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Dr Scrimes Spook School

Started by and155, 17:27, 19 October 20

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and155

Hi guys,
I'm hoping that someone out there may have had some luck in completing / progressing in Dr. Scrimes Spook School. It's a game I had as a child and now as a 37 year old, I thought I might be able to solve the game.
I have completed a detailed map of the game, complete with where items are and also what keys open which doors (I can open 5 so far) and I have managed to solve the first task of filling the holes. To do this, you need hammer (Study - Ground floor), Nails (Kitchen - Ground Floor) and then 10 woodtiles from around the mansion. To be clear, you can actually die mid-completing this task and all the woodtiles go back to their original location, so you only really need to know where 5 are, die and then pick up the same 5 again and continue.
You then go into the study and are presented with the following information on the screen:

"Its jolly cold in here old chap. Before you go onto test two, fix the electricy supply so that you can cut some logs and light my fire"
You are also then given a pair of pliers on the floor, which is where the hammer was located. This is where I get stuck.
I know where to find the firelighters (Bathroom level 2), the matches (Lobby - Ground Floor), wood for chopping (Attic) and the Workshop (Ground Floor)  has a saw which you need electricty for. I also know that the Fuse Room is located on the Ground Floor too. I also have found a fuse (Workshop - Ground Floor) but I'm not sure if the fuse somehow needs to be put into the fuse room? I have tried everything here, but I can't seem to get it to work.
The pliers are probably a key thing here, but it would suggest I need to find some wiring, but I can't seem to find any wiring which would require pliers for.
Anyone got any further? I'd love to complete this game once and for all. It's one which I pick up every few years and it annoys me that I can't get any further. I also thought about maybe getting into the source code or trying to locate the designer (A Smith) to see if this game was simply broken and couldn't be completed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm happy to share my map for some useful intel  :D

and155

Surely someone must have something to add regarding this game! I can't believe I have got the furthest out of anyone??

Skunkfish

I've never played it, but I'm tempted to give it a go!
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

eto

Quote from: and155 on 09:33, 22 October 20
Surely someone must have something to add regarding this game! I can't believe I have got the furthest out of anyone??

Seems this is one of the games, most people don't know. There's not even a Youtube video out there. Just once mentioned by Xyphoe and there he said, he has no clue what to do.

Maybe you can do a video and motivate others to try it out?

Nich

Quote from: and155 on 09:33, 22 October 20
Surely someone must have something to add regarding this game! I can't believe I have got the furthest out of anyone??

I owned the game back in the day but I never managed to complete even the first task. I've found pokes, but even then I still don't have the patience to figure out how to complete the tasks and find all the relevant objects.

and155

Quote from: Nich on 19:41, 23 October 20
I owned the game back in the day but I never managed to complete even the first task. I've found pokes, but even then I still don't have the patience to figure out how to complete the tasks and find all the relevant objects.
I also owned the original copy too. I had someone quote you on another thread about getting some Pokes for this and they said you knew how to do this? I downloaded a cop from here: https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=dumps&num=756 which had the trainer version.
When I came to run this on Winape though, it threw the attached errors. Any ideas how to correct this?

and155

Actually don't worry, I managed to get this working! Thanks!

Xyphoe

Yea we tried to have a go at this once on a stream and got nowhere apart from working out how to fill the holes, then we got stuck. No-one in the chat knew how to get further, and there were some very knowledgeable players there! Well done in getting further than anyone I know!!

genesis8

Quote from: and155 on 17:27, 19 October 20
Hi guys,
I'm hoping that someone out there may have had some luck in completing / progressing in Dr. Scrimes Spook School. It's a game I had as a child and now as a 37 year old, I thought I might be able to solve the game.
I have completed a detailed map of the game, complete with where items are and also what keys open which doors (I can open 5 so far) and I have managed to solve the first task of filling the holes. To do this, you need hammer (Study - Ground floor), Nails (Kitchen - Ground Floor) and then 10 woodtiles from around the mansion. To be clear, you can actually die mid-completing this task and all the woodtiles go back to their original location, so you only really need to know where 5 are, die and then pick up the same 5 again and continue.
Could you attach your map for others ? It would be interesting for the NVG ftp, and I can also put it on my web site if you are ok.
____________
Amstrad news site at Genesis8 Amstrad Page

GraalianLife78

Hello fellows of Dr Scrime's Spook School.


I had this game on my CPC464 when I was young. Now I started trying solution the game. I see you already found filled 10 spook holes with all woodtiles.


Task 1.1 - fill the 10 spooky holes:


Plates - you can use plate with glue covered the hole too.


BE WARNING - do not fill the holes more 10 because you will lost reward from Dr Scrime. Make sure yourself filled 10 holes then see Dr Scrime.


Task 1.2 - Fixing the electricity supply:


1) you wear a pair of rubber gloves (Hunchback's Workshop and Were-Kid's Fuse Cupboard)
2) You can fixed the electricity supply without electric shock!
3) Make logs from a plank where found in the attic at Hunchback's Workshop.


But I tried light the logs with your suggest but not worked. :(

and155

Hi everyone, a little update for you....I am on test 7 now on the game!
I will try and upload a video of this in the few days. Apologies for almost the year of silence on this thread - we had another baby which has taken up almost all my time.

I am so close to being able to finish the game, but test 7 is really tough!

ksuy

@and155 I've played this game on and off for 30 years now and I'm stuck on test 7 as well. Did you manage to get any further and figure out how to use the key you get? 

I'd love to exchange notes if you're interested.

and155

Hey @ksuy 

Did you leave a comment on a Youtube video recently? I responded, but never heard back from you again.

I am more than happy to work together on this as I honestly don't think the game has ever been finished. 

I have a map, a list of items needed for each task and some notes for other things. It's in excel and it won't let me share it on here, but perhaps I can somehow email you with it?

In terms of your immediate question, here is how you get through task 7 and also as far as i've got in task 8:

Task 7: You need to use the polyfila and spreader to fill the 16 holes. I don't know how to open the cupboard in the dark room and I didn't need to in order to progress.

Task 8: (You need to fill all remaining 31 holes and kill the monsters). Use the polyfila and spreader for 3 holes, bucket of water in the coldstore (turns to ice) for 5 holes (note that if you have already filled any of the holes in this room, you'll need to start again). Dishcloth + Staple gun for 3 holes, Drawing pins + hairnet for 4 holes, cling film for 16 holes (it's clear so doesn't look like it's worked, but your hole counter goes up).

Some of the holes at the middle/top require both the boxes to stand on. I used the cling film on the very top holes because you can carry this, plus both boxes in one go.

The game has a lot of clever logic in it. The cold store one and also the brick+brick+mortar on the lowest holes is clever because you can't just randomly fill any hole in the game - there has to be some logic to it. 

If you have used any other items to fill holes up until this point, let me know and I can give you the right combinations for the other tasks. It's also all in my doc.

For killing the monsters, I can make the mummy disappear for 10 seconds via the Mystical Ankh but they reappear and similar with Hunchback and the alarm clock. Neither seems like a kill which means that we probably need to do something different.

In terms of other things, I think the silver salver and tough bullets (or bullets) need to be combined as someone else theorised that "Silver Bullets" are an item in the log files.

Other potentially important items I have found which I don't have a purpose for or haven't tried yet:

Magnet - I thought maybe to combine with Video Nasty (as magnets used to wipe videos back in the day?)
Video Nasty - Maybe to blackmail someone?
3 coloured ducks
Silver Salver - Silver bullets somehow?
Candle - To melt something?
Some soap - I thought maybe to make an imprint on a key?
A monocle - Maybe to wear?
A Readers Digest - I thought maybe to combine with scissors but doesn't work
Scissors - as above
Tough bullets - Put in the gun but doesn't seem to have done anything

Someone also theorised that there is supposed to be "Cotton Wool" in the game too, but I have never found this. I expect this is also a combination of other things to make. 

Hope this is helpful and look forward to collaborating. 






ksuy

So if I read this correctly, you don't need to use the key you get in test 7? Because I know how to use door keys, but haven't figured out how to use regular keys at all.

I'll send you a personal message with my email address, that way we can exchange our excel files and further info.

jaymanu

Hello

I never played Dr Scrimes, but I'm always excited to explore never-solved games :)

I did some digging through the game data, hoping to find anything interesting. Let me know if that could help ?

PLACES - I think you already know them all

THE HALL
THE ATTIC
THE CELLAR
A BATHROOM
A BEDROOM
THE LIBARY
THE PANTRY
THE KITCHEN
THE DRAWING ROOM
THE LOUNGE
A WORKSHOP
THE STUDY
THE COLDSTORE
AN SMELLY ROOM
THE LOBBY
THE ART GALLERY
THE FUSE CUPBOARD


OBJECTS - Is anything unknown to you ?

FOOD
PIECE OF ANKH
MAGIC MOON
FLOUR
MAGNET
ALARM CLOCK
VIDEO NASTY
RUBBER DUCK
TITLE DEEDS
KEY
HAMMER
NAILS
GLUE
MORTAR
POLYFILA
SPREADER
CANDLE
SILVER SALVER
PIECE OF MOON
C
SOAP
SILVER GUN
THICK GLOVE
COTTON WOOL
RUBBER GLOVE
FUSE
PLIERS
MONOCLE
TOUGH BULLETS
RADIO
SULPHUR
SPANNER
PIPE
NUTS
MATCHES
POWERSAW
PLANK
FIRELIGHTERS
FOODMIXER
OLD PUMP
TOY PISTOL
PAPER PASTE
EMPTY BUCKET
READERS DIGEST
TORCH
BATTERY
BULLETS
TIN OF BEANS
GUN
MYSTICAL ANKH
SPINACH
TIN OPENER
SCISSORS
LOGS
DOOR KEY
BULLETS
PLATE
WOODTILE
NEWSPAPER
PICTURE
BRICK
SMALL BOX
BIG BOX
SMELLY SOCK
STICKY STUFF
PUMP GUN
BUCKET OF ICE
BUCKET OF WATER
HAIRNET
DRAWING PINS
STEAK
KIDNEY
PIE
STAPLE GUN
STAPLES
DISH CLOTH
CLING FILM
SILVER BULLETS
BOMB
TAP
COOKER

INSTRUCTIONS

HELLO OLD CHAP I' VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU _ YOUR UNCLE SENT YOU TO ME BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BECOME A SPOOK SMASHER _ TO DO THAT YOU' RE GOING TO HAVE TO COMPLETE EIGHT TESTS _ THIS IS TEST ONE
USE THE  HAMMER AND WHATEVER ELSE YOU CAN FIND TO FILL TEN SPOOK HOLES
ITS JOLLY COLD IN HERE OLD CHAP _ BEFORE YOU GO ONTO TEST TWO FIX THE ELECTRICTY SUPPLY SO THAT YOU CAN CUT SOME LOGS AND LIGHT MY FIRE

AH THAT' S MUCH BETTER _ NOW FOR TEST TWO _ USE THE MORTAR HERE TO FILL TEN SPOOK HOLES
WELL DONE _ YOU' RE UNCLE WAS RIGHT YOU LEARN FAST _ FIND NINE MORE PLATES LIKE THIS ONE AND USE THEM TO FILL TEN SPOOK HOLE .

I' M TOLD YOUR COOKING ISN' T QUITE UPTO SCRATCH ALFIE _ WHY DON' T YOU MAKE A PIE AND USE IT TO FILL SIXTEEN SPOOK HOLES .

HERE IS SOME WALLPAPER PASTE _ USE IT TO COVER TEN MORE SPOOK HOLES .

TO COMPLETE TEST SIX YOU MUST FIX THE WATER SUPPLY THEN MAKE SOME STICKY STUFF AND A GUN TO PUMP IT INTO SIXTEEN SPOOK HOLES .

YOUR PENULTIMATE TEST IS AN EASY ONE _ HERE IS A KEY TO A CUPBOARD _ USE THE CONTENTS TO FILL SIXTEEN SPOOK HOLES .

THIS IS THE FINAL TEST _ USE YOUR INGENUITY TO FIND THE CLUES HOW TO FILL THE FINAL THIRTY- ONE SPOOK HOLES AND DISPOSE OF THE MONSTERS IN THE HOUSE _ GOOD LUCK

Spoiler: ShowHide

WELL DONE . YOU' VE COMPLETED ALL THE TESTS AND I CAN NOW PRONOUNCE YOU NUMBER ONE SPOOK SMASHER


GET BACK TO WORK YOU LAZY BOY

DRAW A NET THEN WIPE IT UP WITH A GUN AND SPREAD IT AROUND _ TO GET RID OF THEM LAY THE RIGHT THING ON THEIR HOUSE .  >> this one looks interesting

Some phrases that look unusual

YOU HAVE FIXED THE TORCH
YOU HAVE FILLED THE STAPLE GUN
YOU HAVE FILLED THE PUMP GUN
YOU HAVE LOADED THE GUN

YOU PUT ON SOME RUBBER GLOVES
YOU FUT ON SOME THICK HEATPROOF GLOVES

and155

Hi @jaymanu,

Myself and @ksuy are running the game and collaborating on this at the moment. What you have provided is super useful.

Of the items you mention, we can account for most of these, except for the following:


TITLE DEEDS
C
SOAP
SILVER GUN
COTTON WOOL
SULPHUR
PICTURE
SMELLY SOCK
BOMB

We're both on the final task, which means that either all of the items above are right at the end of the game, OR some of these were included in the code, but were never included in the game.

Thanks for also including the text about when you "make" something like the pump gun. Interestingly none of the items above appear on that list, which suggests it's unlikely they're made from other objects. 

Do you by any chance have the ability to add in any other text from the game or is this all of them?

jaymanu

#16
Hello

This is almost all text I found, apart from the interface strings (fill a hole, open cupboard, full, empty, pick up..) and intro text (co-starring blabla)
Also some phrases which you have already ran through. Have you seen 'THE BULLETS ARE TOO HOT TO HOOLD' and 'WITH A GURGLE YOU RESTORE THE WATER SUPPLY' ?

'TEN' and 'SIXTEEN' are set like parameters, but I don't see any other number as text. Maybe the developper wanted to be able to change the value easily, but in the final game they won't change.

If there is more text, then it would be obfuscated.

Now what could be interesting is reverse-engineer the object combination code in order to know the full possibility matrix. Or location of the objects.
Are you thinking of anything else which would be useful ?

And what about the clue which refers to throwing a 'net' with the gun ? Could it be related to the cotton wool ? This could relate to the last task, dispose of the monsters.

ksuy

Hi @jaymanu

Yes, we've seen the phrases 'THE BULLETS ARE TOO HOT TO HOLD' and 'WITH A GURGLE YOU RESTORE THE WATER SUPPLY' in the game.

If you're able to find the location of the objects by reverse-engineering the code, that would be very helpful! The same goes for the object combination code, but the location will probably already tell us a lot.

The clue about the net is a mystery to us at the moment, but we're used to that by now in this game :D Sooner or later it will make sense I guess.

Thanks for the help!

and155

Hi @jaymanu ,

As @ksuy mentions, it would be amazing if you can provide the location of the objects, . I've just spent half an hour trying to "pick" every picture within the game, but with no luck. 

I also made an error in my list previously as we do know where the soap is located in the game.

We have managed to obtain the silver bullets, but not a silver gun which is strange. You also cannot drop the gun once it's loaded with any bullets (standard, tough or silver) as it becomes permanent in your inventory. I don't think we've done anything incorrect by pre-loading the gun because you can shoot the ghosts and they disappear (before reappearing from another hole) right from the start of the game, meaning it would be expected that someone would always do this step.


jaymanu

Hello, I have news for you.

Here is the "magic cupboard" :
Look at memory bytes &4B36 and &4B37.
They contain values A4 and 67, which correspond to the 2 objects inside the cupboard in the starting room (Hall) : dish cloth and the woodtile.

Now poke different values there, and you can magically put any object in the drawer :)
Yeah that's cheating, but could help a lot.

Here are interesting values I found (in hex):

28 = silver salver
2C= soap
2F = cotton wool
A7 = silver bullets
99,9A,9B and 9C = different hairnets

note that some values will crash the game

many object share the same name but are differents, like keys, I believe that each one opens a different door. Same for dishes and hairnets.

I tried with values 28 and A7 of course, and there you have the silver gun. But it says that the bullets are too hot to hold, I believe that as experts of the game it will be easy for you to cool them.

I tried all values and there was no "cotton wool", so this string is either unused or is not referring to an object, or some actions are needed in order to create the object.

and155

Hi @jaymanu,

Thanks for the information.

If I understand correctly, you're saying we could theoretically put any items within the first cupboard to use in the game? I appreciate the thought, but it wouldn't really be beating the game, rather giving ourselves items and still not knowing where they came from.

As we already have the silver bullets, it sounds as though when we load these into the gun, the game thinks of this as the 'silver gun' even though it doesn't show anything on screen to acknowledge this. Since we also cannot drop the loaded gun, there is also no way of knowing if this is now the item name.

Also for your information, we have used all the hairnets and dishes (they can be used to fill holes) but we still don't have any use for the soap.

You're correct that there are 14 gold keys in the game which are probably all called the game thing and also 7 door keys (although we know of 8 locked doors).

I think you're correct about the cotton wool. I think it's made from other objects. Similarly to the bomb - I have a feeling this is also made from different items in the game.

From what you can see, are you able to know what items are in what rooms - specifically the list I shared before?

TITLE DEEDS
C
SILVER GUN - Although I think we have this
COTTON WOOL
SULPHUR
PICTURE
SMELLY SOCK
BOMB

I am especially interested in knowing the location of the picture, since I think that this is in one of the rooms. It may not be an item you can carry (like the cooker) so again, just trying to rule things out at this stage.

Thanks for all your help - this has been incredibly useful and we're getting much closer to finally beating the game!

jaymanu

#21
I'm not meaning that you can beat the game with the magic drawer, just that it helps knowing all the possible objects.

Are you the one who did the map which can be found on cpc-power ? Because it seems to list a lot of objects with their corresponding hex code and location.

I'm not sure there is a "picture" to pick up, as I tried to put all hex codes in the cupboard, and there was no picture in them.

I'm thinking, could you post a snapshot of the furthest you went in the game ? Because I was only looking at the startup position, some new objects might be created by the game while making progress.

and155

Hi @jaymanu,

We didn't create that map, but we've made our own which doesn't include the Hex codes. I know where to find every item in the list below under the 'Remaining items' list. These are items we have found but not yet used or have used but they are still available in the game.

I think myself and @ksuy are both at the same stage with the same items remaining.

Task: 8
Holes filled: All of them

Items remaining in game:

 
ItemNotes
Green Duck
Orange Duck
Yellow Duck
Scissors
Video Nasty
Magnet
Alarm Clock
Readers Digest
Candle
Tough Bullets
Monocle
Tin of Beans
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold Key
Gold KeyGiven by Dr Scrimes at task 7
Soap
Magic MoonMade from 2 pieces of moon
Mystic AnkhMade from 2 pieces of ankh
Radio
Silver BulletsCan be loaded into gun
HammerUsed for task 1 but still available
NailsUsed for task 1 but still available
SpannerUsed for task 6a
GlueUsed to fix moon, ankh and fill holes
SpreaderUsed for task 4b
Staple GunFills holes
BulletsCan be loaded into gun
Pump GunUsed for task 6d
Paper PasteUsed for task 5
MortarUsed for task 2


Things that can be interacted with:

 
CookerMake the pie
FoodmixerMake the sticky stuff
PowersawChop logs

Things we don't know about:

 
TITLE DEEDS
C
SILVER GUNWe might have this already as we loaded the gun with silver bullets
COTTON WOOL
SULPHUR
PICTURE
SMELLY SOCK
BOMB
Locked DoorFound in Smelly Room"

Any help you can provide either in how we can combine any of the remaining items or how to create any of the missing items would be greatly appreciated!

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