Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - Comb Sweet Comb

Written by TBD

Indiana Jones Journal Entry #4: I've dealt with a bureaucratic official who's a stickler for the rules unless I give him a priceless artifact and had to deal with a Nazi guard who won't leave his post unless I make MYSELF a sandwich?!? I also spent time in a labyrinth regularly rubbing a scarf on a comb. It's been a weird day.

We left off last time with Indy on his way to Thera due to information we gathered from the likely concussed Monsieur Trottier. So let's continue our WITS path journey to Atlantis.


THERA

Who do you think you are, Indy? The narrator?

On the dock, I find:

• a crate that contains “One Standard Observation Balloon Bladder” - the port authority official won't let me take it without an invoice
• a lightweight fishnet, which I take
• a very large basket, that the official won't let me take

No! IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!!!!!

The official tells me he'll only let me take the basket if I give him a souvenir from the archaeological expedition in the mountains.

Moving along the path to the left, I find a cleft in the mountain. I can't go there because there is 'nothing there' but who am I to take 'nothing there' for an answer.

This doesn't work. I'm starting to lose respect for you, ship rib.

I go back and offer everything I have to the port authority official. He won't take anything I have.

But happy tourists have large baskets and balloon bladders...

I go back to the mountains and pixel hunt more thoroughly. Apart from the 'cleft in mountain; I also find a 'gap in mountain' and 'notch in mountain'.

I can go to the 'notch in mountain' which is where I find the archaeological dig.

Then why is it here? I suspect a 'Chekhov's Plain Old Empty Wooden Box'.

Inside the dig site, I pick up an entrenching tool.

What good is this when I have a ship rib?

Suddenly, my screen shakes and Indy surmises that 'something must have caved in'

Oh no! I've become entrenched. If only I had some kind of tool to reverse my situation.

Ignoring the cave-in for now, I go back inside and close an open bronze door, which opens a panel with a peg in it. I use my Sunstone on it and put the 'setting sun' under the 'tall horns', hear a 'klik' (grrr!) and open the door again to reveal a carved sign.

I'm guessing that ancient language is Atlantean.

I take the sign, and my Sunstone, and go back to use my entrenching tool on the cave-in.

Seriously game, you're going to make me manually 'Open' the entrenching tool before using it?

Because the game's being a stickler for making me go through the obvious step, I open the tool. When I do, I discover a note that was hidden in the tool.

Sophia's been kidnapped! I use my open entrenching tool on the cave-in and get a cutscene for my trouble.

Kerner knows one more English word in the WITS path. In TEAM he was calling her 'Fraulein.'

I go back to the dock and offer the port authority my new carved sign. He lets me take the basket, and also translates the sign, which is in Minoan Hieroglyphics.

Looks like I'll need to get to Crete after all.

I still need an invoice for the balloon bladder, so I go back to the dig site and check out the empty open crate. Sensing a puzzle solution I've come across in a few games, and even done earlier in this exact post, I 'close' the open box.

I knew that open empty crate would become important at some point!

I go back and show the invoice to the port authority who now lets me take the balloon. I use the balloon with my fish net, which holds the balloon in place. Then I attach it to the basket. I also use my rubber hose with the balloon so now all it needs is gas for inflation. There was a hole near the dig site that was venting natural gas, so I go there.

I randomly fly over the ocean, landing on a few islands that don't contain anything useful. I have no idea where I'm supposed to be going but find what I need soon enough.

Do the Nazis realise that Indy never would have found them if only they'd submerged?

Can anyone tell what the hell Indy is doing in this screenshot?

I beat up the captain, take his clothes and enter the submarine cunningly disguised as a German U-boat captain. Inside the sub, I take a clothesline.

In case anyone was still wondering, Indiana Jones is definitely a bachelor!

I find a soldier that's guarding a locker. He's upset because Kerner's got him guarding a rock. He hints that he could use a lunch break. Remembering what I did in my TEAM playthrough, I suspect he could do with a sandwich so I make one in the galley. Before going back to the guard, I explore the rest of the sub. The guard near the torpedo worries about the exposed wires causing a fire which gives me something else to think about.

On the lower deck I find Sophia talking with Kerner and Ubermann

Sophia's making friends, as always.

I go back to the guard and offer him my sandwich.

I don't know why nobody's worked out that the only guy who doesn't speak with a German accent might be a spy.

He won't take my freshly made sandwich because he's too polite, but I suggest he make his own while I cover for him instead. He agrees and takes off. I open the locker he'd been guarding and take the Moonstone and a 'Torpedo Launch Instructions' pamphlet.

After I leave the area Indy notices that the sub's changing course.

Quick Geography Lesson: Knossos is in Crete.

KNOSSOS/CRETE

Ubermann and Kerner are upset.

I'd blame the idiot who let the American guy guard his post.

I try to leave the sub, but a guard stops me. He tells me that he's under orders to shoot any naval personnel who leave the sub.

This was the point I guessed I could die, based on Alex Romanov telling me in the comments of the previous post that there's one way to die in the WITS path. I kept attempting to leave the sub, but when the guard stopped me Indy just went back down again.

Oh well, I go back to the sub, and search more thoroughly.

Hmmm. A greasy rag, and at the other end of the sub, some exposed wires. I wonder if they'll go well together.

Sorry, I've just eaten half a sandwich and it went right through me.

The sailors and I running in opposite directions is starting to look like a Benny Hill sketch. All we need now is a woman in her underwear.

This was another section where I thought I might be able to get Indy killed, but alas, I was unable to make Indy burn to death or get caught by the sailors by going back while they're putting out the fire.

I go to the torpedo tube at the other end of the sub, use my stolen instructions to work out the controls, tie my clothesline to the lever, get into the tube... go to the head to change back into IndyWear (TM)... get back into the tube and pull the clothesline.

When Indiana Jones takes his puzzle-solving cues from Guybrush Threepwood, it's time to question his sanity.

The torpedo bay shoots me just a few metres in front of the sub, so I go up and enter the ruins of Knossos.

The hole where the Moonstone should be is now empty.

I like that, so far, the different paths have the same consistent details. For example, the Moonstone is still in the Knossos ruins in Crete, but Kerner and Ubermann have found it first to replace the one they also found first on Thera. I assume that the Thera Moonstone is also how they followed me into the ruins of Crete in the TEAM path. Also, when I found the sub it was randomly moving around on a screen that turned out to be the approximate location of Atlantis - so it looks like they were searching for it before I stole their Moonstone.

With nothing to do in the ruins here, I go right and as I'd done on my TEAM playthrough, use my stones to enter the secret door into the Knossos labyrinth, and do many of the same things...

• I take the stone heads, including whipping the third stone head near the entrance.
• I use those stone heads on another platform to enter some more areas of the labyrinth.
• I whip the minotaur head to help me lower the elevator to where Sternhart died.

Apart from the staff and Worldstone Sternhart had, this time he also has a wool scarf and rubber comb. I take them both. His note also has something extra to say...

Choosing the WITS path made Sternhart's last words more verbose

Hm. Well, I think anyone who's been to high school or rubbed their feet on a carpet to 'shock' family and friends knows that wool can create static electricity. I rub my wool on the rubber comb, which creates a 'charged' comb. I use the comb on my clothesline and use it to see if it works like the amber fish on a string I used when I played as a TEAM.

It works!

The big difference between this orichalcum detector and the amber fish is that this one discharges after each use so I have to rub it with the wool each time I want to try it out. Once again Lucasarts equates using my WITS to pointless busywork.

While in the gate room, I try to reach the hole, for the first time regretting not bringing Sophia.

Unrelated fact: In 1979, Indiana Jones would write the screenplay to Saturday Night Fever

It was fun having her to talk to, but was this the only time Sophia was actually required?

I once again use Sternhart's staff to loosen the chock and raise the elevator so I can take the gold box and orichalcum beads.

In the room beyond the gold box, I find something new.

Actually, no it doesn't.

There's a part missing, so I use the same part I used in the truck earlier – my little statue!

When you can't get to the map room door without Sophia, just make a new door!

I use my stones in the map room, which opens a different door to last time. The map room stone puzzle just takes me back outside in the TEAM path, but here the door takes me to more of the labyrinth.

I find two more orichalcum beads inside some old bones, which makes me wonder if I've perhaps missed something in bones elsewhere. I've looked at most of the bones but as until now every one I've looked at has just told me it's the remains of some poor adventurer, I may have ignored some of them. Oh well, I can't be dead-ended in this game so it's nothing to worry about.

I also rub wool on my comb-on-a-string and find a secret door.

Inside the secret door is another new room. This room contains an orichalcum bead (taken) and a tram-type-contraption. I put the bead in the 'mouth' of the tram and get in.

After crashing, the tram's light goes out. It's pitch black, but on walking to the left I find I'm in the same place I ended up on the TEAM path.

It is very dark. I am likely to be eaten by a grue

And now we've reached Atlantis in the WITS path. Next time we'll start the FISTS path. I was planning to detail the game's music at the end of this post but once again ran out of time (or more accurately left it to the last minute for no sensible reason.)

I'm still loving this game. I've already played a lot of the FISTS section and am currently stuck, though I expect to get out of it by myself. I'm also really appreciating the multiple paths. I rightly praised Quest for Glory for giving multiple puzzle solutions but this game is giving complete new locations, as well as multiple solutions (many of which I didn't find myself but I've been told about in the comments.) Good work, game!

Session time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total time WITS: 4 hours 40 minutes
Total time combined: 9 hours 10 minutes
IQ Points: 314 of 554
Nazis killed: 0 (unless the submarine fire I started with my greasy rag caused a few casualties)