Frankenstein

19 February 1996

Copyright © 1996 Balmoral Software (http://www.balmoralsoftware.com). All rights reserved. Republication, redistribution or conversion is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Balmoral Software. Contents subject to change! For the latest information, see http://www.balmoralsoftware.com.

Maps
Vertical Passages
Planet Arrangements
Walkthrough & Notes
Review

Maps

Vertical Passages

        1   A
        2   A   B   C
Level   3       B   C   D   E
        4           C   D   E   F   G   H
        5                       F   G   H   J   K   L   M   N
        6                       F           J   K   L   M   N

See maps for locations.

Planet Arrangements

Number   Location            Level   Pluto Angle (*)   Symbol

 I       Fire-Damaged Room     5           220         Fire
 II      Upper Parapet         1           280         Wind
 III     Courtyard             6            30         Water
 IV      Courtyard             6           100         Mountain

*: Angles measured counterclockwise; 90 degrees is straight up

Walkthrough & Notes

For a Frankenstein walkthrough, see Jacques Dupont's text file posted in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure. We had only a few additional notes:

The order of gears in the secret passage behind the Great Hall tapestry is right-to-left, top-to-bottom.
There are no doctor's notes in the secret lab on Level 5 until you bring them in the valise from the laboratory on Level 2. As soon as the bag and turkey leg are obtained from the dining room on Level 6, we recommend immediately returning to the laboratory (reversing the way you came) to obtain the doctor's battery notes that were under the lifestone crystal. Without these notes, it is impossible to complete the experiment with the turkey leg. A number of Usenet postings described being stuck at this point.
The next priority probably should be obtaining the crowbar, which will be needed to remove barricades in certain secret passages. Using the introductory walkthrough in the Frankenstein Instruction Manual, pick up the battery and wire from the Frost Room. You can unlock the door to the Bedroom while you are waiting for the frost to melt. Gain access to the Nitric Acid room on Level 4 and pick up the crowbar and notes. You can then return to the Great Hall and continue Dupont's walkthrough.
After traversing the wine cellar maze, DO NOT turn on the small Tesla coil switch as this will preclude operating the refinery control panel. Turn on the coil only after the lifestone has been processed in the furnace and is ready to be taken to the mixing room.
If you neglect to take the spear gun with you when you go diving, there will be no way back to the dock and the octopus will always kill you. However, the information obtained from the dive is pretty limited and certainly is not critical to the game play. The spear gun is lying underneath the diving helmet and is disclosed once you pick up the helmet.
When using the two ore crushers, do not let any uncrushed ore through the conveyor as this will jam the machine. We found it easier to save the game immediately before activating the machine and then trying repeatedly until successful. It's faster to restore a saved game than to unjam the machine.
The railcar-routing puzzles were fun, but the rendering of the track switches and some of the track curvature approximations were a little unrealistic. It would have been impressive to have a QuickTime sequence showing a traversal of the mine tracks from the railcar POV.
The horizontal claw controls in the refinery are reversed in the DuPont walkthrough.
After the large lifestone is created in the mixing room, turn off the electrode before attempting to move the crystal to the dumbwaiter. You can then find Dr. Frankenstein by using the exit door from the mixing room, which leads to the Great Hall, and then taking the secret passage behind the tapestry.
When fleeing the thugs, climb the right stairs in the Great Hall.

Review

We concur with most of the evaluation in the Dupont walkthrough, and have these additional comments:

We found no completely-reliable way to skip the game introduction, although pressing Esc and/or double-clicking the mouse usually got through most of it.
The music was extremely repetitive, a far cry from Myst or Shivers . Examples include a song with a typewriter bell and an endlessly-repeating 4-note violin sequence.
The game needs a random-access method for accessing notes in the valise. For example, checking the notes on the refinery control panel operation required clicking the mouse 34 times.
Movement through the castle and passages is extremely slow. While Shivers also had this problem, it seemed a much more interesting play.
The game suffers from the usual Macromedia Director limitation in which a savegame file can be overwritten without warning. However, this game's auto-sort feature made an accident less likely.
Some of the science presented in this story is inconsistent with its 1876 date; for example, a reference to penicillin is made in the notes, but that drug was not produced until 1929.
The two endgame sequences are terrible. It's never made clear who killed Sara (was she the one who provided the dungeon manacle key?). If it were Frankenstein, wouldn't he have gloated? There is no justice for any of the psychotic criminals in the game (is that the only time we get to see what Vladimir looks like?).
Robert Rothrock (Phillip) puts way too much inflection on his L's, almost as if he's forcing the accent. But his acting overall is much better than that of Rebecca Wink (Sara), who comes across as very whiney and strident.
From where did the monster that is chasing you and Sara come? The earthquake closed all external access to the planets room, and if you return to the Mausoleum there is no sign of anyone else. What is the monster supposed to be, a Frankenstein relative from the Mausoleum? It's interesting how isolated the effects of the earthquake were -- nothing out of place inside the castle. Both of these plot devices seem arbitrary contrivances.
It doesn't seem to make any difference to the gameplay if you don't save Sara from the monster on the ladder. I know her voice is hard to take, but this is ridiculous...
The Frankenstein story supposedly takes place in England, and certainly all the actors in the game have English accents, so why the reference to dollars in the dockside note from Judge Rothenbush?
Many of the QuickTime sequences were noticeably grey on black.

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