Dragonriders of Pern

I have recently reBAAGed this game having played it thru some time ago, got stuck at the end and could not 'back up' so passed it on to another GBer at Trading Post. Picked up another copy (cheap) at EB in used games bin and am giving it another try. I remember from before that it took me a bit to get used to the keyboard controls (no mouse at all), and I don't usually like or play games with "strength, health, knowledge, weapons, skills, etc" but this time it seems easier to become comfortable with it. And I am going to remember why I got stuck before and not "eat everything in inventory" before my last battle, will save some of what I need to get thru that fight and see the end of the game. I loved the PERN books by McCaffey and this game fits right in with the same feelings I had when I read them, so it looks like I am going to enjoy it and rank it with my Adventure Games that I love to play and revisit.
Love, Betty Lou

Hi Betty Lou,

I have not played the game, but I absolutely love the books--they are among my absolute favorites--how cool to have a dragon in the house

I enjoyed Dragonriders, it has its flaws but is a nice change from standard adventure games.

HEY, JeninChgo I am using your walkthrough and you mention several bugs/tips(problems), but I do not see this one, I was using the "hammer" to break thru the blocked entrance in the caves and cannot now put it back and get my knife so I am armed to fight the tunnelsnakes, any suggestions?
Thanks
Love, Betty Lou

Hi BL, Hmmm....one I didn't catch, eh? Did you try to equip the knife & not bother trying to unequip the hammer? I don't think you need to "unequip" something first.

Love, Jen

Hi Betty Lou:

This one was a favorite of mine. There was just something about the atmosphere. It's too bad they didn't do more of them.

Jean

Hi Betty Lou

I absolutely loved this game when I played it, so much so, I was really sad when I finished it. The funny thing is, I'd never heard of it, my daughter brought it to me - because it wouldn't play on her computer... I am so so glad it did on mine.

My daughter is a big fan of Anne McCaffrey, and has every one of her books, so I may 'borrow them' when I have more time, (too busy playing TMOS at the moment)

I sure wish they would make another dragonriders game, they hint at it, with the dolphin, near the end, but so far I have not heard anything about a sequel...(sigh)

luv
Sue

Betty Lou, please let me know if you've figured out the problem so if it is a bug I can add it to my list in the WT.

I think the hammer goes into the gold 'equipped' circle in the top right corner & the knife gets highlighted in a gold bracket inside inventory. So essentially, they can both be equipped at the same time. I could very well be wrong. It's been awhile since I've played it.
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Love, Jen

Hi Jen, You are CORRECT, I do not need to "unequip" the hammer to highlight my knife. So this is not a 'bug' but some confusion on my part. Sorry I took so long getting back to you, once I got going in the game I got so involved with it and continued on my merry way. Having a blast. I have to recheck your walkthrough for HERBS and count them this time, I may have picked up two before I came to it in the w/t so am confused as to how many I should have now, am currently in Harper Hall for the first time. Loving this game. I was amazed at how easy it is to kill the tunnel snakes, must be because I had done it before and been killed once or twice before 'getting the hang of it'...This time it was a breeze! Also have to read forward and see where I got stuck last time (had eaten everything in my inventory and by the time got to the end kept running out of 'strength' before finishing the last battle, want to avoid that this time so I can finish the game). I do wish they would make some sequels to this and make it a series, the PERN books really 'grabbed me'. Thanks Jen
Love, Betty Lou

Well, I hope I don't mess you up with the herb count. I didn't really keep track of them because I saved every time I saw a tunnelsnake/badguy before I fought so if I got hurt enough to take an herb, I reloaded instead. Chicken method.

Also, I think it's easier to kill the snakes if you forget what the trainer taught you about fighting. He makes it far more complicated than it is & doing the fancy moves usually killed me.

Thanks for letting me know & enjoy the rest of the game.

Love, Jen

Hi Jen, no you have not confused me re herbs, I have them all and now up to 17, all accounted for. I picked a couple here and there when I saw them and that turned out to be before your w/t mentioned them that is what I confused myself about. All OK now. Found that drinking one of the medicinal remedies puts my health at 100% so am OK for the time being. A SUGGESTION here for your w/t if you are interested, I found in the Dark Caves and Caverns that if I was walking down a long curved passageway and could not see the tunnel snake that backing up and walking along the "outside" wall of that curve, i.e., if it curves to the right walk along the wall on your (real) left and vice versa, this puts your view of the tunnel opening where that snake is at a better angle and you can see it very plainly, no problems there. Hope this is helpful. Am enjoying this game and reliving my experience of 'throw the rock, sneak up and steal the dice pouch' and laughing at how complicated a move this is....having fun!
Love, Betty Lou

Oh, and I don't remember if you stated this in your w/t or not, default for D'kor is walk indoors, run outdoors unless you hold down the shift key where you want to switch and do the opposite of default. Found it very helpful when I wanted to walk outdoors to do this and have run indoors several times if in a hurry or bored with walking, just watch out what I am 'carrying' in my 'pocket'...
Love, Betty Lou

Well, I had hoped to not have any problems with this game that I could not solve or get around without calling for HELP! Not to be I guess. I am using Jens w/t and am in the Prison, sneaking around and trying to turn off torches and open other barred doorways, have read about problem with 2 action icons conflicting with one another and tried the 'solution' of pressing "0 ins" on my keypad to turn off sneak mode and enable action icon, sometimes it works and other times it doesn't.....if I cannot 'push' all the buttons that open other doorways I will not be able to gain access to other 'niches' etc in this prison, any ideas what I can do now? (or do I need someone else's SAVE to get past this? would rather be able to do it on my own). HELP please and thanks
Love, Betty Lou

BL, sorry I didn't see this until now. Hope I can clarify. IF I can remember correctly!

0/Ins doesn't turn off sneak. It just cycles through the available action icons. You shouldn't have to stop sneaking to push the blocks/torches. If you want to turn off sneak, hold down shift & walk (which would be run). Running turns off sneak. I don't know if it will help you to turn off sneak, then use 0/Ins to cycle through the available actions? Make sure you are right up against that pushing block or torch & have an action icon present at the top of the screen before you use 0/Ins. Try standing near the button & moving a little left/right/fwd/back. You might be getting an action icon everywhere you stand when near a block/torch, just not the right one, so try different positions around it. Oh, and remember to put sneak back on before you move on!

The prison is the buggiest part & unfortunately, one of the hardest parts due to all the sneaking. I've gotten rid of my saves long ago. Hope you can muddle through it.

p.s. I did note in the WT using Shift to toggle between walk & run, however, I didn't notice that outdoors default is run & indoor is walk. I think, at Ft. Hold I ran(default) in the vendor booths area (outside) & walked (default) in the courtyard where the archery contest & fountain were (also outside). I thought it was alternating. Basically if you're going from one load screen to another it changes the default. So if in one place you're running, then hit a load screen to a new area, next you'll be walking. But I'm not all that observant, so you could very well be right.

Love, Jen

Thanks Jen for all your help. I was able to reload from a previous save and this time 0/ins worked, sometimes a bit shakily but worked in the end. I was able to finish this game with your help and suggestions. And I too was not very observant regarding the default for run/walk(leftshiftkey toggles). I was able to make it work so I could run when it was taking too long to get somewhere, and walk when I wanted to look for something on the ground. It really is too bad this game was so 'buggy' even tho it did work in the end and I am still very disappointed they did not continue with more games in this series since I loved the books so much. I'm still waiting for 'Hollywood' to wake up and 'find' this series and start making the movies ~ anything is possible, they "found" Harry Potter didn't they? What fun! And, next time I play this one I am not going to 'pick/pickup' all the herbs/medicinal brews I see, just note where some are for future use after getting my inventory all used up while being 'ill'....could have used a bigger boost to my health near the end but made it OK this time, felt more confident about the fight scenes by this time and this time around.
Love, Betty Lou :kiss: