                                The DIG

About Sean Clark :
Sean Clark succeded to Brian Moriarty for leading The Dig project.He worked
on some recent LucasArts games, specially Sam &amp; Max Hit The Road as
a programer and game designer.

The Walkthrough :
by Morgana 

NOTE: This file contains a complete solution to LucasArts' graphic adventure,
THE DIG, and may spoil your enjoyment of the game. Read at your own risk.

METHODOLOGY 
This is the story of how I got through THE DIG. I've described, as nearly
as I can recreate it, the game that I, personally, played. I've also included
another possible alternative toward the endgame that I learned of after
I finished my game, from messages posted here in the GAMERS forum, and then
replayed to check it out and to discuss it with fellow players. My goal
is not only to help you get through the game, but to give you a sense of
how I thought about the puzzles, what I got out of the game's story, and
why certain things I tried worked (and others didn't). I've attempted to
highlight things that you learn as you play that should serve as clues to
what might otherwise seem obscure puzzles, and have noted the places where
I needed a hint myself and/or felt that a puzzle could have been more &quot;fair.&quot;
Instead of just telling you a quick and dirty solution, such as &quot;take
x and use it on y&quot; without an explanation of why, I've tried to give
you a sense of how I came to that point through my own game experience --
and how (I thought) some of the things that weren't necessary to finish
the game added to its atmosphere and exposed aspects of its richness. My
hope is that if you're new to graphic adventures and having some trouble,
this walkthru will not only help you through THE DIG, but will give you
some ideas about what to try with your next game to make it more fun and
less frustrating. If you've been playing adventures since Shep was a pup
and have pretty much breezed through THE DIG so far, I hope that this will
help you with wherever you happen to be stuck -- but will also be at least
somewhat entertaining to read through after you finish, as you'll get a
taste of where I was led astray. Maybe you can even relate to some of my
wayward follies because you waywardly followed them yourself. Heh. 

INTRODUCTION 
You learn through the introductory movie that an asteroid called Attila,
first sighted at an observatory in Borneo, is on a three-week collision
course with Earth. Attila is large enough to cause catastrophic damage if
it hits; indeed, it could wipe out all life on the planet. The Borneo observatory's
computer predicts that the likelihood of collision is 1 in 1, but NASA says
it's 99% (how typical). The space shuttle, although not designed for such
a mission, has been commissioned to take Commander Boston Low (your player
character) and his crew, Ludger Brink (noted geologist and archaeologist),
Maggie Robbins, (renowned journalist and linguistic expert), Ken Borden
(ace shuttle pilot), and Cora Miles (Congressional candidate and payload
specialist (huh? am I missing a connection here?)) to Attila prior to impact.
The plan is for the landing party (Boston, Brink and Maggie) to place nuclear
explosive devices that will blast Attila into a different course, thereby
saving Earth without destroying the asteroid. If successful, preserving
the asteroid will not only prevent large portions of it from entering Earth's
atmosphere and causing damage, but -- as you soon find out -- will also
allow Boston &amp; Co. to do some exploring on Attila once Earth is out
of danger. As Brink lets you know later, this is the first time any Earthlings
will have had such an amazing chance to get up close and personal with an
asteroid. As you enter your mission, you're under pressure. You have an
extremely important job to do. The people of Earth are counting on you.
You have to do it right. My adrenaline was pumping. Is yours ? 

AT THE SHUTTLE
When the introduction is over, Boston, Maggie and Brink have exited the
space shuttle and are poised just outside it in space exploration garb.
The first thing I did was look in my inventory, mostly to get an idea of
how the interface worked. You start out with an EXAMINE (a magnifying glass
that allows you to get a closer look at other inventory items and on-screen
hotspots), a PENULTIMATE (a communications device with a built in video
game), an ARMING KEY, and a FLASHLIGHT. To test out the interface, further,
I EXAMINED each of the other inventory items. I didn't learn much of anything
new except that the ARMING KEY was for the &quot;explosives&quot; -- presumably
those I'd need to place on Attila. 
NOTE: When I use EXAMINE in this walkthru, I am referring to using the magnifying
glass from your inventory. When I use any other verb (such as LOOK, USE,
PUSH, etc.) all you need to do is click on the item. 
Next I scanned for hotspots on the screen and found the following: TOOL
CHEST, ASTEROID, ROBBINS and BRINK. Since I figured I'd need some tools
to help me with Attila, I decided to focus on the TOOL CHEST first. I tried
to OPEN it, and Boston told me that it was called &quot;the pig,&quot; and
that payload specialist Miles needed to use the remote arm to release it.
Since she was still in the shuttle and I saw no need for a face-to-face
meeting with her given that I was so technologically well-equipped, I decided
to give her a CALL on the PENULTIMATE. I called it up out of inventory and
selected the COMM option (the only one I used throughout the game although
LUNAR LANDER fans may choose to use the other as well from time to time),
then MILES. (Now that you know how the PENULTIMATE works, I'm not going
to repeat these steps every time to save you some download time. Hahahaha.)
Since I was determined to get that pig, I ASKED MILES about the FLYING PIG
out of the &quot;talk&quot; options, and she deployed it for me. I then
LOOKED at the FLYING PIG again, and Boston took it down to the surface of
the ASTEROID.

PLACING THE EXPLOSIVES 
Once at the surface, I OPENED the FLYING PIG. I REACHED inside the FLYING
PIG and found: a ZERO-G DIGGER, EXPLOSIVE UNIT ALPHA, EXPLOSIVE UNIT BETA,
and a modest, but serviceable-looking SHOVEL. I TOOK all of them and placed
them in inventory (by clicking each one on the &quot;I&quot; icon at the
bottom left of the screen), then EXITED that screen. (Now that you know
how to place items in inventory, I'm not going to remind you how to do it
every time to save you some download time. Hahahahaha again.) Now I had
the explosives as well as the arming key, but I didn't yet know where I
needed to put them, and I knew I had to be accurate about it since Brink
had basically had a cow about accuracy during the intro. So I decided to
have a chat with him in the hopes that he'd give me an idea of what to do.
I TALKED to BRINK, going through all the conversation options beginning
with the QUESTION MARK. I soon learned that as with other games I'd played,
he'd keep talking about each option until he had nothing new to say (at
which point, in this game, the option greys out). I talked him to exhaustion
on each subject, but he didn't give me any information on the placement
of the explosives. So I turned to ROBBINS and went through the same exercise.
Not that I expected her to know where to put them since it wasn't her field
of expertise, but it seemed the most efficient course in my quest for some
degree of thoroughness. I wasn't disappointed, for indeed she knew nothing
about how to place the explosives -- she just wanted to get into a zinger
war with me. But she wasn't nearly as fun to tease as _some_ people I could
name. My next thought was that one of the crew remaining on the shuttle
must have the information I needed, so I CALLED up BORDEN on the PENULTIMATE.
I also TALKED him to exhaustion starting with the QUESTION MARK and working
my way through all of the conversation options. He had something puzzling
to say about Attila not giving as much gravity as expected and perhaps being
nothing but a bubble, which set me to wondering although I wasn't sure of
the comments' significance. When I TALKED to him about the NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE,
I got the first part of my answer: I was to plant alpha charge in quadrant
2 on a flat surface. I made a note of this and then decided to complete
the circle and TALK MILES to death on the PENULTIMATE. This turned out to
be a challenge since she didn't want to stop zinging me about my comment
that she had my vote. She didn't have any additional important information
for me, though. Having exhausted all of these options, I moved on to plant
the first charge. I headed out to SPACE and over to QUADRANT 2. Here, I
found a TARGET SURFACE, but I was unable to plant EXPLOSIVE UNIT ALPHA there
because the ground was too rough. Obviously, I needed to smooth it somehow
first and it looked like it just needed a pat or two with the back side
of my SHOVEL. I picked up the trusty SHOVEL to give it a try, but Boston
told me I couldn't use it because of low gravity and that we had the exact
tool for the job. Ok, ok. It's the ZERO-G DIGGER. Thanks for making me feel
so competent, boss. I USED the ZERO-G DIGGER with the TARGET SITE, which
did the trick, and left nothing but DIRT. I USED EXPLOSIVE UNIT ALPHA with
the DIRT, after EXAMINING it just for good measure. I still had another
charge to place, so I CALLED up BORDEN on the PENULTIMATE again since he'd
been my answer man for the first charge. He didn't have anything new to
say about any conversation options except NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE -- he told me
to plant beta charge in quadrant 3, again on a level surface. After making
sure I had nothing else to explore in QUADRANT 2, I went back out to SPACE
and then to QUADRANT 3. Here I discovered a BOULDER which certainly didn't
look like a level surface, so it was no surprise that the charge wouldn't
stick. A-hah! I thought. I'll be smart this time and use my specially designed
tool, the ZERO-G DIGGER. But it didn't work! At the risk of being told what
a dolt I was, I tried USING the SHOVEL with the BOULDER -- it worked! And
after patting herself on the back for including a shovel in the tool chest,
Miles gave me some words to live by during the cut-scene: &quot;if you can
pick it up, take it with you, 'cause you never know when you might need
it.&quot; I USED EXPLOSIVE UNIT BETA with the SURFACE (which was revealed
once the BOULDER was gone) and planted the second charge.

BLASTING ATTILA
At this point, I knew I'd need to arm the charges I'd just placed (why else
would I have an ARMING KEY?) but I thought it wise to confirm with BORDEN,
so I CALLED him again on the PENULTIMATE and again went through all the
conversation options. Again, he had nothing new to say except when I chose
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE, and he gave me the go-ahead to arm them. I had a few
thoughts going through my head now. Good thing there was more than one or
it might have died of loneliness. My first thought was that I'd learned
in exploring the hotspots on the space map screen that there was still a
QUADRANT 4 I hadn't been to yet, and although it wasn't relevant for the
charges, it might reveal something of interest. The second was whether it
mattered if I armed alpha charge before beta charge or not. And finally,
what was I supposed to do next after arming the charges? I decided to deal
with these in order. After making sure I hadn't missed anything to explore
in QUADRANT 3, I went out to SPACE and then to QUADRANT 4. This turned out
to be useless, since there were no hotspots in QUADRANT 4. But I would never
have known if I hadn't tried, now would I? So there. I then decided to get
on with it and arm the charges, and to take them in the order I'd placed
them (seemed reasonable, although in replaying, I found that the order doesn't
matter). I went out to SPACE and back to QUADRANT 2. There, I USED the ARMING
KEY with EXPLOSIVE UNIT ALPHA. I CALLED in to BORDEN to let him know I was
done, but this time I just SPOKE to him about the NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE. Beeping
him turned out to be helpful, because he let me know that I had nothing
left to do but arm the explosives and return to the shuttle. I went out
to SPACE and back to QUADRANT 3, where I USED the ARMING KEY with EXPLOSIVE
UNIT BETA. I REPORTED back to BORDEN again on the PENULTIMATE about the
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE, and he told me to come back to the shuttle. I went out
to SPACE and then to the SHUTTLE. Back at the SHUTTLE, nothing was happening
so this wasn't going to be an automated sequence -- yet. I decided to CALL
BORDEN on the PENULTIMATE again in case he was waiting for me to check in
when I got back. After TALKING to him about the NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE, we were
all spirited back into the shuttle, retreated from Attila, and nuked the
living daylights out of it.

EXPLORING ATTILA
As you learn in the following cut-scene, your mission is a success so far.
Attila is in one piece, albeit somewhat fractured. Mission Control gives
the landing team the go-ahead to explore Attila, and after Miles sends the
pig down a tunnel to provide light, the landing team also descends into
the tunnel. Your geologist, Brink, lets you know that the tunnel wasn't
created by the blasting: it's ancient, but not as old as the asteroid itself
and feels unnatural. He also remarks that there are some odd projections
sticking from the inside of the tunnel. When he stops talking, the team
is hanging out inside the tunnel waiting for you to guide them. The screen
where you find yourself shows a METALLIC PLATE and three ODD PROJECTIONS.
It also scrolls downward to show the FLYING PIG and upward to show EARTH.
You can even exit the tunnel completely if you move far enough upscreen
(but why would you want to when there's a tunnel just crying out for exploration
and nowhere to go back at the surface)? I did LOOK at EARTH and heard Boston
remark that it was &quot;comforting to know we can return home in safety.&quot;
&lt;TWILIGHT Zone music&gt; I then LOOKED at the METALLIC PLATE. Boston
and Brink agreed that it couldn't be natural and that someone put it there.
There's speculation that it might be some sort of message. At this point,
Boston comes clean with the group and tells them that he has had secret
orders all along to look for alien presence on Attila. He clamps down on
security, extracts promises from the landing team that they won't breach
the security he imposed, and sends a code to Earth through Borden to notify
Mission Control of what he's found. Then he gives the METALLIC PLATE a push
and it falls away. All that is left is a SMALL SHAFT, which I could only
OBSERVE. I decided to talk to my crew before doing anything else. None of
them had anything crucial to say, but it's worth doing to help fill out
the story. I next began exploring the hotspots on the screen. LOOKING at
the FLYING PIG just told me what it was. LOOKING at the ODD PROJECTIONS
evoked a few comments, but nothing more. I knew I had to do something with
the ODD PROJECTIONS (because they were _there_ and also because I needed
some more area to explore) so I contemplated my inventory. Since I was dealing
with a rock face, I first decided to try USING the ZERO-G DIGGER on the
ODD PROJECTION closest to where the SMALL SHAFT now was. Interestingly,
it worked, and revealed another METALLIC PLATE. I put away the ZERO-G DIGGER
and PUSHED this new METALLIC PLATE. It fell away, just like the last one,
into another SMALL SHAFT. I could only LOOK at this SMALL SHAFT also. It
was now clear to me that I should at least try to repeat this process on
the other two ODD PROJECTIONS. So I USED the ZERO-G DIGGER with each of
the remaining ODD PROJECTIONS and uncovered two more METALLIC PLATES. I
PUSHED the smaller METALLIC PLATE first. Down it went, leaving a SHAFT behind.
Again, I could only LOOK at the SHAFT. I had a pretty good feeling about
the last METALLIC PLATE, though. It was large and looked like it might be
a way into another area. Sure enough, it left behind a DARK TUNNEL when
I PUSHED it. The landing team passed through the DARK TUNNEL when I LOOKED
at it. At the end of the DARK TUNNEL, we entered a large cubic area (the
CORE) with only one new hotspot besides the entrance to the DARK TUNNEL
-- the PEDESTAL. The asteroid, as Brink then remarked, was hollow after
all. (Now I understood Borden's earlier comments about gravity and bubbles.)
Boston tried to contact the shuttle on the penultimate, but communications
were blocked. &lt;MORE Twilight Zone music&gt; I LOOKED at the PEDESTAL
and was taken to what appeared to be a puzzle screen consisting of four
PLATES and some SQUARE INDENTATIONS. It seemed painfully obvious that the
PLATES were supposed to go in the SQUARE INDENTATIONS. So I picked up the
bottom PLATE and USED it on the SQUARE INDENTATIONS. I was taken to a close-up
screen of the SQUARE INDENTATIONS, which showed the directions TOP, BOTTOM,
RIGHT and LEFT. I USED the PLATE on a couple of the directions until it
settled in the BOTTOM. I then EXITED and TOOK the remaining three PLATES.
I placed them all in inventory and decided to talk to my crew before going
further. BRINK identified the PLATES I'd picked up as the ones I'd pushed
through the shafts in the tunnel. And ROBBINS gave me a spoiler I didn't
need -- that the plates could be arranged to fit the indentations. Aside
from that, their comments were fairly innocuous. So I decided to move on.
I RETURNED to the SQUARE INDENTATIONS and, once back at the close-up screen,
I reached into my inventory and took out the PLATES one by one and PLACED
them in the TOP, RIGHT, and LEFT spots. This time I tried to be a little
less arbitrary in how I placed them -- I tried to match them to the spaces
that they looked like they'd fit -- but since there aren't that many choices,
it doesn't really matter whether you bother with this exercise or not because
trial and error is pretty painless. When the last of the PLATES was placed,
a totally amazing thing happened! Attila began to move and hyperspaced across
the galaxy taking the crew with it! It settles in an island-looking thing
surrounded by five spires and the next thing I know, the crew are all standing
in an unfamiliar place, with planetoid gravity and a breathable atmosphere.
After taking off their spacesuits, the crew contemplates their predicament:
Attila was actually a starship created by alien life forms, and they are
far, far away from home indeed. 

ON COCYTUS
Here again, I decided to get my crew's first impressions of the situation
before exploring myself. Call me a cautious commander. BRINK didn't have
much to offer except a cryptic remark that sometimes the best way down was
up and the best way up was down. ROBBINS had even less of import to tell
me. I couldn't reach my shuttle crew because of distance. (Every time I
tried to contact them later on, I had the same problem, so I've omitted
the times I tried that from the walkthru.) I started poking around where
I was. Our SPACESUITS lay on the ground next to me, but I couldn't take
them. Same result with our JETPACKS. There was a PLANT that I also couldn't
pick up. And the PLATFORM that we landed on, with which BRINK saw similarities
to ancient Peruvian masonry when I LOOKED at it. My other options were the
SKY and a CLEARING. I decided to take a LOOK at the SKY first. Above us,
a LARGE MOON and a DISTANT MOON, smaller than the LARGE MOON, orbited the
planet. I chose CANYON to exit this screen and moved on to the CLEARING.
At this point, Brink gave his first indication of challenging my authority,
but Maggie jumped to my defense and he backed down. From the CLEARING screen,
I could see three hotspots with ?s on them. I went to the rightmost one
at the base of what looked like a tall mound first. Maybe there would be
a way to climb up the mound and get to another area. After discussion, however,
it was clear we couldn't climb the slope. And there were no hotspots in
this area except my own crew; hence, nothing to do here at the moment. So
I went back to the CLEARING to try another of the ?s. I made a mental note
that at some point later on it might be worth revisiting the spot I'd just
left, which was now identified on the CLEARING screen as DIRT RAMP. I went
to the next closest ? toward the top of the screen. There were some small
rodents running around and a GRAVE here with some TUSKS sticking out of
it. Brink noted that the animal remains seemed to have been placed as markers
of some sort. I decided to take a closer LOOK at both the GRAVE and the
TUSKS, so I LOOKED at the GRAVE first. Boston remarked that it looked like
something was buried there, so I decided to try digging up whatever it was.
I USED the SHOVEL on the GRAVE, and after Brink yelled at me for being destructive,
I dug until I'd opened up the GRAVE. The TUSKS on top of the GRAVE had fallen
to the ground, so I TOOK one (note that you can also TAKE the TUSK directly
from the mound before digging the GRAVE if you wish). Boston remarked that
it felt as strong as steel. I SHOWED it to both of my crew members by clicking
it on them. (Now that you know how to show things to people, I won't tell
you how to do this every time to save you still more download time. Hahahahaha
again again.) Maggie noted that the tip was sharp. Brink just smarted off.
I briefly considered that the TUSK might be used later in connection with
something that required its strength and sharpness. Then I noticed a JAWBONE,
so I TOOK it. When Boston picked it up, he said that the teeth still looked
strong. When I SHOWED it to Maggie, she said that the teeth still looked
sharp. Brink didn't have anything valuable to say. I briefly considered
that the JAWBONE might be used later in connection with something that required
its strength and sharpness. (Cool, huh? I just had to copy that last part
of the sentence and paste it in &lt;GRIN&gt;.) Now the only thing left to
LOOK at were BONES, but I couldn't take any more of them. So I went back
to the CLEARING to check out the last ?. I noticed that the place I'd just
visited was now called the GRAVE on the CLEARING screen. The last ? had
the remains of some sort of spacecraft in it toward the left, as the game
showed me automatically. On my starting screen, I could see part of an ENGINE,
so I LOOKED at it. Boston told me that it was hopelessly ruined. Since we'd
moved closer to the craft while looking at the ENGINE, I could now see two
more hotspots -- another ENGINE and the WRECK itself. I checked out the
other ENGINE first, and learned that the ENGINES were enormous but that
there was no evidence of combustion. Brink thought that the ship wasn't
of the same technology as the other evidence we'd seen so far. LOOKING at
this ENGINE had also scrolled us farther to the left, so I checked for a
way out by walking the party to the left as far as I could. There wasn't
one. The only thing left to do now was INVESTIGATE the WRECK, so I did and
we went inside. Brink insisted on looking around, but apparently, the sight
rendered him speechless. There was a CHEST here, and it OPENED to reveal
a DEVICE which I took. I SHOWED the DEVICE to my crew, but they didn't have
much to say about it. I put it in my inventory and from there EXAMINED it,
but this didn't tell me anything new either. I did notice, though, that
when I tried to pick it up again, I USED it automatically. It gave an indication
to the right. Some sort of compass? Hmmm. Maybe. To early to tell. There
was also a HANGING WIRE here, and I knew from playing other games that this
could be a useful item if I could take it -- or maybe Boston would climb
it or something. If I could take it, it might be used as a rope to climb
somewhere or to tie something to something else, or otherwise to connect
two things together. I didn't know yet, but it seemed a great find. I PULLED
the WIRE -- and something really strange happened. A swirling light came
down seemingly from nowhere, and as Brink noted, it formed different shapes
of polyhedrons. Then it disappeared as quickly as it came. I PICKED UP the
WIRE, which had fallen to the ground, and everyone agreed with my initial
instinct that it might be useful when I SHOWED it to the crew. But where
the swirling light had crossed, there was now something else -- an ENGRAVED
ROD. I TOOK the ENGRAVED ROD. Everyone was baffled by it when I SHOWED it
to them. How could we have missed it when we first walked in? Unless the
light... but no, Brink thought that was too ridiculous to even contemplate.
Since I'd skimmed the game booklet before playing (I generally do before
jumping in -- no telling what good info you might find in there) and it
had suggested examining rods, I EXAMINED the ENGRAVED ROD and found that
the rod was engraved (duh) and had five geometric shapes. Funny. Brink had
said that the swirling lights formed polyhedrons and now I had some geometric
shapes here in solid matter. Had the lights been trying to tell us something?
There was nothing left to do here now (unless I wanted to keep opening and
closing the chest until the next millennium), so I decided to go back to
where I'd started and assess my options. But first, I decided to check with
my crew to see whether they had anything new to say. I noticed when I SPOKE
to BRINK that I had a new option for the STRANGE LIGHTS. I went through
all of the options again. He wasn't much help except to encourage me to
keep trying to pick up everything I saw. (He must have played a lot of adventure
games.) ROBBINS didn't have much to offer, except to speculate that the
lights could have been alive, to which Boston said, if so it wasn't organic
life. Inorganic life? What a concept! We went OUTSIDE and after RECHECKING
the ENGINES and learning little new, headed back to the CLEARING. Here,
we learned that the place we'd just been was no longer a ? but a WRECK,
and that we had started from a DAIS. Upon returning to the DAIS, the swirling
lights appeared again and seemed to be pointing to a patch of ground to
the right of the screen. Maggie thought that they were trying to tell or
show us something. The group wondered aloud whether the lights were alive,
or maybe an automatic guidance system. This made a connection in my mind.
The blue, orb-like DEVICE I'd picked up in the WRECK also seemed to be some
sort of guidance system, since it had pointed a particular direction when
I last USED it. Before doing anything else, I decided to USE the DEVICE
again. It was pointing behind me. I got the idea that perhaps it was pointing
to one of the other locations in the CLEARING that I'd been to, and since
it had pointed elsewhere at the WRECK and the DAIS, and also since I hadn't
been able to do anything at the DIRT RAMP before, I decided to try there
first. From the CLEARING, we returned to the DIRT RAMP and I USED the DEVICE
here. It pointed directly at a SMALL MOUND that hadn't been there on my
first trip through. I USED the SHOVEL with the SMALL MOUND in the hopes
that something might be buried there, too. I DUG a HOLE inside of which
there was a BRACELET that I TOOK. My crew didn't have much to say about
the BRACELET when I SHOWED it to them except for one quip of Brink's, that
it might be useful as well as ornamental. Since Boston now had the BRACELET,
I decided to see what would happen if I now USED the DEVICE. It pointed
at Boston. So Brink was right, it _was_ useful! Now I knew that the DEVICE
tracked the BRACELET, and since I'd encountered tracking devices before
in adventure games, I suspected that at some point down the road I'd need
to put the BRACELET somewhere and use the DEVICE to find it again. Finding
nothing more to do at the DIRT RAMP, I determined to carry on with my original
idea -- to return to the DAIS, consider all of what I'd learned so far,
and formulate a plan. As it happened, the plan wasn't long in coming. I
TALKED through all conversation options with my crew, and both BRINK and
ROBBINS were in favor of taking a closer look at the area where the strange
lights had hovered when we had returned to the DAIS previously. I didn't
have any better idea, so I obliged them. The spot where the strange lights
had seemed to point was now a new hotspot, a SMALL HOLE, which Boston said
was too small and dark to see if it led anywhere. Oh, goodie! If I could
enlarge the hole, and/or illuminate it, maybe we'd find a passage. I used
the SHOVEL with the SMALL HOLE and Boston began to dig yet again (by now
the game's name made a lot of sense). He observed that the ground was soft,
and that perhaps there was an opening that had been covered up by drifting
soil. Brink insisted on taking over the digging, and, most unfortunately,
the opening gave way and he fell through the hole!

IN THE NEXUS: Morgie's Day 1
After this happens, you see Maggie and Boston climb down a ramp of dirt
and rock that had formed when the SMALL HOLE collapsed. They finally reach
Brink. Alas, he's dead, and Boston feels terribly guilty about that. Maggie
decides that it's best to split up and separately try to find clues about
how to get home. There wasn't anything I could do to stop her, and I was
sorry to see her go. Oh well, I could still talk to her on the PENULTIMATE.
With one dead crew member and one absent one, I had no choice but to explore
on my own for awhile. Good thing there was plenty to see. First, I put away
my trusty SHOVEL, then paid my respects to BRINK'S BODY. I considered that
it was unusually early in the game for him to pop off, and this planted
the seed in my mind that perhaps some place, thing or person in the game
would be able to bring him back to life. After all, he was an archaeologist,
and it was likely that I'd need his skills to understand this unusual place,
even though he had turned out to be a haughty kind of guy. Not to mention
that there was a picture of an area I hadn't been to yet on the game box
in which Brink appeared as well as Boston. To the left, I saw a PLATE lying
on the ground. It looked just like one of the plates we'd found on Attila.
I TOOK it. There were also some GLOWING PLANTS, which took energy from Boston
when he TOUCHED them. He remarked that they must share a common root system.
I moved on to the left, and saw a PANEL and a SEALED DOOR. The PANEL took
me to a screen with four strange BUTTONS on it when I LOOKED at it. They
looked like a control for the SEALED DOOR, but since I wasn't sure what
to do with them for now, I EXITED. Nothing happened with the SEALED DOOR
when I gave it a PUSH. Moving on to the left, I saw a RAMP and a DARK TUNNEL.
I decided to finish checking out the rest of the room before exploring these.
Going left again, I found another PANEL and another SEALED DOOR. This PANEL,
too, had strange BUTTONS, and this SEALED DOOR was also shut tight. Continuing
my leftward trek, I found a PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD. After TAKING it, I EXAMINED
it and found some colored geometric symbols on it. NOTE: I discovered in
replaying the game that the symbols appear to be set randomly from game
to game. In my first game, I had a red &quot;circle,&quot; a green &quot;hexagon&quot;,
a blue &quot;triangle&quot;, and a red &quot;hexagon&quot; on the PURPLE
ENGRAVED ROD. In the second game, progressing from a prior save, I had a
red &quot;triangle&quot;, a green &quot;hexagon,&quot; a green &quot;cube&quot;,
and another red &quot;triangle&quot; on this same rod. So you'll have to
look carefully at your own PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD (as well as the others mentioned
below) to distinguish the shapes and colors, as I don't think anything I
could offer would help here. The shapes seemed to resemble the BUTTONS on
the PANELS I'd found, and therefore I speculated that they held a combination
to the SEALED DOORS' locks. After noting this, I moved on. Behind Boston,
another PANEL and SEALED DOOR awaited. I found the characteristics of these
identical to the first two I'd seen. To the left, I saw a COLUMN. I LOOKED
at it and learned that it had smooth grooves on its surface, but not much
more. Continuing left, I encountered a fourth SEALED DOOR and PANEL, that
were just like the first three. Finally, just before I completed the circle
and found myself back at BRINK'S BODY, I found another SEALED DOOR. This
one did not have a PANEL next to it, but it did have an ALCOVE. When I LOOKED
at the ALCOVE, I found myself at a puzzle screen very similar to the one
I had seen on Attila, with TOP, BOTTOM, LEFT and RIGHT slots. Plates had
worked before on a similar puzzle, and luckily I was carrying one. The PLATE
that I had was shaped just like the BOTTOM space, so I PUT it on the BOTTOM
and it attached there. I EXITED, thinking that somehow, somewhere, I'd need
to find three more plates. Since there was no PANEL next to this fifth door,
I made the working assumption that the ALCOVE was this door's control and
the PLATES were what triggered it. Having completed my circle, I decided
to explore the other areas available to me before attempting to figure out
just how the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD might work with the PANELS. I chose the
RAMP first. Upon descending the RAMP, I found myself in an eerie, hot space
with a glowing area below. Boston figured it was the power source for the
place I was in and commented to the effect that he'd need to figure out
how to turn the power on. (This was my first clue that I'd need to turn
on the power.) A LOOSE PLATE behind Boston came off when I OPENED it, and
inside I found a BLUE CRYSTAL. I was able to TAKE the BLUE CRYSTAL, but
when I did everything became dark. So I decided to PUT it back for the time
being so that I could see better. Obviously, it was some form of light source,
because all became bright again when I RETURNED it to the EMPTY SLOT. I
next LOOKED down over the EDGE and saw an UNATTACHED LENS. I had the sense
that I was supposed to get it somehow, but how was beyond me. I tried a
few things, like USING the WIRE with the EDGE in the hopes that I could
climb down there, but nothing worked. Probably because it was white hot
down there and I would have fried, but this didn't occur to me at the time.
Nor did I notice the other hotspots here since the UNATTACHED LENS was so
obvious, it distracted me. Next to the EDGE I saw a CONTROL PANEL with a
number of BUTTONS that I found in a close-up screen when I LOOKED at it.
Each BUTTON caused a colored circle to appear on a screen to the right when
I PUSHED it. This control reminded me of the game Mastermind, and I tried
for awhile to see if I could win. I didn't make any progress, but I did
notice that the center BUTTON could only be PRESSED once in a row, while
the others that produced colors could be PRESSED multiple times in a row.
Two of the BUTTONS removed the colored circles. One removed them one at
a time and the other removed all of them. I USED the &quot;remove all&quot;
BUTTON to clear my messy screen and EXITED. Further to the left was a TRIANGULAR
BUTTON. Nothing happened when I PUSHED it. Baffled, I decided to try the
DARK TUNNEL. I went up to the NEXUS and into the DARK TUNNEL. I ended up
in a lovely crystalline space on a sort of stone bridge. Toward the left,
after scrolling as far as I could go, the bridge ended at a glass house-looking
thing with two hotspots for BUTTONS. I PUSHED the nearest BUTTON and a door
opened. I walked inside and now could see an AIRLOCK DOOR. I figured I'd
need to close the door behind me before I could get through to lock out
unwanted air, so I PUSHED the second BUTTON and the first door shut. Another
PUSH on this BUTTON opened the AIRLOCK DOOR and I went through it. (Now
that you know how to operate the AIRLOCK DOOR, which works the same in reverse,
I'm not going to repeat this every time to save you... yeah, you guessed
it.) I wound up in a circular room with six large WINDOWS around the periphery.
I LOOKED through each of the six WINDOWS and learned a bit about where I
was from Boston's remarks. A system of tunnels passed underwater, connecting
the large, central island (the NEXUS) with other, smaller islands. I imagined
I'd have to get into those tunnels somehow. Through the left-hand side WINDOWS
I could see a crystalline tube, which appeared to be one of the tunnels.
Hmm. I wasn't sure at this point, but maybe the SEALED DOORS I'd seen led
to the tunnels. They seemed to be the only openings available to me in the
NEXUS, so that would make sense. The center of the room showed a GLOWING
PANEL, which I decided to EXPLORE. This took me to a screen that showed
four energized CRYSTALS, three empty HOLES, a CRYSTAL CLUSTER where all
the crystals met, and one dark, lifeless CRYSTAL. I figured I'd have to
replace that dark CRYSTAL or something at some point, but I wasn't sure
how to do it. (I later went back and tried every crystal I picked up in
the game on it hoping to replace it, including the BLUE CRYSTAL from the
RAMP area and the GLOWING CRYSTALS discussed below, to no avail.) I tried
PUTTING the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD and the ENGRAVED ROD in the HOLES, but neither
fit. Not sure what to do here either, I EXITED and returned out through
the AIRLOCK and back through the DARK TUNNEL to the NEXUS. I had a couple
more ideas up my sleeve before I could call myself stuck. The first was
to try the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD with all the PANELS. The second was to try
a bit harder to figure out how to get that UNATTACHED LENS. But before I
tried either one of these, I decided to BUZZ ROBBINS on the PENULTIMATE
to see if she had any ideas. I went through all the conversation options
with her. In addition to some chit-chat, she told me she was busy deciphering
symbols that were all over the place where she was, and that I might want
to figure out how to turn on the lights. (This was my second clue that I
had to turn the power on.) She also continued trying to convince me that
the strange lights, or ghosts as we were now calling them, had been trying
to lead us down here. Boston suggested that she continue learning the language
while he found more PLATES for the ALCOVE so that she could read any directions
as to how to use them. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was a rather
hefty clue as to what I'd need to do at a later point in the game. 

IN THE NEXUS: Morgie Loses It On Day 1
After talking to Maggie, I knew that I'd have to turn the power on since
there had been two mentions of that, but I didn't make the right connection
just then. I didn't see these clues as an indication that the game had gone
from somewhat nonlinear while we were exploring the surface, to linear down
in the NEXUS. If I had, I would have focused on turning on the power to
the exclusion of all else. But it was after midnight, I'd been playing for
a number of hours, and I was tired. So I made a wrong choice here and started
focusing on the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD. I plugged the combination into each
PANEL by HITTING the BUTTONS until the shapes and colors matched. I tried
going from left to right and from right to left in the order they appeared
on the rod. Then I thought: well, there are four shapes and four doors,
so maybe each door is coded to a shape? So I plugged in a straight row of
each shape/color to each of the panels. I also tried to match the order
of colors with each single shape (e.g., red triangle, green triangle, blue
triangle, red triangle since this was the color order in my game). Then
I tried to see a connection between the shapes of the doors, the shapes
of the panels, and the shapes on the rod. Nothing worked and I was close
to exasperation. I even tried USING the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD on the PANELS,
and Boston confirmed my suspicions that it was a key of some sort. But,
he mused, is it the key to this lock? This was something of a hint to me
that instead of being a key to _all_ doors, it was only a key to one of
them. But for the life of me, I couldn't get _any_ of them to work. I resorted
to EXAMINING all the SEALED DOORS and PANELS and tried to narrow down my
options by focusing on the one door that had &quot;four bright crystals&quot;
instead of dark ones. Still no luck. I finally got really bored with PUSHING
BUTTONS and moving shapes around with no success, so I went back down the
RAMP to see if anything made more sense this time around. This time, I did
notice more hotspots when I looked over the EDGE. In addition to the UNATTACHED
LENS, there were three LENSES and a LENS SLOT with the lens missing. Now
I saw the logic here. I somehow had to get the UNATTACHED LENS into the
LENS SLOT. I was dealing with a broken alien machine. Who would have thunk
it. But I still wasn't sure how to get from point A to point B. I TOOK the
BLUE CRYSTAL again (at least it was something I _could_ do) and decided
to have another go at the CONTROL PANEL. This time, also, when I PUSHED
the TRIANGULAR BUTTON, nothing happened. I PUT the BLUE CRYSTAL back in
case it was necessary to run the power, and HIT the TRIANGULAR BUTTON again.
Now I was cooking with something less than Crisco -- some bizarre-shaped
thing came down out of a chute, went over the EDGE and moved around down
near the power source. What the heck was it doing? Gathering power and taking
it to the surface? I fiddled with the CONTROL PANEL and the TRIANGULAR BUTTON
a few more times, usually clearing my screen when I was done and once (apparently)
leaving the colored circles there. I was able to get that thing to come
down another time, but the next time I mucked around with the CONTROL PANEL
nothing happened when I PUSHED the TRIANGULAR BUTTON. I just didn't get
it. Tired, annoyed, and feeling quite the inadequate adventurer, I decided
to post a message to my fellow player, hercules, who was at the time at
least a day ahead of me in playing time. We had made a pact that we wouldn't
read any hint messages to help ourselves and only start reading them after
we finished (I started reading messages about puzzles I was certain I'd
completed before I was totally finished with the game), but that I could
whine to him if I felt like it. &quot;Don't tell me the answer,&quot; I
said after explaining all I'd done. I just wanted to whine, I didn't want
to concede defeat yet. He posted back that I should pick one puzzle to work
on because the game became linear at this point. But which one? I wondered.
What if I barked up the wrong engraved rod for days? I decided to call it
a night. Maybe the answer would come to me in a dream. 

IN THE NEXUS: Morgie's Day 2 
It wasn't a dream, but it was close. As I fell asleep, I thought about all
that had happened and all that I'd learned. And when I woke up, the thing
that finally stood out to me was: GET THE POWER ON. Both Boston and Maggie
had mentioned it, so it must be important. And since the power source was
down the RAMP, the CONTROL PANEL and TRIANGULAR BUTTON had to be the things
to use. I'd wondered the night before how it was I'd managed to get that
thing to come down the chute twice, and thought at first that it had something
to do with the BLUE CRYSTAL either being in place or not. (It turned out
that the BLUE CRYSTAL affected only whether the TRIANGULAR BUTTON would
work, not whether the thing would come down the chute.) Thinking about it
in the stark light of day, I had an epiphany. What if the CONTROL PANEL
and the TRIANGULAR BUTTON were somehow connected? They were both controls,
so that would make sense. When I tried again, I noticed that I could make
the thing come down from the chute _every time_ without fail, so long as
the BLUE CRYSTAL was in place and there were colors appearing on the CONTROL
PANEL before I PUSHED the TRIANGULAR BUTTON. Even one colored dot was enough
to get a reaction out of the chute, but the more dots on the CONTROL PANEL,
the longer the thing stayed down there and the more it moved around before
zipping back up the chute. I can't explain exactly how it came to me what
I had to do here. Having stopped playing DUNGEON MASTER II to pick up THE
DIG (I'd been waiting for THE DIG eagerly since adventure guru Leo Drago
and I first saw a demo of it at the winter 1994 CES), I'd recently had occasion
to deal with &quot;porter minions&quot; that would pick up items for my
characters, move them to a desired location and drop them there. Perhaps
it was this, or the way the dots seemed to make a difference in the way
the thing moved down by the LENSES, or both, that made me realize that the
thing from the chute was a remote control device with which I could MOVE
the UNATTACHED LENS into the LENS SLOT, that the CONTROL PANEL directed
its movement, and that the TRIANGULAR BUTTON initiated the sequence. Now
I just had to figure out which colors made the thing do what. I was pretty
sure just through intuition that the center BUTTON (which could only be
pressed once in a row) was the grab/release mechanism and the others would
make the thing move specific directions. The simplest way to figure out
what the BUTTONS did seemed to be to plug in a line of one color on the
CONTROL PANEL, PUSH the TRIANGULAR BUTTON, watch what happened, and then
repeat with the next color. This way I'd be able to devise a program that
would get the thing to the UNATTACHED LENS, grab it, take it to the LENS
SLOT, and drop it there. I found through this system that the BUTTONS did
the following: purple, move left; blue, move up; green, move right; yellow,
move down. Knowing this, I devised the following program (I had to PUSH
the TRIANGULAR BUTTON a few times as I was putting the program together
to make sure it was working right): yellow, yellow, purple, purple, purple,
purple, orange (take lens), blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, orange (drop
lens). When I had it all plugged in, I PUSHED the TRIANGULAR BUTTON one
last time, and sat back to admire my creation as it worked just as expected.
The next time I LOOKED over the EDGE, the power was operating normally.
Yaaaa-hooooo! I saw no reason to keep the lights on down here, so I TOOK
the BLUE CRYSTAL and went back up to the NEXUS. Now maybe one of the doors
would finally open. I just had to figure out which one. I thought it might
be interesting at this point to just take a look around and see if anything
had changed now that the power was on, so I started moving in my favorite
direction (left) around the room again. I saw that the COLUMN now had some
cool purple and white lights moving up it, so I LOOKED closer. A huge amount
of energy now flowed along the COLUMN. I wondered where it was going, and
I told myself that I'd go back outside soon to see if I could find out the
answer. To the right of the COLUMN, some SPARKS came up through an energy
conduit in the floor. The SEALED DOOR here was still shut tight, and when
I EXAMINED its PANEL, I found it corroded, and its crystal buttons dark.
Seemed as though I'd have to fix this problem and light up those crystals
before I could hope to get this door open. I recalled the WIRE I had, and
USED it with the SPARKS. Boston reminded me that I'd have to attach the
jumper cables to the dead battery first, but I couldn't find anything to
attach the WIRE to on the PANEL. Maybe, then, this wasn't where I should
use the WIRE? But I couldn't USE it with the next PANEL to the left or with
the COLUMN, and it didn't look long enough to string across the entire NEXUS.
So, taking Boston's car metaphor a bit further, perhaps I'd have to pop
the hood on the nearest PANEL. I happened to have an item noted for its
strength and sharpness, and that as an added benefit was shaped like a prying
tool -- the TUSK. I USED the TUSK with the PANEL and the cover came off.
When I EXAMINED the inside of the PANEL, I found a corroded mess that wasn't
getting any power. So I USED the WIRE with the PANEL, and then with the
SPARKS. Et voila! Now the crystals were bright! Unfortunately, I made a
wrong assumption here that was the beginning of a snowball effect into Morgie
losing it on day 2. I latched on to the concept that the PANEL I'd just
fixed had to be the one that the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD corresponded to. I
tried backwards, forwards, and all of my convoluted combinations again without
success. So I moved on to the next door to the left, and went straight for
its PANEL. Again, I had no luck. I skipped the next door, which had the
ALCOVE next to it and went on to a third PANEL. Again, no luck.

IN THE NEXUS: Morgie Loses It On Day 2 
Somehow, I now became hopelessly confused. I think what happened was: I
left the game to get lunch and run errands, then returned to the game and
mistakenly believed that I was trying to open the one door I hadn't tried
yet, when in actuality, I was working on the third one again. In any event,
I tried and I tried, and I was absolutely convinced that I had tried all
four doors and my rod wouldn't work on any of them! I went to GAMERS hoping
to bump into hercules to ask him what was going on. But he was nowhere to
be found, and I was so convinced that something was wrong, and so sick of
PUSHING BUTTONS and moving shapes with no result again, that I grit my teeth,
broke my promise to my fellow player, and looked on the message board for
a likely thread, fully prepared to avert my eyes and hit &lt;ENTER&gt; to
get to the next message at the slightest sign of anything that I hadn't
yet experienced in the game. I only found one message that could have applied,
and it suggested that the BLUE CRYSTAL had to be in place in the power room
for the doors to work. So I schlepped the BLUE CRYSTAL back to the EMPTY
SLOT again (and _left_ it there until I had no choice but to retrieve it
later in the game since it seemed to control so many things) and tried the
first door I came to when I got back to the NEXUS. Here I noticed, before
I started banging on the PANEL, that the SEALED DOOR was now emitting a
low hum, and I (wrongly, as it turned out) believed that that meant it was
ripe for opening. (I discovered in replaying that three of the four doors
with PANELS were humming, so this wasn't the clue I thought it was). I plugged
in the combination on the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD as it appeared there from
left to right and the SEALED DOOR opened! I took time out from this minor
triumph to make a mental note that left to right appeared to be the right
order in which to read the combination, in case I should come upon another
similar one later. Looking back now, I see that this happened to be the
fourth door -- the one I'd skipped the first time when I started wandering
around the NEXUS to see what had changed, and had in fact never tried before.
&lt;SHEEPISH grin&gt; For days thereafter, I swore up and down to hercules
that the BLUE CRYSTAL controlled the doors somehow. He was too polite to
laugh at me (a first for him) but kept suggesting that if that were so,
it would be a nonsensical puzzle since the BLUE CRYSTAL seemed only to be
a light source. Having just replayed this part several times, I am here
to tell you: the BLUE CRYSTAL has _no effect_ whatsoever on whether the
doors will open. The only things you have to do to open the first door are
turn on the power in the NEXUS and find the one door that will open with
the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD's combination. You don't even have to use the WIRE
on the other PANEL first. Tip: Resist the urge to leave the game, eat lunch,
and run errands, or otherwise do anything that might deter you from completing
a systematic testing of each of the SEALED DOORS with PANELS until you get
that damned door open. 

ON THE MUSEUM SPIRE, PART 1 
I now had another place to go after what seemed like an eternity of bumbling
around in the NEXUS, but first I wanted to check in with Maggie -- and also
to go outside again and see if I could learn more about where the energy
flowing on the COLUMN might be going. I RANG up ROBBINS on the PENULTIMATE
and told her about my discovery of the lock combinations. Since she had
no discoveries of her own to share with me, I went on up into the CANYON.
Here I saw that energy was now rising from the PLATFORM and forming a GLOWING
SPHERE in the SKY. That was enough for me. I left the CANYON through the
SMALL HOLE and decided to see what was behind door #1 (and whether I'd want
to trade it for what was behind the curtain). Through the OPEN DOOR, I came
onto a platform of sorts, and now Maggie called _me_ to tell me she'd found
a room full of alien technology with working machines. But she didn't know
exactly where she was and couldn't tell me how to get there. I got the irrepressibly
clever idea to CALL her right back on the PENULTIMATE, and when I asked
her for a progress report on deciphering the language, she gave me the thorough
razzing that I so greatly deserved. The new area I'd come to had only one
hotspot -- a ? on a pyramid shaped stone structure. Boston PUSHED it and
a circular thing arrived in response. I learned that instead of a ?, I now
had a TRAM CALL, with the circular thing being a TRAM. I BOARDED the TRAM,
and it rolled away through one of those crystalline tubes I'd seen through
the WINDOWS in the AIRLOCK. Interesting. So the SEALED DOORS _did_ lead
to those tunnels I'd seen. Boston got out of the TRAM in a place that had
a WEAKENED DOOR, a RUINED DOOR, and a passage to the OUTSIDE. I couldn't
OPEN the WEAKENED DOOR without help, so I made a note to try again when
I met up with Maggie or found someone else who might be able to help me.
Since I was told nothing could OPEN the RUINED DOOR, I took this as a challenge
and tried USING the TUSK and the SHOVEL on it. Neither worked, and I gave
thanks that the game wasn't lying to me so early in our relationship. Then
I went OUTSIDE. I discovered a FOSSIL on the ground that I LOOKED at and
EXAMINED. Bones of some creature had hardened into the rock, but I couldn't
do anything with them so I EXITED and took a walk down to the WATER. When
I arrived, a strange animal crawled up onto a rock next to me. Then, as
I watched, a horrible sea monster grabbed it and ate it. Luckily the monster
didn't come after me. When I LOOKED at the WATER, I convinced myself that
swimming in the same water as that monster was a bad idea. (This was my
first clue that I had to get rid of the monster). I took the PATH back up
to the shore and then went UP the spire further. In this area, I found a
STRANGE DEVICE, and when I LOOKED at it, another of those strange light
ghosts appeared and swirled around it. Boston remarked that the last one
had pointed the way to the NEXUS. (This was my first clue that I had to
do something with the STRANGE DEVICE.) The STRANGE DEVICE had a PANEL on
one side that I couldn't OPEN. Below, a LENS was attached to the rock, and
I found that I could MOVE the LENS into three different positions. When
I LOOKED again at the STRANGE DEVICE, I could see what appeared to be its
controls -- a SWITCH that made a glowing shape appear when I PRESSED it,
and a colored piece that made no sense to me. Neither did the pictures on
the left side. I didn't have any idea what to do here for now, so I EXITED
and went through a DOOR. The place I now entered seemed to be a museum.
I TOOK some GLOWING CRYSTALS that were lying on the ground and EXAMINED
them (there were two). I also TOOK a TABLET that looked like it had an alphabet
on it and EXAMINED that, too. The TABLET had a complex picture on it that
I couldn't figure out. Above where I'd seen the TABLET, I found a DISPLAY
of changing pictures. Some of the symbols reminded me of ones I'd seen on
the STRANGE DEVICE outside, but I wasn't sure exactly what the exhibit was
telling me. I LOOKED at the DISPLAY (and the ones described below) several
times, but I still couldn't interpret this one fully. Later on, I concluded
that it had something to do with how to use the STRANGE DEVICE. Still later,
I learned that this conclusion was probably wrong, even though it had helped
me to figure out how to use the STRANGE DEVICE. Funny how that works, isn't
it? To the left, another DISPLAY showed a dragon-like beast going (or being
put) into a triangular shape and some other pictures in which moons figured
prominently. Boston wondered if this DISPLAY depicted some sort of burial
chamber. When I WATCHED the DISPLAY a second time, Boston noted that the
larger moon was being eclipsed by the smaller one. This made me think of
the two moons I'd seen in the SKY at the DAIS, and I suspected that this
exhibit had something to do with an eclipse that had happened here on this
planet at one time. The DISPLAY next to the eclipse exhibit showed something
breaking over what looked to be a skeleton, and the skeleton transforming
into a beast. &quot;Hmmm,&quot; was all Boston could say. I agreed with
him. At this point, I noticed something red on a platform toward the left
of the screen -- a RED ENGRAVED ROD. Yay! The key to another door! Now I
knew I wouldn't be stuck wandering around in the museum until Christmas.
I EXAMINED it, and saw four more nifty colored shapes, which made me feel
confident that it would work just as the PURPLE ENGRAVED ROD had. On the
same platform, a last DISPLAY showed some beasts putting something into
something else, and Boston quipped, &quot;that canister sure packs a punch.&quot;
Each time I watched thereafter, he made a little-boy-like noise that imitated
an explosion. I still had a DOOR to explore here, but before going off into
the unknown, I decided to see if anything I'd just done gave me anything
new to talk to Maggie about. I found when I CALLED ROBBINS on the PENULTIMATE
that, in fact, it had. Of the TABLET, she would only tell me that it wasn't
the same set of symbols she was working with, that it seemed designed so
that strangers couldn't read it, and that she'd try again to read it when
she'd learned more. (This was my first clue that Maggie might be able to
interpret the inscriptions on the TABLET.) About the GLOWING CRYSTALS, Boston
asked whether Maggie believed that the dead could be raised. Gotcha. That
was what the DISPLAY with the skeleton and the beast was all about. I knew
now that I'd go back to BRINK'S BODY at the first opportunity and USE the
GLOWING CRYSTALS on him. But the DOOR beckoned and it was kind of a hike
back to the NEXUS, so I went through the DOOR -- and met up with Maggie!
She was in a sort of library and told me she felt close to making some breakthroughs
on the language so she didn't want to hook back up with me. (Ok, fine. I'd
just try to get Brink to help me with that WEAKENED DOOR if the GLOWING
CRYSTALS worked. So there.) I TALKED to ROBBINS again while I was there,
and she told me she was retrieving a lot of data in the LIBRARY, but wasn't
sure what it all meant yet. I LOOKED at the three CONSOLES that appeared
along the LIBRARY's walls. They seemed to be part of a single computerized
data retrieval system, that contained data in many languages. I couldn't
think of anything else to do here for now, so I figured I'd go back and
try my luck at resurrecting Brink. I went back through the MUSEUM, to the
OUTSIDE and DOWN the spire. On a whim, I went back down to the WATER, and
another of my animal friends (the last of which had become a meal for the
sea monster before my horrified eyes), a SEA CREATURE, appeared and started
to feed on some plants. I LOOKED at the SEA CREATURE and discovered it was
kind of six-legged turtle. I couldn't TAKE it, and it didn't seem to want
to follow me. It just chowed down for awhile, then jumped back in the water.
I noticed that it would return from time to time in different spots as long
as I stood there, but anything I tried to USE with it risked frightening
it, so I thought perhaps something might be missing that I'd need to use
with it. For now, I'd take the TRAM back to the NEXUS. I felt a sense of
power knowing I could open up another door if I wanted to, but I thought
I'd save that as something to do if I got stuck again (hopefully that wouldn't
happen, but you never know). I marched straight over to BRINK'S BODY and
USED the GLOWING CRYSTALS on him. Sure enough, they were in fact life crystals.
Brink came back to life -- but, as he explained, it wasn't just any old
life. He now felt more powerful and alive than ever before. During this
cut-scene, we let Maggie know that Brink was back. Everyone marvelled at
how miraculous the life crystals were. It was now more important than ever
that we find our way back to Earth. This discovery could change... everything.

ON THE MUSEUM SPIRE, PART 2 
Having just been dead, Brink probably had a thing or two to say that the
average person doesn't, so I CHATTED with him. He seemed inordinately interested
in those life crystals, claiming that Maggie could learn the planet's language
faster if she used one, and that we must find more and more and more. I
tried showing Brink the new things I'd found since his death and resurrection
-- but Boston balked at showing him the remaining GLOWING CRYSTAL, saying
that it could be a &quot;really bad idea.&quot; I guessed that Brink would
have taken it, tried to use it to achieve fame and glory when he got back
home, and take all the credit for discovering it. Boy, was I wrong. But
at least now I had someone who might be able to help me get that WEAKENED
DOOR open. Time to go back to the MUSEUM SPIRE. Brink followed me back through
the MUSEUM TRAM door and into the TRAM. When we arrived, he did help me
OPEN the WEAKENED DOOR. Inside we found a huge basin of LIFE CRYSTALS. A
ghost appeared and gave us a signal that Boston believed showed the crystals
were dangerous. I TOOK as many of the LIFE CRYSTALS as I could carry despite
the warning, just in case. Unfortunately, so did Brink. I also found a CANISTER
here, so I TOOK it. I EXAMINED it and learned that it looked remarkably
like the one that had &quot;packed a punch&quot; in the MUSEUM DISPLAY I'd
seen. We went out through the DOOR, and even Brink couldn't help me with
the RUINED DOOR. I was starting to trust this game. I wondered if it was
married? I started to think about friends I could set it up with (&quot;I
know this really nice game... you'll like, you'll like&quot;). We went OUTSIDE,
but my archaeologist didn't have anything to tell me about the FOSSIL. Maybe
he'd have an idea about what to do with the SEA CREATURE. Fat chance. When
we went down by the WATER, sure enough, the SEA CREATURE surfaced again.
This one must not have been as tasty as the last, because instead of swallowing
it, the sea monster spat it out. Brink promptly disappeared after this encounter,
and I told Maggie he'd run away. I now had a serious suspicion that the
LIFE CRYSTALS were addictive and Brink had become an addict. Where the SEA
CREATURE had been while alive, before tempting the monster, I found some
LOOSE BONES. When I LOOKED at them, they became a jigsaw-type puzzle I'd
have to put together. After playing around with it unsuccessfully a few
times, it occurred to me that the FOSSIL might be helpful. When I LOOKED
at the FOSSIL again, I realized it was a map to the placement of the LOOSE
BONES -- but since the FOSSIL was dark and hard to see, it was more of a
suggestion of where they could go than an outright solution. I discovered
the way to assemble the LOOSE BONES by referring to the FOSSIL. When you've
got the turtle back together correctly, you'll see it as a DEAD CREATURE
instead of LOOSE BONES. I thought I could probably use my LIFE CRYSTALS
here, and in fact, I could. I USED the GLOWING CRYSTALS with the DEAD CREATURE,
but the monster just picked up the poor creature and spat it out again.
Since Boston remarked that the monster still seemed hungry, I figured I
could get it to eat the turtle again -- but I also knew I'd have to do something
else to the DEAD CREATURE first or I'd just get the same result again. The
next time I put the LOOSE BONES together into a DEAD CREATURE, I got lucky
because I USED the CANISTER with the DEAD CREATURE. This turned out to be
the solution -- I was supposed to get rid of the sea monster by using an
&quot;alien explosive device.&quot; I then used the GLOWING CRYSTALS on
the DEAD CREATURE and the next time the monster grabbed it, everything went
&quot;boom&quot; just like Boston had said at the end of the museum DISPLAY
about the CANISTER. I then LOOKED at the WATER and Boston went for a little
swim. NOTE: If I had only EXAMINED the WATER, as I did much later when I
got stuck again and was looking for things to do, I would have learned that
there was a cave down there -- and this would have been my second clue that
I needed to get rid of the monster to make the water safe for swimming.
Then I might have known that I should have USED the CANISTER with the DEAD
CREATURE instead of merely guessing. &lt;SIGH&gt; In any event, Boston swam
to the cave, and inside a CHAMBER there I found another PLATE and an ORANGE
ENGRAVED ROD. I EXAMINED both. Now I knew that I was halfway to finishing
with the ALCOVE and could open another of the SEALED DOORS with PANELS in
the NEXUS! I found nothing else to look at in the cave, so I decided to
CALL ROBBINS on the PENULTIMATE. The only new thing she had to say was to
agree with me that the life crystals might be having adverse effects on
Brink -- that they might be addictive and have side effects. I still had
one obvious thing to figure out on the MUSEUM SPIRE -- the STRANGE DEVICE.
My plan: to try out the STRANGE DEVICE again, then show Maggie the new objects
I'd found (which I'd neglected to do before when I ran into her in the LIBRARY),
then head back to the NEXUS, place the PLATE, and finally, open up two more
doors with the RED ENGRAVED ROD and the ORANGE ENGRAVED ROD. I went back
to the CAVERN and through the WATER the way I had come, then to the PATH
and UP to the STRANGE DEVICE. I EXAMINED it and learned that it was the
control panel for a light bridge. I still couldn't figure out how to make
it work, so I went back to the MUSEUM and watched the DISPLAY above the
DOOR a few more times (this is where I decided that the DISPLAY must be
a clue to operating the STRANGE DEVICE). I thought that I could tell from
the DISPLAY that the crystal that lit up when I pushed the SWITCH was supposed
to be glowing somehow, and that this might have something to do with the
pentagonal shape to the right. I went back to the STRANGE DEVICE, fiddled
with it for awhile, and found that I would hear tones when I changed the
position of the LENS then used the SWITCH. Two of the tones were the same
and one was different. So I adjusted the LENS for the different tone and
PUSHED the SWITCH. I held the SWITCH down until the crystal above it glowed
as in the MUSEUM DISPLAY. As I was doing this, I noticed a line forming
on the pentagonal shape to the right. So I held the SWITCH down until the
line completed forming. When EXITED that screen and next LOOKED at my surroundings,
I found a BRIGHT LIGHT that I could walk on. It took me to a map screen
of the island surrounded by spires. I could walk to a CRYSTAL FORM, so I
did. I EXAMINED the CRYSTAL FORM and learned that it was so transparent
as to be almost invisible. Since I couldn't find anything else to do here,
I went OUT and back to the MUSEUM SPIRE. NOTE on light bridges: You'll find
that you encounter a number of STRANGE DEVICES with LENSES and PANELS, one
on each spire that you travel to through a door with a PANEL from the NEXUS.
(The spire you reach through the ALCOVE door also has a STRANGE DEVICE with
a LENS but no PANEL.) The last STRANGE DEVICE that I reached from one of
the SEALED DOORS with PANELS in the NEXUS and attempted to operate (on the
TOMB SPIRE as discussed below) wouldn't work until I solved another puzzle
first. For other people, this puzzle occurred on the MAP SPIRE, and in replaying,
I decided to test the hypothesis that the last STRANGE DEVICE you try to
operate (apart from the one you reach through the SEALED DOOR with the ALCOVE)
generates this puzzle. I had a saved game with no light bridges operational,
and since I knew I'd encountered this puzzle on the TOMB SPIRE and others
had on the MAP SPIRE (as I learned from messages on the board in GAMERS),
I activated these two light bridges first, then saved. Then I tried the
MUSEUM SPIRE's light bridge. No puzzle showed up. But one did when I then
went to the UNNAMED (PLANETARIUM) SPIRE. Starting from the same save, I
went to the PLANETARIUM SPIRE first the next time. The puzzle appeared in
the PANEL in the STRANGE DEVICE here, even though I hadn't yet been to the
MUSEUM SPIRE. From this experiment, I conclude that the appearance of the
puzzle is indeed random (although it might be limited to one of the last
two light bridges you activate) -- but in my game it appeared on the TOMB
SPIRE so that's the section of this walkthru where I'll address it. I went
through the DOOR and into the LIBRARY where I SHOWED ROBBINS all the items
I'd found since I'd gone below the planet's surface. She agreed that the
RED ENGRAVED ROD probably also worked on a lock. When I TALKED to her, I
could now discuss the STRANGE DEVICE with her. After an initial discussion
about the light bridges, this option just led to Boston and Maggie making
&quot;light&quot; jokes at each other. It seemed an endless and unproductive
exchange, so I didn't bother trying to exhaust this conversation option.
Since I felt like I'd pretty much exhausted what I could do on the MUSEUM
SPIRE for now, I decided to go back to the NEXUS and do what I could there
with my PLATE and two new ENGRAVED RODS. I BOARDED the TRAM and spun off.
(I figure that by now you can find your own way back to the TRAM, no?) BACK
AT THE NEXUS First, I decided to unload the PLATE I was carrying, so I went
up to the ALCOVE and PLACED the PLATE in the TOP. It fit perfectly (surprise...
NOT)! Then I walked left and tried using the combination on the ORANGE ENGRAVED
ROD on the first PANEL next to a SEALED DOOR that I came to. This turned
out to be a good choice, and after plugging in its sequence (again from
left to right) on the BUTTONS, the SEALED DOOR opened. Just since I _could_,
I decided to open a third door before moving on. I continued left past the
MUSEUM TRAM door to the next SEALED DOOR with a PANEL. No success here --
but as expected, the RED ENGRAVED ROD _did_ open the next SEALED DOOR to
the left when I plugged its combination into the BUTTONS on the PANEL. Now
I had two options. Comforting. But I had a couple of things I wanted to
try before continuing my explorations. As it turned out, none of them were
necessary, but I found them somewhat entertaining. I went back out into
the CANYON and LOOKED at the SKY. As I'd suspected, I could now see the
LIGHT BRIDGE I'd just activated on the MUSEUM SPIRE connecting to the GLOWING
SPHERE. I expected that something similar would have to happen in each of
the places I had yet to visit. The potential symmetry here pretty much hit
me over the head. Through the CLEARING, I went to the GRAVE. I just had
to see what would happen if I USED a GLOWING CRYSTAL on the BONES there.
At first it looked like it might actually work, but my excitement was short
lived -- too many bones were missing to bring the animal back to life. I
also tried a GLOWING CRYSTAL on the TUSK and the JAWBONE I was carrying.
It made the TUSK slightly warm and the JAWBONE twitch, but nothing else
happened. I couldn't put the TUSK or the JAWBONE back to complete the BONES,
or use them with each other, so I figured this was a dead end. I went back
to the NEXUS to explore behind the doors I'd just opened. (I figure you
can find you own way back to the NEXUS by now, no?) 

ON THE AS YET UNNAMED (AKA PLANETARIUM) SPIRE
WITH A SHORT DETOUR I ENTERED the first now-opened door to the left when
I got back to the NEXUS, where I found a similar platform and TRAM CALL
to the ones I'd found past the door to the MUSEUM TRAM. I BOARDED a waiting
TRAM and took a ride through another crystalline tube. When I disembarked,
I was in an area with a TRAM CALL and an opening to the OUTSIDE. I went
through the OPENING and arrived at a pathway along some cliffs with a raging
ocean to the right of the screen. I went UP the pathway to a gorge, with
a BOULDER on the FAR SIDE. The BOULDER looked like the perfect bridge over
the gorge if only I could move it. But I couldn't reach it, and none of
my items worked with it. So I held my breath and prepared to try to JUMP
to the FAR SIDE. The first time I tried this, I hit the timing wrong. Boston
ended up in the water, swam back to the beginning of the pathway right at
the outside of the TRAM platform, then climbed up the cliff to where he'd
been before completing his trek up to the gorge. Thinking that this had
to be the wrong approach, I went back to the NEXUS on the TRAM to try the
third door I had opened. I didn't have much more luck with this bright idea,
because the TRAM CALL on the platform I reached through the third door was
broken. No TRAM came when I PUSHED the TRAM CALL and Boston observed that
there ought to be a control somewhere. I knew from this statement that I'd
have to fix the TRAM CALL somehow. I couldn't find a control on the platform,
so I thought about where it might possibly be. It came to me that the CRYSTALS
I'd seen through the AIRLOCK bore a striking resemblance to the overhead
map of the five spires and central island I'd seen when I hiked across the
light bridge. Since one of the CRYSTALS was dark and lifeless, and I'd thought
from the first time I saw it that I'd need to replace it or something of
that nature, I made the working hypothesis that the CRYSTALS were the control
and that when I was able to fix the dark CRYSTAL, the TRAM would come. I
went back down the DARK TUNNEL and through the AIRLOCK, but again, none
of my items would work with the CRYSTALS, the CRYSTAL CLUSTER or the HOLES
in the GLOWING PANEL. Before leaving through the AIRLOCK again, I decided
to EXAMINE the GLOWING PANEL just for laughs. Boston confirmed my suspicions
that it was indeed a control panel, albeit inoperative. I wandered around
a bit aimlessly here, not sure what to do. I revisited all of the places
I'd been, looking for something else to solve. Since I had no luck at all,
and since I knew there had to be something waiting for me on the FAR SIDE
as well as a way to get there, I eventually wandered back through the second
door I'd opened, took the TRAM again, and journeyed back UP the coastline
I'd visited before. I stood on the edge of the gorge and noticed that the
water came up at fairly regular intervals -- so I decided to try to time
my jump when the water was high enough that I might be able to float across
somehow. This second time I tried JUMPING to the FAR SIDE, Boston cruised
across on a wave like he did that sort of thing every day of his life. (Too
bad he hadn't done it before or I'd have saved myself an hour of wandering
around looking for something else to do &lt;GRIN&gt;). On this side, I could
reach the BOULDER unhindered. I LOOKED at it and found that it was loose,
so I gave it a SHOVE with my SHOVEL (nothing like a double meaning) and
it fell over into the handy bridge across the gorge I knew it was meant
to be. At least now I could get back down to the TRAM when I wanted to.
Continuing UP, I came to an area with another LENS and STRANGE DEVICE with
a PANEL in it, as well as a PLATEAU, and, past a waterfall, a CREVICE. Since
I'd scrolled across the screen to LOOK at the CREVICE, I went in there first.
Here I found a BLUE ROD that I TOOK and also EXAMINED. I knew at once from
its shape and color that this was just the thing for those HOLES back at
the GLOWING PANEL in the AIRLOCK. I'd been looking for something shaped
like this ever since I'd first seen those HOLES (ok, you sickos out there,
get your minds out of the gutter... so mine can float by). The CREVICE wasn't
much help though, because Boston wouldn't reach into it. I tried a few of
my items, including the SHOVEL on it, without success. Since I couldn't
find anything else to do in the CREVICE at the moment, I went OUTSIDE to
inspect the PLATEAU. A door shut as I approached, and Boston said that the
little rat-like beast that scurried away when the door slammed had stolen
something he was sure to want later. I took a few steps to the right and
saw two large wheels with a HOLE in the center of the closest one, and a
POLE lying on the ground next to it. I TOOK a ROD that was propped against
a rock, then noticed a CAVE in the rock face behind the wheels. Boston complained
about how small the opening to the CAVE was, so I decided to try ENLARGING
it with the SHOVEL. After all, this had worked with what had turned out
to be the opening to the NEXUS. When I used the SHOVEL with the CAVE, Boston
dug until the opening was big enough to squeeze through. Inside the CAVE
I found nothing but three CRITTER HOLES, none of which held anything of
interest for me, at least for now. So I went back through the OPENING and
farther to the right of my screen. I TOOK a RIB CAGE that was lying on the
ground and a COVER that appeared to belong over the PANEL next to the DOOR
here. The PANEL was missing a part, presumably the one the critter had taken
just when I approached, so Boston told me he thought it wouldn't make any
sense to put the COVER on the PANEL when I tried to do that. I also TOOK
a short, metal DOWEL that was lying in front of the DOOR. The DOOR itself
seemed shut tight when I LOOKED at it. A number of HOLES lined the wall
next to the PANEL. I LOOKED at each one and saw a lot of useless junk the
critter had been collecting. I also noticed that LOOKING in one of these
HOLES prompted the critter to come out, have a look around, and scurry away.
I LOOKED at the POLE again. I couldn't TAKE it, but when I LOOKED at it,
Boston moved it. This suggested that it should go somewhere on this screen,
but maybe I'd have to do something else first. I opened up my inventory
and looked at all the things I'd just picked up. The DOWEL seemed the right
shape for the HOLE in the wheel, so I USED it there. A-ha! Now I had PIN
in the center of the wheel. I LOOKED at the POLE again and tried USING it
with the PIN. Cool. Now I had a HOOK. At this point it was fairly clear
to me that I had to build something here, but I wasn't sure just what yet.
In my bizarre mind, I saw a connection between the RIB CAGE and the HOOK
(meat hook? who knows?) so I USED them together and ended up with a CAGE.
Now I got the gist. I was setting a trap for the critter so I could get
the missing door part from it. Since I'd played MONKEY ISLAND II: LECHUCK'S
REVENGE many moons ago, I was somewhat familiar with the LucasArts theory
of trap building; I'd done something similar in that game. (hercules told
me later that he made an association here too, with INDIANA JONES AND THE
FATE OF ATLANTIS where a rib cage had been used as a trap also.) I knew
I'd need to set the trap somehow, so that it would spring shut. Something
to prop up the CAGE with would work nicely. The ROD looked like a good bet,
so I USED it with the CAGE. Lo and behold, I now had a TRAP! Of course,
I didn't have any bait for the trap, but since Boston volunteered to play
sheepdog, that didn't seem necessary. I'd just have to find the critter
and herd it into the trap somehow. Finding the critter, as it turned out,
was the easy part. When I LOOKED at the HOLE closest to the TRAP, the critter
came out. But I couldn't seem to chase it into the TRAP. It seemed to run
upscreen each time I got it to come out of the HOLE, so I'd try to get between
it and the upscreen HOLES to block its way. Sometimes it would just go right
past me, other times it would run downscreen and if I tried to get behind
the TRAP (between the wheels) it would run right past me again into the
CAVE. I tried over and over again, and I just couldn't get the thing into
the TRAP. I felt a whine attack coming on. It's one thing when I have no
idea what to do. It's quite another when I have an idea of what to do --
or even, as in this case -- know _exactly_ what to do but can't execute.
That's when I really want to tear my hair out, and when I'm most ready to
ask for help. I'm always sure it's a positional thing and it's the game's
fault. It certainly couldn't be mine. ;) I took a break to clear my head
and went to GAMERS where, by some stroke of fortune, I ran into herc just
as I was ready to whine. He told me a trick to getting the critter into
the TRAP, which I pass along to you now. I just replayed this part again
and trapped him the very first time I tried. It's a piece of cake if you
follow what herc said: (1) click on the HOLE to get the critter to come
out, (2) ignore it and walk Boston directly downscreen, (3) continue walking
Boston to the left, toward the CLEARING, but have him walk _in front of_
both the wheels instead of between them, (4) walk Boston back toward the
right _between_ the wheels. The little critter will walk right into your
TRAP. Poor thing. When the TRAP had sprung, Boston wondered how he'd find
the critter again when he let him out. This told me that I'd need to track
the critter. Remember the BRACELET? I'd thought I'd need to use it to be
able to find something again, and this seemed just the right place. I USED
the BRACELET with the CRITTER, and it slipped around the critter's neck.
Then I OPENED up the TRAP and let the critter out. I kept the RIB CAGE and
the ROD since I could TAKE them again, but I couldn't TAKE the HOOK or the
PIN, so I left them alone and went off looking for the critter. I'd seen
him head for the CAVE, so I decided to start there. Once in the CAVE, I
USED the DEVICE, and it helped me to locate a TRACKER SPOT, under which
Boston reasoned the critter must be located. I USED the SHOVEL with the
TRACKER SPOT. When I'd DUG up the TRACKER SPOT, I found a MACHINE PART --
just the thing (hopefully) to get that DOOR open. I went back to the DOOR
and USED the MACHINE PART with the PANEL, then the COVER with the PANEL.
Now I could PUSH the PANEL, and OPEN the DOOR. Through the DOOR I came to
a peaceful blue room. Here I found another PLATE (nice! only one more to
go now) and a GREEN ENGRAVED ROD (double nice! now I could open the last
SEALED DOOR with a PANEL back at the NEXUS). The rest of what I saw in this
room completely baffled me. First, the TWIN SCEPTERS. They sure looked like
they belonged here somehow, yet I could TAKE them. Was I supposed to? Usually,
I figure if I can pick it up, I should take it, but here I really wasn't
sure. I bit the bullet and TOOK them anyway. Boston said they seemed to
have an electric charge. Second, nothing happened when I PUSHED the BUTTON
that I saw here. Nor could I USE or do anything with the CRACK through which
Boston could see outside. Finally, the ceiling had a FAINT LIGHT on it.
I couldn't learn anything about the FAINT LIGHT by EXAMINING it, and it
didn't occur to me right then to try to USE anything with it. I felt out
of ideas for now, and I had a lot to try elsewhere. Aside from the STRANGE
DEVICE outside, I now had a PLATE to use in the ALCOVE, another ENGRAVED
ROD to open another SEALED DOOR, and a BLUE ROD that I had a good feeling
would help me out with the TRAM controls and let me explore the other area
I hadn't been able to get to yet. So, as usual, I decided to give my crew
a BUZZ on the PENULTIMATE before setting off on these new adventures. But
Maggie had nothing new to say, and Brink wasn't answering. I went back out
to the CLEARING and tried different positions for the LENS as I had with
the one on the MUSEUM SPIRE. When I found the different tone (by PUSHING
the SWITCH on the STRANGE DEVICE after setting the LENS to each possible
position), I PRESSED the SWITCH until the line formed on the screen just
as before and the STRANGE DEVICE had created a BRIGHT LIGHT. I decided to
travel down this light bridge, too, just to see what would happen. This
time, when I EXAMINED the CRYSTAL FORM, Boston told me it was hard to see
anything, but he thought he could make out some kind of shape. After learning
this, I went OUT, found my way back to the TRAM on the spire I'd just been
to, and returned to the NEXUS. ON THE MAP SPIRE Care to guess the first
thing I did when I got back to the NEXUS? Right. I DUMPED the PLATE in the
LEFT slot in the ALCOVE. After taking a walk out to the CANYON to INSPECT
the SKY and see my newest LIGHT BRIDGE from a different angle, I decided
to try my BLUE ROD on the GLOWING PANEL through the DARK TUNNEL and the
AIRLOCK. As I'd guessed, the BLUE ROD fit perfectly in the HOLE I USED it
with (could have been any of them -- it will go in any of the three HOLES).
Much to my surprise, this activated two other SLIDING CRYSTALS. I saved
my game and experimented for a bit with the SLIDING CRYSTALS, but I worried
that I didn't have the secret to them down yet and I didn't want to get
stuck with yet another deactivated TRAM. So I decided to move on to the
other SEALED DOOR with PANEL that I hadn't yet opened first. But I did notice
in messing around with the GLOWING PANEL that clicking on the bright CRYSTALS
would make them go dark, and that if I moved the SLIDING CRYSTALS around,
I could get the last dark CRYSTAL I'd clicked on to brighten back up eventually.
Once back through the DARK TUNNEL, I headed for the SEALED DOOR I hadn't
yet OPENED. I SET the BUTTONS on its PANEL to those shown on the GREEN ENGRAVED
ROD from left to right, and the door OPENED. Through this door, I came upon
another platform with a TRAM CALL. The TRAM came when I PUSHED the TRAM
CALL and I rode it through yet another crystalline tube. I arrived at an
unusual place with another TRAM CALL and a LEDGE. I couldn't even see Boston
behind the TRAM here -- I had to find the LEDGE by feel. Out on the LEDGE,
I saw an OPENING upscreen that I went through. The only thing to see here
was a STRANGE FIELD of light that was &quot;just on the edge of existence.&quot;
I couldn't do anything with it, so I moved on. I left the OPENING and went
next to a CAVERN. Inside I had the options to explore a PIT or a NEST. I
went for the PIT first. I passed through into a cave with no new hotspots
except an OPENING on the other side, so I headed for that. Now I was in
a vine-covered atrium with a stream running through it and a PANEL. When
I LOOKED at the PANEL, I saw a set of BUTTONS just like the ones on the
PANELS of the SEALED DOORS in the NEXUS. Did I need another ENGRAVED ROD
here? Hmm. Confusion. Yeah, that was a good word for it. I EXITED the screen
without doing anything for now. I located another OPENING in this area and
went through it. There, on the side of a cliff, I found another STRANGE
DEVICE, with a corresponding LENS and PANEL on its side. By now I was a
pro at these, so I ADJUSTED the LENS until I heard a different tone when
I PRESSED the SWITCH on the STRANGE DEVICE, then held down the SWITCH until
the line drew across the screen to the right. When that was done, I had
a BRIGHT LIGHT coming from this STRANGE DEVICE. I ventured out onto the
light bridge and headed again for the CRYSTAL FORM. This time it looked
a lot different, but when I EXAMINED it I still had a hard time seeing inside
it although I could make out some sort of shape. I went OUT and back to
the MAP SPIRE. MAP SPIRE? What was _that_ all about? Obviously, I didn't
know all there was to know about this place yet. But it started to make
sense when I got off of the light bridge and decided to go back to EXPLORE
the other place I hadn't been to, the NEST. When I LOOKED for the way out
of the STRANGE DEVICE area, my only option was called &quot;MAP ROOM.&quot;
This took me back to the room with the PANEL that I'd wondered if I needed
another ENGRAVED ROD for. Maybe not. I saw no doors anywhere that appeared
to need opening. So maybe, just maybe, I was supposed to plug in all the
combinations from the ENGRAVED RODS that I already had. I decided to give
it a try. When I did, I found that the PANEL generated pictures off to the
side, of a site in each of the spires I had visited (or in the case of the
RED ENGRAVED ROD, a spire I hadn't yet visited -- must have been the one
with the broken TRAM CALL). Now I understood why this room was called the
MAP ROOM. Interestingly, when I plugged in the code for the RED ENGRAVED
ROD, Boston saw a crypt somewhere -- with a way below it. NOTE: It appears
that viewing the crypt in the MAP ROOM as just described can save you a
lot of trouble later. The game apparently will not let you down into the
crypt after you've found it and set it up (described below) unless you have
reason to believe there is something down there -- which you learn from
the map. I believe that looking at the map once is sufficient to avoid getting
stuck later at the crypt, but as noted below, I looked at it twice. So if
you aren't able to get into the crypt after doing everything set forth below
to set it up, try looking at this map again. After plugging in all the combinations,
I decided to go see what was in the NEST. I went back to the PIT through
a CHAMBER and into the NEST, where I saw a spidery-looking creature crawling
away to the top left of my screen. In the NEST, I found a GRATE sealing
something off, but I wasn't sure what to do with it (and couldn't seem to
do anything with it -- yet). Here I fell down on my exploring technique.
I didn't realize until later that there was another way out of the NEST
to the right of the screen. I'll relate the somewhat embarrassing story
of how I found this out shortly. For now, I couldn't find anything else
to do here, so I decided to give ROBBINS another RING on the PENULTIMATE.
I now had the option to talk to her about the OPENING to the crypt I'd seen
on the map. She reasoned that if the map showed secret rooms under the crypt,
they weren't meant to be secret. Boston agreed -- there must be a way to
access them. Brink was still out of commission. Since I thought (incorrectly)
I'd seen all there was to see on this spire now, I decided to go back to
the NEXUS and venture through the door with the broken TRAM. So I left the
NEST, went out over the LEDGE to the TRAM, and back to the NEXUS. 

ON THE TOMB SPIRE, PART 1 
I'd have to go back through the AIRLOCK to give the GLOWING PANEL another
try and light up the last CRYSTAL if my theory that this was the way to
fix the TRAM was right. Since I now had all the light bridges up on the
other spires I'd been to, I wasn't all that concerned for the immediate
future about accidentally rendering the other TRAMS inoperative. I figured
that there had to be another light bridge on the spire I was about to go
to, and if worse came to worst, I could just use this TRAM to get between
the NEXUS and that spire, then take the light bridges from there to wherever
else I might want to go. Of course, that wouldn't help me if and when I
got the ALCOVE door open, but I'd worry about that later. I SELECTED the
dark CRYSTAL and moved the SLIDING CRYSTALS until it lit up. I noticed that
the end of the dark CRYSTAL got lighter or darker grey depending on how
I moved the SLIDING CRYSTALS, but it wasn't until I talked to herc later
about these controls that I realized that these were the meters by which
you can tell if you're getting closer or farther away from the correct SLIDING
CRYSTAL settings. The end of the CRYSTAL you select to work on will become
lighter grey the closer you get to the correct settings, and darker grey
the farther away you get. As the end of the CRYSTAL grows brighter and brighter,
it will eventually light up completely once you get the settings exactly
right. Now that all the CRYSTALS were bright, I EXITED that screen, then
watched through the WINDOW as the previously inoperative TRAM rolled through
a tube and into the station. I went back through the AIRLOCK and the DARK
TUNNEL to the NEXUS and went through the fourth open door. Not surprisingly,
when I USED the TRAM CALL here, the TRAM now arrived to my left. I GOT ON
the TRAM and rolled away to my newest destination. I arrived at a SPIRE
with an outdoor platform at which there was another TRAM CALL. I walked
toward the SPIRE and continued up to a PLATEAU. Along the PATH, I found
a STONE PLATE that was half buried. Boston couldn't move it using his bare
hands, which signalled to me that I should try USING the SHOVEL with the
STONE PLATE. Doing so revealed a HOLE. The HOLE led to something that could
have been a burial chamber, according to Boston (this was the same thing
he'd said on looking at one of the DISPLAYS in the MUSEUM). Inside, on the
wall, I saw a roughly carved HOLE. Boston wondered at its purpose. The ceiling
had a SHUTTER on it, and when I EXAMINED the SHUTTER, Boston noticed that
there was light seeping through it from outside. He expressed his wish to
be able to see better. I walked around in here for a bit and discovered
that when I walked across a stone in the foreground with two crescent shapes
on it, the SHUTTER OPENED. As long as I stood on the LOOSE STONE, the SHUTTER
stayed open. When I stepped off of it, the SHUTTER closed. I knew I had
found a puzzle that would end up opening the TOMB, but I decided to explore
the rest of the TOMB SPIRE before focusing on this puzzle. Further along
the PATH, I came to another STRANGE DEVICE with a PANEL and a LENS. I assumed
it would work just as the others had. But no. As I found out through trying
and trying to get the line to go across the screen to the right of the STRANGE
DEVICE controls as it had on all the others, the controls on this one were
broken and had to be fixed first by doing something inside the PANEL. I
opened the PANEL and found the (apparently randomly appearing) puzzle I
mentioned earlier. It consisted of a number of PRISMS and GREEN, RED and
BLUE gems, with a light emanating from the SOURCE in the center. I played
around with the puzzle for awhile and figured out that the goal was to MOVE
the SOURCE and the PRISMS until the light bounced off of all the prisms
and gems in a continual line, so that all were touched by the light and
no stray beams went off into nothingness. But it seemed that this might
take some concentration to finish, so I decided to continue exploring the
spire and come back to this puzzle. I saw an ENGRAVING on the stone face
across from the STRANGE DEVICE. LOOKING at the ENGRAVING showed the same
crescent shapes I'd seen on the LOOSE STONE in the TOMB, as well as a sort
of dial that reminded me of clock hands. I was beginning to firm up in my
mind what I thought the trick to opening up the TOMB might be. I was pretty
sure that an eclipse of the sort shown at the museum DISPLAY, with a larger
moon being eclipsed by a smaller one, had to happen. It seemed to me that
the light from this eclipse would then somehow shine down through the SHUTTER
into the tomb and activate a mechanism there. At least, that's sort of how
it had worked for Indiana Jones in one of his movies, except that in his
case it was sunlight and he had to use a staff with an amulet on the end
of it to focus the light. Still, the connection was strong enough in my
mind to convince me this was the basic idea behind that particular puzzle.
I moved on to the right to a CAVE INTERIOR. I saw some BAT CREATURES here,
but they were up on the ceiling and -- silly me -- I didn't think I had
anything that would &quot;reach clear up there.&quot; At least it wasn't
the SHOVEL, the TUSK, any of my ENGRAVED RODS or the regular ROD. I found
Brink on a PLATFORM, and he told me he was busy and didn't have time for
me. He was working on a RELIC, which I LOOKED at and found to be badly deteriorated
machinery. To the left, it was a long way DOWN the cliff. I tried talking
to BRINK, but when he _would_ talk to me about anything he spoke in a very
nasty manner to me. So I decided to focus on the puzzle at the STRANGE DEVICE
for now. I fiddled with the puzzle at the STRANGE DEVICE a little longer.
But then, since it was about 10:00 p.m. and I'd been playing for most of
the day, I thought I'd take a little rest. I logged on to GAMERS and hung
out there for awhile. MORGIE LEARNS TOO MUCH &lt;SIGH&gt; After a bit, hercules
showed up and asked me how I was doing with THE DIG. I learned that he was
still ahead of me in the game even though I'd been playing all day long.
But not by much -- I was closing in on him. I mentioned that I was now working
on the puzzle at the STRANGE DEVICE, which he told me he had finished. I
related where I'd been and what I'd done. Here's where it gets dangerous
to talk to someone else who is ahead of you in a game. herc told me that
he was also on the TOMB SPIRE and that he'd just discovered that if he USED
his FLASHLIGHT with the BAT CREATURES, they'd fly around. Neither of us
knew it at the time, but this turned out to be the answer to a puzzle that
we'd encounter later. We thought it was just another interactive feature
like the GLOWING PLANTS in the NEXUS. No one's fault, but Morgie now knew
exactly what to do when she encountered that puzzle later on. I mentioned
what I'd done on the MAP SPIRE and herc, I'm sure unintentionally, said,
&quot;Wait... what about the falls?&quot; &quot;What falls?&quot; I asked.
This was how I found out that I'd skipped a part on the MAP SPIRE; that
there was another way out of the NEST to the right of the screen. Oh well,
I'd better go back there and check it out. (Grrrr... wish I hadn't known.)
At least I didn't feel like a total disaster because earlier he'd missed
the BRACELET and I'd told him how to find it. &lt;GRIN&gt; I told herc that
his suggestions for getting the critter into the TRAP had worked like a
charm. &quot;Did you take the ROD and the RIB CAGE again?&quot; I asked.
&quot;Yes,&quot; he said, then went on to tell me that if I'd taken the
ROD I'd be &quot;ok.&quot; Great. Now, although I didn't want to, I knew
the ROD would be important in a part of the game herc had already played.
I decided I'd better log off before I learned any more than I had already.
So I made some excuse about having to polish my silverware and went back
to the game, hoping that I'd have a brain blip and forget all I'd just learned.
It didn't happen. 

ON THE TOMB SPIRE, PART 2 -- AND TYING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS 
I started again at my save on the TOMB SPIRE to work on fixing the controls
inside the PANEL on the STRANGE DEVICE. As soon as I had arranged the SOURCE
and the PRISMS so that I had a continuous beam of light touching all of
them, as well as the RED, GREEN, and BLUE gems, with the red tinted beam
directed to the RED gem, the green tinted beam directed to the GREEN gem,
and the blue tinted beam directed to the BLUE gem, and no stray beams going
off the edge of the puzzle, I left that screen automatically and the controls
were fixed. Now I could SET the LENS and USE the SWITCH on the STRANGE DEVICE
just as I had done with the other three, discussed above. 

NOTE: Initially, I didn't see the connection between the colored beams of
light and the colored gems. I just got it to work without paying attention
to the colors. I happened to read a message on the board from Dave Timoney
that suggested that the colors had to be matched as well. But I felt sure
that the colored beams only took on their color from the gems they hit since
I hadn't noticed this before. 

When I went back and tried this puzzle again, I found that Dave was absolutely
right. If you connect up all the prisms, gems and the source but don't match
up the colors, the game won't exit the screen automatically and your device
isn't fixed properly. Thanks Dave! This time when I crossed the BRIGHT LIGHT
to the CRYSTAL FORM, it looked very different. When I EXAMINED it, I could
see a door, but couldn't touch it. Since I now knew I'd missed something
on the MAP SPIRE (ugh!) I decided to go back there and clean up my mess.
I CROSSED over the LIGHT BRIDGE system to the MAP SPIRE and found my way
back to the NEST. This time, I clicked the cursor on the right of the screen
past the GRATE and Boston walked farther to the right. Sure enough, to the
far right I saw another DOOR. It led to an open area with pathways to a
FALLS SOURCE and a BEACH. I went to the FALLS SOURCE first. Up here, I found
another GRATE. When I LOOKED at it, Boston walked across a rock that redirected
the water through the GRATE. It seemed reasonable to assume that this GRATE
was connected to the one in the NEST somehow. But I couldn't do anything
else here for now, so I left to go DOWN to the BEACH. When Boston moved
off the rock, the water returned to its normal course. I found nothing to
see or do on the BEACH for now. So I returned back the way I had come, through
the NEST, the PIT, and into the MAP ROOM. Here I decided to take another
look at the map of the TOMB SPIRE before returning there. I plugged the
combination on the RED ENGRAVED ROD into the PANEL again. Boston exclaimed
that there was more to the crypt than he'd thought. I then went back across
the LIGHT BRIDGE to the TOMB SPIRE to start to work on solving the crypt
puzzle. Once back in the TOMB, I thought some more about my previous theory,
as well as what I'd seen on the map of the TOMB. The map had showed bright
light shining all through the TOMB, so I figured I should try to get some
light in there. Maybe if I could find a way to keep the SHUTTER open, that
would help. I decided to try to prop the LOOSE STONE with something so that
it would stay open. I stood on the LOOSE STONE and USED the ROD with it.
This held down the stone, and the SHUTTER remained open when I stepped off
of the LOOSE STONE. (Now I had more of an idea of where herc was in the
game after I'd last talked to him.) But this didn't solve my light problem.
What if I could FORCE the FLASHLIGHT into the HOLE? It didn't work, but
I did learn that there was some &quot;energy substance&quot; inside the
HOLE. I needed something to put in there, something that perhaps gave off
light. The GOLD SCEPTER and SILVER SCEPTER I had, although they gave off
energy, didn't work. Then, in a flash (no pun intended), I realized that
I'd need to use that BLUE CRYSTAL that provided light to the power room
in the NEXUS. So I went back to the TRAM and returned to the NEXUS to TAKE
it again, then rode the TRAM back to the TOMB SPIRE and went back into the
TOMB. Here, I USED the BLUE CRYSTAL with the HOLE, and now I had all the
light in there that I could possibly want. But something was still missing.
I decided to go OUTSIDE to see whether I could come up with any ideas about
the eclipse I thought should happen, but so far hadn't. Outside the TOMB,
I noticed some DIRT I hadn't seen before. I LOOKED at the DIRT and Boston
cleared it away. Underneath, he found a LENS. When I next went back into
the TOMB, I could now see a beam of light coming down through the SHUTTER.
I felt I was close to the answer, but something was still eluding me. Thus
began one of those frustrating forays into stuckness. I USED the FLASHLIGHT
with the BAT CREATURES and watched them fly around like herc told me they
would, just to have something to do. I went back to all the places I'd been,
tried whatever I could think of. I stared at the SKY from the DAIS for awhile,
waiting for an eclipse. Maybe what I was missing was some information on
when it would happen? But where would I find something like _that_? The
LIBRARY and the MUSEUM, the obvious places, didn't shed any light on this.
And my crew was no help. By process of elimination, I finally decided to
focus on the areas where I hadn't yet been able to do much of anything.
The MAP SPIRE had a few of these -- so did the UNNAMED SPIRE. Since I had
no clue what to do, I was going to have to use trial and error here. I'd
have to use every item I had on every hotspot I could find in these places.
If that didn't work, I was really in trouble. Eventually, however, this
method paid off. In the blue room on the nameless spire where I'd found
the scepters that looked so much like they belonged there that I had debated
whether to take them, I finally USED the GOLD SCEPTER with the FAINT LIGHT.
How I was supposed to know to do this, I still have no clue, but amazingly,
this activated a MOON MAP that showed a planet (maybe this one) and its
moons. The close-up screen showed a PLANET, a LARGE MOON, and a SMALL MOON,
as well as the CEILING of the &quot;dome.&quot; (If it had actually been
shaped like a dome, or maybe had some seats for spectators, then I could
understand why I'd be expected to figure out that it was a planetarium.
Being able to recognize an alien planetarium, much less one that is has
to be &quot;turned on&quot; first, is, it seems to me, a bit much to expect
from the player.) I learned through experimentation that the GOLD SCEPTER
moved both moons around the planet, while the SILVER SCEPTER moved the SMALL
MOON around the LARGE MOON. So maybe I had to recreate the eclipse Boston
had seen in the museum DISPLAY? If so, I would need to position the moons
so that someone looking up from the planet would see the SMALL MOON eclipsing
the LARGE MOON. The PLANET seemed to have light falling on it to its right
side. So I decided to MOVE the moons into the center of this light with
the GOLD SCEPTER. That way, the reflection of light from the planet would
hit the moons and enable someone standing on the planet to see them (I hoped).
Then I USED the SILVER SCEPTER to line up the SMALL MOON between the PLANET
and the LARGE MOON. After finessing the positioning slightly, I automatically
exited the screen and saw that I'd caused an eclipse, which in turn had
sent light through the LENS I'd uncovered and into the TOMB. A STATUE had
risen out of the crypt. Unfortunately, right after that happened and I was
psyched to run back over to the TOMB, the critter stole the door part again
and locked Boston in the PLANETARIUM. IN THE CRYPT First, I tried calling
for help. But I could get nothing but static on the PENULTIMATE. So I PUSHED
the BUTTON next to the DOOR. How simple. The controls still worked from
the inside, and Boston was free again. Now the obvious thing to do was to
see if I could get into the crypt. I went out to the CLEARING and crossed
the LIGHT BRIDGE to the TOMB SPIRE, noting on my way that the previously
unnamed spire was now called the PLANETARIUM SPIRE. How fitting. I walked
to the EDGE and over to the TOMB. Boston wondered what caused the ECLIPSING
MOONS to move out of their synchronous orbit. Heh. Inside the TOMB I got
a close-up view of the STATUE I'd seen rising up during the cut-scene. When
I LOOKED at it, Boston TOUCHED it and it crumbled to dust. Now I could see
a hotspot for CRYPT, so I LOOKED at it. Boston got up on top of what turned
out to be an elevator of sorts, which took him down below the TOMB. After
descending, it seemed the only direction to go was left. When I'd gone left
for a ways, Boston ended up in front of a DOOR with a SLOT next to it, and
two sets of BROKEN BONES in front of it. When I LOOKED at the DOOR, a LIFE
CRYSTAL fell out of the SLOT and onto the right-hand side set of BROKEN
BONES. This revived a nasty-looking CREATURE that blocked the way to the
DOOR. After thinking about what I saw here, and what I had in my inventory,
and (ok, I admit it) trying a few items on the CREATURE without success,
I decided that what we might have here was a &quot;make them fight each
other&quot; puzzle. I'd seen this sort of puzzle in several adventure games
I'd played before. If I could revive the other BROKEN BONES, then maybe
they'd fight, or at least distract each other enough so that I could get
to the DOOR. I USED the GLOWING CRYSTALS with the BROKEN BONES, and as I
watched, another CREATURE rose up and then the two lunged at each other.
They fell together, crushed by a rock, until they were nothing but DEAD
GUARDS. Just for fun, I tried reviving the DEAD GUARDS with the GLOWING
CRYSTALS. It didn't work. I wondered also if they'd work with the RIB CAGE,
but there wasn't enough flesh left. Now I was free to get close to the DOOR
and SLOT, so I EXAMINED the DOOR and learned that there had to be a key
for it. My ENGRAVED ROD might work since I hadn't USED it yet. I USED the
ENGRAVED ROD with the SLOT and the DOOR evaporated. Boston remarked that
this must have been where the ghost at the WRECK wanted us to go all along.
Through the DOOR, at the end of a long WALKWAY, a PYRAMID rested. I went
over to the PYRAMID and LOOKED at it. Boston called Maggie at this point
and told her of what he found there -- a dead alien sealed inside the crystal
pyramid. She was close to translating the language of the planet, but didn't
seem too keen on my attempting to get into the pyramid and to the alien
somehow. When we finished talking, I LOOKED at the ALIEN CORPSE, the remains
of a huge creature. Perhaps I could bring it alive with the GLOWING CRYSTALS
if I could OPEN the PYRAMID. I decided to try the ENGRAVED ROD with the
PANEL on the PYRAMID, in case it was the key to both crypt locks. When I
USED the ENGRAVED ROD with the PANEL, the PYRAMID dissolved. So I USED the
GLOWING CRYSTALS with the ALIEN CORPSE and woke up the dead alien. It spoke
to me, but I couldn't understand a word it said. I had a lot of conversation
options to use here, but everything I asked, not surprisingly, prompted
the creature to respond in its own language. We just weren't understanding
each other. This was like living in a Led Zeppelin song: one huge communication
breakdown. Wouldn't it be fortuitous if Maggie had made her major breakthrough
in the language translation right about now? Finding nothing I could connect
with the creature on, I decided to give it a shot and give her a call. When
I stopped talking to the alien, the PYRAMID reconstructed and the alien
fell dead again. Boston was thinking along the same lines I was, apparently,
because as soon as the alien fell dead, he called Maggie. She had, as it
turned out, just discovered how to interpret the language -- but as she
was trying to explain to Boston what she'd learned, a vile creature attacked
her and Boston lost communication with her. Brink wouldn't answer Boston's
desperate plea on the PENULTIMATE. 

SAVING MAGGIE -- Morgie's Day 2 
I knew my first priority now had to be to find and save Maggie, since she
was my only hope to be able to understand the alien. The creature that had
attacked Maggie appeared to be some form of spider. Since I'd seen a spider-like
creature in the NEST on the MAP SPIRE the first time I went there, I figured
it was a good bet that if Maggie wasn't still in the LIBRARY, she'd been
dragged off to the NEST. NOTE: From now on, I'm going to assume that you're
familiar enough with your surroundings to find your way from place to place.
So my directions throughout the rest of this walkthru will be minimal. I
went out of the CRYPT and across the LIGHT BRIDGES to the MUSEUM SPIRE to
check the LIBRARY first. Maggie was gone. So I ran across the LIGHT BRIDGES
again to the MAP SPIRE and went directly to the NEST. Here I found Maggie,
trapped in a web of sorts, with the hideous creature preparing to make a
meal out of her. A lightbulb went on over my head. If I could get up to
the FALLS SOURCE and run the water through the GRATE there, then perhaps
I could get it to come through the GRATE in the NEST and wash away this
giant bug. But when I tried that, the MONSTER blocked my path. Maybe a little
snack would appease it so that it would let me pass. I tried FEEDING it
items from my inventory, but I learned quickly that this wasn't the right
approach. I decided to TALK to ROBBINS to see whether she had any ideas.
She suggested I go find Brink because it might take both of us to free her.
But, understandably under the circumstances, she didn't want to talk about
anything else except finding a way out of her predicament. Nothing else
I tried here worked, so I decided to take her advice. But first, it was
time to sleep. It was almost 4:00 a.m. on a Saturday night and although
I hated to leave Maggie in the lurch like that, I just couldn't keep my
eyes open one second longer. So I went to sleep, knowing I had something
definite to try when I attacked the game again the following day. 

SAVING MAGGIE -- Morgie's Day 3 
When I left to go get Brink, Maggie called after me to bring help. Geez.
Ok, ok -- have a little patience, will ya? I went back across the LIGHT
BRIDGES to the TOMB SPIRE where I'd last seen Brink. He was still on the
PLATFORM, but this time I could see him from the CAVE INTERIOR. I went out
to the PLATFORM to ask him for help, but he wasn't willing to help me and
kept telling me to go away. By now, the RELIC had turned into a contraption
of some sort. I tried talking to Brink through all the conversation options.
He was still unwilling to help me, but not at all unwilling to go on and
on about how great the life crystals were and how important his work on
that confounded RELIC was. I then noticed that Brink had started collecting
a CRYSTAL STASH. When I LOOKED at it, he got very testy with me. I got the
idea that if I could only get a hold of that CRYSTAL STASH, he'd be putty
in my hands. There was no question in my mind that I'd be able to bribe
him into helping me if I had his CRYSTAL STASH. I tried to TAKE the CRYSTAL
STASH again, but it was obvious that Brink wasn't going to let me take it
out from under his nose. I went back to the CAVERN, where I could still
see Brink out on the PLATFORM. I now knew immediately what to do, thanks
to herc's little slip before. I USED the FLASHLIGHT with the BAT CREATURES
and they flew down and chased Brink away from the PLATFORM. I ran out to
the PLATFORM and GRABBED the CRYSTAL STASH. As expected, Brink would now
follow me anywhere. Maybe he'd talk to me too? Nah. He didn't have anything
important to add to what he'd already told me. We went back across the LIGHT
BRIDGES to the NEST on the MAP SPIRE. I talked to Brink first here to see
if he had a plan. When I talked to him about the MONSTER, he suggested that
he'd distract the MONSTER while I figured out how to get Maggie out. Boston
then walked automatically out of the NEST through the OPENING to the right.
(Why? Was the game afraid I wouldn't make the connection between the two
GRATES or that I wouldn't find the other way out of the NEST? If the latter,
then I felt a little less like an idiot for missing it the first time, but
if so, then there ought to have been more of a clue to the other exit's
existence.) I went up to the FALLS SOURCE to try to carry out my initial
plan. Besides the GRATE, I now had a hotspot on a ROCK here. I LOOKED at
the ROCK and Boston PUSHED it over onto the stone that controlled the water
flow. Water now poured through the open GRATE again, and I could see it
starting to seep out of the corresponding GRATE near Maggie. I went DOWN
back into the NEST and after explaining what I'd done, I TALKED to Brink
again. I now had an option to TALK about the GRATE. I told him to lure the
MONSTER over by the GRATE, so that when Maggie opened it, the water would
blast the MONSTER. Then, automatically, Maggie opened the GRATE and the
MONSTER was no more. After that bit of drama, Brink demanded his life crystals
back. When I tried to talk sense to him he knocked me down, took all my
GLOWING CRYSTALS (as I found by looking in my inventory) and ran off. Maggie
now told me she believed the ghosts we'd been seeing wanted our help. She
thought they might have left for another world and wanted us to help them
get back to this one. I knew the next thing to do was to go back and see
if Maggie could talk to the alien in the PYRAMID, but first I thought I'd
see if she had anything more to tell me now that she wasn't so preoccupied
and had finished her automated speech. She did tell me she now understood
the language, although she wasn't fluent, and agreed with me that we had
to find a way to speak to the alien inventor. She also said that the TABLET
now made some sense to her. The TABLET spoke of an important thing hidden
on the other side of the &quot;hole&quot; so that none may enter, and gave
some instructions for &quot;pulling back this part of entrance.&quot; That
was all that she got out of it, and it wasn't much to go on. She said of
the METALLIC PLATES that their shapes were significant in the written language
of the planet and were rife with symbolism in its culture. She didn't know
what they had to do with navigation, though. I SHOWED ROBBINS the items
I'd picked up since I'd seen her last, but what she had to say wasn't at
all helpful. Since Brink had taken all my life crystals and we'd need some
to be able to resurrect the alien again (and who knew for what else, also),
I led Maggie back across the LIGHT BRIDGES to the MUSEUM SPIRE to see whether
we could pick up more from the basin behind the previously WEAKENED and
now BROKEN DOOR. We could; I TOOK as many as I could carry. We then set
off again across the LIGHT BRIDGES to the TOMB SPIRE. VISITING THE ALIEN
CREATOR WITH MAGGIE We went down into the TOMB and took the &quot;elevator&quot;
down into the CRYPT. At the PYRAMID, I USED the ENGRAVED ROD with the PANEL
as before, and then the GLOWING CRYSTALS with the ALIEN CORPSE. The inventor
came alive again. Maggie clearly had to do the talking here, so when the
inventor invited us to SPEAK, she conducted the interview. Through the amazing
exchange that followed, many of the mysteries of the planet we found ourselves
on and its society became somewhat demystified. We also got a broad-brush
sense of what we should do next. 

NOTE: I'm not sure whether the inventor is male, female, or some other gender,
but because it has a deep voice, I'll call it a &quot;he.&quot; Sounds less
awkward somehow than it. 

We learned that the alien's tomb had been hidden so that only the most clever
and persistent would find him. (Yeah, that's us.) The alien had chosen to
be preserved here in the pyramid as a personal penance for bringing evil
inventions into being; he now served as a guardian, to warn those who came
in response to the probes his society had sent out. The probes turned out
to be a mistake because although the alien's people believed they had found
the secrets to the universe, they did not know of their dangers. The probes,
of which Attila was one, could not be recalled once sent. The alien would
remain until the last of his mistakes had been rectified, or the life crystals
lost their power. The alien himself had once been hailed as the greatest
mind his people had ever produced. His inventions were thought to be good,
and he believed so himself. For this reason, the museum honored him. He
had given his people the power to enter another world as pure mind, but
had been unable to give them the power to return. The other world, Spacetime
Six, contained great beauty and everlasting life, but without the ability
to change, to build, or otherwise to affect that world or any other. Even
so, the beauty of this world was irresistible. Only through great strength
of will could one return, and the alien's people hadn't been that strong.
So now he called himself a bringer of misfortune, a doer who undoes, a creator
who uncreates, although he would gladly be a destroyer who undestroys. He
no longer had a name, nor wanted a name or memory to live after him when
he finally died forever. The inventor and his people had created the light
bridges not only as a convenience but as a way to open &quot;The Eye&quot;
-- when all the light bridges were complete, &quot;The Eye&quot; would see
the three dimensions of time and the three dimensions of space, and show
beauty beyond belief. The metal plates, each of which had meaning, and when
fitted together had a new meaning, opened the door to beauty without boundary
and trouble without end -- but from which the mind had not the strength
to return. The TABLET spoke of something hidden that had led to the alien's
first achievement and greatest error, the one that had condemned his people.
He didn't write the TABLET and would not have done so. The inventor had
also invented the life crystals, which he called his second biggest mistake
-- for they created not a life, but a slave. They restored the cells and
organs, but took away all that made life worth living. Some of the alien's
people believed that we could help them to get back from Spacetime Six,
so they had led us to him. They were the &quot;ghosts&quot; we'd seen; only
the slightest physical connection to this world remained in them. If his
people could return, they could build a starship to take us home, but this
would never happen. He believed that were we to attempt to help his people,
we too would only become lost in Spacetime Six and never return. He didn't
seem to care whether we got home or not, because the warning Earth would
receive were we never to return was just as effective, if not more so, than
if we returned and recounted all we'd learned here. Our wish to return home
was a vain one, and he discouraged us from attempting it. Thus spake the
alien. He said some other things too, and I encourage you to listen to them
to get some interesting tidbits and fill out the story, but the above seemed
to me to be the crucial points. I listened to all of this in nothing short
of wonder. The alien is most definitely my favorite character in this game.
After I'd absorbed what he said, I tried to figure out how, if at all, it
helped me. The following stood out: If we could bring back the alien's people
from Spacetime Six, they could build a ship that would take us home. This
seemed our only hope of returning to Earth. But first, we'd have to get
to Spacetime Six ourselves. &quot;The Eye&quot; seemed to be the point of
entry. To get &quot;The Eye&quot; to &quot;see,&quot; we would need to complete
all of the light bridges. This meant going to the one spire we hadn't found
a way to and setting up a light bridge there. I thought we could reach this
last spire through the ALCOVE's door; the alien's statement that all the
PLATES together would lead to beauty and trouble seemed to confirm this.
So we'd definitely need to find another PLATE and open that door. For now,
the only real clue I had to go on came from the TABLET'S inscription. Maggie
hadn't been able to tell me exactly what it meant, and the alien's statements
about the TABLET puzzled me. Since he thought the TABLET amounted to a grave
error, I felt sure he wouldn't help me with it. The TABLET seemed crucial
to finding the last PLATE, but what it meant or how it worked was completely
beyond me. 

THE CLUE ON THE TABLET: Morgie Loses It on Day 3 
Something important was hidden on the other side of the hole so that none
may enter... and instructions for &quot;pull[ing] back a part of entrance.&quot;
Precious little to go on. I became dreadfully stuck here. For about four
hours, I went from location to location and back again, trying to find an
appropriate &quot;hole&quot; that &quot;none could enter.&quot; I thought
perhaps the hole might be the power source in the NEXUS and I'd have to
use the remote again, but attempts to operate it failed. I went back to
all the locations on the surface. I EXAMINED the CREVICE and tried all my
items on it (from which I learned only that it had a glow emanating from
it), and the same with the CRACK in the wall of the PLANETARIUM. I returned
to the BEACH on the MAP SPIRE and found nothing. I revived the alien again
and spoke to him. I tried talking to Brink again. I tried to check out the
cave under the WATER on the MUSEUM SPIRE again, but Maggie refused to go
swimming with me. I kept wondering if this was one of those puzzles that
I could really call myself stuck on in Leo's definition of stuck: &quot;you
aren't really stuck unless you've been thinking about the same puzzle for
four months.&quot; I took a break after awhile and logged on to GAMERS where
I learned that herc was still waiting for an eclipse to happen. Hehe. In
fairness, he suspected all along that he might have to make it happen, which
displayed far greater intuition about this puzzle than I had had. He asked
whether he'd have to make it happen and I told him. He also asked whether
the place he'd have to make it happen was on the same spire as the tomb
or a different one, so I told him that too. I tried to make sure not to
give anything away that he didn't ask about. At least I wasn't in any danger
of learning what I had to do next, now that I'd vaulted into the lead. I
went back to the game to give it another try. At the end of all my travels,
I'd only discovered one new thing. When I returned to the STRANGE FIELD
on the MAP SPIRE and LOOKED at it, Boston said something different than
he had the first time I'd LOOKED at it. He noted that the STRANGE FIELD
was shimmering, which prompted Maggie to say that it reminded her of something
she'd seen or read. I took this as an invitation to ask her about the TABLET
again, but somehow, she just said what she'd said before about the hole.
I tried several times with the same result. I left and came back and tried
again. I tried all of what I've mentioned countless times. Wasn't Maggie
supposed to be able to read directions on how to use the things I'd found?
I'd been told this as a clue very early on, and now she, herself, was saying
that the STRANGE FIELD reminded her of something she might have read. Everything
pointed to her doing something with this TABLET. Finally, I SHOWED her the
TABLET and she responded to me. Oddly, the second time I played I found
that all I had to do was TALK to her about the TABLET while in the STRANGE
FIELD screen. I didn't even have to LOOK at the STRANGE FIELD first. This
was true regardless of whether I started from a new game, or a prior save.
I have attempted several times to recreate the problem I had the first time
through, and have been unable to do it. Maybe it was sunspots. Who knows.
All I can say is that it seems to be one of those things for which there
is simply no rational explanation. I did install a new video card between
the time I played initially and the second go round, and I'd had some graphical
glitches and lock ups with the game using my old card that disappeared with
the new one. Maybe that had something to do with it. But I doubt it. In
any event, when I got a response out of Maggie, she had a revelation: the
TABLET exactly described the STRANGE FIELD. It all made sense to her now.
She tinkered with the STRANGE FIELD and raised an ISLAND, seemingly out
of the river. When I LOOKED at the ISLAND, however, I learned that it had
returned from another dimension. Through an OPENING, we entered the bowels
of the ISLAND. The fourth metal PLATE had been hidden here. Actually, it
was in plain view once you got into the ISLAND. (I was still trying to figure
out what the hole was. I sure didn't see anything that looked like a hole
around here.) When we'd taken the PLATE, Boston insisted that we go get
Brink in case using the PLATE in the ALCOVE really did take us somewhere.
Back we went, toward the MAP SPIRE'S LIGHT BRIDGE, intending to look for
Brink where we'd last seen him. But just as we entered the CAVERN, we felt
an earthquake. Immediately after that, Brink sent an SOS over the PENULTIMATE.
He'd been trapped near one of the LIGHT BRIDGES in a CREVICE near a waterfall
and needed our help. I was intimately familiar with the CREVICE on the PLANETARIUM
SPIRE, having tried to do all manner of unspeakable things to it when I
was stuck for four hours for no good reason. So I figured that's where he
meant. We crossed the LIGHT BRIDGES to the PLANETARIUM SPIRE and entered
the CREVICE. 

BRINK'S LITTLE MISHAP 
Brink had his hand stuck in the same CREVICE Boston had refused to stick
his hand in before (a moment of totally correct instinct, apparently). Brink
had been reaching for some life crystals when the earthquake shifted the
rock and got him stuck there. I wanted to suggest that he just let go of
the crystals then maybe he could get his hand out. You know -- that old
saw about the monkey who won't let go of the banana and can't figure out
why it can't get its hand out of the jar? The situation turned out to be
more serious, though. His circulation was cut off and he couldn't get free.
He begged us to cut off his hand. Maggie seemed horrified at this suggestion,
but Boston thought that the alternative might be gangrene or starvation.
From the discussion, amputation appeared to be the only solution. We needed
something sharp enough to cut through bone. I happened to have an item noted
for its strength and sharpness, and as an added benefit, shaped like a saw
-- the JAWBONE. I USED the JAWBONE with Brink, and the dirty deed was done.
We invited the one-handed Brink to come with us to the ALCOVE to try the
metal PLATE. He resisted, but ultimately agreed to accompany us in exchange
for a promise that we'd leave him alone if our plan didn't work. The game
took us back to the ALCOVE automatically, and I USED the PLATE with the
SLOT to the RIGHT. The PLATES changed shape, and the ALCOVE door split open.
ON THE CATHEDRAL SPIRE Since the PLATES hadn't taken us home right then
and there, Brink stormed off, yelling at us that he expected us to keep
our end of the bargain and leave him alone forever. What's a Morgie to do?
I wasn't going to let this attitude stand in the way of progress, so Maggie
and I went through the OPEN DOOR onto yet another TRAM platform. I USED
the TRAM CALL. A TRAM arrived and we BOARDED it and took off for parts unknown.

NOTE: If you don't have all of the CRYSTALS in the GLOWING PANEL in the
AIRLOCK illuminated, you'll probably have to go light up the appropriate
one first, or you might have some trouble here. It's a good idea to light
them all up, although I encountered some irregularities in my first game
even with them all lit. I finally opted for lighting all the original ones,
and leaving the TOMB SPIRE control dark. Now that I had a LIGHT BRIDGE,
I didn't need to use the TOMB SPIRE tram anyway. I could always leave that
spire for another with a working TRAM if I needed to go back to the NEXUS.

Through a fifth crystalline tube we rolled, to stop at an outdoor platform
with a TRAM CALL and a DOOR. We went through the DOOR and came into a strange
room. Boston observed that he'd seen a machine like the one now before us
in one of the MUSEUM DISPLAYS. I thought back to the DISPLAYS I had seen
and concluded that I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. (Later,
I realized: the MUSEUM DISPLAY I thought related to the LIGHT BRIDGES must
have actually related to operating THE EYE. Oh well, whatever works. &lt;GRIN&gt;)
Boston seemed convinced that this machine embodied the inventor's greatest
invention. Of course, at the moment, it didn't seem to be operating. In
this screen, I saw two CONSOLES and two STRANGE OBJECTS. The STRANGE OBJECTS
just moved when I TOUCHED them. I LOOKED at the upper CONSOLE and discovered
that a row of crystalline devices composed it. When I LOOKED at the lower
CONSOLE, I saw that it had two EMPTY SLOTS and a GAP IN MACHINERY. LOOKING
at the GAP IN MACHINERY clarified that a part was missing. It LOOKED like
LIFE CRYSTALS would fit perfectly in the EMPTY SLOTS. This offer, I couldn't
refuse. I USED the GLOWING CRYSTALS with each of the two EMPTY SLOTS to
place them there. Then I wandered around this area for a bit. I discovered
that the screen scrolled vertically. Undoubtedly, I'd find more to explore
if I continued upward. But as usual, I decided to talk to Maggie first to
see whether anything we'd just been through set her to thinking. I noticed
right away that I had a couple of new conversation options: one for the
ALIEN DEVICE and another for the ISLAND. What the heck. I went through all
of the options with her again. When I got to the ALIEN DEVICE, Maggie suggested
that someone sealed in a crystal pyramid might know where the missing machine
part was and what it did. The rest of what she had to say was either old
news or nothing to write home about. I didn't yet know what waited above
us, but now seemed as good a time as any to go back and talk to our alien
again. We got on the TRAM and went back to the NEXUS. 

THE BOSTON LOW COURIER SERVICE or ASSORTED TRAVELS AND ERRANDS 
We GOT ON the TOMB TRAM and went back to the CRYPT, then on to the PYRAMID.
When I'd USED the ENGRAVED ROD with the PANEL and the GLOWING CRYSTALS with
the ALIEN CORPSE, my translator took over again. This time, the alien told
us that the ALIEN DEVICE opened &quot;The Eye.&quot; &quot;The Eye&quot;
saw across all space and time, and where it saw, the mind could fly. &quot;The
Eye&quot; was a door to where the alien's people went, but the alien insisted
that it was a one-way door and even the strongest of will could not return.
Maggie argued that we had to try to get to the alien's people and bring
them back since that was our only chance of getting back to Earth. The alien
scoffed at us for believing ourselves stronger than all his people, but
agreed to help us find the piece he'd hidden if we &quot;knew how to ask.&quot;
At this point, a conversation option for the EYE PART appeared, so I TALKED
to the ALIEN about the EYE PART. The alien warned us again against activating
&quot;The Eye.&quot; Then he told us to go to the map with a message he
was giving us and see what it showed us. With that, he dropped something
on the ground before us. The rest of what he had to say was interesting,
but not crucial. When we stopped talking, the alien gave us a final warning
against &quot;The Eye,&quot; then dropped dead again and the PYRAMID closed
around it. I TOOK the CREATOR'S ENGRAVING from where he'd dropped it and
left across the LIGHT BRIDGES for the MAP SPIRE. 
In the MAP ROOM, I EXAMINED the CREATOR'S ENGRAVING, then entered the combination
it showed on the PANEL. The MAP showed us a picture of the BEACH on the
MAP SPIRE where we hadn't been able to do anything yet. We hiked through
the NEST and over to the BEACH. I found the EYE PART underneath a rock and
TOOK it. Since we couldn't get back to the CATHEDRAL SPIRE by LIGHT BRIDGE,
we went to the MAP SPIRE TRAM stop, used the TRAM CALL, and TOOK the TRAM
back to the NEXUS. From there, we transferred for the CATHEDRAL TRAM and
rolled back to that spire. We entered the LAB, and just as Boston was about
to place the EYE PART in the CONSOLE, Brink showed up demanding life crystals
for his &quot;machine.&quot; Boston took the crystals I'd placed in the
CONSOLE earlier back out of it and handed them over. Brink departed after
slinging assorted nastiness our way, leaving us crystalless. Maggie asked
if he'd damaged the machine part. I checked, and I still had it. So I did
the obvious -- I USED the EYE PART with the CONSOLE and then with the GAP
IN THE MACHINERY. It clicked into place. Now I needed two more LIFE CRYSTALS
to get the thing up and running. So again, I did the obvious -- took the
TRAM to the NEXUS, transferred for the MUSEUM TRAM, and went back to look
behind the BROKEN DOOR for more LIFE CRYSTALS. Brink had beat me to it.
Every last one of them was gone, leaving only an EMPTY CRYSTAL REPOSITORY.
It seemed I couldn't avoid confronting Brink since he was now the only known
source of LIFE CRYSTALS on the planet. Man. I'd have to go running off across
the LIGHT BRIDGES to the TOMB SPIRE again and hope that he'd still be on
that PLATFORM hovering over his precious RELIC. He was there, all right.
He yelled at us to get away. He'd built a LIFE CRYSTAL machine, but it wasn't
working yet. Something was missing, and he was in no mood to joke. I tried
to LOOK at the RELIC, but Brink chased me away from it. Why I thought he'd
talk to me after this initial reception, I'll never know. But I tried it.
The obvious thing to do in an illogical sort of way. When I TALKED to BRINK
about the ALIEN DEVICE and our need for LIFE CRYSTALS to make it work, he
refused to give me any. My last card was to TALK to him about the EYE PART.
Boston took over from here -- and I really wanted to give him a good BigBad
MaMa smack for what he suggested. Boston told Brink that he thought the
missing part for Brink's machine was that same EYE PART I'd put in the CONSOLE.
Boston and Brink finally cut a deal -- Boston would let Brink use the EYE
PART to get his LIFE CRYSTAL machine working in exchange for half of the
LIFE CRYSTALS it produced. &lt;SIGH&gt; Back to the CATHEDRAL SPIRE. Time
to RETRIEVE the EYE PART and bring it back to BRINK. TWO MACHINES, ONE EYE
PART Maggie and I went back to the SPIRE BASE and got on the TOMB TRAM,
then transferred at the NEXUS for the CATHEDRAL TRAM. I was starting to
get really, really homesick for New York City right about now. I TOOK the
EYE PART from the CONSOLE, then decided there had to be an easier way than
all this back and forth on the TRAMS. Maybe if I continued up the LAB I'd
find a STRANGE DEVICE that might cut down on travel time. On the way, I
stopped to LOOK at some CONTROLS that Boston said he didn't know how to
work, and to TOUCH two more STRANGE OBJECTS that moved around, but didn't
seem to do anything else. I also LOOKED at an ALIEN DEVICE that Boston was
clueless about. OUTSIDE I found what I'd been looking for. Across a stone
bridge to my left, I found another STRANGE DEVICE on a ledge. This one had
a NEST in front of it that seemed to be positioned just where its LENS ought
to be. I LOOKED at the NEST. Boston kicked it off of the LENS with apologies
to the birds. This LENS appeared to need no adjustment since it wouldn't
move when I PUSHED it. All I had to do was USE the SWITCH on the STRANGE
DEVICE as I had done so many times in the past, and I had my LIGHT BRIDGE.
THE EYE had taken the place of the GLOWING SPHERE in the center of all the
LIGHT BRIDGES. I stopped to EXAMINE it. Boston could almost feel the surface.
We moved on across the LIGHT BRIDGES to the TOMB SPIRE and returned to the
PLATFORM to see BRINK and his RELIC. The RELIC, as it happened, now had
a SLOT. When I USED the EYE PART with the SLOT, the machine started to vibrate.
Eventually, it produced a whopping two LIFE CRYSTALS. Boston took them,
arguing that Brink's theft of all the other LIFE CRYSTALS made these two
Boston's under their deal. Then Boston said he was taking back the EYE PART.
Brink could either come with us through THE EYE once it was working, or
stay and take the EYE PART back later for his machine. I TOOK the EYE PART
from the COMPLETED MACHINE. At this, Brink flew into a rage and jumped Boston.
Just as he was about to do Boston in, he tripped and fell over the edge
of the cliff and DOWN to his second death. 

NOTE: After this happens, you can put the EYE PART back in the SLOT again
and get more LIFE CRYSTALS. I didn't do this in my first game, but in the
second I did so that I could try for the alternative ending I'd heard about.
Just be sure that if you do USE the EYE PART again, you remember to take
it with you when you're finished getting more crystals. If you don't, you'll
have to come all the way back here again to get it. 

After losing Brink again, we had nothing left to do but return to the CATHEDRAL
SPIRE. We CROSSED the LIGHT BRIDGES back and went down to the LAB. The moment
of truth had come. We'd now see what would happen if we tried to run the
ALIEN DEVICE. I went down to the lower CONSOLE and INSERTED the EYE PART
into the GAP IN MACHINERY. I placed a GLOWING CRYSTAL in each EMPTY SLOT.
The machinery started to rumble. Since Boston still had no clue when he
LOOKED at the upper CONSOLE, I figured that Maggie might know what to do.
After all, early on, Boston had said that her studies might help us to read
any directions we'd need to know. When I asked her about the ALIEN DEVICE,
she told me that working the device might be dangerous. It could kill us,
but there were no guarantees that this would happen. She extracted a promise
from Boston that he wouldn't try to revive her with a LIFE CRYSTAL if anything
happened to her. She assured him that she had no knowledge of any harm that
would happen to the person at the controls, then proceeded to turn on the
machine. A part of the ALIEN DEVICE was stuck, and when Maggie pried it
open, she was struck down and died. She'd known all along that this would
probably happen. Thanks, Mag. But THE EYE was now restored, so it was time
to move on. 

ENDING 1 (HAPPY MAGGIE) -- Morgie's Day 3 
Since in my game, I hadn't used Brink's machine twice, I had no LIFE CRYSTALS
at this point. So unless I could find more, it wouldn't be hard to keep
my promise to Maggie. I wasn't really planning to break it anyway. I headed
for THE EYE, but when I tried to walk across the LIGHT BRIDGE, I found my
way blocked by a beast that chased me back to the spire, then retreated.
By now, it was again very late at night. I was exhausted. I tried a few
half-hearted attempts at getting rid of the beast. I tried to FEED it the
RIB CAGE, TUSK and JAWBONE. I tried to get back to see the alien and ask
it about this beast, but obviously I wasn't going to be able to get across
the LIGHT BRIDGE, and the TRAM controls had shorted out when we turned on
THE EYE. I was trapped on the spire, and too bushed to think anymore. So
I went to sleep. I didn't feel stuck, but I did have the sense that a fresh
eye would be able to evaluate this situation more clearly. ENDING 1 (HAPPY
MAGGIE) -- Morgie's Day 4 I noticed as soon as I came back to the game that
the creature blocking my way seemed to start chasing me from _on_ the LIGHT
BRIDGE instead of from within THE EYE. If I was right about this, then all
I'd need to do would be to retract the LIGHT BRIDGE, and the creature should
fall off of it. I wasn't really sure how to go about this, but after trying
a few things I found that if I LOOKED at the STRANGE DEVICE and PRESSED
its SWITCH, I could make the line to the right of the screen disappear,
just as I'd made it appear. The next thing I knew, the creature plummeted
to the ground below. Boston seemed to think this was his last obstacle to
getting to THE EYE. He turned out to be right, and I laughed at myself for
going to sleep the night before, just as I'd found the last puzzle in the
game. I USED the STRANGE DEVICE'S SWITCH to reset the LIGHT BRIDGE, and
bravely set off to THE EYE. When I EXAMINED it, I saw that it was another
island floating above ground. I WALKED into THE EYE, wondering if I'd have
the strength to return from Spacetime Six. Through THE EYE, I encountered
a PORTAL. I ENTERED the PORTAL and saw beauty beyond belief. This was my
final act in the game. The ending sequence started after I entered the PORTAL.
Boston wisely chooses to stay close to the entrance to Spacetime Six. An
alien speaks to him. Here in Spacetime Six, communication occurs mind to
mind, so Boston can understand what it says. The alien says that Boston
was as strong as they'd hoped, and that he can lead all of the lost aliens
back to life. One by one, aliens return to Spacetime Four and pop up all
over the planet. They return to life with death, yes -- but with true life
as well. When Boston and the alien emerge through the portal, the alien
speaks of its great debt to Boston. Boston says he just wants to go home
and relate the story of how his friends had died. Risky as it seems, the
alien goes back into the portal and through the pathways of time, where
it finds Maggie and Brink and returns them to Boston. Brink has aged greatly,
but is free of the effect of the life crystals. Maggie, all smiles and hugs,
expresses her gratitude that Boston had kept his promise and not tried to
revive her when she died. Our travellers board their crystal ship and head
for home, knowing that they have an open invitation for themselves and all
humankind to return and visit their new friends. 

ENDING 2 (ANGRY MAGGIE) 
After finding myself trapped on the CATHEDRAL SPIRE as before, I USED a
GLOWING CRYSTAL on MAGGIE. She came back to life furious with me and threw
herself off of the cliff at the upper entrance to the LAB. I dealt with
the beast on the LIGHT BRIDGE as outlined above, restored the LIGHT BRIDGE
and ENTERED THE EYE and the PORTAL. The ending sequence progresses exactly
the same as the first, with one exception: when the alien brings Maggie
back, she snarls at Boston, slaps him and says she's not sure she's happy
to see him since he broke his promise to her. But she backs down pretty
quickly, and the remainder of the ending is the same happy one as before.

AFTERWARD
On the remote chance that anyone cares, I did end up finishing THE DIG before
herc did -- but only because I went into my usual obsessive mode and did
nothing else but play until I finished. He finished shortly after I did
without getting stuck at all. But then, talk about someone who has played
adventures since Shep was a pup. (Was that Shep I? Or Shep XIV?) I also
liked THE DIG more than herc did, but then I'd been so looking forward to
this game, I doubt much about it could have seriously disappointed me. It
has been quite awhile since I've played such a balanced game: strong story,
good puzzles, and interesting characters, not to mention an excellent sound
track. Although I became frustrated at points, overcoming frustration is,
for me, part of the enjoyment of playing adventure games. Few things in
life offer such a harmless means of venting one's spleen, and such an easy-
to-come-by feeling of elation when a problem has been solved. If you're
still playing, have fun and good luck! If you've finished, congratulations
and well done! Either way, I'm hopeful that my little tome served you in
some fashion, by way of solutions, ways of thinking about this game and/or
others -- or even just to stir up a chuckle or two. 

Copyright 1995 by Morgana. All rights reserved. 
