Return of the Phantom (MicroProse)

               Solution by Maureen Barton

The opening sequence takes place at the Opera House where "Don
Juan Triumphant" is being performed.  During the opera the
chandelier drops from the ceiling and several people are killed.
The manager asks you to find out who is responsible for this crime
and the adventure starts by the fallen chandelier.

Talk to Monsieur Brie who tells you about the phantom.  Some
artefacts belonging to him are in the opera library - his mask,
the score of Don Juan Triumphant and the wedding ring he gave to
Christine Daae.  He suggests you talk to Charles the stage manager
who you will find in the left wing of the stage.  Go to the pits
and through door to trap room.  Climb up into the prompter's box
and you see the phantom walking across the stage.  Push the
prompter's stand under the trap door, pull the lever on right wall
to open trap door and then climb up onto the stage.  Walk right to
the wings where you pick up a yellow frame.  Walk right and then
south across the stage and then left to the wings where you will
find Charles.

Talk to Charles who tells you about the catacombs.  There is no
entrance to them but there may be a secret door somewhere.  The
chandelier is pulled into an alcove for maintenance.  To get there
you have to go via the Fly Loft and across the catwalks.  The
ballerina Julie Giry may still be in her dressing room and
Christine Florent, the star, may be in her dressing room.

Go to the first floor dressing rooms and talk to Julie Giry.  She
says her great grandmother was a psychic who had dreams and she
also has dreams.  In them she sees the phantom with a woman
dressed in white and the phantom is wearing a mask.  She also saw
a ghost wearing a cape going up the stairs.  Her great grandmother
wrote a book about the phantom.  He had a personal box No.5 and no
one knew how he got into the box.

Go up to the second floor dressing rooms to talk to Christine
Florent.  She thinks she is in danger.  The Phantom talks to her
in a dream - he beckons to her, makes love to her and puts a rope
around her neck when she tries to unmask him.  She also has a note
from him saying that he has returned to take his revenge against
her for leaving him to die in loneliness and solitude.  Her great
grandmother was born in Scandinavia where Christine Daae and Raoul
fled.

Go to the circular staircase and as you get there a sandbag is
dropped, nearly killing you.  Go up to the catwalks and have a
look around.  Here you will find a blue frame.  There is also a
note on the chandelier cable addressed to you saying that it is
time you settled your differences as 100 years is too long to hold
a grudge.  Go back down the circular stairs to the lower level
where you find a red frame.

Return to the back of the Opera House and go into the library
where you find the artefacts have been stolen.  Find and read
Madame Giry's book and then go into the manager's office.  He has
also had a note from the phantom.  While you are talking a woman
screams and you go to the dressing rooms and find Christine has
been murdered.  Julie says she saw the phantom going up the
circular stairs and you go after him.  On the catwalk the phantom
emerges from under the tarps and throws you over the railing onto
the stage.

You wake in the year 1881 with Christine Daae and the manager
bending over you.  After the conversation explore the opera house
again and you will find the three frames at the same locations you
found them in 1993.  Backstage you find a cable hook.  In the trap
room talk to Jacques the stagehand.  He tells you about a ghost in
the Fly Loft.  There was an entrance to the catacombs in the
cellar which has been sealed, perhaps there is an entrance in the
sewers.  He hears someone playing Bach's Gigue from French Suite
No.5.

Go back to the foyer where you will meet and talk to the painter
Degar.  Go to the manager's office.  He gives you two notes from
the phantom.  The first demands a salary of 20,000 francs and his
own personal box.  The money is to be given to Madame Giry.  The
second note demands that Christine is to sing the lead in the
Wedding of Isabel and not the star, Carlotta. Go up to the boxes
to find Madame Giry.

She tells you about the phantom and says that he has built his
domain with puzzles and traps.  The puzzles correspond to the 26
letters of the alphabet.  He is very vain so the answers may be
very personal to him.  Being psychic she tells you that you will
return to your own time when the finale has been enacted.  Three
items from your own time will help you and if you find the items
she will unlock box No.5 for you.  Show her the items and she
unlocks the box.  In the box you will find a note to you from the
phantom telling you to leave Christine alone.  Examine the pillar
on the left and you find a secret door which is locked.

Go to bottom level of circular stairs where you find a rope.  You
hear Christine singing so go along to her dressing room to talk to
her.  She tells you about the Angel who is helping her to improve
her singing and that he will be here at any minute and asks you to
leave.  Outside the door you hear her talking to the phantom and
you take the axe from the wall and break down the door.  She is
not in the room but later returns to the manager's office in time
for the opera.  She has left a ticket for you at the ticket
office.  Go to the ticket office to collect it and then go up to
box No. 9 and sit down.  During the opera the phantom swoops down
onto the stage and takes Christine.

The manager suggest that you search backstage and when you go to
the pit room you find Jacques has been murdered and beside his
body is a skeleton key.  Take the key and go back to box No.5.
Unlock the secret door and enter.  You find yourself on a column
with three doors.  The top one is locked so go to the lower one
which leads to the catacombs.

The catacombs are a maze, very large and tedious.  Go E. N. E. E.
N. N. E. E. E. E. W. to a lake which you need to cross.  Go W. N.
N. W. N. W. N. E. E. S. E. E which brings you to the other side of
the lake.  Go E. E. N to a door.  There is a skeleton of an
adventurer here with a sword.  Take the sword and then look at the
panel beside the door.  This has 26 skulls on it.  These
correspond to the alphabet so press E R I K and the door opens.
Go N and get rid of the cobweb with the sword then go N. W. W. W.
N. E which brings to to two doors beside a lake.  Save game here.

Go through the door on the right and you find yourself in a room
where the floor is getting hotter and the trapdoor in the ceiling
is locked. The door closes behind you.  On the wall is a series of
panels which form various pictures.  Keep pressing the panels
until you get a picture of the phantom's mask and the trapdoor
will open to let in some air.  Attach the cable hook to the rope
and use it to climb up through the trapdoor.  You are now in the
phantom's lair and you can hear Christine calling through the
right hand door.  She says the door is manipulated by music so sit
down at the organ and play Bach's Gigue from French Suite No. 5.
This opens the door.  When you go into the room you find Christine
is locked in a sarcophagus.  Examine the skull mouth in front of
the sarcophagus and you see a keyhole.  Unlock it with skeleton
key.  The lid will still not open.  Go to the skull on the left
and press the third skull from the right and Christine is freed.
She tells you all that has happened and gives you the wedding ring
that the phantom has given her.

Go back to the organ room and the phantom appears and attacks you.
Attack him with the sword and he falls into the chair and
disappears.  Christine suggest that you take the music score with
you.  Take the score (of Don Juan Triumphant) and go out of the
door to the right into a room where you find an oar.  Take the oar
and go out left to the lake.  Get into the boat.  As you punt the
boat along the lake Christine tells you why she wanted to see you
after the performance - to suggest that you ran away together.
You travel along the lake to the original entrance by the pillar.
Go through the middle door and you are in the phantom's box.  He
appears, knocks you over and grabs Christine.  Follow them and
this time go through the upper door which takes you to the
catwalk.  As you go past the chandelier you hear Christine
screaming.  Go down onto the chandelier where the phantom is
holding Christine.  You fight the phantom but drop your sword and
he overpowers you and presses his cane against your neck.  Push
the cane and you are then able to overpower him.  Take his mask
and he says that you are a fool and that you will now both die.
The chandelier crashes to the floor.

You come to on the couch in the library in 1993 with Christine
Florent and Monsieur Brie bending over you.  From the conversation
you gather that none of these events have actually happened.
Could it have been a dream?  You read Madame Giry's book again.
The last chapter is different.  It says that the phantom met his
death along with Raoul de Chagny in 1881 when the chandelier on
which the two men were fighting fell from the ceiling.  The mask,
score and wedding ring are in the glass case.  You somehow managed
to save both Christine Daae and Christine Florent and the phantom
is gone forever.

The shadow of the phantom appears on the wall behind you -

OR IS HE?