Future Wars (walkthrough)
FUTURE WARS
- Introduction, Monastery, Princess
- 4135 A.D., Subway, Air Terminal
- Plot, Returning to the Past, Crughon Ship, Endgame
- Corridor Maze
FUTURE WARS - Part 1
INTRODUCTION
This game is entirely mouse driven. Be aware that some of the objects you need to use or manipulate are very small. By careful use of the EXAMINE command and the cursor, you should be able to find everything. Checking over the whole screen before you try anything (if time permits) is generally a good idea, and EXAMINE "X" may lead to some clues as to the proper course of action. Proper positioning may also be a problem, and you may have to experiment with moving your character before you can achieve the desired result. The game is wholly linear, and you must do things in the proper order. Save your game _often_.
You begin as a humble window washer, clumsy and browbeaten. After you knock over your bucket and get chewed out by the boss, TAKE the bucket. EXAMINE the scaffold, move to the far left of the scaffold, and OPERATE the "up" arrow. When you stop, OPERATE the window that's ajar, and go inside the building.
In the waiting room, EXAMINE the wastebasket and TAKE the plastic bag. If you move to the right and EXAMINE the rug, you will notice a small lump under the rug. Move to the far right lower corner and OPERATE the rug. This reveals a small key, which you will take. Go into the bathroom, and OPERATE the cupboard. TAKE the can of insecticide. OPERATE the WC door, and TAKE the small red flag on the floor inside (it's very tiny). Finally, USE the bucket with the sink, and get ready to play a really corny practical joke.
Return to the waiting room and USE the full bucket on the door in the back wall, then go to the door on the right wall and OPERATE it. In the ensuing confusion you can go through the door into the office next door. OPERATE the door again to close it. USE the key on the second cupboard from the left and you'll find a typewriter. EXAMINE it. There is a number on the ribbon which you should write down. OPERATE the desk drawer and TAKE the sheaf of paper inside.
Now, EXAMINE the map. A small inset map of Europe appears, and careful scrutiny should reveal a small hole. USE the little flag with the hole, and the whole wall recedes, revealing a secret passage. SAVE the game at this point because the timing can be tricky in this next sequence.
Go into the passage. The ceiling will start coming down at you. Quickly, EXAMINE the number pad to the right of the door, then OPERATE the five digits which make up the number you saw on the typewriter ribbon. The ceiling will stop and the door will open, and you can go through and to your right into the laboratory. There is a machine with two buttons and a big slot. USE the sheaf of paper in the slot, then OPERATE the green button and the red button in that order. TAKE the documents the machine spits out, and move to the white circle to the right.
You will disappear and reappear in a swamp in days of old. Save the game here. If you move off the green/brown land areas, you will sink into the muck and disappear. When you get close to the swarm of mosquitoes, USE the insecticide on them, and proceed to the left. Just before you leave the screen, you will notice something gleaming in the dirt. EXAMINE it, and you will find a pendant which you will take. Go off to the left.
You are now in a wooded area by a lake. Work your way out of the bushes, and EXAMINE the foot of a tree by the lake. You will find a rope. If you proceed off the screen to the left, you will be killed by fanatic "monks" who take you for a spy, so you had better get a change of clothes. USE the rope on the overhanging branch of the same tree, and you will be perched up there. Some unsuspecting soul will eventually come by and go skinny dipping in the lake. Descend from the tree and TAKE his tunic and slacks, then USE them on yourself. Now, when you go off screen to the left, the monks will not even be there. Go figure it. This screen has an Inn and the entrance to a castle. Go up to the guard and SPEAK to him. Then USE the pendant on the guard. He'll tell you to come back later.
Go off the screen to the left behind the castle and you'll be in a wooded glen where a monk's robe is hanging from a branch. You can't reach it, so OPERATE the tree to shake it, and while the robe won't fall, a coin will drop out of the pocket. TAKE it and return to the Inn. OPERATE the door and go inside. USE the coin with the innkeeper, and he'll show you to a seat. You'll overhear snatches of conversation from the other customers. It seems the Master's daughter is missing. Leave the Inn and return to the guard. USE the pendant on him one more time and he'll let you in to meet the Master. The Master will ask you to rescue his daughter, the lovely Lana. Of course, you hasten to comply.
As you leave the castle, you will find the guard asleep. (So hard to get good help these days!) TAKE his lance, then go to the wooded glen; after much trial and error, you'll find the right spot in which to stand. Now, USE the lance on the monk's robe (you will immediately put it on). Return to the castle and go off the screen at the bottom.
MONASTERY
You will be near the monastery, the only entrance to which is guarded by what seems to be a ferocious wolf. However, careful cursor watchers will notice a small metallic glint under the wolf that indicates this is a creature of technology, not nature. This is one of my favorite bits. Save the game, go back to the lake, and USE the plastic bag with the lake. Hurry back to the wolf, and when you get close enough, USE the full bag on the wolf. He blows up _real_ good! You can now go to the monastery door and OPERATE it. This is another good point at which to save the game.
The central hall of the monastery features three doors (right, back and left), and those famous circling monks you've heard so much about. They continue to move in a clockwise fashion around the room, staying close to the edges of the floor. This is their ritual. Follow it closely, because you deviate from it at your own peril.
First go to the door on the left and OPERATE it. You will find a room with two stained-glass windows and a monk standing next to a cup. As you approach him, he will tell you to alert the Father Superior that something is ready. (The skorzuum? It's Greek to you!) Leave and proceed clockwise to the door on the right. OPERATE it and go in. You will find the Father Superior who will ask you for a cup of something else you won't recognize.
Go back to the first room, TAKE the cup, then proceed clockwise to the door on the back wall, and OPERATE it. Go downstairs and up the ladder. OPERATE the barrels until you find one that's full, then USE the cup with the barrel. Go back upstairs and clockwise to the Father Superior. You'll give him the cup, and he will immediately pass out. EXAMINE his body, and you'll find a remote control. TAKE it, then USE it on the "piece of furniture" underneath the library. This will open, and a magnetic card will be revealed. TAKE it, leave the room, and go clockwise to the wine cellar again. Go up the ladder, then USE the remote control on the barrels until you find one that opens. Go through it.
THE PRINCESS
You'll be in another lab room. In it you'll find a beautiful princess encased in a transparent cylinder, and a computer console floating in mid-air. In your excitement over finding the princess, don't neglect to TAKE the gas capsule on the floor by her cylinder. EXAMINE the console, then USE the card with the console. This will free the princess, and you can relax for a bit while you have some things explained to you. You'll be taken back to the castle and told that the princess is really Lo'ann from the far future. She and her father are agents of the Earth Government trying to stop the Crughons from taking over the earth. She will recruit you and take you -- along with those all-important but nearly forgotten documents -- back to her home in the year 4135 A.D.
And you thought window washing was dangerous!
FUTURE WARS - Part 2
4135 A.D.
You materialize in the wasteland (oops, wrong game!) that is the Earth of the future, but Lo'ann is missing. You must proceed alone. Everywhere you look there's nothing but rubble and ruins. If you EXAMINE some rubble to the right, however, you will find a half-buried empty pocket blowtorch. Go off to the right, and TAKE the box of fuses half-buried there. In the center of the screen is another pile of rubble to EXAMINE. There, fully buried this time, is a manhole cover. OPERATE it and descend to the sewers below.
Thankfully, this is not a maze. Keep a close watch on the thin pipes along the wall. Eventually, you will come to a small tap. USE the empty blowtorch with the tap and it will fill with gas. This comes in handy almost immediately, when you have to rescue a mother and child from a horrible mutant sewer beast. USE the blowtorch on the monster (keeping a safe distance), and the mother -- in gratitude -- will materialize another exit for you leading to the surface. Go up.
You are now in front of a subway system whose automatic doors seem jammed. Simply USE the lance on the video camera above to doors, and you will be admitted. Save the game here. On the lower left-hand side of the screen is a newspaper machine. Carefully EXAMINE it to see a small money slot and a small coin collector. EXAMINE the coin collector and you'll find a coin, you lucky dog! USE the coin in the slot, and...um...nothing happens. Despair not. EXAMINE the coin collector again, and the coin will be back. USE it in the slot again, and this time you are rewarded with a newspaper. If you do this quickly enough, you won't miss your train. Board it, sit back, and relax for a second.
You will be deposited in an air terminal. A bored security guard will prevent you from going up to the plane, so you must distract him. Go down the stairs at the bottom of the screen, and EXAMINE the fuse box and fuses on the left. USE your fuses with the fuses in the box, replacing the burnt out middle one, then save the game. Go back upstairs. The guard is now watching television, and if you move just behind him, you can sneak up to the escalator to the plane. This may take more than one try. On the plane, you will be taken captive by the Crughons (there is no way to avoid this at all), and wind up in a tiny cell.
Crughons are among the dumbest race in the galaxy because they don't take any of your inventory (and how you can continue to conceal a lance on your person is beyond me). Timing here is a bit dicey, so save again. USE your key on the air vent to remove the grate, then USE the gas canister on the vent, and finally USE the newspaper on the vent to keep the gas from blowing back in your face. If done correctly, you will have killed all your Crughon captors, and the cell door will open. You can go into the next room, but before you can do anything much there, Earth command will rescue you, and take you before the Council, where you will be sentenced to death as a Crughon spy. What?
FUTURE WARS - Part 3
PREHISTORY AND ENDGAME
When last we saw our intrepid window washer cum planetary savior, he was about to be executed as a Crughon spy. Fortunately, Lo'ann shows up in the nick of time to save him. And with the help of the documents (remember the documents?) you brought back, uh, forward, oh, never mind. Anyway, they've been decoded, and the Crughon plot to destroy Earth's defenses by planting a bomb in the past before the defenses are built has been revealed. One time bomb has already gone off. You helped Lo'ann foil the plot in medieval land where you first met. Now, the council needs a volunteer to accompany Lo'ann to the distant past, and to foil the third and last sabotage scheme.
Three guesses who volunteers.
You are sent back to the dawn of creation (or thereabouts), and end up in a cave. Head down to Lo'ann, and she will give you an air pistol. Follow her to the left, then save the game. The entire plain below you is swarming with Crughons! Your only hope is to wipe them out in one real nasty arcade sequence which will have the pure strategists in the bleachers screaming for the programmers' blood.
I, upon seeing the shape of things to come, immediately handed control of the mouse to my fourteen year old son, who has much more practice in such matters. To kill the Crughons, simply position the cursor over the tiny scurrying figures, and hit the fire button on your mouse. Be especially quick to blast the ones surrounded with red boxes marked DANGER, because those are firing back at you, and they are not firing to wound.
After the first wave, the remaining horde will converge towards the center. Pick off those on both the left and right sides to keep them from the center, and they won't become DANGERs. At some point, the Crughon commander will come out on a floating platform. Be sure to get him quickly, too. This may take more than one try; it took my son, Deadshot, four tries. Learn patience and persevere.
After all the Crughons are blasted, one will -- with his dying breath -- shoot Lo'ann. EXAMINE her once to find she is still alive. EXAMINE her twice and you will find an invisibility pill. EXAMINE her three times and you will find her pendant, which you can USE on her to send her back to the future, where she can be healed. You will then proceed alone to the Crughon spaceship.
By the ramp is a dead Crughon. EXAMINE him and find a magnetic card. Then, go up the ramp to the cockpit/bridge. USE the card in the card reader on the back wall, then OPERATE the suspended animation case in the foreground. The lid will raise. TAKE the garment, and USE the garment on the video camera, protecting yourself from prying eyes. Click on the case a few times and you will lie down. OPERATE the case, and the lid will come down. While you're in suspended animation, the ship will return to the Crughon base. Save your game _before_ it lands in the hangar!
Timing is everything in the next section, and the odds are you'll have to try this more than once in order to succeed. When the ship lands, you'll wake up. Immediately move to the rear wall of the cabin. As the door opens, about halfway through its cycle, USE the invisibility pill on yourself. Two guards will enter. As soon as the second guard is inside, slip out the door. You will automatically go down the ramp. Move just past the guard at the foot of the ramp, go towards the bottom of the screen, and go left behind the boxes. If you time everything right, you will be hidden by the boxes when the pill wears off. If you make even one mistake, you're doomed as doomed can be, and must restore.
EXAMINE and OPERATE the big box at the lower left, and you will find it to be a perfect hiding place. You will be taken to a storage room. Your pendant is a telepathic interface, which will tell you that the only way you can thwart the Crughons is to reprogram the master computer. Easy, right? There are only three problems: (1) you are a window washer, not a programmer; (2) you don't know where the computer is; and (3) you have only six minutes of real time to reprogram the computer and escape from the ship. Actually, problems (1) and (2) are minor. Problem (3) throws two of your worst nightmares at you: a maze AND an arcade sequence. Save before you take another step if you value your sanity.
When you go through the storage compartment door, you will find yourself in a corridor. In addition to ladders (which are everywhere), there are also holes blasted in the floor in inconvenient locations. This maze comprises 18 screens, each screen showing two levels of corridors, three screens across and eight screens down. The computer room is on the lowest level in the middle screen. I found the best way to map the maze was to click both mouse buttons (as if I were going to save the game) as soon as entered a new screen. That paused the clock's countdown while I sketched each block. This is not difficult to map, thank goodness, but the route to the bottom is a tad circuitous, to say the least. On top of that, the mouse interface is not the most user-friendly, and I found there were times I had to click wildly in order to get the stupid hero to go up or down a ladder. Try to maintain an even strain throughout this sequence. Practice until you can get from the top to the bottom in under three minutes. My best time was 2:40.
When you get to the computer room, move quickly as you can to the console on the left. USE the magnetic card in the console and the rest will take care of itself. You've saved the day, so now you can save yourself and get off this ship before the fleet leaves without you. The escape door, marked with several prominent arrows, is located on the top corridor on the left-most of the three screens on the fourth level from the top. With a little practice, you should get there in plenty of time. Once you do, the rest of the game is automatic.
Congrats!
For those who are hopelessly confused by mazes, Part 4 of this walkthru describes the exact route down to the computer room, and back up to the hangar for your escape.
FUTURE WARS - Part 4
THE CORRIDOR MAZE
As promised, for those who are hopelessly confused by mazes, this file describes the exact route down to the computer room, and back up to the hangar for your escape.
FROM THE STORAGE ROOM TO THE COMPUTER ROOM
Go one screen right, down the ladder, one screen right, down, then slightly right, and down again. Go one screen left and down the ladder, one screen right, down, then to the right, and down again. Go one screen left, down twice, one screen left, down four times, one screen right, and up twice. Go one screen right, up three times, then go to the right, and go down five times. Go one screen left and down, then one screen right, and down. Finally, go two screens left, down, one screen right, and you're at the computer room.
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM TO THE HANGAR
Go one screen left and up, two screens right and up, one screen left and up, one screen right and up five times. Go to the left and down three times, one screen left and down twice, one screen left, and up four times. Now, go one screen right and up, one screen left and up, and right to the door with the arrows pointing to it. You're safe!
FUTURE WARS is published by Interplay Productions and distributed by Mediagenic
