Lights Out 8: From Time to Time

Aha! I don't know if I've made much progress (although the storm in 2004 seems closer), but I've sure been getting around!

Storm getting closer

First, I did the haunted radio puzzle again with the dials set according to the photo in Andrew Verney's puzzle box. That got me some numbers that I haven't been able to use yet. Wandered around and finally realized that there were more of those numbered cards to find, even though the puzzle box uses them. I got the number two card from the puzzle box, and found several more, one labeled "L", which I think is going to translate into "5."

Andrew Verney's Puzzle Box

But so far, no further puzzle calling for these things has appeared.

Polly is still hiding in Drake's room, so I did more exploring. Now that I have the ghost glasses I'm getting all kinds of encounters. I've talked with both James and Robert. Drake, apparently, lurks. I swear I don't remember those conversations in the earlier version, but it's been so long since I've played the game that I can't be sure. 

All this exploring has led me to both of the other time zones, although I didn't explore them. I've now found easy ways to bounce back and forth to any of the times I want. (Yes, that means I solved the puzzle in Drake's 1912 closet.)

Drake's Closet

So now, I guess, I should do more exploring in one of the two new time zones. I seem to have just about exhausted the possibilities in 2004. Think I'll pick the past, and see if I can pick up a useful item or two there. I know that period is the least extensive of the four (although still a bitch to navigate).

But! That was fun! Exploring and finding things is my most favorite thing to do in adventures!

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Lights Out 7: Climbing Stairs

A little bit more play tonight. Still having a bit of trouble navigating the stairs in the lighthouse, but had some fun anyway. Solved a couple of puzzles!


Lots of reading to do in this segment, plenty of nice stuff to look at, especially this mannequin:

When playing, be sure to look at this guy several times. Odd things, which appear to be random, might happen. Makes for more creepiness, if the echoing footsteps and the "over here" whispers don't do enough of that for ya!


I recognize both Jonathan and Matt Clark as the voices of the little show in the former dining room. This time I wasn't terrified, as I was the first time, on entering the dark little cafe. I do recall trembling a bit at that point the first time I played.


Made it to the top of the lighthouse to see Matt's very nice paintings, and solved the puzzle box. I only really needed the two clues I found last night to do it. Once you have those you don't really need a third clue, although another is available quite close by. (Good adventuring: click everywhere you can click.)


That allowed me to do the radio puzzle down in the history shed. Stupid me, I didn't scrutinize the photo clue to get the proper dial settings when I had the chance, but I was able to bulldog my way through that too, and got a nice effect. 


Also, I ran across dear old Andrew Verney's name, from Darkfall 1. He made the puzzle box, it seems. Yup, that's what he did in the earlier game too, as I recall.


I found the ghosthunter glasses. I remembered their location, having hunted like a demon for 'em the first time I played. However, I've climbed back up the stairs to Drake's room, where Polly is hiding. I remember she puts her eye to the keyhole, but apparently I've missed something, because she isn't doing that yet.


Well, next time I'll pop back up to the top and look at that photo again, just to be sure I got everything from that radio.


So! Another short session, but fun!


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Lights Out 6: I'm in! Again!

Making so much progress on my Kirkus books that I decided I'd get back to my game. And I had fun! 


Didn't play very long, but long enough to take a peek around the outside of the 2004 lighthouse. Found a puzzle in the--what is it--a history shed?--that I can't do yet involving a radio. I also was able to play my floppy disc that I found in the original kitchen when the game started. It has an EVP that I can't understand. Found coins that let me look through the coin-operated telescope and got a clue for an upcoming puzzle. Also found another clue to that, so I now have numbers one and three for that puzzle. 


Then there was breaking into the lighthouse gift shop, and the lighthouse itself! Had to get through the security system. I found the first clue with the first two numbers on the pin code that you have to plug into the door. Tried to bulldog my way through the rest, but then realized that the other half of the code had to be somewhere I could get to. In fact, I remembered a place where it really might be, went back to that and found it! Ding! I'm in.


I'm still having trouble navigating here, but I think I figured out the trick to it.


Anyway, I have read the books in the bookstore--one written by "Timothy Pike," the little boy ghost from Darkfall 1. I love it that Jonathan keeps re-using names in all his games. Kinda like little easter eggs for fans. Also found the clue to Drake's closet puzzle, which proves that I'll be going back to 1912--well I knew that anyway. Can't solve it in this time period because the whole thing has been removed.


Poked around the gift shop and found a ghostly message that I can't understand in one of the CDs on sale. Polly White is here (as I recall we only see her eyes--she's in Drake's room, which is another reason we can't solve that puzzle in this time period). I wonder who's stealing 200 pounds from the till? Don't remember anything about that.


I left it just before going through the red curtain.


But I found some stuff and solved a real puzzle! So I'm quite pleased.


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Lights Out 5: New Times!

Ashamed as I am to admit it, yes, I had to look up a walkthrough. Now that is embarrassing. I mean, it isn't as though I haven't played this game before. Sheesh.


Still, I was quite right that the next move was to follow the map--assuming you can figure the dratted thing out! The map is not all that revealing. You really have to study the thing to realize that you can't go the way you went before (as confusing as that was anyway).


But when frustration reaches a certain point, the game becomes no longer fun. Look up the WT.


Even with that I had to do lots and lots of exploring. However, I have emerged from my wandering into the 2004 segment of the game, as I was sure I would. As I recall, navigation is almost as damnable in this segment as it is in 1912. 

Entering 2004

2004, of course, was intended to be the present when the game was made. I recall some interesting things here, and also where to find some glasses I'll need. That memory ought to save me some frustration.


So I left it there. I've done quite enough wandering in this game for the evening. Now that I've finished with my stuckness, I ought to be able to make some progress.


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Lights Out 4: :Looking for the Tunnel

Well I wish I could find it. 


I'm back outside, trying to navigate to the tunnel. I know it's blocked off, but I know it's there. There was a photo of it in the cottage kitchen. It's a little tunnel with a wine bottle lying in it.


I cannot find it.


I did manage to get into that locked drawer in Drake's room. Just did some basic adventuring. There really aren't all that many things to click on in that room, so I hunted about it bit and found the trigger.


But alas, in the drawer I found a great clue to the endgame, and copied that down. There was also a map showing a path around the lighthouse. I'm just making a complete hash of following it (probably because I didn't copy it down). 


So next time, I'll go back to Drake's room, copy the map and follow it. I'm pretty sure that ought to be the next move, as I've pretty much exhausted the possibilities here in the lighthouse. I've been up to the light and poked around, and now the game won't let me go back up. So I must have done something right up there.


When you find a clue like that map, though, it's a pretty good guess that following it ought to be the next move. I'll also check behind the boiler again, but I'm pretty sure I can't get through there until much later in the game.


I do keep getting some nice disembodied sounds of taunting laughter and "over here," "no, over here" as I stumble around in the dark. Interestingly, these are a man's voice. The little "here" voice clues in all Jonathan's other games are a woman's voice. So there's that.


I think I'm pretty well done here in 1912. I need to find that tunnel, and then somehow I get up to 2004. Cannot remember how that happens. Then there are two other time zones after that. I don't think I can get into Drake's closet puzzle yet, because that sends us to the endgame.


So I'm frustrated, but only because I did not do due diligence with the map.


Hmph.


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Lights Out 3: Puzzled

Just a little bit of play tonight. I managed to get into Drake's room. There's a door puzzle, but if you've found the clue it's a cinch.


I do recall that it wasn't a cinch the first time, but I remember the meaning of the numbers you find in the clue. Actually I hadn't found the clue when I first got to the door, but there really could only be one place for it, so I went back and there it was.


Now, that was easy because I've played before.


However, Drake's closet puzzle is more daunting. I know where part of the clue is, and easily found that. But I can't remember what to do with it. Plus, there's a drawer that I can't open. I'd bet that the last part of the clue is in there, but I can't remember how to get the blasted thing open. Yet.

Drake's Room

Still noticing fun sound effects from other games. The violin is from Darkfall 1, the coughing shows up again in Lost Crown, quite prominently.


Also, there was a fun little poem that is said to you by a ghostly voice in the speakerphone. If I hadn't once been married to a Brit I wouldn't have been able to understand it, but it goes:


As I was walking up the stairs
I saw a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish that he would go away.


I've heard that little rhyme often, but few Americans know it.


And the Story of Fetch Rock continues in the books in Drake's room!  I know that's different from the original release of the game.


Went up to the actual light in the lighthouse. Remembered how to get out onto the balcony and in again, but I can't remember if I'm supposed to turn on the light. I sorta tried, but couldn't. Alas, the outside fog is completely pixellated, and the creepy atmosphere mostly lost because of that. Well, I can't fault the game for being old.


It may be that I'll have to find my way into the next time zone in the game to get the clues I'm looking for. I'm pretty sure that the item I'll eventually find behind the closet puzzle takes me to the last phase of the game.


Knowing how this thing ends, I must say that I'm surprised to find so many references to it. Of course they make no sense to a new player, but if you know what's gonna happen, it fits nicely.


I'll see how I feel about that later on. I hope it helps me to like the last part of the game better.


Tonight I just didn't give things enough thought.


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Lights Out 2: I'm In!

Aha, I made it up the path to the lighthouse! The only way I've ever been able to get there is by just clicking all over until I finally found the path, and that's what I did this time too.


So I'm in. Of course the spooky stuff starts right away. We see a shadow flit by when we first enter. Footsteps run from us. I think some of that has been added, although not all.


But now I'm seeing real differences in the director's cut from the original game. The turn-on-the-light puzzle is much, much easier now. In the original, you had to find a paper in a completely dark corner. If you didn't see the icon telling you to shine your lamp there, you would not have been able to do the puzzle, because it told you how to work the boiler. Then outside on a balcony was another paper, much easier to find, but it had drawings of different ships that you had to decipher in order to learn the order to press some levers that connected to the boiler inside. This time there were no ships. It was exactly the same clue as the other paper, so if you missed one you would find the other pretty easily. Both clues spell absolutely everything out about how to turn on the boiler. Easy peasy. I know that's different, because I suffered over that puzzle when I first played the game.


Also, there are more spooky sounds, and this time we even get to have a conversation with a ghost. If that had happened in the original, I think I would have remembered it. We even get dialogue options in 1912 script. I'm really darned sure this stuff is new.


Which is great! It's exactly why I bought the director's cut.


I saved in James' bedroom. There, the story in the bookcase of "The Bride of Bodwin Moor" has been replaced--in every book--with a part of story explaining what "Fetch" means (it's the Fetch Rock Lighthouse). Much shorter. When I first played I actually read the entire story about the bride, which turned out to have absolutely nothing whatever to do with this story. So this choice is better.

James' Bedroom

My only complaint is that there are no subtitles, and some of the ghostly voices are difficult to understand.


But I am having fun! Till tomorrow!


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