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-
- MINDWHEEL
- (Broderbund)
-
- Mindwheel, although it looks formidable at first glance, is not really all
- that hard a game. The primary difficulty is answering the various riddles
- and obtaining the words for the sonnets; the other puzzles in the game are
- almost trivial by comparison.
-
- With that said, let's get started. After entering the word of the day, you
- find yourself in Virgil's laboratory. No preliminaries are really needed,
- just get started (anything he can tell you can you also find out by reading
- the book). So, now you're onstage in the mind of Bobby Clemon. Pick up the
- rose, then go over to the keyboard and play it. The ghost of Bobby Clemon
- will appear and sing a song. Pay attention to the words of the song; some
- of them will be useful later. Also open the keyboard and get the brooch
- that's inside. Read the plate, too.
-
- Now, you've probably seen a thug running around. If he isn't near you, go
- find him. Since he's such an obnoxious person, belt him one with your fist.
- You will both be drawn upward into a strange vortex, where you and the thug
- must now duel. You can safely ignore the bizarre things that float past
- you; they are simply there as window dresssing.
-
- Ask the thug for the rules of the duel, and then choose the disc when he
- asks you to pick your weapon. Note that you may have to do this more than
- once; on one occasion, opening the disc box revealed a pizza! In any case,
- when you have the real disc, the thug will become alarmed, and offer to
- tell you something important in exchange for his life.
-
- What he has to tell you is the last two words of the Fear Sonnet, so
- pretend to agree, and then throw the disc at him after he gives you the
- words. Since he was planning to go back on his word and kill you anyway,
- it's important that you get in your blow first.
-
- With the thug taken care of, you are lifted to the top of the Vortex, to
- the fringes of the Poet's mind. Here you encounter the delightful (?) Spaw
- and his friends, along with a toad. Pick up the toad, he will come in handy
- later on. Spaw will tell you that you must complete the Fear Sonnet before
- you can actually enter the Poet's mind via the Love Room. If you ask the
- toad about Spaw, he will give you one of the needed words to finish the
- Sonnet, and at this point, you actually have all the words you need.
-
- In fact, the six words are: Night, Cast, Sense, Tyranny, Diverting, Images.
- Write each of these in the appropriate blank, and hand the paper to Spaw
- (or, you can write them in and show them to Spaw one at a time for some
- amusing responses). The devil will step aside, and as you enter the Love
- Room, will hand you a book.
-
- In the Love Room, you will find a variety of strange insects engaged in
- bizarre acts of love-making. Ignore them all, and walk north to the table
- where the glass woman sits. She will tell you she can help you, but you
- must give her a flower first. Give her the rose (NOTE: in all transactions
- here, you must refer to this woman as "lady" or else the parser will become
- confused).
-
- Now she asks you to complete the Love Sonnet, which, fortunately, requires
- only two words. If you examine the book, you will note that it bears a
- resemblance to a book mentioned in the book/manual that comes with the
- game; in fact, the title of that book, History of My Heart, contains the
- two words you need to finish the sonnet.
-
- The lady now transforms into a flesh and blood woman, unlocks the drawer in
- the table, and leaves. Open the drawer and get the bottle of pills. Leave
- the Love Room (this is all you need to do in the Poet's mind), and return
- via the Vortex to Bobby Clemon's mind.
-
- When you return to Bobby's mind, you will notice that the stage and
- environs are now deserted. Which is fine, because you couldn't have gone
- down the ramp while people were there. So, hop along down the ramp, and
- then go East to the Exit sign. Open the door and go out.
-
- You are now in a courtyard, inhabited by bums wearing the rags of baseball
- uniforms. As you might suspect, these "bums" are actually the "Brooklyn
- Bums", or "Brooklyn Dodgers". Only one is awake; he wears a number 14 on
- his back. If you ask him who he is, he will tell you only his first name,
- Gil. For those who are not baseball fans, Number 14 is Gil Hodges. Make
- note of that name, as you will need it later when you reach the end game.
-
- After chatting with Gil, take a look at the oil drum. You'll see a small
- wooden object in there. It's actually a toy bat, and you may be needing it
- later, so take that, and then go back to the stage. You have finished now
- with the mind of Bobby Clemon.
-
- On stage, go North to the door, open it, and go through to the staircase.
- These stairs lead to the mind of the Generalissimo. Go up, and at the top,
- you will see a giant cage, inside of which is a winged woman being held
- captive. Talk to her. She will tell you that she can be freed only by
- someone answering the riddle on the cage. This riddle is rather easy, and
- the answer is "Rooster" (you could have gotten a hint about it by examining
- your harmonica). As she leaves, she will give you some helpful hints.
-
- Go North then West and you'll come to a room with a door and a weeping
- soldier, petrified from the waist down, who is blocking a staircase going
- up. Talk to the soldier, who will tell you what needs to be done to free
- him (the stairs, by the way, lead to Eva Fein's mind).
-
- You need to get further into the General's mind, and that can only be done
- by passing the door, which has a riddle of sorts written on it. The missing
- word in this case is "Eternity". Say that, and the door will open, allowing
- you to go out into the freeezing cold and snow.
-
- Once outside, go either East or West, where the Lizard officer will capture
- you. He will offer a trade for you disc; accept that, and ask him for his
- baton and helmet, then give him your disc (don't worry, you'll get it back
- soon enough). After that, go either West or East to the front, and from
- there, South to the fountain.
-
- Along the way, you will run into some animal-headed children. Ignore them;
- you can't afford to let yourself be "captured" by them right now. Continue
- on to the fountain, which you notice is full of blood. If you examine the
- baton, you will see that it has some special powers. Touch the baton to the
- fountain, and the blood changes to water. Fill the helmet with the water
- and return to the soldier.
-
- Give him the helmet. He will become unpetrified, and then suddenly melt
- away, rather painfully, as though the water acted as an acid on him. If
- you've been here before, you know that the soldier is really Spaw in
- disguise, and he was hoping you'd bring him blood in the helmet instead of
- water. What a surprise for Spaw!
-
- With the stairs open now, you can go up. Floating above you see an island
- in the clouds. That is Eva's mind, but it's not time for that quite yet.
- Look around, and you will see a couple of objects on the floor. The
- description here is not all that clear; there are two items, the disc and a
- key. Get them both, then go back downstairs. You are ready for the great
- escape.
-
- Of course, you can't escape unless you're captured, so go out into the cold
- again and surrender to the animal children. They will take you to the back
- where the Lizard will order you to be imprisoned with the winged people.
- Freeing them is fairly simple; just throw the disc at the gate. The disc
- will cut through the barbed wire, and the winged people will begin climbing
- the tall pine tree and flying away.
-
- As it's pretty cold here, you better get away, too. Climb the tree, and
- take the strange pine cone that you find on top. Now eat one of the pills
- from the bottle. Aha! You've grown a pair of wings. Now one of the winged
- people will take you in tow, and drop you off on the island in the clouds,
- just outside the mind of Eva Fein.
-
- You stand at the door to the mind of Eva Fein. If you examine the door, you
- will see that it not only has a lock, but a strange indentation that looks
- something like a pine cone. Put the pine cone in the indentation, then
- unlock the door with the key.
-
- At this point, SAVE THE GAME!!! Once you go through the door, you WILL NOT
- be able to do any saving (don't ask why they wanted it this way, but that's
- how it is). So it's best to save now, in case you need to restore the game
- later on.
-
- Once through the door, you will be in a strange garden, laid out like a
- chessboard. There is a plaque on the wall with the rules of the game; it's
- a good idea to read them. The shed holds a ladder; you may or may not need
- it, depending on which way you start out.
-
- Throughout the game, you will be running into characters you've met before
- in other minds, dressed as chesspieces. Sometimes, you capture them, and
- sometimes, they capture you. If you get captured, you will lose some or all
- of the items you are carrying, and may only get back a few of them. If you
- get caught before or after reaching the bank, make sure you get the brooch
- back, since that is the only necessary item at this point.
-
- In one sense, it doesn't matter all that much which in which direction you
- start, since all paths will evetually end up at the same place anyway.
- However, the easiest way is to go NE on the first move. This brings you to
- a room with a frog doorkeeper. He will be happy to open any of the forward
- doors, so long as you tell him in Froggish.
-
- Fortunately, since you have the toad with you, that's really not much of a
- problem. Ask your toad friend to tell the frog to open the North door.
- Passing through that brings you into an orchard. Get the apple you see
- here, and continue on North to the bank.
-
- Here you find yourself on line behind a robot. The robot will ask for
- something to write with; hand him the brooch. He will finish writing on his
- check and leave. This will allow you to go North out of the bank, into the
- pasture.
-
- This is the square that all other paths end at. In the pasture you see a
- long-tailed horse with saddlebags on his back. If you still have the apple,
- give it to the horse. If you don't have it, or after you've fed the horse,
- hang around and wait, doing nothing. The woman you helped back in the Love
- Room will appear and capture you.
-
- Now you must quote a line from the Love Sonnet. This is absurdly easy; just
- pick any line from the Sonnet. You will be freed, although most of what you
- had with you will be taken away. However, she will leave you the book and
- the toy bat.
-
- If you've already fed the horse the apple, you don't need the bat.
- Otherwise, examine it carefully, and you will see that it can be opened.
- Opening the bat will reveal a small, but edible, jujube, which you can give
- to the horse to make it stand still.
-
- In any case, once the horse is standing still, and the woman has left, open
- the saddle bags and get everything inside. Also pick up all the objects
- lying around the pasture. You have all the items necessary to make a
- fiddle. Begin by putting the pegs in the holes, then tying the cord to the
- fiddle. Cut some hair from the horse's tail with the scissors, and attach
- it to the wooden handle (this is the bow).
-
- Play the fiddle, and you will be able to exit the pasture to the north.
- This square is an unpleasant one, as it is populated by rather nasty
- zombies. There is only one way to get through safely: you must sacrifice
- the toad to them. (If you wait long enough, the toad will tell you that
- himself). So, throw the toad into the trench, and continue on north. Open
- the hatch and go through.
-
- You are almost to the Cave Master. However, before you can pass through the
- ultimate portal, you have another fill-in to do. Talk to the Red King, who
- will quote something, leaving one word blank. That is the word you need,
- and it's "transfigured". When you say that, the portal leading to the Cave
- Master will open.
-
- However, you can't go through without a talisman. Examine the door
- carefully, and you will see the familiar disc stuck to it. Also there is a
- picture of Number 14, and an inscription telling you that you must say the
- player's name to obtain the disc.
-
- Since you know the name, say it. The disc will come off the door and you
- can pick it up, then go through the portal. At last you have reached your
- goal, the all-knowing Cave Master. He gives you a wheel, and tells you to
- fit it around the disc. Don't bother examining it; you have only a few
- moves to spare here (and if you blow it, remember, you have to start from
- your last save position, outside Eva's door!). So, fit the wheel around the
- disc.
-
- Ta-da! You've successfully completed your mission and saved mankind from
- destruction (although I must say, I thought the ending a bit feeble,
- myself).
-
-
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