'Richard Longhurst and the Box That Ate Time' walkthrough
THE ZOO: Talk to the gremlin of the pond. He’ll tell you what you’re meant to be doing. The difficult part of this first section is working out what to do with those cursed pants. The main problem is that you have to use them on an object that you can’t otherwise pick up. It’s a case of bad programming on my part sorry. Once you’ve got the sparrow (but not the key) you DON’T HAVE TO GO FAR to finish the puzzle off. Make sure you talk to the box outside.
THE
PLANE: Well, this is where most people who give up, give up. There is a lot
to do here, and some of it is slightly mired by the stupid over-sized sprite
of RL. Bah! It’s important that you LOOK at things here. There is at least one
object that you can only get of you LOOK rather than simply interact. Also,
if it looks like there’s something you obviously should be able to use, jam
RL as far away from it as you can before you try. You see, the game detects
you as clicking on RL if you click within a square that it draws around him.
Thus, even if you aren’t actually clicking on the picture of him, it might still
react as if you are. GRR! He takes up less space if you get him facing side-on
though. More specifically, the button for the big eye’s heating system must
be broken. Hit it with something. You can go though the door in the cofe-trip.
You can pick things up in the cofe trip. You can get the men’s mirror, but you
must use something on it first. You can get into the women’s toilet cabin, but
you have to make it look as though it’s not the women’s toilet cabin. Move things
around. (I thought this minor sub-puzzle was sign-posted enough already but
many people have asked about this.) Other than that, the pixi in the cofe dream
will give you a clue as to how to blow up the ship. It’s a little obscure but
there’s a LOT to do in the boiler room, and quite a bit to do in the store room.
If you’re really stuck, keep in mind that hitting things to break them is a
theme of sorts here. As is the extended use of the pants. You can fill the water
bottle from either toilet cabin basin. But from the actual toilet (if you take
my meaning). The escape pod has pedals.
ON
THE ESCAPE POD: I can’t imagine anyone needs much help here! Make sure you collect
the body of the WAKELING before you fly off the right hand side of the final
screen.
GLOBE-TROTTING:
Keep a close eye on the nooks and crannies of the wall. You cannot to anything
with the policeman. When you arrive in Japan, you may find that the oversized
RL image is a pest again, but there is a small object to collect on the first
screen. Get the umbrella. The laboratory contains another complex puzzle. It
is important to remember that you can use an object on an item of machinery
more than once. There is a mild difficulty that you cannot combine items directly
in your inventory. The food texture needs to be… soft (you will have already
picked up the item you need for this).
THE
TREE: You can’t burn any of the coal. But you use one item a lot here. It’s
the same tree over and over again, but in different periods of time. Going back
the way you came won’t necessarily take you back the way you came. The pants
are not used any more. Talk to the Box again.
THE
GUI: Effectively you just have to search some of the icons until you find the
right stuff. Not very hard really. Talk to the eye (walk to the right) and then
use the pointer on the start button.
THE FINAL SEQUENCE (the start): Admire the meaning of your life (I was very pleased with it). It’s very good isn’t it. Colourful. When you get back to the start the re-populate the zoo, and got on the bike. Read the final text (this and the meaning of your life are the reasons why you must play in maximum resolution sorry).