I am hvinga little problem understanding the WT. I am just beginning & am Generator Island, have gone to the revolving room. Clicked on button on the R 4 X & then gone down to & under the gate, the WT says there is a stem switch with an icon of tlescope above it. I can't find this steam switch.

Thanks

Hi there Mome......

If you've found your way under the gate and looked through the peep hole, rotated the room once so you can get through to the Gate Room that you are seeing through the peep hole, you walk straight across the Gate Room. The other doorway leads you to a little cave with a steam pipe and a valve. That's where you should see the telescope icon.

Witchen

As vivid as this game is in the memory I find it hard to believe all my saves are from 1997.

Well I finally made it thru all the doors & went to walkway to 9 pused levers at 14 & 12, went back to 3 & went to cavern, to door at 16 & that's where I am stuck. According to WT I am supposed to go to 17, out a door to 18 & get on a tram. That's where I get lost. I went into a room with a thingy in center with a large beautiful thing in center but then I can't get out of door.
What I am saying doesn't make sense to me how can it make sense to you!!!???

Mome, I think that walkthrough with all the places numbered is sort of confusing, myself. You might do better by checking out the other walkthrough that we have here at GameBoomers or one from The Spoiler Centre ...

If you're talking about getting to the tram on the Gold Dome island, and have walked across a bridge, you need to walk back the way you came and enter the room on your right; left if you're on the way down. Inside you'll see a switch that opens the door blocking your way to the tram.

Yes, there's a lever that opens the main temple door in with "the electric chair" (as my husband dubbed it )

I call it the spider chair.

Oh thank you Jenny, the WT from The Spoiler Center is doing the trick. It is so much easier to follow!!

But I am havinga problem at Boiler House Island. Evidently I have not pushed or turned levers, etc correctly because when I go inside the boiler there is not a ladder for me to go down to get to a tunnel.

Also I am having trouble understanding saving games. The manual says to click Ctrl + S to save a game which it does but what if I need to go back to a previously saved game, perhaps to start above problem from beginning. The very first time I saved, what back when I was trying to figure out the doors at the very beginning I saved (by now I have totally forgotten how I did it, thought I had done an Alt+F4) & got a Saved Game 1 but now I don't know where my ssaved games are???

Someone else had this problem recently, too. You may not have drained the water out of the boiler. When you do you will see it go down throug a little window out there on the side where you turned off the flames, etc.

About the saves.......it's been much too long since I played this game to remember that part but if I find it in my notes I will come back and edit THIS post.

I'm wondering if, doing the saves the way you are, if you are not overwriting your previous save(s) and have only one save all the time.

I'm like you, BillyBob, it's been too long since I played this one to remember, but I suspect that using ctl + S is going to only result in one save.

Mome, check out your manual--there should be a way to do "save as" and have a whole bunch of saves. And I'm glad that walkthrough helped you; it looked the clearest to me of all the ones I saw.

I'm going to consult Dee on this--she is a real Riven expert, but with things the way they are for her right now, I'm not sure how soon I will get an answer...

Mome, to view (or hide) the menu bar either hold down the Ctrl key and press the space ber OR click near the top of the screen. There you will find the options, including Open a saved Game and Save As so you can have multiple saved games.

Jema

And when you go up top to save your game, you can name it or number it, and have as many as you like.

The 2nd & 3rd time I played it, I did both, numbered in sequence as well as what I just finished at where-ever I was, due to stopping in the same location more than once.

LOVE this game...

The only thing the manual says is:"Window users hold down CTRL key & press the spacebar or click near the top of the screen" How dumb can I be - don't reply to that part!! I never even saw that to read - & then it says to press CTRL+S to save a game - that part I read. I think in my old age I do not see what I read!!!
Thanks for all the help.

Mome

I should have remembered going to the top of the screen to access the menu. I believe it worked the same way for MYST.

I'm going to have to break down and replay this RIVEN game some day!

I know I have a peculiar & stubborn PC but when I do what all of you have told me to do the options part has NOTHING about Saves, so I am doing a CTRL+S & fortunately am getting back to my last save. It will be a problem if I get messed up & need a previous save. and even more screwy - when I go to the innards of the PC I show a Riven Save Game 1 & it always brings me back to where I need to be!! go figure???!!

When you go to the top of the screen what choices do you actually see?

I will check that out when I get back to the game. By the way a new problem has cropped up. When I tried to do the frog catching thing I was never able to get any. I put the foodin the center (the trap closed without any help from me & the WT says not to close it, Anyway I opened it up, lowered it waited for ahile & pulled it back up with NO frogs in it. I went on ahead in the game. PLEASE TELL ME I DON'T REALLY NEED THOSE FROGS. I'll never find my way back there!!!!

Thanks for all the help I'm getting from everyone. But I think you are all crazy, I'm not HAVING ANY FUN playing this game & if it weren't for your help I would have scrapped it a long time ago!!!!???

I recall closing it and waiting.......forever, it seemed. I definitely recall it taking five minutes before I heard a sound, raised the trap and found a frog in it. I can't say it is necessary to catch a frog but the purpose is that you will hear that sound and use it somehow later in the game. There are five sounds and shapes in the game that I later read in a WT that are some sort of clues to solving certain puzzles. I played the game without a WT and pretty much without sound and still got through it O.K. I have some saves and a bunch of notes.

Don't give up. I didn't think it a particularly easy game, either, but it's a great game despite it. We'll get you through it!

OK here's what comesup when I go to top of screen: TRANSITIONS: None, Fastest, Normal, Best. OPTIONS: Water enabled, 640x480 resolution, zipmode, ambient sounds, setup. & then the HELP column: about, credits.

Nothing there looks like a save game place to me??

New problem, am at the 'Finally a Mp Island'. Now, I more or less, mostly less, understand what to do thanks to WT but I am supposed to go down the 'lift' to go to the tram car to go to island.
Can't find the 'lift'.

If I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have anyluck at all!!!

Mome, it looks like I'm going to have to install this game and see what I can find to help you out. I'm sure it will all come back to me once I get into it.

I really don't have an inkling to where you are and where you are trying to go. If you want, EMail me a good size section of the WT you're reading and indicate where you are and I'll try to work it out for you.

Almost forgot to ask. Are you playing this on Windows98??

Oh BillyBob you are sooo nice. Don't go to the trouble of replaying unless you really want to. I am at least able to pick up the game where I lave off each time I am using the WT from the Spoiler Center & will see about getting it to you. I am at Map Island where you look down over the water & see a 'map of the places in Riven you have been, pres each squarea water forms over the island. Does that ring any bells??

Mome, I don't think you need a "lift" here--this is how you got up to the maps: "exit the rail car, head through the doorway, and up the steps outside". To get back down, just reverse the steps: down the stairs, through the doorway and into the rail car--BUT when you get in the car don't move it forward, just turn it around and get out the other side...

After reading Jenny's post and RE-reading yours I finally understand where you are/were!

Jenny got it right, of course, and if not for her I'd still be scratching my head.

Mome,
From the menu at the top of the page, check "set up" under Options. Your "save as" option might be there.

There are two ways to get to Plateau Island (sometimes called Spike Island). If you come over from the tram near Gehn's lab on Crater Island, you'll pass the spikes and take the elevator up to the overlook of the mini islands and the map room with the topography machine. There is also a tramway to and from Jungle Island, but you'll have to explore the lower level of the island to find it.