Midnight Spooks: The Photo
Are you ready to help solve another mystery? In the previous episode of Midnight Spooks, some of the employees at Mr. Spooky's Museum of the Weird expressed their doubts about the mysteriously haunted nature of the basement down below. After some insistence and persistence, Noah was able to get inside and proudly toss back the basketball that had gone missing inside weeks past. Or at least, that's what he claimed he threw back out to them!
You start afresh this time with a completely different cast of characters. Captain Crunch tells you about his latest expedition in which he has recovered two objects of particular interest: a chest belonging to the infamous Captain Morgan - and a mysterious photo of a girl, holding up two fingers. Sensing some sort of weird vibe coming from the picture, a sudden impulse takes hold of Dan, demanding that he must have the photo. At first, Captain Crunch refuses, insisting that the photo is not for sale, but he soon gives in, instead agreeing to hand over the photo if Dan and Tycen can manage to open Captain Morgan's chest. Having a bit of a suspicious mind, Dan even insists on keeping the Captain in his sight and guarding the photo!
You play as Tycen, exploring Captain Crunch's maritime museum shop. You'll be on the prowl for any clues that might help you break into Captain Morgan's chest and provide the museum's owner with a stash of loot. You'll have to be a little creative, following chains of logic and solving puzzles to make it through the rooms and gather objects. Is there something to be seen in that telescope at the far right that might help with the solution? Maybe, but it is missing its lens! You'll have to go find it.
I liked this installment of Midnight Spooks even better than the first one, particularly due to the initially upbeat atmosphere and the twist at the end. The puzzles are fairly crisp and shouldn't present much difficulty to any regular player of Carmel Games' adventures. So is there some secret that the photo of this girl holds? I'll leave it to you to discover for yourself!
One plays with the usual point-and-click controls. When you move over an element of the background that can be interacted with, the cursor changes to an icon with two gears next to it. Items that you gather appear at the bottom-right of your screen, and you can click on them to combine them with each other or use them on the environment. Good luck - and just maybe you'll help Dan find out what's up with that photo after all!
Piqued my interest in Midnight Spooks. But, like 'The Thing in the Basement'...
.. . we're left hanging. Will we ever know what "the thing in the basement" is? Or what's wrong with "the photo"?
Well, spoiler alert, but
is there something special about the photo that changes at the end?
The girl is now holding up three fingers instead of two...
cant wait for the walkthrough :)
hope it'll come soon :)
Midnight Spooks: The Photo
When your best friend finds love at first sight, it's up to you to help win her over from an equally infatuated shopkeeper, whose mysterious sunken treasure conceals a true horror from the deep.
Exploration
The shop has a similar layout to Mr. Spooky's from the previous game in the series, but it no longer has a basement. You'd have to look elsewhere to find secrets, so why not start with Captain Morgan's chest on the counter? Despite being fished up from the ocean, its light still flashes next to a keyhole and six sliders.
Go left to the entrance of the shop, where a diver's helmet sits on a table with a knife in its drawer. Next to it, a giant green fish hides something within its jaws.
Go two screens right, where another fish hangs from the ceiling over a hole in the floor filled with fresh (but salty) Atlantic water. A goblet to the left sits between two life buoys, and there's a three-digit safe on the right.
Move right, where an old map has something written really tiny. There's also a tall tube with a cork at its bottom.
Move right where a barrel spouts water onto the ground. A pipe organ next to it seems really out of shape: the only keys that work are horrendously out of tune, but at least they cause different symbols to appear on the organ's display.
Move right where a large four-digit safe hangs from the ceiling by a net. An equally oversized air vent is screwed down so you can't reach whatever's hidden behind.
Move right to find another screwed-down air vent, but with a ventilation fan behind. A wire connects it to a locked switch box. There's also a telescope pointed through the ceiling, but it's missing its lens.
Column
Fill the goblet with Atlantic water, then empty it into the tall tube. Pick up the now-floating cork.
Drought
Plug the barrel with the cork, and the puddle immediately empties out. Pick up a still-legible note which has four symbols on it.
Shanty
Use the clue from the note to unlock the organ.
To get the wheel, fish, fish, buoy symbols to show up, you need to press the 1st, 5th, 5th, 2nd buttons from the left.
Then a compartment opens up in front and you can take the screwdriver.
Unscrew 1
Use the screwdriver to open the large air vent and get a pocketwatch behind it with an interesting engraving.
Noon
Use the clue from the watch to unlock the safe hanging nearby.
The time on the watch is 11:50, so enter that in the four-digit safe to get a magnifying glass.
Fine print
Use the magnifying glass on the map to read a number clue. The math looks a little off, or perhaps it makes perfect sense to you.
Evens
Use the clue from the map to unlock the three-digit safe next to the hanging fish.
The top row should be read: two one gives four two.
So three nine gives six eighteen and so on, and four five gives eight ten.
Enter 810 in the safe, and open it to get a glow stick.
Luminescence
Use the glowstick in the giant fish at the entrance, and a wooden box stuck inside has a grid of digits, some green and the others adjustable.
Pandigital
Solve the wooden box puzzle using your brilliant Sudoku skills.
The only Latin square consistent with the clues is
3124
2413
1342
4231
Enter that in the box and open it to get a lens.
Clearly
Use the lens on the telescope and look through it to find six weird circular stars.
You're all ready to use this code, but then you realize something's missing.
Terminate
Find a way to stop the fan so you can open the vent.
Use the knife to cut the wire, and the fan stops.
Unscrew 2
Use the screwdriver to remove the vent cover and take a key in the vent.
Victory
Use this key on the treasure chest, and adjust the sliders according to the star clue.
Click the sliders 0, 2, 0, 4, 3, 4 times, and open it. Yay, treasure!
And Dan gets the other treasure, a photo that the shopkeeper is getting a little wary of.
For a good reason, as Dan promptly becomes the photo's victim number 3.
The girl's photo was holding up two fingers when we first saw it. After the guy died, it was holding up three fingers. Presumably, indicating that it had killed another victim.
Update