Hi,

I'm stuck at the Build a Rocket exhibit. I think I'm supposed to select a type of propulsion, fuel, etc., but have found nothing that enables me to do that. Controls for selecting the modules of a rocket, Mission, Launch Pad, Launch Status, and Launch are active; but, of course, the rocket never launches because it's just an empty shell. Above that is a block with labels and selection fields for 6 things (ie, fuel, propulsion, etc.), but clicking on any of them does nothing.

I sure hope someone can help - I'd like to finish this game before the next millennium!

Thanks.

Jema

Hi Jema....I did a lot of searching, but haven't been able to find any hints or a walkthrough for this game. It is Astronomica: Quest for the Universe? Maybe someone who has played it has a suggestion for you. Just Adventure did mention that there are comprehensive hints in the manual; do you have it? If not maybe someone else does.

Love, Witchen =O)

Jema, I played this about a year ago and don't remember much about the puzzles. It seems like the fuel, etc depend on the mission you choose. This game had some very interesting and very well done puzzles.

Hi Witchen (love the name),

Thanks for all your effort. Yes, the game is Astronomica: The Quest for the Edge of the Universe (1994). I, too, have searched the internet every whichaway I can think of, but have not found any reviews, walkthroughs, hints, or tips. I had already checked Just Adventure - one of the few sites that even mention this game.

I have the manual but you can get the same hints while playing by clicking on one of the mentors. Unfortunately, there's nothing to tell you how to get some button to work. Examples of hints for this puzzle are: "Think what you really want to send up." "Some fuels are dangerous to use."
That last certainly implies that you're supposed to be able to select a fuel, but I can't.

I've completed all but three of the puzzles and this is the only one so far where a button apparently doesn't work.

Anyhow, thanks much for your effort.

Love back to you,

Jema

Hi Pokey,

Thanks for the reply.

You're right, the mission determines the type of rocket, fuel, propulsion system, etc. The problem is after clicking on mission, I can build a rocket, but the buttons for selecting fuel, etc. apparently don't work, nor (as in some of the other puzzles) do those fields automatically fill in. I've tried to select those things both before and after selecting the stages of the rocket.

As I said in my reply to Witchen, the hint about some fuels being dangerous implies that I'm supposed to select a type of fuel, but I can't!

Jema

It's been a Looong time since I played this, but I think it's possible that you have to build exactly the right rocket for the particular mission before the game will let you put fuel in it. Try experimenting with the rocket configuration and then see if you can use the fuel button.

There is a tricky sequence at the very end of this game. If you get stuck there, post again. I had to track down one of the people who actually worked on the game in order to get a hint.

Hi Becky,

Thanks for the suggestion and I will try it.

It'll be a time now before I get to the end because last time I had the game on, I got caught by the Night Watchman and will have to start over at the beginning. After having that happen to me once, I thought I was being careful to check the monitor before leaving a room, but guess not.

Jema

To all,

I'm so glad I found this forum - you people are the greatest!

Hi Becky,

Sorry, it didn't work. I started a new game, went to the Lobby and did the first puzzle that opens the Exploratorium, and then went directly to the Build a Rocket exhibit. You can select modules for either a 2-stage or a 3-stage rocket. From listening to the Mission umpteen times, there are 3 missions. I built both a 2-stage and a 3-stage rocket for each mission. Built the rocket both off and on the Launch Pad. Clicked Launch Status first, then Launch; clicked Launch first, then Launch Status. Clicked the light on top of the gantry both before and after clicking Launch or Launch Status.

Nothing ever appears in the rectangular boxes next to fuel, etc. - they begin black and empty and stay that way regardless of what I try.

Since both you and Pokey finished the game, it would appear this is not a game bug. Maybe there are one or more corrupted files on my game CD.

If you or anyone else has any other suggestions, please, please let me know.

Jema

Jema -- sorry this is so frustrating! I have Astronomica loaded on an older computer, but I don't have the computer hooked up on a monitor so I can't play the game to figure out exactly what to do.

You might try playing other exhibits -- the Planetarium is great, for instance -- and when I buy a new monitor I'll try my hand at rocket building again and see if I can figure out what might be going wrong.

Alternatively, I could loan you my Astronomica disk and you could see if that solves the problem.

The nightwatchmen gets easier to avoid as you get to know the museum well enough to figure out where he is when you see him on the monitor. Until you know the museum pretty well, he is almost impossible to completely avoid. Some of his antics are pretty funny -- the woman I spoke to on the design team (she provides the voice of the computer) said that the actor playing the nightwatchmen improvised a lot of the stuff he does in the game. (I especially liked the bit with the bathroom keys.) The actor went on to do several television appearances -- an example of an acting career that started in computer games!

Becky - Thanks for offering the loan of your disk.
I hope it doesn't come to that.

I've solved all the puzzles except the 2 at the Build a Rocket exhibit and Build a Telescope. Actually, I built the telescope, was told it was correct, but it didn't reset the exhibit. Guess it won't do that until all 25 other puzzles are completed. Periodically, I've checked BaR to see if something in another puzzle triggered something at this exhibit - so far, nothing has.

At this point, I'm soooo tired of Sara - sometimes she shows up 4-5 times when I'm trying to check the watchman. I've started yelling at her, "Maybe I could get going if you'd keep your mouth shut!"

Anyhow - I had a later version of QuickTime installed, which the game replaced with its older version. Just before checking here, I ran System File Checker and was informed that one of the QT files installed by the game may be corrupt. Don't know if that has anything to do with my problem, but I'm off to search the Internet to see if I can find the game's version of that .dll.

Thanks for the interesting info on the watchman. I, too, like the bathroom keys and also the one where he mispronounces Milky.

Be back later.

Jema

Becky - Well, that didn't work. I also changed the QT video setting from hard drive to video driver, but that didn't help either.


Bye for now,

Jema

Finished! Could not do Build a Rocket and its companion puzzle Plot a Course because BaR would not display correctly on my computer. Maybe a video driver conflict or flaky QT setting?

Anyhow, I found a way to reset that exhibit without solving the 2 puzzles. Also, found a way to restore the game so I could stop having to begin at the beginning over and over. Good thing, too, because when I reached the sequence near the end that Becky mentioned, I must have played it a dozen times before I got it right. Without being able to restore to an earlier location, I'm afraid this game would have found its mangled self on the trash heap!

Thanks to all and to all a good morrow.

Jema

"Anyhow, I found a way to reset that exhibit without solving the 2 puzzles. Also, found a way to restore the game so I could stop having to begin at the beginning over and over. Good thing, too, because when I reached the sequence near the end that Becky mentioned, I must have played it a dozen times before I got it right."

Jema -- I am so impressed that you could do all this. Not only the final sequence, which defeated me utterly, but resetting those exhibits without actually completing them. I sure wish I'd known you years ago and could ask for your help when I was playing this game.

It's probably too late, but I may have dredged up yet another memory about Build A Rocket. I think you have to load cargo before you can launch. And I think the way you do it is by clicking on the body of the rocket once you've got the right configuration. Might be worth a try if you're still curious.

It took me so long to beat this game that I cheated and went into the video files on the hard drive and played them randomly until I saw the various ending scenarios.

Tally Ho -- If you do decide to get this game (and I think it is well worth playing) be warned that it loads an ancient version of Quicktime onto your hard drive -- I think it loads it somewhere in the Windows directory. You can find the ancient Quicktime and delete it, but it IS a pain in the neck to have to deal with it at all. If you do a walkthrough, you might want to include instructions on how people should deal with the unwanted Quicktime files. That would give other gamers a chance to actually experience this unusual game.

I'm pretty sure this game was the first attempt to use the Myst idea for edutainment, even before SPQR. Astronomica is highly successful IMHO, especially considering its age. I keep it loaded on my oldest computer and wander through it occasionally just for old time's sake (at least, I do when I have the monitor hooked up).

The idea of interactive exhibits gives the game a lot of variety, and many of the exhibits/subgames have a wacky sense of humor. I especially enjoyed consulting the astronomers from the past (there was one that was hilariously incompetent). My favorite of all time is the Solar System baseball game. I just love watching the grandstand as it is pulverized on Jupiter.

The company that created Astronomica was working on another edutainment game, Archeaologica, and had completed much of the game art when they went out of business.

Becky - What video files? This game installed very little on my hard drive - the game icon and a Sound folder is about all. I had thought of doing what you did before I found the way to do what I wound up doing. After checking the folder on my hard drive, I went to the CD and couldn't find a Video or Graphics folder. There's a Places folder with 500-600 subfolders. I checked about 200 of those and found only 1 .mov file - the Hyperquest logo that is the first thing that appears. Most of the files in the subfolders were Megafile.hyp so I thought all the graphics were probably in those. Now, I'm going to go and check the other 300-400 folders.

Yes, I'm curious enough to go back and try clicking on the rocket. I did try it a number of times and nothing happened, but maybe I didn't have the right rocket the times I tried.

Tally Ho - If you get this game and write a walkthrough, one other thing you might want to mention is it uses resources like a dog eats - in big gulps (no cat nibbling)! The best thing to do is exit the game frequently and reboot. Once, my screen went black, I exited, checked and had 0 available resources. When I tried to reboot, my system froze solid and I had to turn the power off, wait, and turn it back on.

BTW, what is a "Heureka" game?

Jema