Copyright © 2001 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). Portions copyright © 2001 Karma Labs Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software.
Adventure at the Chateau d'Or is a buggy little game with a few easy puzzles whose main appeal will probably be its pseudo-educational presentation of French and Parisian history. Apart from the occasional loss of inventory items and inconsistent navigation choices, the game provides a typical point-and-click slideshow adventure. The inventory bugs and invalid page faults we encountered encouraged us to save the game often; fortunately, the file-based method allows unlimited saved games. The game includes a timed, dead-end sequence that is necessary to retrieve the solution to the final puzzle, but even with that, gameplay is extremely short.
The following walkthrough assumes the default game settings of Medium knowledge and Hard puzzles.
Pump the mouse at the moving-scroll animation to bring up the game control menu.
Movement Abbreviations:
F: Forward (Fn for n repetitiions)
L: Turn Left
R: Turn Right
B: Back out
After your initial conversation with the Princess, you'll be facing north in the center of the courtyard. You can check your position in the chateau at any time by clicking on the "Hero's Information Manager" (H.I.M.) icon at the lower left of the screen. To return to gameplay, press the "disactivate" button on the monitor (that's French for "deactivate"). Your first task is to find the ghost of the Duke that used to live in this chateau, and answer his questions. He apparently was a big history buff and will ask you all sorts of questions about French history. To be able to give answers to his questions, you'll need to collect "knowledge" from various sources in the chateau. Each time some is collected, a tinkling-bells sound is heard.
From the center of the courtyard, move F2 R F5 R F and open the door leading to the TV room. Move F L F and click on the TV remote on the table. Turn on the TV with the red button, then press the right-arrow button to select channel 1 (The Flea Market). After you watch the sequence, press the right-arrow button twice to select channel 2 (Pere Lachaise Cemetery). From the TV, move B L and open the door. Move F L and open the door to the outside. Move F8 L F2 to zoom in on a video player in the library. Click twice on each disk in the rack to learn all kinds of interesting things about France. Some of the disks contain two chapters of information. You'll need to at least start playback for each chapter in order for "knowledge" (answers to possible questions) to be added to the Index in your H.I.M. This is too much like school!
If you're still awake, move B R F2 R F2 and read the book on Gothic cathedrals. Be sure to open each of the four chapters in order to obtain all the answers. Chapters can be selected using the Roman numerals on the left page. Move B and check your H.I.M. Index - there should be thirty answers if you've collected all the knowledge items. To scroll through the Index, use the faint triangular buttons at the right edge of the H.I.M. screen.
Move L2 F7 and open the door into the meeting room. Move F3 and open the door into the mirror room. Move F3 to the mirror puzzle. Drag silver balls from the receptacle at right to indentations below the mirror. When a ball is in the correct position, it enlarges. The last ball is placed into the center position and does not enlarge. When all five balls have been placed, press the red button to display an important pattern in the mirror:
Each symbol corresponds to a golden object (Sensory Focal Device). Move B R2 L and click on the left-hand axe to unlock the door to the south. Move L F R and open the door. Move F L into the sauna and save your game. Move F to the sauna puzzle. This sound puzzle randomizes each time you zoom in on it. With all four lights off (white), click on each of the colored buttons surrounding the left-hand light until steam emanates from the grills. Stop as soon as the steam appears. Click on each of the colored buttons surrounding the next light just until a slight rise in pitch is heard. Repeat the process with the next two lights and the Duke's ghost will appear in the steam. He will then ask you a series of riddles that you must answer using the entries in your H.I.M. knowledge index. To repeat a question, press the keyboard [Enter] key. Every answer you select causes the corresponding entry to be removed from the index, so avoid guessing as that may remove answers needed for subsequent questions and require restoring from a saved game. Instead, select "I don't know" and continue with the next question. Any incorrect answer or two failures to answer will require re-solving the sauna puzzle in order to return to the Duke. However, he keeps track of the cumulative number of correct answers you've given, and the puzzle is complete when you've answered the required number of questions in any number of sessions. All of the Duke's questions and answers can be found here.
When the puzzle is complete, the Duke gives you a golden key. Bugs in the game may prevent this key from showing up in your inventory bar. To rectify this problem, save your game and follow the key retrieval procedure.
The door back to the mirror room is locked, so move R and open the door to the south. Move F2 R and open the door to the outside. Move F3 R F L F2 and open the door to the meeting room. Move F3 and open the door into the mirror room. Move F2 L and use the key in your inventory to open the locked cabinet. Click on the golden crown at center.
Move L and open the door to the meeting room. Move F3 and open the door to the hall. Move F L F5 R F5 across the courtyard and into the two-vases room. Click exactly five times each on the left and right vases to turn them both reddish-brown and open the door to the drawing room. Move R F2 L and watch a video sequence about the princess finding a ring. Click on the chest at far right and use the key in your inventory to open it. Pick up a videodisc inside. If you find that the videodisc replaces the key in your inventory, you can recover the key using the procedure here. Move R3 L and exit the room. Re-solve the vases puzzle to return to the drawing room. Turn L and you'll see that a piece of paper has magically appeared on the desk. Zoom in on the paper to disclose a code for the Duke's security system: 6 7 9 3. While in the drawing room, you can zoom in on the stone sphere next to the harp and watch a Parisian slide show, if desired.
Exit the room and face the two vases. Click exactly four times on the left vase to turn it blue and click exactly six times on the right vase to turn it purple. Turn left and open the other door. Move F2 L into the wine cellar. Pick up the golden chalice from the table. After confirming that this has been put into your inventory, save your game.
Now for a digression in the game. Move R2 F R F to some wine casks. Bring out the chalice from your inventory and fill it from any of the spigots. Click on the chalice to drink the wine. Repeat this process until you have drunk seven servings of wine. You will then be transported to a prison cell and will begin a timed, dead-end sequence in which you have about 100 seconds to obtain some information there.
As soon as you arrive in the cell, move R and click the eye icon on the bench. Drag the bench to the lower right, then click the eye icon on the dark line on the bricks where the bench had been located. This will zoom your viewpoint at the proper angle to the bricks on the floor:
Drag the mouse cursor along the mortar line around the central brick in the indicated direction to disclose a note. Click on the note several times until a pattern of symbols is shown:
You can't escape the cell (even with the key) nor save your game at this point, so just wait until your "Life Force" has expired, then restore your previously-saved game to return to the cellar.
Go back up the stairs to the two-vases room, then move R F2 L F2 L F3 L F back to the video player in the library. Bring out the gold videodisk from your inventory and put it in the player to learn about the Sensory Focal Devices:
Golden ClarinetOf particular interest here are a reference to playing the clarinet over water and using a Master Sequence to activate Sensory Receptors, some examples of which you've already seen (Magic Mirrors and Stone Spheres). After you've finished, move B L F and open the door. Move F R F L F8 R F L F4 into the studio.
Magic Ring
Wine Chalice
Magic Spray Can
Golden Crown
The spray paint cans in the box to the right of the easel can be used to make pictures on the white canvas of areas in the Chateau corresponding to the location of sensory focal devices. Each area (except one) has two spray cans that can paint it. Brushes to the left of the easel can be used to superimpose one of the focal device symbols on the canvas. If the correct symbol is chosen according to the pattern in the magic mirror seen earlier, the symbol will move to a corner of the picture before it disappears. Alternate five spray cans with five brushes in the following order:
You will then obtain a golden spray can. Move B and use the spray can from your inventory to unlock the door behind the easel. Move B R F and open the door. Move F3 into the upper room and release the golden clarinet by entering the code from the note you found in the drawing room (6 7 9 3). Click twice on the clarinet to place it in your inventory.
Move R3 F2 R and exit the studio through the door. Outside the studio, move F4 R until you are looking over the central pool to the triple arch on the far side of the courtyard. Play the clarinet over this pool to summon the princess. When she asks you about the crown, give it to her by clicking on it in your inventory (it has a cross-shaped piece dangling underneath it).
After the princess disappears, move F3 L F2 and open the door to the meeting room. Move F3 and open the door into the mirror room. Move F2 L and use the key in your inventory to open the locked cabinet. Click on the golden crown at center, then move L and open the door to the meeting room. Move F3 and open the door to the hall. Move F L F4 R F6 R F2 and open the door into the tower room. Move F3 and listen to the princess's whining about being trapped in the sphere. Place the sensory focal devices in the sphere's indentations in the order corresponding to the symbols in the prison note and the symbol associations in the magic mirror:
Chalice Crown Clarinet Spray CanWatch the minimal endgame sequence and the slideshow - that's it!
If your key inexplicably vanishes from your inventory, or never appears there after you've answered the Duke's questions, you may be able to correct the injustice by saving the game and editing the gamename.ACF saved-game file. Navigate to the directory where you saved the game and bring the file up in Notepad or other text editor. If the third line of this file says "0.0000", the golden key has been removed from your inventory and can sometimes be restored by changing the line to "1.0000". This procedure may not work in all cases, but it might be worth a try if you can't advance in the game and/or don't wish to replay large sections of it.
Here's an alphabetical listing of all thirty of the Duke's questions, with the corresponding answers:
A beautiful palace of light and stone,
Built in memory of a time when kings called Paris home.
Where am I? Chateau d'Or
Events surrounding this great prison
Became symbolic of the French revolution.
Where am I? Bastille
I believed that unity was more important than gold.
My son inherited a kingdom because I achieved my goals.
Who am I? Clovis
I delivered justice across the realm.
I journeyed to the Holy Land, and there I fell.
Who am I? Saint Louis
I was a devoted servant of a warrior and a king.
I brought the light of heaven to earth so that choirs might sing.
Who am I? Abbot Suger
I was a hero, an aristocrat, and a friend to the king.
I warned of the coming change.
Who am I? Marquis de Lafayette
I was a king of the people of Gaul.
I surrendered to the ruler of the greatest nation of all.
Who am I? Vercingetorix
I was a philosopher and a monk in the Middle Ages.
I expressed my love on handwritten pages.
Who am I? Abelard
I was the first Christian queen
That France had ever seen.
Who am I? Clothilde
I was the head of the ruling class.
I stood at the crossroads of the future and the past.
Who am I? Louis XVI
I was the ruler of the greatest nation on earth.
In my time, Paris was an island and fishing came first.
Who am I? Julien
In ancient times, grapes and figs could be found here.
Water was always near.
Where am I? Lutece
My life was a tale of beauty and elegance.
My death was symbolic for the people of France.
Who am I? Marie Antoinette
My reign marked the noontide of France.
My hallmark was extravagance.
Who am I? The Sun King
The basilica at St. Denis was the finest manifestation
Of this divine innovation.
What is it? Early Gothic
The Gothic style is based on logic and symbolism,
But there was a principle behind the mysticism.
What is it? Holy Trinity
The greatest palace the world had ever seen,
A political statement and the home of a king.
Where am I? Versailles
The ultimate form of a sacred law,
To this end the Sainte Chapelle was born.
What is it? High Gothic
They gathered here from afar, from the west and the east,
Speaking the language of scholars and priests.
Where am I? Latin Quarter
They journeyed here from across the land,
To this center of thought for the free-thinking man.
Where am I? Sorbonne
This is a mystical poem of glass and light
And the personal statement of a king.
Where am I? Sainte Chapelle
This is a quiet area
Favored by musicians and poets.
Where am I? Pere Lachaise Cemetery
This is the first full flowering
Of a new form of art.
Where am I? Notre Dame de Paris
This is the only physical remains
Of a monastery built by the wife of the king.
Where am I? Tour de Clovis
This is the present-day site
Of a Middle Age tradition.
Where am I? Paris Flea Market
This was a center of sport and entertainment
In Paris of old.
Where am I? Les Arenes de Lutece
This was a medieval building on the banks of the Seine,
And a stop on the road to the guillotine.
Where am I? Conciergie
This was a monastery
And the home of every king.
Where am I? Basilique St. Denis
This was a union of logic and light,
A miraculous innovation that reached unknown heights.
What is it? Gothic Style
This was the inspiration
For one of the finest Gothic creations.
What is it? Holy Relics
Copyright © 2001 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). Portions copyright © 2001 Karma Labs Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software.