Obsidian - Part 2

          by SegaSoft and Rocket Science Software

  Solution copyright by Mike Marcelais, February 23, 1997

Continued from Issue 88

Puzzle: The clocks
The Objective
Get the earth, sun, and moon to rotate forever without colliding.
The Rules
When the puzzle is stopped, turning the blue dial rotates the
earth and turning the yellow dial rotates the sun.
Turning the white dial changes the phases of the moon.

Pushing the button resets the puzzle.

Pushing the bug lever starts the puzzle going. If it runs a full
cycle without crashing, you've solved the puzzle. Otherwise, the
puzzle will stop when something crashes.

The Solution
There isn't a straightforward way to solve this. There is a catch.
The moon isn't there at all when it is in the new phase.

Here's how to solve it. Reset the puzzle and start it up. Let the
earth and moon crash. Now, adjust the moon so that the phase is
new (clockwise 4 times) and adjust the earth so that it is
centered on where the moon used to be (clockwise once). Now start
it up and everything should work just fine.

Now head back to the guy out front and he'll tell you to come back
in a year. As you leave, you hear a voice that asks you to go to
the light and turn it off. To do this, just keep rotating to the
left until the lightbulb becomes unscrewed. Then, go get the
document she mentions filed under orient militia (which codes to
limitation) and back to the light and go to the one face that you
haven't been to.

Puzzle: The Select-a-phone
The Objective
To reach the commissioner's office by dialing his number.
The Rules
You turn on the phone by dialing the number found on the
"orient militia" document (934) and pushing the red button.
The three sliders represent the three axes. Where they intersect
is the location that the phone opens up to.

The Solution
Set the first slider to the bottom. Set the second slider to
center of the bottom wall. Set the third slider to the center of
the bottom wall. Push the red button.

Puzzle: The Balancing Rock
The Objective
Reach the commissioner's office.
The Rules
Manipulating the rock changes the exit.
When the rock is up, the door goes to the ceiling.

The rock can be lowered to the left, right, backwards, or
forwards.

Each results in you having a different orientation when you try to
go through the door. If your feet aren't on the ground, then you
can't get out.

The Solution
You want to pull the rock down towards you.
You are now on the floor of the commissioner. Walk around to
the door above the bridge and talk to him. He wants you to
come back when you are facing the right direction. Okay, to do
this, head up the ladder on the left, climb out onto the
information deck. Then climb over the desk and onto the globe
that Atlas carries. This will rotate you so that you are on the
bridge and you can talk to the commissioner. You are now
transported to the second phase of the game.


The Spider
Now you are in what appears to be a machine factory. And there is
this beast in the center, but he is tied down. You can wander
around and explore this area -- there is actually quite a lot to
see here -- but the interesting things are up the scaffolding
stairs next to the big machine in the middle.
The next four areas can be taken in any order, so just pick a
scaffolding and climb it. Each of these four areas relates
directly to one of the four classical elements: Earth, Air, Fire,
and Water; and it should be easy to determine which one is which.

Whenever you solve a puzzle, the portal that you came through
changes to this view of a starfield and you are taken to a central
chamber. You are also shown a card of the scene you just came
from. Match it up with the slot below the symbol for the element
you just solved.

Puzzle: Air
The Objective
Using the cannon, shoot the tornado.
The Rules
The cannon fires where you aim it.
If you look down, there is a small air hole which opens up onto a
puzzle.

For every ball in the light green area, you get a red beam when
you fire the cannon.

Pushing a blower on the side of the square moves all of the
balls in that line away from that blower.

The Solution
The grid starts with all of the balls except one on the outside.
You want to get the entire grid EXCEPT the center space filled
so that you can trap the air in the center:
[Label the blowers like this:

       ABC

    M.....

    L.....

    K.....D

     .....E

     .....F

     IHG


Push the blowers in this order: EGDDCDFCCCIFFIFIFKIKIKII
Then go outside and shoot the tornado. (It will probably take a
few tries.)

Earth/Iron
Although there is a puzzle here, some narration first. You start
by looking at a scene showing several bots jumping down chutes and
spitting green ore into a hopper. Then all is quiet.  Head down
the path to the manufacturing area.  You arrive at a conveyor
belt. There is a button there labeled with a symbol in green ore.
(I'm calling that symbol "Fore" from now on.) If you push the
button, you'll see one piece drop onto the belt, roll down to the
next section, and bounce off as the door doesn't open. If you look
at that compartment, you'll see space for a cylinder and the
following formula on the back wall:  "Fore" + (cylinder) = "Delta"
[what I will be calling that other element.]

Now head through the next door into the chemistry lab. You'll see
a periodic table above the chem set, a tape player to your left,
and there are seveal chemicals and a mixing chamber in front of
you.

Puzzle: Synthesizing "Delta"
The Objective
Create the chemical in the cylinder necessary to continue the
manufacturing process.
The Rules
Looking at the tapes and the tables should give you the
following information:
To mix two chemicals, put one solution in the left cylinder and
the other in the right cylinder and hit the button in the middle.
Hitting the button next to the left and right cylinders will empty
that cylinder.

The flasks to your left contain the elements R1-R4, Y1-Y5 (but
Y3 is missing), and B1-B6 (but B2 is missing).

The formula for "Delta" is R1Y3. The formula for "Fore" is Y3B4

If you mix two "singles", and they are compatible, then they will
join to form a double. Red and Blue are incompatible with each
other.

If you mix a double and a single, then the two largest elements
that are compatible will form a compound. Such replacement
can only occur if the newer element is heavier than both of the
other elements. A Y2 cannot replace anything in Y1Y2 because
Y2 is not heavier than Y2.

The Solution
Mixing two doubles will cause the largest two compatible
elements to form a compound, much like mixing a single and a
double. The two elements left over will form another compound.
You are looking for a mixture that will satisfy the formula
"Fore"+mixture="Delta", or Y3B4+mixture=R1Y3

Since Y3 is in both mixtures, it should stay the same. However,
since R1 is "lighter" than B4, "Delta" must be the leftover
chemical.

That means that you would have to convince B4 to join a
heavier compound and leave R1 off.

The way to do that is to have B4 and some other element be the
two heaviest compounds.

The compound in the mixture must have R1 in it also, so you
cannot use a B, since blues and reds are incompatible.

That leaves the mixture R1Y5.

Mix R1 on the left with Y5 on the right. Take the cylinder and put
it into the manufacturing chamber. Then push the button and
leave the scene.

Puzzle: Fire/Energy
The Objective
Connect the power of the sun to the tentacle plant.
The Rules
When you click on a pillar, the tentacle that hovers over that
pillar stops moving.
When you click on the sun, a bolt of lightning shoots down and
hits the five pillars in order.

If the tentacle is touching the pillar at the same time the lightning
strikes, you hear a chime.

You need to get all five tentacles to chime at the same time.

The Solution
Just set it up, and make adjustments until they are all positioned
correctly. There isn't a way of telling you exactly how to set it up
except for the rules listed above.

Puzzle: Water/Oil
You start in a large desert area surrounded by dunes and the
ocean. There is scrawled into the ground the number "038.1".
This area is largely an area of recognizing what goes where; it is
hard to give hints for so I'm warning you now that you should
only read one paragraph at a time to avoid giving away the
entire world.
The first interesting place to head to is that small castle on the
dunes. You'll see a scope there which has a dial. The two
numbers look very much like they could hold that number on the
sand, so dial up "038.1" and enter it in. You'll see that you've
struck oil!

Now, the next area to be is the waterfront, all of the way straight
ahead. You'll notice an odd area of water where the waves don't
line up. Clicking on a section of water will cause it to move. You
have to line up all of the areas so that there are no seams. [The
water does not have to line up with the water that is not part of
the puzzle.] It is easiest to start from the far back corner and
work your way forward.

A large area of the ground has lifted itself up. Notice that odd
pattern on the side of the ground? Make a note of it (it is much
easier to see when you are in or near the castle). Now head
back to the castle itself, but approach it from the opposite
direction. You'll enter inside it.

Turn towards the central hub. There is a weird design on the
door. You need to make this design look like the one outside.
You can move lines up and down, and you can rotate them
around (they wrap around the edge).

The exact order of the lines is: Top line, left twice. Drag the
fifth line up to the second line. Drag the eighth line up to the
third line and then left twice. Drag the sixth line up to the
fourth line and then left twice. Drag the ninth line up to the
fifth line and then left twice. Sixth line, right twice. Drag the
ninth line up to the seventh line and then right twice. Eighth
line, right twice. Ninth line is correct. Tenth line, right twice.

When you go through the newly opened door, you'll see the
area of the ocean floor where the land rose up and see an oil
spurt there. You need to find out where that is.

Return to the tower and head for the scanner. Scan north,
looking for a feature that looks like the area where you saw the
well. This is at location 133.5.

Return to the scope and enter 133.5 into the device and push
the button.

The completion
You are back in the central chamber. Now, all you need to do is
connect the points in the correct order. They will form a pattern
that looks very much like the letter M. When this happens, watch
the movie, and then return to the factory floor where you will be
transported to the next world.

The Dreamland
You enter this land in a large junkyard. Run down the path and
push the button on the radio; you are then taken to the big hand
in the center of the junkyard. There is an empty painting hanging
mysteriously in the sky, and a junk plane on the ground behind
you. The first thing you have to do is to get the plane airborne. If
you go to the engine room, you'll find the first puzzle of this
area.

Puzzle: The crazy, mixed-up bird.
The Objective
Make the plane fly by making the bird fly straight.
The Rules
The frames that make up the animation can be moved around
and are shown in the order displayed from left to right (looping
around).
The frames need to be in the right order so that the motion of
the bird is smooth.

The Solution
There isn't much here to say except for the exact moves that
solve this puzzle:
Number the frame positions from left to right from 0 to 10.

Move 4 to 1, 7 to 2, 4 to 3, 6 to 4, 7 to 6 and 10 to 8.

To be concluded in issue 90








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