I'm about to give up on this game. I've put 5 hours into it and haven't gotten anywhere. I'm getting seriously bored! I am trying to play both the original and the anniversary game. I thought one might help with the other if I got stuck but they seem to be very different.

I am in Day 1 trying a) get to a crime scene by somehow distracting a cop in the park, and b) trying to do something with a clock in grandma's attic (in the original game). (In the anniversary game, I cannot get to grandma's house at all. In the original game I spent days before I realized I could click into a different map.) I have looked at the 2 walkthroughs here which state to pick up the sketch book in the trunk in the attic. WHAT SKETCH BOOK??? I don't see any sketch book.

I don't know how those of you who played all of these classic games did it. There doesn't seem to be any direction in the games as to what to do. Click everything everywhere and maybe you'll get lucky.

Edit: I have finally figured out how to move the clock "hands" and the walkthrough says the dragon head should be at the top. I think I have tried every item at the top and "nothing happened" when I turned the key. Which one is the dragon head? They all just look like blobs and the wheel is very hard to turn.

In the park, you need to get the mime to follow you to the cop and the cop will go after the mime. It's hard to do because the mime might get distracted and follow the woman or the man. Then you can interact with his radio to go to the crime scene. Good luck.

I haven't played the anniversary edition so I don't know how much this game diverges from the original in terms of puzzle solutions. Knowing which version of the game you would be referencing for any particular puzzle would be helpful. It has been too long since I played the original to remember puzzles in detail.

OB, for the 20th Anniversary Edition, check "Messages" with Grace in the Bookshop. She should inform Gabriel that a package was received from his Grandmother. The sketchbook is in that package.

Pressing the spacebar in any scene will highlight all the hotspots.

Thank you all!

TLC, I'll give that a try.

Drummerboy, I think I might have the sketch book in the anniversary game. I'll have to check. How do I get to grandma's in that game or don't I need to yet?

I did not find a sketch book in the trunk in the attic in the original game where the walkthrough says it should be. Edit: Unless I found it and lost it somewhere???

Marian, my above questions referred to the original game (the blob looks on the clock). I can't get that to work at all. None of the blobs being at the top of the clock help me when I turn the key.

UHS has hints for the original game. If you would like one or two of these for a particular puzzle you are working on, please let us know.

The sketch book should be on a chair in the attic, according to a walkthrough I just looked at.

Thanks Marian. I do forget about UHS Hints. I will check around again for the sketch book. I feel like I've clicked on everything. That's the problem for me with the pixel games. I can't see anything. I think I misinterpreted the walk through I looked at. It seemed to say the sketch book was in the trunk but it does not actually say that. Looking at UHS hints, it sounds like I probably have to look at that sketch book to make the clock work (unless I'm not reading that right either). I'll try this all out later. I'm playing in my Win 7 computer which I don't keep turned on all day like I do my Win 10.

Sounds good, ob. My vision has never been good and it's worse now. I will have to take a look at this game one of these days to see how I fare. The second game in the Gabriel Knight series uses full motion video and that should be much easier to see than the first game. I suppose the graphics are the big argument for playing the anniversary edition, but I don't know how it compares to the first game as a game. I will have to check that out sometime too.

I am really trying to play the original and only started the anniversary edition because I did think it might help if I got stuck. So far, I know that some things are found in different places and that the map that I used to get to grandma's house in the original game doesn't seem to exist in the anniversary game (at least at this point). I'll see what happens. Unfortunately, I don't like the voices of Gabriel or the narrator in either game and I really don't like listening to the same lines over and over which I seem to have to do. I don't like listening to the same things over and over even if I like the voices.

I liked both the original Gabriel voice and that of the narrator. It is true that there is some repetition with certain things said over and over; I do remember that. If the game had been made now, there might have been more variety of response in that regard. When the game was first released, full voiceovers in a game was still something of a novelty for players.

Oldbroad.
This is one of my favourite games EVER but I’ve never found it easy, even though I’ve played it many times. And the ancient graphics can make it really difficult in some areas.
However, I might be able to help you.
I’ll look at the walkthroughs I have and see if I still have any that could be useful to you because the story told in this game is such a fantastic one 👍

Thanks Mad! Like I said, I don't know how anybody played these games. Maybe if I had started gaming when these games were popular I would have been okay with them, but I also think it's possible I never would have gotten into gaming at all. It took me years to figure out that conversations often held clues and items could be found and used. That was Blackstone Chronicles, probably the first game I ever finally managed to play. I started it multiple times over several years before I got the hang of it, but still used a walkthrough towards the end of the game.

I found the sketch book Marian.

TLC, I did eventually make it to the crime scene and on to Day 2.

I did not however, get the clock to work. I also didn't get any further information on the markings left at other crime scenes. The cop told me to check with some other cop but no such luck there.

Can I get dead ended in this game?

Edit: Hah, I just looked at the walkthrough and see some other stuff I missed. I used the magnifying glass and tried to use the tweezers at the crime scene but found nothing to pick up but the wt says I should have.

I can remember it being very easy to miss stuff at the crime scene. It is all there, though.

I've emailed you the most detailed walkthrough I have, oldbroad, and I do also have some save games if you get to want some 😊

Got it Mad! Thank you!

Original game. Day 2. I need the gift certificate from out of the cash register but I can't seem to open the cash register. I was supposed to pick it up in Day 1. Did I just hit a dead end or am I doing something wrong with the cash register. I've tried the 2 hand icons and the gears icon.

Edit: I have read that the register will open on the morning of Day 2 but I have already spent several hours talking to people in Day 2. I have one more person to talk to though. I hope I won't be wasting my time. I'll be back!

2nd Edit: Well, I guess the day won't end unless I do the park thing, which I can't do without the gift certificate. I tried going into my earliest Day 2 save and also my latest and earliest Day 1 saves but cannot open the register. If there is some trick to it, please let me know.

Thank you.

Last Edit (I promise): I found a video walkthrough and saw the correct icon to use to open the register. This game has too many icons that do the same thing. I don't know why a "open door" icon would open the cash register but the "hand use" icon would not and neither would the "operate gears" icon. Anyway, I am playing this game in my Windows 7 computer and had already shut it down for the night but I knew I would not be able to sleep wondering if I could get the gift certificate or not so I booted the computer back up just to do that one action. Thankfully it worked and I have shut the computer down again. I hope I will feel up to dealing with this game tomorrow. It is quite a chore!

Glad you got that figured out.

One thing I wanted to mention about the graphics - I played the game when it was first released in 1993 (yikes!), and I could see everything on the clock at Grandma's quite clearly. Ironically, these graphics looked much better on the old CRT monitors than they do on present-day monitors. Just letting you know that it was not a case of players having better vision or something...

And regardless of how you ultimately feel about the first game, keep in mind that #2 is very different including the graphics. This can also be said about #3, which has yet another graphical style among other differences. What they all share in my opinion is an interesting story.

Yes, I figured the graphics must have looked better back then. To me, nothing on the clock was identifiable at all.

It is not the games. I just don't think I'm cut out for these old games though. Sometimes I don't even think I'm cut out for any games. I know I seem to complain about them all. I am probably just transferring my frustrations with myself onto the games. And, unfortunately, story is not my strong point. I usually don't understand what's going on but especially when I start having too much trouble with gameplay. I lose it.

One thing I wanted to mention about the graphics - I played the game when it was first released in 1993 (yikes!), and I could see everything on the clock at Grandma's quite clearly. Ironically, these graphics looked much better on the old CRT monitors than they do on present-day monitors. Just letting you know that it was not a case of players having better vision or something...

Yes, Marian !! That is very true. And something about which Jenny100 always reminded us 😁

I understand that "story" in a game is not your priority, oldbroad, but if there's any other help I can offer, just ask, and I'll see what help I might have in my Gabriel Knight Archives !! 😊