After Golden Bells
If you have a keen eye, a love of solving puzzles and a high tolerance for pixel hunts, After Golden Bells by Timefall has quite a few charms. The key to escape is found via eight golden bells hidden amongst the modest surroundings; as you investigate every angle of the room, looking for answers to the puzzles that guard the bells, gustoso guitar music keeps pace with your efforts. After golden bells, then what? Just the simple satisfaction of a puzzle solved.
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First of all, happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Second, I am stuck on the abacus puzzle.
I'm assuming the abacus and the couch cushion buttons are both clues to the top drawer next to the couch, but I have no idea how to connect them all.
Can anyone help?
Nevermind, I got it. I was making the abacus thing more complicated than it actually was. Also, about the couch buttons:
I didn't realize I could click the cabinet to the far left of the vacuum.
Nerdypants, a little help with the abacus puzzle? I thought I knew it, but my abacus-reading skills must be rusty...
The abacus has me baffled.
@Tenzhi:
From a video walkthrough I found the answer: you count from the left up to the black bead. For each color the upper row is the ones place and the lower is tens.
7 19 5 13 8
Alright, after looking up various abacus systems to no avail, I figured out the abacus clue:
In each colour section the beads represent 1-20, and the non-coloured bead in each section pinpoints the number of that colour needed for the drawer.
The drag-to-use mechanic for items is still very annoying. The mismatched colours are irritating, but less of a problem this time around.
Alright, after looking up various abacus systems to no avail, I figured out the abacus clue:
In each colour section the beads represent 1-20, and the non-coloured bead in each section pinpoints the number of that colour needed for the drawer.
The drag-to-use mechanic for items is still very annoying. The mismatched colours are irritating, but less of a problem this time around.
Yeah, the abacus clue was pretty confusing. That just is not how you count with an abacus, unless I've been wrong about how to use them all these years.
You're not supposed to be counting one side or the other; rather, starting on the top left, count until you reach the gray bead.
I'm stuck with the couch buttons/left of the vacuum puzzle. Can anyone help?
(and I have a screwdriver i did'nt use so far)
Thanks
@bap
For the couch button puzzle, one tip is that
you can click the arrows
For the screw driver
look at the plants which is on the left hand side of the table with the bread on it carefully
I am stuck at the right puzzle of the left of the vacuum cleaner, and the picture above the coach.
Also, I have clean the mirror but it seem no effect
bearharry:
indeed it does. look carefully for colours. the mirrored image is a bit murky
So I watched the walkthrough video for the middle drawer, but I can't figure out how I'm supposed to get that answer. Maybe
the reflection in the mirror?
But I don't see how they relate.
Also, the rightmost drawer of the entertainment center makes little sense.
@bap
the puzzle next to the vacuum cleaner
You need to "draw" the shape you see in the picture above the couch (marked with green strings) with the tiles in that puzzle. The tiles need to be green, and the rest that are not part of the shape need to be red
the mirror
Look carefuly into the mirror... you will see 4 coloured briks, clue for one of the puzzles :)
@bap, on the couch buttons...
Make the arrows connecting the colors in the puzzle match the lines connecting the buttons on the couch.
@bearharry -
if you have the right shape figured out, try a different color for the rest of the area. No idea why, but it works!
Thank you @fetchund, you saved my bacon.
AFTER GOLDEN BELLS WALKTHROUGH
ITEMS TO COLLECT
Zoom in on the round table. Grab the chisel. Do a 180, and zoom in on the yellow demilune table; grab the battery. Zoom out, then zoom in to the wall mounted bookshelf. Grab the small slip of paper with the number "8563" written on it.
Hmm, pretty flowers. I wonder if they smell nice...
Zoom in, collect the small grey key.
Click to the right, zoom in on the small chest of drawers. Collect the screwdriver located between the lion's feet.
Zoom out, then click on the couch. Moving the left pillow reveals a cleaning cloth, and the right one reveals a remote control.
BLACK BELL
While facing the round table, click on the spiky plant in the corner. Notice something to the left of the plant?
Pick up "black" bell (yes, it's more brass-colored, but the handle and hammer are painted black).
WHITE BELL
While still zoomed in to the spiky plant, take note of the floorboards to the right of the plant--seems something might be hidden there...
...looks like the panel is affixed with screws...
...use the screwdriver to unscrew the floorboard panel, collect the white bell.
RED BELL
Zoom in to the painting above the round table. Pretty birds...hmm, wonder if I can yank on the frame. Paging Tesshi-E...
Click on the painting to reveal a gold brick. If only I had something to loosen it...
I'd love a slice of bread; a shame they left me a chisel instead of a bread knife. Perhaps it's stale...
Use the chisel to loosen the brick, reveal a keyhole. If only I had a key to open it...
...use the grey key found in the flower. Gahhh, another puzzle? Hmm, four number combination...
...oh yeah, that slip of paper I collected had a four digit number. I enter the code, collect the red bell.
YELLOW BELL
While facing TV console, click the lower right corner of it to zoom in. The bottom left and right doors are clickable. Click on the left door to reveal a puzzle of colored dots and arrows. When I click on the arrows, they either turn grey, or change direction. Hmm, this is a toughie; maybe I should sit down on the comfy couch, try and figure things out...
Zoom into the couch. Looks like someone got creative when they upholstered the seat cushion...
...there are colored buttons on the sofa cushion. Hmm, they're the same color as the dots on the console door puzzle...as I look from left to right, there's a red button, then blue, then green, etc...
...the order from left to right should match the path of the arrows in the puzzle. Start at the red dot, then click to highlight the arrow between red and blue; do the same to the arrow between blue and green. Click twice to highlight and flip the arrow between green and orange, then highlight arrow between orange and purple. Collect the yellow bell.
PURPLE BELL
While still at the TV console, click the right bottom door to reveal a puzzle of grey angular tiles. Click once on a piece to change it to red, and again to change it to green. Hmm, I should look around the room, see if I notice something with a similar pattern...
...ah, the string art above the couch has lots of angles in it! Better get a closer look...
...how odd...some of the strings have been colored green, making a specific green shape. Wonder if I could recreate that shape with the tiles...
..indeed, I can! There is my matching green polygon. But nothing happened. Wonder what would contrast well against the green...
...well, I have a lot of bells. Maybe this is a Christmas-themed puzzle? So I highlight all the remaining tiles in red, and voila, I collect the purple bell. Next stop, small chest of drawers.
GREEN BELL
Three drawers, and I click the middle one at random. Gadzooks! I have no clue to solve the puzzle. I am perplexed. I need to "reflect" on this predicament...
...so I go to the mirror. Gahh, so dirty! Can barely see my face. If only I had some way to clean it...
...oh yeah, I do have that cleaning cloth. I guess I'll use it to remove the smudges...
...I peer into the reflection. Hmm, what's that on the wall next to the spiky plant...colored bricks? weird--why can't I see that looking straight at it? Ah well, they could be useful...
...I return to the middle drawer of the yellow chest, and now I can see the buttons change color when I click on them...
...the colored rectangles correspond to the colored bricks. I enter the code, take the Green Bell.
ORANGE BELL
While facing the chest of drawers, I try the bottom drawer. Alas, another puzzle I cannot solve! This room is getting on my nerves. I'm going to take a break, watch a little TV. Blast it, the remote doesn't work...
...ah, but I DO have a battery. Maybe if I combine the two...
....I drag the battery over to the remote, now it works. I turn the TV on, and it's one boring channel--a grey screen with a field of Xs. It's STILL better than Jersey Shore, though. Perhaps a bit more useful, too...
...I wonder if they get the Starz channel? Oh, wait, stars...
...perhaps if those were stars in that pattern, instead of Xs...
...I use the pattern on the TV to solve the bottom drawer puzzle, highlighting stars where the X's went. I collect the orange bell.
BLUE BELL
Finally, I try to open the top drawer of the chest. Jinkies, another number/color puzzle! Something doesn't add up here...
...if only I had a calculator. But I don't. Perhaps an abacus will do; I think I saw one on the wall-mounted bookshelf. Darned if I know how to work it, though...
...interesting--rows of colored beads, the same as the colored numbers on the top drawer puzzle. I wonder if it is a coincidence. I also wonder if the grey bead in each color group is significant...
...ahh, I see what I have to do. If I take the beads from the LEFT, divide by the beads on the RIGHT, then multiply by the square root of the hypotenuse...
...or perhaps I am overthinking it. :( Maybe I should just try counting them all together, left AND right...
I start on the first row, far left...I count the number of purple beads up to the grey marker bead. The grey bead was the seventh in the row, so perhaps the first number of the puzzle is 7? It seems to fit, as there is only one purple digit.
But what about the color groups where the grey bead appears in the second row?
...I count the first row, CONTINUE counting on to the second row until I stop at the grey bead. For the yellow group, I get the number 19. Again, I go back to the puzzle, and there are two yellow digits, so it appears to fit. I continue on with the same strategy...
...and I get red:5, green:13, blue 8. I plug my numbers into the puzzle, the drawer opens, I retrieve the blue bell.
ESCAPE
I return to the demilune table, bring up the bells puzzle, start dragging and dropping bells. Grr, why won't they stick?
Ahh, even though all the empty spaces look the same, each bell has a specific place on the circle--I drag and drop a bell to each empty space until I find the one that sticks, continue placing the rest of my bells in a similar fashion. The key appears, I place it in the front door lock, and yippee! I'm out. :)
anyone have a
snapshot for the purple bell puzzle? i can't figure out where to put the hexagon or whatever, even after looking at the picture.
Kind of a brutal puzzle, not a fan. There is a fine line between tricky and difficult due to a poor UI, and I feel like this puzzle is on the wrong side of the line.
have anyone knows what is the basket of fruit used for??
If I were to describe this game in a single word, that word would be "awkward." The drag-to-use system is just irritating, and the fact that the drawers and cabinets don't actually open when a puzzle is solved--an admittedly minor issue--sets my teeth on edge.
The puzzles themselves seemed to lack imagination. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but what was up with the final puzzle? As far as I can tell, there were *no* clues about solving it. Players are expected to simply brute-force the combination.
The only nice thing I can say about this game is that the graphics are pretty and the music is pleasant. Perhaps I am judging it a bit harshly, but my expectations are not justified. JIG acts as a sort of meta-filter for games so that we get the chance to see the only best casual games in one place. If this game is one of the best, then, at least, it's the worst of those.
For what is out there in escape games, yes, I think this is one of the better ones. Of course, it absolutely does not measure up to Tesshi-e, Robamimi, Tomatea...
I hope I covered its drawbacks--as well as its good parts--in the blurb. As a huge fan of escape games, I'm always on the look out for something worth offering here. In this case, I took a chance that other JIG players would find something to enjoy in a game that I liked.
I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy it as much as I did. But, I will keep looking for good games to review. Thanks for the feedback :)
I like that games by this publisher tell you when you don't have clues to solve a particular puzzle, but in this case, the game was misleading, because it let me attempt a puzzle before I had seen the clue for it.
Specifically, it let me attempt the top drawer -- i.e. the abacus puzzle -- before I had looked at the abacus.
Also, add me to the chorus of complaints about the illogical, inappropriate, and totally WTF use of a poor innocent abacus. (Think about it: if you were actually using an abacus, how would you make one bead a different color?
Other complaints:
-
The drag-to-use mechanic got old many years ago. It never served a purpose other than "look at me, I can program clicking and dragging in Flash, woo-hoo", i.e. it's a case of the UI serving the mechanics rather than the other way around.
-
The fact that the drawers don't actually open is annoying. The fact that the drawers don't remember that they've been opened, and let you re-attempt the puzzles (with no indication that you've re-found the solution) is pretty crippling, especially when you have more than one clue using the same sorts of things - colors and dots in this case.
-
What the heck was up with the fruit bowl? If you're gonna put red herrings in a game, there should be more than one of them.
Not a bad game, with a nice soundtrack (non-electronic) and good graphics. It's an escape game, so it's great!
Many of the puzzles were straightfoward, at least one was abstruse. I used the walkthrough as soon as I felt I was wasting time on the abacus.
The walkthrough is no help, however, on the middle drawer with the 4 color bars. The color-blindness bug has finally struck me, and
the colors in the reflection are too pastel-ly for me to make out.
Some color-blind help on the middle drawer, please?
Colorblind Solutions
For middle drawer:
From top to bottom
4 clicks
3 clicks
1 clicks
2 clicks
For Polygon Puzzle:
(bottom right door of entertainment cabinet):
1 = 1 click = red
2 = 2 clicks = green
screenshot (shape highlighted):
Polygon Colorblind Help
For Colored Dots/Arrows:
(2nd from right bottom entertainment cabinet door)
Please refer to screenshot:
Colored Dots and Arrows
i can't seem to use anything i pickup or find... :( maybe something wrong with my comp...
[Maybe...what OS and browser are you using, Shar? Just in case you didn't try this yet: to use something, keep the left mouse button pressed on it then "drag" it to the spot you want to use it on. ~elle ]
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Walkthrough Guide
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AFTER GOLDEN BELLS WALKTHROUGH
ITEMS TO COLLECT
Zoom in on the round table. Grab the chisel. Do a 180, and zoom in on the yellow demilune table; grab the battery. Zoom out, then zoom in to the wall mounted bookshelf. Grab the small slip of paper with the number "8563" written on it.
Hmm, pretty flowers. I wonder if they smell nice...
Zoom in, collect the small grey key.
Click to the right, zoom in on the small chest of drawers. Collect the screwdriver located between the lion's feet.
Zoom out, then click on the couch. Moving the left pillow reveals a cleaning cloth, and the right one reveals a remote control.
BLACK BELL
While facing the round table, click on the spiky plant in the corner. Notice something to the left of the plant?
Pick up "black" bell (yes, it's more brass-colored, but the handle and hammer are painted black).
WHITE BELL
While still zoomed in to the spiky plant, take note of the floorboards to the right of the plant--seems something might be hidden there...
...looks like the panel is affixed with screws...
...use the screwdriver to unscrew the floorboard panel, collect the white bell.
RED BELL
Zoom in to the painting above the round table. Pretty birds...hmm, wonder if I can yank on the frame. Paging Tesshi-E...
Click on the painting to reveal a gold brick. If only I had something to loosen it...
I'd love a slice of bread; a shame they left me a chisel instead of a bread knife. Perhaps it's stale...
Use the chisel to loosen the brick, reveal a keyhole. If only I had a key to open it...
...use the grey key found in the flower. Gahhh, another puzzle? Hmm, four number combination...
...oh yeah, that slip of paper I collected had a four digit number. I enter the code, collect the red bell.
YELLOW BELL
While facing TV console, click the lower right corner of it to zoom in. The bottom left and right doors are clickable. Click on the left door to reveal a puzzle of colored dots and arrows. When I click on the arrows, they either turn grey, or change direction. Hmm, this is a toughie; maybe I should sit down on the comfy couch, try and figure things out...
Zoom into the couch. Looks like someone got creative when they upholstered the seat cushion...
...there are colored buttons on the sofa cushion. Hmm, they're the same color as the dots on the console door puzzle...as I look from left to right, there's a red button, then blue, then green, etc...
...the order from left to right should match the path of the arrows in the puzzle. Start at the red dot, then click to highlight the arrow between red and blue; do the same to the arrow between blue and green. Click twice to highlight and flip the arrow between green and orange, then highlight arrow between orange and purple. Collect the yellow bell.
PURPLE BELL
While still at the TV console, click the right bottom door to reveal a puzzle of grey angular tiles. Click once on a piece to change it to red, and again to change it to green. Hmm, I should look around the room, see if I notice something with a similar pattern...
...ah, the string art above the couch has lots of angles in it! Better get a closer look...
...how odd...some of the strings have been colored green, making a specific green shape. Wonder if I could recreate that shape with the tiles...
..indeed, I can! There is my matching green polygon. But nothing happened. Wonder what would contrast well against the green...
...well, I have a lot of bells. Maybe this is a Christmas-themed puzzle? So I highlight all the remaining tiles in red, and voila, I collect the purple bell. Next stop, small chest of drawers.
GREEN BELL
Three drawers, and I click the middle one at random. Gadzooks! I have no clue to solve the puzzle. I am perplexed. I need to "reflect" on this predicament...
...so I go to the mirror. Gahh, so dirty! Can barely see my face. If only I had some way to clean it...
...oh yeah, I do have that cleaning cloth. I guess I'll use it to remove the smudges...
...I peer into the reflection. Hmm, what's that on the wall next to the spiky plant...colored bricks? weird--why can't I see that looking straight at it? Ah well, they could be useful...
...I return to the middle drawer of the yellow chest, and now I can see the buttons change color when I click on them...
...the colored rectangles correspond to the colored bricks. I enter the code, take the Green Bell.
ORANGE BELL
While facing the chest of drawers, I try the bottom drawer. Alas, another puzzle I cannot solve! This room is getting on my nerves. I'm going to take a break, watch a little TV. Blast it, the remote doesn't work...
...ah, but I DO have a battery. Maybe if I combine the two...
....I drag the battery over to the remote, now it works. I turn the TV on, and it's one boring channel--a grey screen with a field of Xs. It's STILL better than Jersey Shore, though. Perhaps a bit more useful, too...
...I wonder if they get the Starz channel? Oh, wait, stars...
...perhaps if those were stars in that pattern, instead of Xs...
...I use the pattern on the TV to solve the bottom drawer puzzle, highlighting stars where the X's went. I collect the orange bell.
BLUE BELL
Finally, I try to open the top drawer of the chest. Jinkies, another number/color puzzle! Something doesn't add up here...
...if only I had a calculator. But I don't. Perhaps an abacus will do; I think I saw one on the wall-mounted bookshelf. Darned if I know how to work it, though...
...interesting--rows of colored beads, the same as the colored numbers on the top drawer puzzle. I wonder if it is a coincidence. I also wonder if the grey bead in each color group is significant...
...ahh, I see what I have to do. If I take the beads from the LEFT, divide by the beads on the RIGHT, then multiply by the square root of the hypotenuse...
...or perhaps I am overthinking it. :( Maybe I should just try counting them all together, left AND right...
I start on the first row, far left...I count the number of purple beads up to the grey marker bead. The grey bead was the seventh in the row, so perhaps the first number of the puzzle is 7? It seems to fit, as there is only one purple digit.
But what about the color groups where the grey bead appears in the second row?
...I count the first row, CONTINUE counting on to the second row until I stop at the grey bead. For the yellow group, I get the number 19. Again, I go back to the puzzle, and there are two yellow digits, so it appears to fit. I continue on with the same strategy...
...and I get red:5, green:13, blue 8. I plug my numbers into the puzzle, the drawer opens, I retrieve the blue bell.
ESCAPE
I return to the demilune table, bring up the bells puzzle, start dragging and dropping bells. Grr, why won't they stick?
Ahh, even though all the empty spaces look the same, each bell has a specific place on the circle--I drag and drop a bell to each empty space until I find the one that sticks, continue placing the rest of my bells in a similar fashion. The key appears, I place it in the front door lock, and yippee! I'm out. :)
Posted by: awfulperson
|
November 25, 2011 12:46 PM
Colorblind Solutions
For middle drawer:
From top to bottom
4 clicks
3 clicks
1 clicks
2 clicks
For Polygon Puzzle:
(bottom right door of entertainment cabinet):
1 = 1 click = red
2 = 2 clicks = green
screenshot (shape highlighted):
Polygon Colorblind Help
For Colored Dots/Arrows:
(2nd from right bottom entertainment cabinet door)
Please refer to screenshot:
Colored Dots and Arrows
Posted by: elle
|
November 27, 2011 6:36 PM