Sunday, 26 April 2015
Chain The Lost Footprints

Chain ~ The Lost Footprints
Story Background
Takeshi Shinonome is a private investigator, and life is good. He has a decent income, a lovely assistant who cares for him, and no more responsibility than he feels like taking on.
All this changes one day when he happens upon a girl in the rain, protecting a tiny kitten. And an old friend from high school reappears in his life, asking him to take on a case to investigate her husbands infidelity. The seemingly simple job quickly spirals into much more...news about a new drug on the market, targeting school children. How are these things connected? What has he gotten himself into? What secrets do the beautiful women in his life hold, and how can they help him solve this case? When bodies start turning up, Takeshi knows his easy life is gone for good.
Wednesday, 15 April 2015
The Ball Free Offline PC Game Full Version Free Download

The Ball Full Version PC Game Free Download






Monday, 13 April 2015
Download Traço de Indiferente para o The Sims 4

Link direto
INSTALAÇÃO:
Extraia o ".package" para a pasta:
"DocumentsElectronic ArtsThe Sims 4Mods"
Download Roupa Minimalist Cut out Waist Dress para The Sims 4





Sim4ny
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
The 9 Best hospitals in India
Best Hospitals in INDIA
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9. Sankara Nethralaya Hospital
8. Lilavati Hospital
7. TATA Memorial Hospital
6. PGIMER
5. Christian Medical College Hospital
4. NIMHANS
3. Fortis Hospital
2. Apollo Hospital
1. AIIMS Hospital
The LoadDown 03 15 2012
WiiWare -- Nothing here this week. But...
Wii Virtual Console -- This platform is enjoying a bit of a resurgence; this week, SNKs 1996 Neo*Geo fighting game Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusas Revenge turns up. Its one of the many solid fighting games that dominated the Neo*Geo library.
DSiWare -- Pirates Assault arrives, a tower defense game where the players pirates must protect their booties. Um, booty. And you can rescue stolen treasure from escaping enemies by taking them out before they leave the screen, always a nice way to up the ante in TD play.
3DS eShop -- Three new games are available for download, all originally released on the SEGA Game Gear handheld. Shinobi is sure to cause some confusion, as this is the Game Gear version rendered in virtual console form, while SEGAs new retail title created for the 3DS is titled... Shinobi. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble is a collection of three Game Gear Sonic titles, and Dragon Crystal is a dungeon-crawl RPG with randomly generated dungeons.
XBox Live Arcade -- Two new games this week; hard to believe the XBox 360 is already six and a half years old, and still going strong. Shoot Many Robots is a multiplayer co-op robot shooter with colorful graphics and a more cinematic presentation than the norm for a side-scroller. Defenders of Ardania is a tower-defense game with a fantasy/RPG theme; it bears a certain resemblance to Defense Grid, but thats not a bad thing.
PS3 on PSN -- Its a busy week here, with four new titles arriving. The cute/gory alien escape game, Warp, arrives after its XBLA debut, and Shoot Many Robots is also available (see above). Journey has nothing to do with the 80s band, but is a PS3 exclusive -- a loose desert exploration concept with a certain degree of artiness to it, from the makers of Flower. Artiness is not necessarily a bad thing, mind. Time Machine: Rogue Pilot sounds more interesting than it might actually be -- its a color-matching puzzle game with a plot.
PSOne Classics -- Quiet here also. Going once?
Missed Classic 5 Wizard and the Princess WON! and Final Rating
Happy Wanderer Travelogue #3: The hero comes and the hero conquers, but he also learns a valuable lesson: always get your contracts in writing. I have explored the mountainous region in the far north and found the castle of my nemesis. Though it was not easy, I was able to use his own magic against him to rescue the princess and return her home. But alas, my days of wandering are not over yet and I must quest onward if I ever hope to claim my reward. I think I’ll go explore the desert first. What could possibly go wrong?
Episode 5: In Which Our Hero Does Some Shopping
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| The artist must have practiced drawing people between games, but not trees. |
Unlike the wide-open spaces of the desert and forest, the new land is mountainous with one pah that presses me onward with few few diversions. Along the way, I find a ring on the ground and meet up with a woman that warns me that there is a giant up ahead. Giants in these sorts of stories always end up being the evil “use your bones for bread” kind of giants, but this seems vaguely racist. For once, I’d like to meet a giant in a story that was just sort of a tall accountant.
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| Too deep for billy goats. |
I continue crossing the mountains and it starts to rain. Since this is the first weather in the game, it must be significant, but the rain stops and a rainbow appears. I do not immediately find I can do anything with the rainbow, so I keep going west. In the next screen, I finally find that promised giant: he doesn’t seem all that bad of a guy, but he won’t let me continue. When I retrace my steps, I notice that the rain and the rainbow are gone. I smell a puzzle! I restore back to when the rainbow was out and beat my head against the parser before I find something I can do: “follow rainbow”. At the end of the rainbow, there is a single goal coin. I had honestly hoped for a full pot of coins, or perhaps a figure from Irish folklore, but one coin is a good start! I go back to the giant, coin in hand, and confidently try to pay him off. That gets me absolutely nowhere and this puzzle is not quite as simple as I thought.
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| Red, orange, and yellow were unavailable. Blue and green were drunk. |
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| So many items! Wait, is everything levitating? |
Just ahead on the path is a peddler, apparently unaware that a giant was blocking his paying customers. His wares are spread out on a table and each cost one gold coin: unless I find more money, I will just get to pick one. With a bit of experimentation, I can make out a pair of boots, a dagger, a vase, a pan, and a horn but I have no idea what any of them do. Leaving that for now, I head north and discover a castle with a moat. Is this it!? Have I found the wizard’s castle? Unfortunately, the drawbridge is up and the moat is filled with crocodiles, so I do not find a way in. Let’s see if anything I can buy will help!
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| The selection is great, but no free shipping. |
Final Episode: In Which Our Hero Does Not Get Everything He Deserves
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| No castle moat would be complete without a collection of crocodiles. |
ZAP!
After a moment of disorientation, I realize that I have been teleported into an open courtyard. There is an angry looking boar here, but after failing to kill the crocodiles I decide to take the non-violent approach: I still have the apple that I picked up in the cabin just after I left I desert. I hand that to the pig, he eats it, and is dead at my feet in moment. Seriously? Who would leave a poisoned apple out where anyone I can pick it up and eat it by accident?
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| I just feel so guilty... |
ZAP!
I am teleported again, this time to a small room with a locked door. How am I supposed to make any progress if I am teleported around like a madman? I do not have any way to open the door, so I step outside and into a hedge maze. At least, I think it’s a hedge maze; you know how the graphics are… Fortunately, the hedge maze turns out to be large, but simple: each corridor heads off in one direction and there are no switchbacks or hidden exits. Along the way, I find a dungeon room that contains a cell (that I cannot open or do anything with) and the exit back to the castle entrance hall. (The hedge maze had been out the door to the north.)
This pass, I try to explore north of the dining hall instead and… ZAP!
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| This hardly seems fair. |
This time, I do some experimentation. I find that the zapping is consistent and that it happens whenever I do anything in the teleporting rooms, and always loads back to the same place. More importantly, it seems to only happen once! When I retrace my steps all the way through the hedge maze this time, I can explore the throne room freely without getting teleported anymore. I do not find anything but it is at least a lead!
When I’m done exploring the downstairs, I head up and find a landing with rooms left and right. Left takes me to a gigantic frog, but ZAP! I am pushed back to the landing. I go in again and the same thing happens. This is the only play that zaps you more than once, so it must be significant. Could it be that the princess has been turned into a frog? Who would ever see that coming!?
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| Not looking forward to kissing that… |
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| Oh God, not again. |
Having triggered and survived that teleport trap, I can explore north of the dining hall further but that ends up not being as exciting as I hoped: it just leads back to the old fashioned kitchen where I was teleported to in the first run. This leads me to another boring segment where I type stupid commands in bunches of places and try to find something that I didn’t before. It’s not the most fun to type up and read, so I’ll spare you the details and just tell you that I found that I could pick the lock in the door at the end of the hedge maze using my knife. (That’s the room I was teleported to, so I wonder if I needed to solve the hedge maze at all.) That leads me to a new room with stairs and a door to the east. When I go through that door, I find myself in the frog room and am teleported out, but the stairs take me to the top of a tall tower.
Now, the first time I went into the tower, it was empty, but at some point I entered it a second or third time and there was a bird flying around. I try to catch the bird or kill it, but that doesn’t get me anywhere and I find myself stuck yet again.
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| Anyone have a rod with a rusty star on one end? |
The trick is in the ring that I found in the mountains: if you put it on and “rub” it, you transform into a cat. In your cat form, you are able to easily pounce on the bird and eat it. Are there any stories where you rub a ring? I would never have thought to try that verb. Did I miss a hint anywhere?
While that does not seem to do anything immediately, for some reason I can now enter the frog’s room without getting teleported away. (After winning, I consult a guide and it seems that the wizard had disguised himself as the bird to evade detection.) I pucker up and kiss the frog, transforming her back into a beautiful princess.
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| You still look a little green. Are you okay? |
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| JUNIOR-MASTER!? |
Time played: 4 hrs
Total time: 9 hrs
Final Rating
Without further pomp or circumstance, let’s talk about the game overall.
Puzzles and Solvability - 3
This game is a mess when it comes to puzzles, with some absolutely brilliant/fun ones (the notes that you have to assemble to leave the desert) with some real losers (rubbing the ring to kill a bird that was secretly an evil wizard). This game loses points for the opening maze as just an example of poor pacing, as well as the puzzles that required reloading to solve. I may be able to forgive the latter since the game was nearly over and we expect an increase in difficulty, but to start the game off in a maze? That was just poor design.
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| If only the Professor had thought of this, Gilligan and his friends may have made it home. |
Interface and Inventory - 3
Other than color, the interface to this game is the same as Mystery House with few exceptions. The keyword “all” has been added and can be used in a few cases, but that is about it. (And the only way I even know about that is that the manual brings it up.) This game however has a great collection of inventory items, almost all of which you need to solve a puzzle. While many of those puzzles had their flaws, the inventory in the game isn’t that bad in itself.
Story and Setting - 4
I sort-of like the story and setting of this game. It’s a decent traveling journey across varied terrain and you really get a sense for having gone a long way. While it was not well-used, I also liked that you could re-explore pretty much the whole game at the end. A better game would have made that worthwhile, but this isn’t that game. I know I’m letting my future-sight cloud my judgement here, but this felt like a King’s Quest game with that same hodge-podge of fantasy tropes and mixed up mythologies that enjoy. I am sure that many would not find that as endearing as I did, but I liked it.
The graphics were somewhat more mature than Mystery House, but it still looked amateurish and unpolished. Worse, it seems that the continuity wasn’t always there. The damned sailboat thing really screwed with me for a long time, but I bet that was just an artist trying to draw the rowboat from far away and not caring that different kinds of boats look different. Sound was nonexistent, of course. I also have to ding some points here for the blandness of some of the environments, especially the two mazes. Since you spend the majority of the first hours in the desert, at least they could have made it slightly less bland.
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| See the pirate hiding behind that tree? Me, neither. |
Environment and Atmosphere - 3
Just like the “story” section above, I find myself uncontrollably reading the Kings Quest feeling into this game, but otherwise the environments were hit or miss. The desert section went on far too long, detracting from the feeling that the game was going anyplace. While I found it somewhat annoying, the constant “zapping” in the final castle created an unsettled feeling, like you could get whisked away at any moment. Exploration became more hurried, tension was higher. That was a good way to shake up the final segment and I’ll give the game a point just for that.
Dialog and Acting - 3
Like its predecessor, the text in this game is sparse and there are relatively few NPCs that you can talk to. I’m reminded of the lonely town of Serenia which apparently has no people at all! But unlike Mystery House, there was enough text to get a feeling for the tone of the game and to appreciate the writing when it was there. I scored it a bit higher for that reason.
Drumroll Please...
(3+3+4+2+3+3)/.60 = 30 points! That is just slightly ahead of Mystery House. I was considering deducting a point for the terrible opening, but I think the scores speak for themselves overall. The first Kings Quest game scored a 48 and while I can see a glimmer of what that series will become in this game, we can see a much earlier and less refined approach to storytelling here. If the art had been a bit more consistent and the start not quite as frustrating, I think we would be a lot closer. I am curious whether any of the “Hi-Res Adventure” games will come close.

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| Can you hear me, Major Tom? |
Monday, 6 April 2015
Adventure of the Week The Last City 1983 2001

If you consider yourself an old-school adventure gamer, you really owe it to yourself to go check out the Wilcox archives. These nearly-lost games are completely in the tradition of the Scott Adams adventures by which they were inspired -- all of them are interesting and a few of them are really, really good. As always, though, its at your discretion -- Im happy to document the experience for historys sake, and to that end, there shall be myriad...
***** SPOILERS AHEAD! *****
We begin in a suitably post-apocalyptic setting -- the rubble-strewn remains of an east/west freeway, with nothing at all in inventory. We are informed by a brief introduction that human technology was eventually surpassed by magic, and it proved our downfall. We are now on a quest to rescue the last of human technology.
We cant even GET RUBBLE here, so lets explore the area a bit. A seemingly endless desert borders the freeway on the north side, but we have nothing available to help us map the area, so well come back later. South lies instant death in a magically-contaminated wasteland (though when this happened, I was actually able to continue playing after death -- the What now? prompt is visibly disabled, but we can still type blind and our commands will be processed. This was in the 09/11/2013 build, and past experience suggests that Mr. Wilcox will fix the bug soon after he reads this!)
Sticking to the freeway route, we find the remains of an ancient boulevard to the east, leading to the edge of a gigantic domed city we cant enter via this path. More interesting is a pawn shop on the north side of the street, where we can acquire a Small advanced device (with five button), Fulcrum, Plank, Sand shovel, and a Pick and pitons (for climbing, most likely.)
We have enough stuff now to facilitate mapping the desert, and... well, as it turns out, theres only the one room after all! But we can DIG here with the sand shovel to find a Dirt shovel (such specialized hardware!) and a Key if we dig some more.
The freeway loops back on itself to the west, so theres nothing to explore out there. Can we use the device to protect against the magic contamination? PUSH ONE doesnt do much, nor does PUSH FIVE or anything in between.
I couldnt resist cheating a bit here, using my unexpected life-after-death powers to cross through the fatal wasteland and reach the foot of an ancient-looking castle, complete with a moat and a Raised drawbridge, with a picture of a half-donut on it. Hmmmm. Im probably here too early. And slightly hungry now. At any rate, Ive been exploring and experimenting quite a bit, and I begin getting these time-out warnings: "Magical premonition: city will cease to exist in 39 turns." So there is some time pressure to deal with here.
So what can we do? The concrete rubble on the freeway is in chunks too big to lift -- with the fulcrum and plank, though, we can MAKE LEVER, and USE LEVER to turn one chunk into a Levered-up concrete block. EXAMINE BLOCK reveals that Underneath its only dirt, so the dirt shovel comes in handy as we DIG to find a Parchment. It reads: "As our world crumbles down, the future I see: To go in is five-four, to go out is five-three!" This sounds very useful indeed, but now the timer has gone to zero, and even though Im not-quite-dead, the game is truly over; I can still make moves, but the screen keeps flashing and none of my moves register, probably because The last city of humankind has been destroyed! The human race is forever lost to the cosmos. So its time to start over, reset the end-of-game timer, and see if I can play honestly this time.
On the second go, I confirm that the parchment speaks truth -- we PUSH FIVE and PUSH FOUR at the edge of the city, and we are transported inside the dome among Light human traffic. (The layout inside the dome is a little awkward to visualize, as the dome curves around but we can only navigate in cardinal directions, so mapping is very valuable here.) East of our entry point is City Hall, where a Perpetual lamp is available.
To the southwest, at the south edge of the city, is a cover we can open, revealing a passage downward. We travel down a metal ladder to an area with horizontal pipes and a Half-donut, which suggests it has something to do with the castle... that, um, I havent visited yet.
Near the north edge is the citys central tower, a monolith of sandstone that rises all the way up to the dome. We can CLIMB the TOWER (using the pick and pitons, one presumes) to approach a Circular ceiling hatch, which is sealed and resists attempts to open it or break it for the moment.
Toward the east edge of the dome is an unused part of the city where various magic items are available -- examination establishes that one of the wands could be made operational, so we should GET WAND; It looks like it needs to be recharged. (We have a seven-item inventory limit, so some discarding becomes necessary along the way, but most items have obvious and limited uses so its not necessary to juggle too much.)
We can also PUSH FIVE, PUSH THREE at the east edge of the city to teleport through the eastern wall of the dome, where we find ourselves in a secluded rock formation. Theres nothing else of note here, but LOOK ROCKS reveals a Magic stone, which radiates a strong aura of protection.
Finishing our urban exploration, we learn that using the device to teleport through the north and south walls of the dome sends us straight into solid granite or off the edge of a cliff, fatally so in both cases. Theres also a botanical section near the center of town, where hydroponics and potted flowers abound. We cant seem to do anything with them, though, unless theres some subtle joke about the magic stone afoot here.
The stone allows us to pass through the magical wasteland safely, as expected. At the castle, legitimately this time, we can THROW DONUT -- the two symbols combine and vanish, and the drawbridge opens. Inside the foyer, a sign reads, "GO NO FURTHER." But wed be poor adventurers if we didnt go yes further anyway, to reach the castles main audience chamber, where a Steel door and some Royal paraphernalia reside (to use with our magic stone hydroponics, no doubt.). We can visit the royal quarters and try to GO BED -- No time for that now! Youve got to save the city! -- and GO TOILET -- Thanks. I needed that. Giving in to the temptation to LOOK TOILET reveals that There seems to be a passage behind it! And we can go D to find an underground storage chamber, containing a Small plastic explosive (and, in a nice touch from the author, revealing that the castle is mostly illusion, as the reality distortion fades out a bit here, revealing the chamber to be conventional plastic of a decidedly non-royal character.)
Trying to USE EXPLOSIVE suggests that we need something at least as hot as a spark. We can CHARGE WAND in the magical wasteland, where the contamination provides a power source, and discover that USE WAND creates a small lightning bolt, but it only holds one charge, so well have to save it for setting off the explosive. Dropping the explosive near the sealed hatch and setting it off -- the most likely thing to try, it seemed to me -- opens up a passage into the dome.
On top of the dome, we find a Laser cutter -- surely the last piece of human technology we have been seeking? But the plot has drifted slightly from its original stated premise, and the game isnt over yet -- we have to return to the castle and USE LASER to cut a hole in the steel door.
We now find ourselves in an unconceiled [sic] missile control room in front of a Humongous control console. Aha! This syncs up with the magical premonition -- theres a "Countdown at T minus 26 turns, and counting" displayed as I arrive here, while the premonition is also reporting in, saying that the city will cease to exist in 26 turns. Can we stop the missile? Theres a black "SPEED LAUNCH" button, and an unlabelled red button. Launching it didnt seem like the best option, so I decided to PUSH RED, causing the missile to detonate in its silo without launching, but still taking the city... and the player... with it. So thats not the solution.
On the third try, we try what seems to be left to try, and aha! We have to PUSH BLACK to launch the missile ahead of schedule, at which point we have one move available to PUSH RED and blow it up in mid-air. Victory is ours, and a cheering crowd arrives to celebrate the brush with annihilation so cleverly instigated and then narrowly averted by the player!

Roger M. Wilcox considers The Last City to be the best of his twenty-one games, and its a good one -- well-designed and not too cryptic, with sensible puzzles and a plot that develops quite nicely without being overtly spelled out. Its been a pleasure working my way through this series during the past year, and Im really glad these vintage adventures have been unearthed and re-released so long after they were created. Theres one more game that owes its existence to the Wilcox family, however, and Im sure well be taking a look at it soon.
The LoadDown 09 20 2012
WiiWare -- Just when this particular platform seemed to be dying, hat-and-whip action comes to WiiWare in the form of LA-MULANA, an archaeological platformer announced quite a while back that puts Professor
DSiWare --One new DSI title: Retro Pocket, a neat idea presenting 8 all-original (but clearly Game & Watch-inspired) LCD-style action games in one inexpensive package. Retro indeed.
3DS eShop -- Retro Pocket will run on the 3DS as well, of course, and one additional eShop title is out: Rising Board 3D, which has nothing to do with baking; its a side-scrolling collect-em-up game featuring an airboarding penguin and a bunch of incongruous but entirely appropriate electromechanical (think pinball) game sound effects.
XBox Live Arcade -- Three new games on XBLA -- Segas Jet Set Radio (see below), Wizarboxs co-op hacknslash action RPG Realms of Ancient War, and comical stunt game Joe Danger 2: The Movie.
PS3 on PSN -- Two new titles here. Segas Dreamcast-era classic skateboarding/tagging game Jet Set Radio (aka Jet Grind Radio in the US) comes to the PS3, and PopCaps latest sequel, the ball-queuing casual puzzle game Zumas Revenge! is also available.
Notable on Steam -- A couple of popular console titles come to PC via Steam -- Segas Jet Set Radio is worth checking out, while Activisions sequel/remake/repackage Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD may not measure up to its seriesmates. And Torchlight II is finally out, along with full-priced shooter/RPG sequel Borderlands 2.
Adventure of the Week The House of Seven Gables 1979
It took me a while to track down Greg Hassetts The House of Seven Gables adventure for the TRS-80 -- some online archives have what appears to be a machine-language version, but that game is actually Bill Millers House of Thirty Gables, in a very different style from Hassetts games. Like Millers game, this one bears remarkably little resemblance to the classic Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, House of the Seven Gables, aside from the fact that the house that serves as the games setting does indeed feature a number of gables. I knew this was the right code as soon as I saw the title screen:
Like most of Hassetts early adventure games, this one is written in BASIC and has a rather limited vocabulary. It still performs pretty well, and its fun to play, if a little obtuse when it comes to scoring. The game seems to be introductory in nature, given the copious hints available within the game itself; the source code was published in the Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures. A version also exists for the Commodore 64.
As always, I encourage interested readers to try The House of Seven Gables before proceeding below. Its a treasure hunt set in a mysterious house, and its not a hard game to finish, really, though earning all of the points can be a challenge. Beyond this point, in the interest of documenting my experience with this game, for those who have already played it or may never get to do so, be advised that there are comprehensive...
***** SPOILERS AHEAD! *****

The story begins outside of a house with, naturally, seven gables. Theres a doorbell and a compass we can take with us. We cant TAKE COMPASS, but we can GET COMPASS, and we cant look at it, examine it, or read it. So it may not be very useful, except that -- aha! -- we cant maneuver anywhere without it -- no exits are displayed, so we do need to keep it in hand. Most adventure games take directional navigation for granted, so young Mr. Hassett deserves credit for turning this into a minor puzzle.
The game is very player-friendly -- if we try to go S, we are told THE DOOR IS LOCKED. I THINK I CAN GET BY IT, THOUGH. And if we try and fail to OPEN DOOR, then we learn that MAYBE THESE PEOPLE (?) ARE FRIENDLY, SO TRY RINGING THE BELL.
Upon RINGing the BELL, we are swept inside and the entrance vanishes. We are in a living room, with no objects visible, and can explore to the south, east and west. The Dining Room contains an empty bucket and some silver candlesticks. We dont seem to gain any SCORE points after we get the candlesticks, so maybe they are not a treasure.
The kitchen contains SOME FRESH GARLIC, a BANANA, and a SINK WITH A WORKING SPICKET [sic]. Mr. Hassetts spelling was often... inventive. The spelling is the same in the listing in the Captain 80 book, although there the text is in mixed-case unlike this version; it may have been typed in by a TRS-80 owner without an uppercase kit installed, like many of us back in the day.
A door east of the dining room has no doorknob or keyhole, but again it is suggested that we can get by it. KNOCK DOOR doesnt do the trick, though. And HIT DOOR returns I DONT WANT TO HIT THE DOO. Neither do I, sorry for suggesting it!
The Guest Room right off of the living room leads to the first and second gables. Theres a BLACK CAT at the second -- if we try to GET him, he vanishes, SAYING "I WILL RETURN..."
South of the living room, in a dark closet, A HOLLOW VOICE SAYS: MIX THEM. This is yet another early adventure game influenced by Scott Adams approach.
Downstairs is a long east/west hallway. At the east end is DRACULAS CHAMBER. We can try to OPEN COFFIN, but THE VAMPIRE WONT LET ME! Hes listed as a MEAN LOOKING VAMPIRE, to boot. Why arent there ever any friendly vampires in these games?
The Barren Library contains a BOOK TITLED PRIMEVAL WITCHCRAFT; I dont think that word means what Mr. Hassett thinks it means. The book is very short, reading NOTTUB SSERP, or PRESS BUTTON backwards. But theres no button in the library.
This sort of thing occurs at random:

Ahem. After self-consciously checking my attire, theres only one turn before THE GHOUL KILLS ME! This was the first death I ran into; restoring, I made it past that room with no ghoul appearing, and found my way to a DUNGION [sic] where A CRUDE NOTE ON THE WALL READS: YOU CANT GET OUT WITHOUT KILLING ME FIRST! -- WITCHY-POO. No wonder the Bay City Rollers couldnt get out of their Saturday morning contract with the Krofft brothers! This isnt actually true, at least if we take it at face value, as while most paths return to this same location, we can just go S to exit the dungeon. The dungeon entrance doesnt really lead to a maze, it seems, but theres a real maze nearby, also at the west end of the hallway, containing an AXE.
Randomly during our explorations, we may see that A GHOST POPS OUT AND SAYS: THROW ME SOME TREASURE! Hell accept our gift if we THROW CANDLESTICKS, so apparently scoring is just deferred; clearly, we should avoid this situation if possible so we can earn all the available points.
The hallway maze leads to a MAD SCIENTISTS LABORATORY where we can pick up some chemicals. Presumably these are what we want to mix. If we MIX CHEMICALS they turn into AN ORANGE BUBBLING LIQUID. We can FILL BUCKET with water using the kitchens spicket [sic], though this doesnt seem to be necessary for working with the chemicals. And when we run into the GHOUL we can THROW CHEMICALS so that THE GHOUL MELTS TO NOTHING. But eventually it comes back. Fortunately, the chemicals also remain intact, we can just pick them up each time and reuse them later.
I did run into a small bug -- at a couple of points I tried to GET AXE after finding or dropping it, and was told I couldnt carry any more; but after an INV check, I was able to; some counter must get cleaned up when we take a look at our inventory.
Returning to the interior locked door with the axe, we cant SMASH DOOR but we can CHOP DOOR so that THE DOOR IS CHOPPED TO PEICES [sic]. This leads to a staircase, with A BEAUTIFUL ROSE at the top. Theres also a BROOM CLOSET, with some VALUABLE RECIPIES [sic] written IN WITCHISH.
The sixth gable contains a PAPER AIRPLANE; the third, a TEST TUBE OF FLUID (which is neither a TEST TUBE nor a TUBE, but FLUID per the games dictionary.)
Another hallway south of a DILAPIDATED BEDROOM leads to a MAMOTH [sic] ART GALLERY where we can pick up a PRICELESS REMBRANT [sic].
At the eastern end of the hallway is A ROOM WITH A PEDESTAL IN THE MIDDLE, and we can see a button atop the pedestal. Even if we havent read the book in the library, its tempting to PRESS BUTTON here (actually, PUSH BUTTON doesnt work so the books clue is actually kind of helpful).
This leads to the WITCHS CHAMBER, where an UGLY WITCH has a POT OF WITCHES BREW, in case there was any question; where the other witches are who are apparently responsible for the brew remains an open question. The Books of Oz tell us what to do - THROW WATER and THE WITCH HAS VANISHED! HER HAT REMAINS.
With the witchs hat in hand, we can return to the LIVING ROOM. And the entrance door has been reopened, so we can just go N. And suddenly, weve won! (So thats what the witchs note meant. Odd of her to invite her own death that way.)
Except... I havent done very well scorewise -- yes, that is actually a negative 70 points -- and theres no opportunity to continue. It looks like we need to ignore the red herrings, and carry as many treasures as possible out the door as we take our one shot at exiting. Basically, it appears we need to grab the compass, fill the bucket, mix the chemicals, kill the witch, collect all the valuable treasures and leave the house.
So what puzzles remain to be solved? There are a number of objects we havent experimented with yet.
We can EAT BANANA to be left with a BANANA PEEL. It looks like a slip-and-fall may be in someones future. But whose? Random ghoul appearances continue to be a pain, as the creature can arrive long before we have an opportunity to acquire the chemicals.
We can SHOW GARLIC to send the vampire scurrying off, and claim a SULTONS [sic] DAGGER from his coffin. He shows up again at the top of the stairs, at which point we need to STAB VAMPIRE so that he dies and vanishes; why he was keeping this dangerous dagger in his own bed is another unanswerable question.
I also notice that my once-SHINY COMPASS has become A TARNISHED OLD COMPASS while playing, though this seems to have no bearing on our score at the end of the game.
The ghost will eventually kill us if we dont throw him a treasure when he demands it; I didnt find any solution to this, we just have to be quick about our business and hope the random number generator looks kindly upon us.
We can UNFOLD AIRPLANE to turn the paper airplane into A PIECE OF PAPER WITH WRITING ON IT. It reads: "REMEMBER THE WIZARD OF OZ." So weve already figured that out.
Down from the pedestal room is the Seventh Gable, with a DIAMOND in it; I had just missed exploring that direction, after seeing the button on the pedestal. The WITCHY-POO note room is still not a maze, just a room whose exits all lead back to itself; it does not change state after the witch is dead, so the note refers only to our ability to leave the house itself.
It seems that if we are not efficient, our score drops dramatically. I was down to -595 points at one point, and dropping by 25 points per turn! I wish I knew what the object of the game was, or had some way to determine which items were the critical treasures!
Fortunately, Dorothys walkthrough at CASA indicates that the AXE, HAT, REMBRANDT, ROSE, RECIPES and DIAMOND are the treasures, and that we dont need to carry them with us -- just drop them in the living room before we escape the house. So playing quickly, we can pick up all the valuables and escape to a proper victory:

The House of Seven Gables is not a particularly difficult game; the biggest complications stem from all the red herrings (I never did find anything useful to do with the black cat) and a few random unsolvable situations that can present themselves at inopportune times. Im slowly working my way through the Greg Hassett oeuvre, and I enjoyed this one.
Game 24 Chamber of the Sci Mutant Priestess Arachnoid Mater
At the end of my first gameplay post for Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess, I’d just managed to unlock the door labelled Who Will Be Saved? by giving the serpents in The Twins some drink and “food”. On entering the newly accessible room, I found myself staring at seven hands reaching out of the ground, with a sliding panel and yet another serpent head on the wall. On inspecting the serpent’s head, I was informed that it appeared to be mobile, and that there was some sort of inscription. It read “the passerby saves some, then makes his choice known to the sliding one’s head.” I tried pulling up one of the hands and found that this did pull it out of the ground by some distance, although nothing seemed to happen when I did so. I assumed there must be some order or pattern to which hands I should pull, but which ones?
I reread the inscription. Did I need to choose whichever ones I wanted and then “make the choice known to the sliding one’s head”? Was the sliding one’s head the sliding panel on the wall? I tried interacting with the sliding panel, but I didn’t really get anywhere. I did however find I could push the serpent’s head, and was told that I could “hear a noise coming from the fountain room”. Would I find a hint to the hands puzzle in the fountain room now? I was prepared to go and find out, but I thought I would see what Gauss had to say before I did so. I clicked the Tune In icon and Gauss told me that “the die nose witch wunz to pullup” (the die knows which ones to pullup). The die? You mean the die I just put in the serpent’s mouth to open the door to Who Will Be Saved?
How could the die tell me anything? I recalled that when I rolled the die, it always came up with the number two, but pulling the second hand up didn’t do anything. I had no idea how to inform the sliding panel of my choice either, so I left the room and headed back over to The Source (where the fountain was). Nothing looked different in The Source, but pressing the serpent’s head must have shifted something. When I moved the cursor over the plaque at the front of the room, I now found that there were six cubes, marked Cube 1 through to Cube 6. I have to say that it’s pretty odd for a game like this, even one made in 1989, to not show any visual representation of items on screen. Why would I think to recheck the plaque when it looks exactly the same as it did before?
Interestingly, when I inspected each of the cubes, I was informed of different shapes atop each one. A circle, a triangle, a star, a cross, a square and wavy lines respectively! I hadn’t really noticed anything that might hint as to which one to open, but thankfully I saved my game before making any attempts. I chose to lift the first cube, and was poisoned, ending my game before I had any chance to try any of the others. I reloaded and tried the second cube instead. “You find a skull inside.” Winner! Was it possible that the number 2 that kept coming up when I threw the dice was the hint? At first I assumed so, but on subsequent play throughs (I’ve had to play through numerous times due to running out of time), I’ve now found that the cube with the skull in it is random.
I have to be honest and say that I have no idea what Who Will Be Saved? is all about, and have no idea how to logically figure out which cube holds the skull, but since finding the skull makes The Twins and Who Will Be Saved? inaccessible, I can only assume that the skull was the only thing I needed in this section. Either that or I’m dead-ended already! Regardless, I had the first of five skulls, and was able to make my way back out to the starting area by clicking the arrow at the bottom of the screen. I’d kind of hoped that I would receive one of the other three items (dagger, rope, fly) while I was getting the first skull, as I’d assumed I would need one particular item to pass each ordeal, and that by doing so would reveal another. Was I supposed to get an item by solving the Who Will Be Saved? puzzle? All I could do was push onto the other rooms and see what would happen!
By the time I’d figured out how to get the Vort Skull from The Twins part of the temple, I’d well and truly used up my hour. I therefore had no choice but to restart, get a new item, and go wherever it led me. The next item I got was the rope, which would apparently be useful in the room titled De Profundis. As usual, I was immediately transported to that room, where I was met by a rather horrific beast in a pool of acid. I had to click the left mouse button to continue and as soon as I did, the beast sank beneath the deadly liquid, leaving me to ponder how I was going to reach the doorway on the other side of it. Gauss’ hint was “hole don” (hold on), but I could see nothing to hold onto. I sensibly saved my game, which was just as well, as even clicking on the door made the platform I was standing on sink a little bit into the acid. A vertical column did come down from the ceiling though, which looked like a perfect thing to hold onto!
My first thought was that the rope would likely help in this instance, but since I’d begun to doubt whether I would be able to discover all the required items in one play through (I’m only going to be given one each time I play), I thought I’d try to get across without using it. Any incorrect move and I sank into the acid, forcing me to reload, but I quickly found the solution was to use the Sticky Fingers sci power, which allowed me to climb up to the ceiling and hang onto the column. As usual though, I was merely informed that I was hanging on, and nothing actually changed onscreen. I then used the Wait icon until the beast re-emerged, before selecting to “jump onto it”. He took me across the acid to the door on the other side, where I was informed that a skull was just waiting for me. Well that was a heck of a lot easier than the first one!
On exiting De Profundis, I found myself back in The Ring, and was pleasantly surprised to discover a fellow Five Ordeals aspirant asking me whether I wanted to trade items. I happily traded in my rope for his fly, and since I’d wasted very little time collecting the second skull, didn’t have to start over this time before venturing on. I was really happy to learn of this trading option, and felt much more confident in being able to solve the five ordeals within the same play through if this feature was available multiple times. I knew from a previous beginning that the fly would be useful in the room called The Scorpion’s Presence, so that’s where I went next.
The scorpion turned out to be a statue, or at least that’s how it initially appeared. Talking to it caused it to respond with “I am mastel of scolpions. How hungly I am!” Clearly this master or scorpions had a bit of trouble with the English language, but it wasn’t difficult to translate. Further conversation resulted in “I desile my dinnel. Go see hel, and folget not hel plesent!” Who was this “her” and what “present” would she want? What dinner could I offer the master of scorpions? I immediately thought of the fly, and after saving my game, put it into the mouth that was situated towards its base. Nothing at all happened, causing me to believe that wasn’t the right thing to do, so I restored.
The only other things of interest in the room were two engravings, the first of which was a spider that offered nothing more than “very webbish” when inspected. The other engraving on the wall increased in size when I inspected it, but even at a larger size, it didn’t really show me anything that meant anything to me just yet. It had what appeared to be a man beneath a sun, moon and star, pointing out a Saturn-like planet to an infant (well that’s my take on it anyway). With nothing else to do, I went through the door beneath the spider, assuming whoever this female character was would be found within. I was right!
The Web seemed like a pretty nasty place to be. Cobwebs all over the floor, spiders everywhere, and the Spider Mistress beckoning me closer! But as soon as I figured out how to get past the cobwebs without getting caught (I had to crawl before moving forward), I realised she didn’t necessarily want me for food. This hideous monster wanted me for sex, firstly requesting a kiss after I gave her the fly, before demanding we make “passionate love” once I agreed. As you might expect, none of these creepy exchanges of bodily fluid led to anything positive, and I eventually figured out I could simply refuse her advances without lowering my chances of survival. The Spider Mistress offered me one of two spiders, with one being red and the other blue.
Clearly, choosing the correct spider was a test, and interestingly it was the spiders themselves that gave me a hint of its solution. The red one said “you think of evelything, as Khele would say”, to which the blue one responded with “Dear Khele! He loves what he can’t pronounce!” It didn’t take me long to figure out which spider I was supposed to choose. Khele was obviously the Scorpion Master, since he was the only character that always replaced R’s with L’s. Out of the two spider colours, the one that he wouldn’t be able to pronounce was “red”, which he would have pronounced “led”. I therefore surmised that the spider he would want to eat would be the red one. However, since I had to choose the one to feed the fly, and the other one would be mine, I needed to select the blue spider.
Blue was the correct answer, and I took the spider to Khele and placed it into the mouth towards the bottom of the statue. Rather oddly, the little door at the base opened up revealing an “upside down character”, which was Khele. I couldn’t do anything apart from entering the statue alongside him, within which I found the third skull and then suddenly found myself back in The Ring, apparently having gone through another door on the inside of the statue. That’s three skulls down, with two to go before I can become a Divo! I assume the two remaining skulls can be found in the rooms called The Noose and The Wall, but I haven’t yet explored them apart from a quick peek. I still have no idea whether retrieving the skulls is all I need to do in each section, and there are a few puzzles I failed to solve (the hands, the engraving etc.). I guess Ill ignore them unless I get stuck down the track!
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