, not the English. So if I keep running into problems, I've got this rather extreme solution to get by it.

I'm determined to finish this game! I'm having lots of fun despite the frustrations, and I continue to be massively impressed with the translation. And plus, even though my German is far from fluent, I haven't had to consult the English YouTube videos for a long time. I know the game well enough and can read the German just barely well enough to get through it quite nicely!

Onward! Vorwärts!

Next Entry.

The Lost Crown: Auf Deutsch!

Edited for clarity.

Just as an interlude, I am playing The Lost Crown in German. No, I'm nowhere near fluent in German, but I speak it well enough to follow the game, with the subtitles and my rather extensive knowledge of the game, having played it at least four times (or more).

Why? Well, Jonathan has created a little filler game called Silent Night, which he promises will actually be out in December. And both he and Matt say that they expect Blackenrock will be out before then. Yes yes, I know they say that every year, but this time I think it's real.

So a replay of TLC is in order! 

Also, I have never collected all the achievements in the game, as I only got it on Steam a while back--all my playthroughs came from the CD version. And I've never managed to find all of the photos and EVPs available in the game. There are guides to all the achievements, photos and EVPs. I found those. I'm following them.

Alas, it seems that at least two of the achievements are bugged and not available in the English version. You can, however, get them in the German version. German is a bit of a hobby of mine, so I thought I'd try it! 

So far so good! If I need help with translations I go to a YouTube walkthrough in English. Easy. 

I have run into several bugs while playing and thought that I had a corrupt copy of the game, but I've figured out how to get by them.

First, in the conversation with Prof. Hardacre in the caverns, there was no "exit" line in the dialogue. Apparently it was "below the fold," as it were, and I couldn't click on it. I had to "end task" to get out of the game because I couldn't get to the menu either. Fortunately I had a recent save and continued from there without talking to Hardacre at all (I'd already earned his Steam achievement with an earlier English replay). Turns out you can continue the game without having that conversation, so I did.

Later as I was trying to tackle the monuments puzzle out in Carrion Wood I couldn't get the game to accept the sticks that you place into the first monument so that you can turn it. The game kept telling me that I needed to talk to Robert Karswell. So back to his lab I went. I picked up the map of Carrion Wood. Nigel is supposed to automatically "make a note of it" and puts the map in the inventory, but he didn't, after many tries. Because I didn't have the map in my inventory I couldn't even start the puzzle. And I'd never get to Northfield, obviously.

I tried to reload the game that I saved and couldn't even get the game to load, so I went to a previous save, which turned out to be in just the right spot anyway. This time Nigel made the note, I solved the monuments puzzle and went to Northfield.

At Northfield, however, I couldn't pick up the "M" metal letter. The game just would not respond to the hot spot. So again, I saved, quit the game, reloaded and it worked right away!

Just now I was in the Museum on the second floor, trying to get back to the first floor, but the game wouldn't respond to the hot spot for the "1" button. Again, I saved, quit, reloaded--and it worked immediately!

So now I'm quite sure that I'll be able to finish the game. When I downloaded the German version, it sent my whole Steam app into glacial response times. It was taking a good five minutes to load the game and several more minutes to load a saved game. Obviously, the cache got seriously overloaded, but that cleared when I shut down the computer and restarted the next day. Something must still be overloaded in there--I seem only to get these unresponsive areas after I've played for quite a while. Now I know that I can just save, quit, and reload to fix the problem. Whew!


However, the Steam screenshot task isn't working, nor can I take shots just for the computer. Too bad. I'd really like to get some shots, because wow, they really did a fantastic job translating this game. They not only hired all new German-speaking actors, but they translated virtually all the text, including poems, into German. Of course, the environmental signs are all still in English, but I'm seriously impressed with the extent of the job they did with the translation.

And I'm doing well with it! I haven't gone to the English-language walkthrough for quite a while--I don't need it. Of course I don't understand everything, but I'm getting probably more than half of it. My knowledge of the game and the subtitles help a lot. And I'm learning new words. Ausgezeichnet!


I may have missed one achievement, but I'm betting that I'll get it. The "Good Listener" achievement requires you to listen to a story (which you can't really hear) on the dead telephone every day for four days. I missed the first one, but went back to a saved game and did it. I think that Steam is recording those events as they happen. Even though I didn't save it within the game, I think it will be there once I get to Day 4. I note that all the achievements I had earned in an earlier English game were still there (I only played through about the second day in that one). If I don't get it, shoot, I can go back and get it with another playthrough, wahrscheinlich auf Deutsch!

But to prepare for Blackenrock, it just demands another playthrough of TLC! Doing it in German keeps interest really high for me!

Next Entry

Shivers 6a: Winning!

Finished! Well that really was fun. I swear, this is the best puzzle game ever made (caveat: I haven't played all of 'em), and it's plenty scary to boot, never mind the cartoony ixupis. The sounds they make are enough to get you jumpy--the goal is not to see the things until you catch 'em.

Really, this thing is brilliantly put together. The 1995 graphics still look good, and it's because the museum is so well designed. The puzzles range from a cinch to extremely frustrating, and no, you can't go to a walkthrough for all of them if you don't like solving puzzles (well, why would you play this if you didn't?). You have to solve the things. My favorite is still the alchemy puzzle on the third floor, the one with the disks that match up all the colored lines. 

Fortunately, as in 7th Guest and 11th Hour, you can go back and do the all the puzzles again! After you win the game you get the option to explore the museum. You can go back and do all the puzzles again if you like. And you can go back and restart the game, load the game you won on, and you will get the screen that allows the exploration option. So that's super neat!

There's also a slideshow of really nice shots of the museum. Alas, they've included that awful "music" from the maze, but you can turn it down or mute it, as I did. Why not use the sweet little Anansi Spider tune? Yeah, I guess that wouldn't fit the mood.

When you find the last clue things are pretty straightforward. One place where the graphics do not hold up is the rollercoaster ride to the lobby when you find the final button to push. Way too pixelated to give any thrills.

Here's the final jar, the room where the endgame happens, and a few of the endgame sights. The newspaper is a nice reward for winning--it ties up the story. There are no spoilers in it, but ignore it here if you want to play the game and read it when you've earned it.

The final jar. Figuring out the last clue will give you the talisman for it.

Here's where the endgame happens

The final, awful movie

Your Reward

The game is extremely well produced, except for three areas: the introduction movie, the badly done voice of the sphinx, and the final movie. 

The real standout performance is the narration, meant to imitate Rod Serling and succeeding pretty well. The guy is a pleasure to listen to all the way through. 

And as I've said, the museum just looks great, especially the lobby. And I loved the elevator music in the elevators. Such a nice little touch. 

So that was an excursion into the past! I was very familiar with the game even after all these years, but it was still plenty of fun and not just for nostalgia. This is one of the games that turned me into a gamer, and I think that's true for a lot of folks.

Here are a few final screenshots:

The flashback screen all filled in

And finally, the Shivers advertisement, the last screen!

So I loved that! Have fun! Play Shivers!

Shivers 5a: Getting Bitten and Getting Even

I am closing in on the endgame, but not without some frustration.

So I got the wood ixupi, and started hunting for the others. I put off going into the capital punishment room as long as I could, but finally couldn't avoid it. There, of course, I found a good jar, and then I finally got into the psychedelic and game room, where there are some infamous puzzles. I went ahead an looked up the solution to the pinball puzzle, which can be enormously frustrating (I wasn't in the mood for frustration), because I wanted to keep moving, but the "master mind" puzzle can't be hacked because it's randomized. You have to win it on your own. I figured out some of the strategy myself, and looked up a better strategy. Got lucky and won the first time I tried that! Darn it, I didn't take a screenshot.

After that you get another talisman and you find the six skulls that you've been setting the colors on, according to the Museum Brochure. I had all but the last one, and that last one is in the subterranean room, with the awful maze. It's an awful maze in two ways: it uses the same picture tiles over and over, so you have few clues about where you are, and it has absolutely awful "music." I muted the computer. But the only way through is to either follow a WT or just stick to the sides and keep turning the same way, which isn't as easy as it would seem. But finally you get through.

And here's where I had my problem. You really ought to catch the oil ixupi before you go through all this, because the thing loves to inhabit the oil in the basement. You can go ahead and turn the skull wheel and just navigate the maze again to get out (ouch!) or you can travel over the tar. But if the ixupi is there, it will eat you.

Just to see what would happen, I let it kill me. Here's what happens:

The oil ixupi, eating.

The voice says you're trapped in a jar, forever.

So that was interesting. I reloaded to try again later. But I realized that I really had to start hunting, and find the verdamnten lids and jars and get the things caught. I got the wax one after chasing it around. Got the cloth one, which is important because it's usually hiding another talisman. So unless you're lucky and it isn't in the room where the talisman is hidden, you'll have to get it first. 

Finally got Wax!

Got Metal!

So I was zooming along nicely. Found the oil pieces and got the ixupi in the strange beasts room, so that when I went back through the maze it wasn't there. But I almost mistook the metal jar for the crystal jar, then realized that I had not found the crystal jar at all.

But by that time I had revealed virtually every lid and jar available in the game, except for the final talisman (that's always electricity). So where was crystal?

I was near the lobby. I knew that every other location was empty by now. I wondered if I had left the item that I found in the clock tower there when I first found it, so I rushed up the stairs again, and there it was!

Solved three puzzles from a very early save to get this shot for you!

And here it is!

There was only one possible place for the lid: the Chinese Checkers puzzle, because I'd been checking that one all along and nothing fit. And zoom zap! The pieces matched!

Got it!

So that got me everything except the electricity, which is always last.

One thing I wonder: I went up to the bedroom (not easy, the only path there is the elevator, which requires you to solve two elevator puzzles going up and going down. Good thing I kinda like those). But once there I wondered why we never do anything with this chest. Looks like a great place to hide something important.

Tempting, isn't it?

But it's apparently just window dressing in the game.

OK! Tomorrow I will finish! There really isn't that much left to do. It's going to be exciting!

Next Entry.

Shivers 4a: Let the Hunt Begin!

I figured out my problem! It wasn't the game. It was me. I had misidentified my jar. It wasn't the wax jar, it was the wood jar.

So the wax ixupi stole it and bit me, just as it should have done. Fortunately I had saved the game, so I didn't lose the jar. Once I figured out what my problem was, I didn't have much trouble catching the wood ixupi.

This is wood, not wax

Yeah, he should be scared!!

After some wandering I also got the water jar complete, turned on the fountain in the lobby and, after leaving and re-entering the room a few times, caught the water ixupi!

Got him!!

Also, I got my life essence restored. It was the water ixupi who bit me on the underground lake at the beginning of the game (that's a scripted event and cannot be avoided). But when you capture the ixupi who stole some of your life essence, you get it back.

Next was Sand. I have a list of where I kept the lids, and I was able to match that one up to the jar. Aha! Sand actually is one of the easiest to get, because he's either in the Amazing Plants room or in the Mysteries of the Deep room, which are right next door to each other. So I got him too!

Caught him here. Nice room! 

And there's a screenshot of the Mysteries of the Deep room. Really, this game still looks good, although the ixupis themselves are far too cartoonish. It's the sounds that they make that are scary!

So the game is working exactly as it should. It's not on any kind of advanced difficulty. It's my brain that wasn't working properly.

Tomorrow I'll venture into the punishments room on the third floor. I hate that place, but it has several necessary items and I don't think I'll be able to do much more until I get 'em!

Next Entry.

Shivers 3a: Jigsaw and Ixupi Hunting

Things are moving along nicely now, although I'm running into an issue that I never encountered before. True, I've had ixupis that resisted being caught, and ran away when I presented them with their supposedly irresistible pots, but the wax ixupi not only ran way, it grabbed my completed pot and hid it somewhere and bit me!

Fortunately I had saved first. I'm thinking that there's a basic order in which you have to catch them. We all know that the ash is first, and I have that:

You can tell it's worried

But the next jar and lid I got was wax, and that one did as I described. So I just put the completed wax jar away in the workshop. If the same thing happens with more ixupis, I'll store their jars the same way and go back to get them later. 

There's always a choice in this game whether to hunt the ixupis as you go along, or save them all up and get 'em in the end. I'm pretty sure the game difficulty is randomized, and I may have a tough one. OK. I'll deal with it.

I did some nice puzzles. I looked up the clock tower one because it makes me hate the game every time I try it. I also looked up the Chinese Checkers solution because I'll never get that right as long as I live.

This puzzle is infamous.

However, I did the Sumerian lyre all on my own. Well, it's pretty easy. It's just a randomized follow the leader. Write down the numbers of the strings as you go along and follow it. Make sure you hit the correct strings and don't hit them twice. 

Much more difficult is the jigsaw puzzle on the Mayan red door. You can do the game without solving it--it just opens a door that makes it much easier to get around. The first time I tried it the thing stumped me. I decided to look up a YouTube walkthrough and found the puzzle, but I was able to stay ahead of the video and solved it more quickly on my own.

Here's a partial solution. Don't look at it if you don't want to, but you won't get much of a hint from it, except possibly where to start:

Not easy, even with this.

Then there is the skulls puzzle, which you find in a desk in the lobby. The museum brochure tells you what colors to set these skulls all over the museum. I've got five of the six so far. Can't remember what they do once you've got 'em finished.

Turn, and see colors.

One of my favorite little puzzles is the Anansi spider music box. Actually it isn't much of a puzzle. You just set the tune up in the clock tower, and that plays when you turn it on. If it's the right tune, you get the reward. I like it because I like the little tune so much. And yes, you can come back and play it anytime you like.

The little music box. Nice tune. Nice spider.

I still have some significant places to go: I have to do the maze that starts in the Mysteries of the Deep room, and I have to solve that knights and horses painting puzzle so I can get into another major area. 

So that will happen tomorrow! 

Next entry.