Crack It!/Crack It!.iso/CONTENT/NEVERH/DOCUMENT.TXT

Text File | 1998-03-19 | 12KB | 199 lines

Some Hints & Comments on "The Neverhood"

Len Green :-    28th January '98. [e-mail]

Preamble.

    I have played most Quest/Adventure {Q/A}games but somehow missed
    this one until about a fortnight ago.  Since it was released about
    1╝ years ago, at the rate of acceleration of computer technology
    these days, this makes it a real oldie already ! As usual, I got
    stuck two or three times (cretin ?!?) and hence looked for Hints
    &/or Walkthrus.  I scoured all my (several) regular sites and
    found a fairly good UHS-Walkthru.  Apart from that, I found only
    ONE other (pretty good) Walkthru, which appears identically on
    more than a half dozen different Cheat/Hint/W.T. sites.  It is
    anonymous, and I haven't seen on any site the name or nickname of
    any author.  However, I did find a few specific Hints at
    'www.neverhood.com'. Most of the puzzles are pretty easy (which is
    understandable since the game appears to be aimed at a fairly
    young age group), but one or two of the solutions are somewhat
    obscure and not too clearly described --- with due acknowledgement
    to all of the above concerned. Even though most (but not all) of
    the Hints have been given already, I add below some further
    details and clarifications for any who may want them.

Some Comments on the game.

    I am not a Reviewer, but in my personal opinion Neverhood is far
    from the best Q/A I have ever played, but also very far from the
    worst.  Without going into specific details, it has several very
    novel and good qualities and also some rather negative ones.
    However, the most infuriating aspect must be the "Hall of Records"
    (Library).  You are expected to read (or are you ??) a large
    number of pages (or clay tablets) which is extremely tedious,
    since Klayman moves quite slowly and nearly every 'section'
    contains 7 separate pages, each of which has to be scrolled
    individually. Unless I miscounted, there are 236 pages in all ---
    I kid you not !! Whether you decide to read them or not (you can
    readily skip part or even all of them !), you MUST travel right to
    the end, since there is an item you have to acquire there in order
    to finish the game.   Then Klayman has to plod his weary way back
    to the very beginning --- no quick or easy exit !   I scanned all
    the pages, and to me they seem a total yawn, very close to
    gibberish, and with no tangible bearing whatsoever on the plot of
    the game (certainly no puzzle clues of any importance).  The first
    half at least seems to be a very weak parody of the early chapters
    of the Old Testament --- but I play games to relax and enjoy
    myself, not in order to be 'educated' or bored to tears.   If I
    just want a few hours of reading, even in this day and age, it is
    still more satisfying to open books or magazines !   I am aware
    that some games appear to introduce sequences which only seem to
    be there as time-fillers (possibly so that some players will not
    complain that the game can be finished in, say, 20 hours or
    whatever !).   But in my opinion, this is going too far !!

Some Hints & Tips.

 (1).   A very minor issue :-  During the fairly early part of the
 game you have to open a door which is locked with 3 dead-bolts
 controlled by buttons coloured orange, blue, and grey/black.   To do
 this, you have to search all over the territory and click 3 buttons
 in very different locales, coloured orange, blue, and WHITE ........
 A bit of a cop out ??!

(2).    Quite valid, but caused me a fair bit of wasted time and
trouble :-   In many Q/A's you have to press a button or click a
switch, etc., in order to progress.  To date as far as I can remember,
once you have done this and (intentionally or not) return to the same
button, it is either completely inert or beeps or whatever but causes
no further action or progress ... and more to the point, no hindrance
! But in this game you have to be careful !   Several buttons work on
a flip-flop or toggle principle (like a light switch).  If you click
once, you have achieved your objective (although you don't see it,
since its a long way away !).  But if you're not certain (which
happened to me more than once) and click it a second time, you have
negated your first action and when you tramp back to (say) the
dead-bolts, you've gained ...... absolutely nothing. Putting it a
different way :-  if (maybe by chance) you click any odd number of
times, fine ---- but if you click any even number of times ........
zilch !!

(3).    The Mouse/Cheese puzzle.  I managed to solve this by trial and
error, but it took me some time.  Then out of interest I peeked at one
or more of the abovementioned W.T.'s and there I noticed clues such as
"get the mouse to follow its nose", etc.   To clarify this a little :-
Each time the mouse emerges from a hole its nose will be pointing
either left or right.  Click on the space (not the hole !) next to the
direction its nose is pointing.  The mouse will jump towards this
space.  Sometimes its nose will still be pointing in the same
direction but sometimes in the opposite direction.  Either way, enter
the hole to which its nose is pointing now.  In just 10 moves every
time, the mouse eats the cheese and you're on your way !

(4).    Another puzzle held me up for a while.  ( N.B.  There are
random differences in MANY of the puzzles --- sometimes even when you
replay them yourself in the same 'game'). There is a panel in which 12
symbols have to be 'frozen' (from left to right).  It starts with the
single left hand position which flashes a continuous series of 12
symbols ending with one that resembles a circle with a horizontal
radius and a wavy line to the left of it --- this (final) symbol is
further differentiated since whenever it appears you hear a sort of
zither-ey sound (call this symbol, X).  Then the same sequence repeats
itself over and over again.  When you press the red button during the
short period of time that any symbol is displayed, that particular
symbol is frozen in place and the 2nd position from the left starts
and repeats the same process (the zither-ey sound is always a signal
that one series is ending and an identical one is about to start).
You continue this process until all 12 sites are filled.  Only if you
have got all 12 'correct' have you solved the puzzle and continue to
the next stage of the game --- if not, you start the whole process
over again, which is pretty frustrating ! What is the correct sequence
of 12 symbols ?   Opposite the cannon (earlier on) is a similar panel
which projects one single symbol each time you press a red button.  It
remains on screen for about 3 seconds and (unless you have a
phenomenal memory) I can't think of any alternative but to make a
rough sketch of each of the 12 symbols and in their correct order (or
maybe use some lettering system ??).   Since it's quite likely that
you won't have time to make 12 adequate sketches, you can repeat this
process as many times as you need to.   In fact it's worth repeating
in any case, since you'll notice an interesting and vital phenomenon
--- there are only 11 different symbols here, and one of the 12
symbols (always a different one, but always one of the 11) is always
repeated but in the same 'position'.   Since I personally found this
somewhat confusing, I'll make it a bit clearer :-  (Although your
sequence might be different, I'm pretty sure that the same principle
applies). In my particular case, calling the 12 symbols (opposite the
cannon) A thro' L, I found that my sequence A ---> L was identical
every time except for E.  The first time, E was the same symbol as G ;
the next time it was the same symbol as J ; the next time D ; and so
on. Returning to the 'original' puzzle panel :-  The (ONLY) correct
sequence you must 'freeze' (from left to right) is the abovementioned
A thro' L, EXCEPT that when you get to E (or whatever in your case)
you must instead freeze the 'special' symbol X mentioned above. Hope
it's clear ............. Very simple if you know what you're doing ---
almost impossible if you don't --- one false move out of the 12 and I
advise you to start from the beginning again (or you'll waste a lot of
time !!).

(5).    There is one puzzle which is very easy and obvious --- what is
possibly a bit less obvious is that one aspect of it is essential for
a later (albeit even easier) puzzle.

    Puzzle {A} :-  This is only a (pretty simple) variation on the
    familiar "pairs" puzzle.  You are presented with an 8 x 6 matrix
    of tiles.  I suggest drawing a grid of 8 columns and 6 rows.  As
    you click on the visible blank back of any tile, it flips over,
    stays, and reveals a symbol.  Sometimes you are lucky and when you
    click next time you get the same symbol, but generally not ---
    this, however, is of negligible importance.  You have to identify
    every one of the 48 symbols (which doesn't take long).  On your
    grid mark each symbol (I found it quickest and easiest to call one
    which looked like a moustache M, a radio R, a fire-hydrant F, a
    head H, and so on).  When you have done this, it is important to
    count (and retain) all your M's, R's, F's, H's etc.   Each time I
    played it, I personally got 10 sets of symbols (maybe different in
    your case) ;  but each time, the positions and numbers of symbols
    in each set was quite different.   I imagine that the only
    certainties are that each set must be an even number, and that the
    total must obviously come to 48. You then start again from the
    beginning with any symbol you like (say R) but you MUST then
    'pair' it with a second R.  You then choose any other symbol (say
    H ---- or R if there are any left), and so on until the end.
    Again, one slip up and you start again from the beginning (but the
    symbols remain identical and in their same positions, so it's not
    very time consuming !).

    Puzzle {B} :-   Later, you come across a panel with only 3 out of
    the 10 (or whatever) of the same symbols as you found in
    Puzzle{A}.   Next to each of these 3 symbols is a sort of dice set
    to 1 pip.  By clicking on the red up-arrows below these 'dice' you
    simply increment each of the 3 (down-arrows decrement the pips) to
    the number of tiles in Puzzle{A} which had that (adjacent)
    particular symbol --- which is an additional good reason why you
    had to count each set in Puzzle{A}.   You then click the circular
    yellow button above, and that's it ........ VERY easy !

(6).    Caution :-  Be careful in acquiring the 3rd ('free') key near
the end ! Explanation :- When you have got all 20 video cassettes, you
'receive' this key automatically.  I made a bit of a mess of this.  I
would advise saving BEFORE you pop the 20th cassette into any
video-T.V.   If everything is OK, all 20 cassettes automatically flash
on and off continuously ---- previously, only the extreme left hand
cassette lit up automatically (unless you clicked another), and you
had to click the trigger above to 'start any batch off'.   Willie
Trombone then relates the whole story (this time with no 'static'
interruptions) from the beginning, and you MUST wait right through
until he finishes : After the end, he then adds an additional short
spiel and throws the 3rd key out of the T.V. screen and at you, and
you simply pick it up from the floor below the T.V. set. Since I had
heard different segments of the story so many times during the course
of the game, I didn't have the patience to listen yet again to the
whole thing (which takes about 6 minutes continuously) from start to
finish !   So as far as I can remember, I guess I must have stopped
him in mid stream.  After that, although all 20 cassettes were
present, I didn't receive that final speech, and the key was not
always available on the floor and sometimes I couldn't finish the game
without returning to a previous save. SO  (I repeat) SAVE  before
inserting that last cassette !!