The 7th Guest
I've been playing this recently (this game sold at an amazing RRP of ?70 back in 1992!) with DOSbox (an excellent utility); and eventually managed to finish it, only needing to consult the clue book for two puzzles; plus I had to use the automatic solve feature for the Infection mini-game, as I couldn't get anywhere with that confounded thing (which is the reason for this enquiry).
I was just wondering if anyone who's played The 7th Guest ever managed to win at the Infection mini-game (the one down the microscope in the laboratory) and can give some tips, as the version in The 7th Guest seems unwinnable to me. I usually found that after a few moves I'd already got myself into a hopeless position. It's one of those games with very few rules (three, so far as I can tell) for which it's fairly straightforward to program an unbeatable computer opponent, which seems to be what they did - but then again I've always been pretty useless at Othello, which is a similar game.
I was just wondering if anyone who's played The 7th Guest ever managed to win at the Infection mini-game (the one down the microscope in the laboratory) and can give some tips, as the version in The 7th Guest seems unwinnable to me. I usually found that after a few moves I'd already got myself into a hopeless position. It's one of those games with very few rules (three, so far as I can tell) for which it's fairly straightforward to program an unbeatable computer opponent, which seems to be what they did - but then again I've always been pretty useless at Othello, which is a similar game.
Post edited by Battle Bunny on
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Any game that cost 70 bills back in 92, is obviously going to be a terrible game.
7th Guest does sound familiar, I think I may have pilfered it from HOTU about 3 or 4 years ago.
But I can't remember, and I'm not really that bothered.
Sorry this post is no help at all is it :lol:
if you think that post is no help, just look at this one.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=285380&postcount=3
Completed 7th guest in 99, but can't remember the puzzle you are talking about, if I saw a picture of it, might jog the gray cells.
Never did complete 11th hour.
I've never played 7th Guest, but I've played Infection on the Spectrum (a very good version*), and yes, it does wipe the floor with me. I played it with a mate, and it was better, as we were both equally mediocre at it, but it does seem to be one of those games that can be played very well by computers, and it's very annoying for you to be winning one moment and then the computer turns the board totally around, leaving you with a third or so of the pieces...
Othello isn't so bad, as one move doesn't have the potential to changes as much of the board as one move in Infection can. Still a good game, though.
* The only thing it lacks is a "take back the last move" function.
Never got into these games back in the 90's. Bought Myst and Riven (sequel) on the Pocket PC and they work very well, were pretty cheap and makes a nice alternative
LOL! Ohh, I could click on them for hours, looking at each unhelpful window! :)
Here's the laboratory and here's the Infection mini-game. You're blue and get to move first.
To get to the laboratory you have to solve the collapsing tiles problem on the floor of the chapel. That's one of the puzzles for which I needed the clues, and even when I'd completed it I didn't understand why the solution worked.
Did any of you ever play RealMyst or URU? Or even URU Live or Until URU or Myst Online: Something or other?
Thread hijack over. Carry on!
I definitely completed this puzzle - I don't think I even found it that difficult at the time so it was probably a complete flook cos I am spectacularly crap at these sort of games usually.
I had to use the puzzle solver to get across that coloured floor - so I've no idea how you managed it.
Uru is awesome. I was playing the online version until recently when it was shut down (Boo Hiss Gametap) and I have just found out that it's being relaunched again soon. I love it and if you like the Myst games at all, you should definitely give it a go. :)
Necros.
As for URU - I was there back in the UBISoft "prologue" days before it died and became UntilURU, then the GAYmeTap thing, and now is coming alive again. (I ran one of the Shards back in the Until Uru days). Were you Necros in URU? Or another name?
(WARNING: This thread has been hijacked again, because I'm a jackass)
Which bevin were you part of in MOUL? I was in Ewaerbl's.
When I was online (which in the MOUL incarnation was rarely, to be honest) I was to be found in "The Meeting Place" Bevin. (I ran "The Meeting Place" UU Shard, and still host the rather unused and redundant website for the same at www.meeting-place.org).
The TMP lot have had a fair bit of impact (me not included) online, though in "There" rather than SL. (Personally, I much prefer SL, though URU itself is far more to my taste than either There or SL).
I still have the vault and blobs for the UU shard - you may well be archived in there somewhere!! :-D
I recognise the pic of the lab, but still don't remember the puzzle, I probably just kept trying and eventually got it.
This thread has put me in the mood to play it again. Can you give instructions how to get in working in dosbox, as i've never used it.
I've played all the Myst games, Myst, Riven, Myst III:Exile, Myst IV, Myst V, Uru and Uru Live, I own real Myst but couldn't get it working on xp sp2 (have vista now but haven't tried it on that)
Here's a posting from Myst-online that says irfanview will open them http://www.mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15434
Nor do I. It's easy to get from one side to the other by stepping on pretty much any sequence of adjacent tiles, but for some reason they're not the correct sequence and the puzzle resets. The second clue says: "The markings on the stones represent numeric values. Jump to adjacent stones according to the value of the stone on which you land." - which I didn't find to be any help either. I eventually discovered that following a route where every third stone was purple got me to the other side successfully, but I've no idea why that worked.
Another puzzle which I solved without understanding it was the tower in the attic. I didn't bother trying to deduce the rules of the puzzle (I was getting a bit fed up with puzzles by then); I just kept selecting different sequences of windows until they lit up to the top.
Yes, I still have PC Zone #4 with the review (July 1993 - not 1992 as I said earlier) giving an RRP of ?69.99 - and it's not a misprint, as the very high price is commented on in the review. Checking adverts over the next few issues, mail order prices for The 7th Guest ranged from ?44-?65 in 1993.
Firstly, you need to create BIN/CUE image files from the two CDs; I used MagicISO for this, but there'll be other programs around. I keep separate config files for each game I play with DOSbox, with a separate desktop shortcut for each; for The 7th Guest the shortcut's target is: "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.72\dosbox.exe" -noconsole -conf "C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.72\7thGuest.conf".
The alterations which I made to the config settings were (these parameters appear in various sections of the file, they're not adjacent as shown here):
cycles=15000
sbtype=sb1
gus=false
xms=true
ems=false
umb=false
Then, in the autoexec section at the end of the file:
mount c j:\_drive_c
mount d j:\oldgames
imgmount e j:\CDimages\7thGuestCD1.BIN j:\CDimages\7thGuestCD2.BIN -t iso
d:
cd t7g
t7g
Obviously all real and virtual drive letters and paths used in these examples would need to be altered as appropriate for your system.
The VOGONS Forum has lots of discussion on DOSbox and running Very Old Games On New Systems.
PS.
You'd only include the last two autoexec lines after you'd run the T7G "INSTALL" program from within DOSbox, of course. Use Ctrl-F4 to switch between CD images when prompted. To get the graphics running smoothly you can experiment with different "cycles" settings while the game is running by using Ctrl-F11/F12 (slower/faster). I found 15000 to give a smooth display with an 1800 Mhz AMD processor running WinXP. Many games will run quite satisfactorily at the default setting of 3000 cycles. The DOSbox README is very comprehensive and helpful, so don't forget to read it.
I believe when I last played it I got stuck on a bug, a puzzle that was meant to appear didn't because I'd gone and done another puzzle first.
The one that drove me up the wall was the coffin open/shut one but I sussed it eventually.
And no, the gypsy can puzzle doesn't make sense. Load of crap.
Good fun as a snapshot of its time though.
I never got on with Myst, far too cryptic for me.
Me neither... Kind of a puzzle within a puzzle within a puzzle within a puzzle!!
There was one similar game called Faust which I thought was ok. I'm pretty sure it was the first PC game I played on DVD-Rom.
think my wife has 7th guest and myst somewhere
There was also a game I had called Noctropolis, which suffered the same fate.
The voice of Mr. Stauff that keeps on taunting you throughout the game is by far the best thing about it. It really feels to me like I am trying to beat Stauf by completing all these insane puzzles.
I've only found one other game where the villain taunts you so successfully - System Shock (......shudder)