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.

Shivers 2a: Back in the Game!

So I'm back in the game, wandering around, catching ixupis (well, one anyway) and solving puzzles (or not).

I got into the theater without taking notes. I just referenced the Egyptian Hieroglyphics book for each one of the door puzzles, pretty easy stuff. Although I know there's a pot behind the theatre curtain, so far I haven't found it. I went up to the tower and got a clue to the drums puzzle in the voodoo room, set the jukebox to the tune it has to play for the music box puzzle, both of which I'll find later. There are advantages to being so familiar with the game, but I still have to solve the puzzles from scratch.

I made my way up into Windlenot's bedroom too, and got the clues to the clock tower puzzle, which has always given me fits. 

Nice bedroom, actually, if you can avoid the ixupi

I have caught my first ixupi, the ashes one, which is always the first. Had to make my way down into the burial room to get to the ceremonial ashes, because although the ashes ixupi normally is in the office fireplace, this time it wasn't. Caught it on the second try (the ixupis don't like to go back into their jars.)

The ashes, and the caught ixupi on my tray.

To get there, I had to solve one of the more fun, and easy, door puzzles. I've always liked this one:

Rotate the tiles and balls will fall down.

Then I got ambitious. One of my favorite puzzles is on the third floor. I made my way up when I found an elevator. Now, you can avoid most of these elevators, because you have to solve puzzles every time you use one. I kinda like these puzzles, however!

Make a diagonal. Not as easy as it looks.

This puzzle is a sort of alchemical thingy, where you have to match the colored lines. You start with the center tile, and there are three that would fit, but only one works. I got lucky and picked the right one, and the puzzle was a lead-pipe cinch. However, be sure you've got the right center tile, or you'll be at this all night. I left the talisman there, making sure that I took a note of the location.

My favorite puzzle!

Make sure you start with the right tile! (this one's random)

Right now I'm carrying around the "cloth" jar. So far none of the talismen I've found fits it. The cloth ixupi usually is in the ceremonial burial room along with the ashes, and also the infamous Chinese checkers puzzle, which I haven't tackled yet. 

This one can be tough.

I attempted this picture puzzle, but it defeated me this time. Will try again. I've solved it before; I can do it again.

So, didn't play long, but got back into the game! Tomorrow I'll have more time. Fun!

Next Entry.

Shivers 1a: So a Miracle Happened

Yes, I had intended to start a different game, but a miracle happened. For years I've been hoping that GOG would revive the best old puzzle game ever made: Sierra's 1995 Shivers. I was looking for another Sierra game and found that two months ago, they finally did! I immediately grabbed a copy!

You can read about my initial experience with this game here, where I had started to blog about it and eventually abandoned the project. I was playing on an old Thinkpad running Win 97SE, but could not get the game to play in full screen. Then I started over on my old blueberry iMac, but still, no full screen and I couldn't take screenshots on either machine, of course.

But now I have the GOG copy, which runs on Win 10 under the ScummV system instead of DOSBox. And it runs full screen! And I can take screenshots! So of course, I couldn't resist starting a playthrough.

Professor Windelnot was mocked, sadly.

I have probably played this game at least three times, and I remember quite a lot of it, but that doesn't mean that I remember the puzzle solutions. Yeah, you have to solve the puzzles from scratch. I do know how to avoid getting eaten by the ixupis. They make a sound before they strike, and you do have time to turn away from them, so there's no reason to get bitten except for the first bite in the underground lake, which is unavoidable.

Warning: the first video cutscene is really terrible (as is the final one). Don't let it put you off the game. The narrator voiceover is absolutely splendid: full of menace and quite a lot of intentional fun.

The ghosts aren't bad either.

OK, he's a bit over the top, but it works for this character!

I was able to get through the get-into-the-museum puzzles fairly quickly. The gears puzzle in the gazebo was tough for me years ago, but I'm pretty good at it now and it didn't give me much trouble.

Switch the black and white gears in seven moves. Yes, it's possible!

Getting underground also is fairly easy if you've looked around sufficiently outside the museum. Not at all difficult to find the underground lake. Just be sure you look around, because there are two major clues down here.

Our transportation

Looking back at the lake

The "maze" here is a cinch. Notice light sources and you can't go wrong. But then you encounter the first elevator puzzle. These are all over the museum. Usually there are alternative ways to get upstairs and down, but I kinda like these. Also, you get points for solving them. This one's the easiest. They get to be pretty challenging sometimes.

Move the lion heads into a diagonal

The elevator will let us out into Windelnot's office, where we will find some backstory and clues, as well as our first talisman.

Look through the desk!

Read the story so you know what's going on

Our first talisman

So now we're in! We can wander around. I remember where lots of things are, so I just headed on out after solving the puzzle in the workroom (an easy one, but I forgot the secret to it).

Major hint: you can only carry one inventory object at a time. Therefore, you must take notes about where you have left the jars an talismans that you find. I've found the "ashes" jar, and I know that's the first ixupi that we catch (it's in the fireplace). So I'll carry that around until I find it's talisman, which will instantly join it and create the full "ashes" jar. Then I'll be able to go to the fireplace and catch the "ashes" ixupi!

The index screen and the flashback screen are extremely useful. You have to take notes in this game, mainly about where you've left jars and talismans, but the game handily saves the books and cutscenes that let you identify stuff, and give you major clues!

Your handy index screen

The extremely useful flashback screen

So! Here's the museum lobby area, which I think still looks pretty good, no matter how old the game is! These were fantastic graphics in 1995!

Nicely done stuff here!

So far I've found an item in the plants room, and have solved two puzzles in the Mysteries of the Deep room (the siren song and the map puzzle). The map puzzle gave me blueprints of the museum, which are now in the flashback screen, and the siren puzzle opened a door which will lead to a seriously awful maze, but I'll have to get through this door puzzle first. I know where the clue is, so that will be my next location!

You need the clue for this!

I just couldn't stop myself from getting back into this game! The Uninvited, and Gabriel Knight II, and this game are what got me hooked on adventure gaming.

Lots of fun to come!

Next Entry.

The Longest Journey 13: Finished!

Finally took some time off to finish the game! 

The game does live up to its name: it is long. It has long dialogue, it has a long script, and it takes a long time to play. But it's fun, so that's a good thing. They certainly did create a whole world (actually, several). 

So, we get to the space station. Here, it's only a matter of clicking on areas to see where we can go. There turns out to be only one place. Not too difficult to get into the innards of the space station. Not too difficult to distract the guard. The only real problem is figuring out how to send guards off duty in various places, but it's fairly easy to figure out.

The space station. Where to go?

Aha! Go here if you can!

After that we're treated to a really extensive and pretty cutscene, as we hurtle through space into a wormhole. We come out in the magical world that controls the "Balance." Next step, getting in. Hint: look in the inventory, and use what's there. 

And go flying!

Careful. Fairly large wormhole there!

Which brings us to the final chapter that will resolve all issues.

At last!

And we will emerge into the world of the balance, a blue place.

The world of the Balance

Final destination. But how to get across?

 Until we reach the final chamber, where all will be resolved.

The Chamber of the Balance!

Once we're into the chamber, there's really only one more thing to do, and that's easy if you just try stuff in the inventory. And then, we get the ending. Yeah, we find out if the old lady is April or not--I'm not gonna tell! There is a nice little surprise, and a hint at the sequel. I have the sequel and I've never played it, so although that won't be my next game, it will come fairly soon. 

Looking back

Our final close-up of April, as she looks back

The Storyteller's house. Is this April? Or not?

But this was really enjoyable. I didn't remember much of it at all--it was like a new game to me except for a few small parts. So, very much worth playing, and I recommend it to all adventure lovers! 

This one really is an essential. 

Have Fun!