MINDWHEEL (Brøderbund) (?)

Mindwheel, although it looks formidable at first glance, is not really all that hard a game. The primary difficulty is answering the various riddles and obtaining the words for the sonnets; the other puzzles in the game are almost trivial by comparison.

With that said, let's get started. After entering the word of the day, you find yourself in Virgil's laboratory. No preliminaries are really needed, just get started (anything he can tell you can you also find out by reading the book). So, now you're onstage in the mind of Bobby Clemon. Pick up the rose, then go over to the keyboard and play it. The ghost of Bobby Clemon will appear and sing a song. Pay attention to the words of the song; some of them will be useful later. Also open the keyboard and get the brooch that's inside. Read the plate, too.

Now, you've probably seen a thug running around. If he isn't near you, go find him. Since he's such an obnoxious person, belt him one with your fist. You will both be drawn upward into a strange vortex, where you and the thug must now duel. You can safely ignore the bizarre things that float past you; they are simply there as window dresssing.

Ask the thug for the rules of the duel, and then choose the disc when he asks you to pick your weapon. Note that you may have to do this more than once; on one occasion, opening the disc box revealed a pizza! In any case, when you have the real disc, the thug will become alarmed, and offer to tell you something important in exchange for his life.

What he has to tell you is the last two words of the Fear Sonnet, so pretend to agree, and then throw the disc at him after he gives you the words. Since he was planning to go back on his word and kill you anyway, it's important that you get in your blow first.

With the thug taken care of, you are lifted to the top of the Vortex, to the fringes of the Poet's mind. Here you encounter the delightful (?) Spaw and his friends, along with a toad. Pick up the toad, he will come in handy later on. Spaw will tell you that you must complete the Fear Sonnet before you can actually enter the Poet's mind via the Love Room. If you ask the toad about Spaw, he will give you one of the needed words to finish the Sonnet, and at this point, you actually have all the words you need.

In fact, the six words are: Night, Cast, Sense, Tyranny, Diverting, Images. Write each of these in the appropriate blank, and hand the paper to Spaw (or, you can write them in and show them to Spaw one at a time for some amusing responses). The devil will step aside, and as you enter the Love Room, will hand you a book.

In the Love Room, you will find a variety of strange insects engaged in bizarre acts of love-making. Ignore them all, and walk north to the table where the glass woman sits. She will tell you she can help you, but you must give her a flower first. Give her the rose (NOTE: in all transactions here, you must refer to this woman as 'lady' or else the parser will become confused).

Now she asks you to complete the Love Sonnet, which, fortunately, requires only two words. If you examine the book, you will note that it bears a resemblance to a book mentioned in the book/manual that comes with the game; in fact, the title of that book, History of My Heart, contains the two words you need to finish the sonnet.

The lady now transforms into a flesh and blood woman, unlocks the drawer in the table, and leaves. Open the drawer and get the bottle of pills. Leave the Love Room (this is all you need to do in the Poet's mind), and return via the Vortex to Bobby Clemon's mind.

When you return to Bobby's mind, you will notice that the stage and environs are now deserted. Which is fine, because you couldn't have gone down the ramp while people were there. So, hop along down the ramp, and then go East to the Exit sign. Open the door and go out.

You are now in a courtyard, inhabited by bums wearing the rags of baseball uniforms. As you might suspect, these 'bums' are actually the 'Brooklyn Bums', or 'Brooklyn Dodgers'. Only one is awake; he wears a number 14 on his back. If you ask him who he is, he will tell you only his first name, Gil. For those who are not baseball fans, Number 14 is Gil Hodges. Make note of that name, as you will need it later when you reach the end game.

After chatting with Gil, take a look at the oil drum. You'll see a small wooden object in there. It's actually a toy bat, and you may be needing it later, so take that, and then go back to the stage. You have finished now with the mind of Bobby Clemon.

On stage, go North to the door, open it, and go through to the staircase. These stairs lead to the mind of the Generalissimo. Go up, and at the top, you will see a giant cage, inside of which is a winged woman being held captive. Talk to her. She will tell you that she can be freed only by someone answering the riddle on the cage. This riddle is rather easy, and the answer is 'Rooster' (you could have gotten a hint about it by examining your harmonica). As she leaves, she will give you some helpful hints.

Go North then West and you'll come to a room with a door and a weeping soldier, petrified from the waist down, who is blocking a staircase going up. Talk to the soldier, who will tell you what needs to be done to free him (the stairs, by the way, lead to Eva Fein's mind).

You need to get further into the General's mind, and that can only be done by passing the door, which has a riddle of sorts written on it. The missing word in this case is 'Eternity'. Say that, and the door will open, allowing you to go out into the freeezing cold and snow.

Once outside, go either East or West, where the Lizard officer will capture you. He will offer a trade for you disc; accept that, and ask him for his baton and helmet, then give him your disc (don't worry, you'll get it back soon enough). After that, go either West or East to the front, and from there, South to the fountain.

Along the way, you will run into some animal-headed children. Ignore them; you can't afford to let yourself be 'captured' by them right now. Continue on to the fountain, which you notice is full of blood. If you examine the baton, you will see that it has some special powers. Touch the baton to the fountain, and the blood changes to water. Fill the helmet with the water and return to the soldier.

Give him the helmet. He will become unpetrified, and then suddenly melt away, rather painfully, as though the water acted as an acid on him. If you've been here before, you know that the soldier is really Spaw in disguise, and he was hoping you'd bring him blood in the helmet instead of water. What a surprise for Spaw!

With the stairs open now, you can go up. Floating above you see an island in the clouds. That is Eva's mind, but it's not time for that quite yet. Look around, and you will see a couple of objects on the floor. The description here is not all that clear; there are two items, the disc and a key. Get them both, then go back downstairs. You are ready for the great escape.

Of course, you can't escape unless you're captured, so go out into the cold again and surrender to the animal children. They will take you to the back where the Lizard will order you to be imprisoned with the winged people. Freeing them is fairly simple; just throw the disc at the gate. The disc will cut through the barbed wire, and the winged people will begin climbing the tall pine tree and flying away.

As it's pretty cold here, you better get away, too. Climb the tree, and take the strange pine cone that you find on top. Now eat one of the pills from the bottle. Aha! You've grown a pair of wings. Now one of the winged people will take you in tow, and drop you off on the island in the clouds, just outside the mind of Eva Fein.

You stand at the door to the mind of Eva Fein. If you examine the door, you will see that it not only has a lock, but a strange indentation that looks something like a pine cone. Put the pine cone in the indentation, then

unlock the door with the key. At this point, SAVE THE GAME!!! Once you go through the door, you WILL NOT be able to do any saving (don't ask why they wanted it this way, but that's how it is). So it's best to save now, in case you need to restore the game later on.

Once through the door, you will be in a strange garden, laid out like a chessboard. There is a plaque on the wall with the rules of the game; it's a good idea to read them. The shed holds a ladder; you may or may not need it, depending on which way you start out.

Throughout the game, you will be running into characters you've met before in other minds, dressed as chesspieces. Sometimes, you capture them, and sometimes, they capture you. If you get captured, you will lose some or all of the items you are carrying, and may only get back a few of them. If you get caught before or after reaching the bank, make sure you get the brooch back, since that is the only necessary item at this point.

In one sense, it doesn't matter all that much which in which direction you start, since all paths will evetually end up at the same place anyway. However, the easiest way is to go NE on the first move. This brings you to a room with a frog doorkeeper. He will be happy to open any of the forward doors, so long as you tell him in Froggish.

Fortunately, since you have the toad with you, that's really not much of a problem. Ask your toad friend to tell the frog to open the North door. Passing through that brings you into an orchard. Get the apple you see here, and continue on North to the bank.

Here you find yourself on line behind a robot. The robot will ask for something to write with; hand him the brooch. He will finish writing on his check and leave. This will allow you to go North out of the bank, into the pasture.

This is the square that all other paths end at. In the pasture you see a long-tailed horse with saddlebags on his back. If you still have the apple, give it to the horse. If you don't have it, or after you've fed the horse, hang around and wait, doing nothing. The woman you helped back in the Love Room will appear and capture you.

Now you must quote a line from the Love Sonnet. This is absurdly easy; just pick any line from the Sonnet. You will be freed, although most of what you had with you will be taken away. However, she will leave you the book and the toy bat.

If you've already fed the horse the apple, you don't need the bat. Otherwise, examine it carefully, and you will see that it can be opened. Opening the bat will reveal a small, but edible, jujube, which you can give to the horse to make it stand still.

In any case, once the horse is standing still, and the woman has left, open the saddle bags and get everything inside. Also pick up all the objects lying around the pasture. You have all the items necessary to make a fiddle. Begin by putting the pegs in the holes, then tying the cord to the fiddle. Cut some hair from the horse's tail with the scissors, and attach it to the wooden handle (this is the bow).

Play the fiddle, and you will be able to exit the pasture to the north. This square is an unpleasant one, as it is populated by rather nasty zombies. There is only one way to get through safely: you must sacrifice the toad to them. (If you wait long enough, the toad will tell you that himself). So, throw the toad into the trench, and continue on north. Open the hatch and go through.

You are almost to the Cave Master. However, before you can pass through the ultimate portal, you have another fill-in to do. Talk to the Red King, who will quote something, leaving one word blank. That is the word you need, and it's 'transfigured'. When you say that, the portal leading to the Cave Master will open.

However, you can't go through without a talisman. Examine the door carefully, and you will see the familiar disc stuck to it. Also there is a picture of Number 14, and an inscription telling you that you must say the player's name to obtain the disc.

Since you know the name, say it. The disc will come off the door and you can pick it up, then go through the portal. At last you have reached your goal, the all-knowing Cave Master. He gives you a wheel, and tells you to fit it around the disc. Don't bother examining it; you have only a few moves to spare here (and if you blow it, remember, you have to start from your last save position, outside Eva's door!). So, fit the wheel around the disc.

Ta-da! You've successfully completed your mission and saved mankind from destruction (although I must say, I thought the ending a bit feeble, myself).

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