Walkthrough for
Sherlock Holmes - The Lamberley Mystery
by Ian Eveleigh
Written by Richard Bos
First, a few notes.
To start with, this is a PAWed game for the ZX Spectrum, and features all the
good and bad points of those. Words are significant to five letters rather than
the more usual Quill's four. To talk to people, you use SAY "WHATEVER" TO
CHARACTER or similar phrasings; the name may go before your speech, but the
quote marks are important. To get something from a container, GET OBJECT FROM
CONTAINER is required; just GET OBJECT does not work.
It's also a multi-part PAW game, and an unusual one in that you can not only
go forwards, but also back between the parts. You'll need to, as well. On the
Spectrum itself (if you're lucky enough to still have a working one), this
means having a real tape to save your position when you swap between parts,
preferably a separate one from the one on which you save your game normally.
Playing under an emulator, you use a tape file, but how to do this differs
between emulators - just be careful not to accidentally overwrite your game
files. Because of this diversity, I've pretended hereunder that we're playing
on a Spectrum.
Obviously, since this is a walkthrough, spoilers are rife below. There is a
help command; it is not often useful, but consider trying it anyway. I'm not
taking you past every single clue and sight, but I do provide some commands
which are not necessary to get to the end, but which would be required for any
player to discover what to do next. It's also not a 100% walkthrough - I'm not
going to give you the Last Lousy Point. You don't need it to solve the case,
anyway.
Mr. Eveleigh has done a varied job of evading guess-the-verb. Usually, he's
quite good at it. There is one glaring, and frequent, exception: to make a cab
ride, you have to use a combination of commands, none of which is obvious up
front. ENTER CAB, e.g., doesn't work. Once inside the cab, the driver himself
is more amenable, and will accept both "Victoria Station" and "Buckingham
Palace Road" (and, because it's still a PAWed game, "Victoria Road",
"Palace
Station"...), and similar for some other destinations.
Real errors, by the way, are rare. There are a few misplaced messages. I've
only been able to find one serious bug (noted below), and that one is not a
game-breaker.
This game has some unusual features, too. One are the three different waiting
commands: HOUR, SLEEP and WAIT. All can be abbreviated, which is good, because
you'll need them a lot. The other are the menus (command MENUS, of course),
which are supposed to make (RAM and tape) loading and saving easier, and
provide shortcut commands. The experiment was worth trying, but leaving out the
normal SAVE and LOAD commands was, IMO, a mistake.
There's one more thing about the game which is unusual. Many Spectrum games
featured superfluous rooms, added only for (paltry) realism, but The Lamberley
Mystery has more than most. In some cases (Holmes' own house comes to mind)
this does manage to provide some good atmosphere. You can, for example, look up
Watson in your medical directory, or play your violin. It is quite useless, but
also amusing. All in all, the game is, with all the limitations of its time,
well-written and sympathetic.
And with that, as Holmes once said, the game is afoot.
Examine mantel; get key from mantel. Open drawer, examine it and get lantern
from drawer. You won't need the revolver. The page has brought you a telegram,
so read telegram. A Dr. Fordham will arrive at 11:30. Since there is nothing
else to do right now, you might as well wait until then (enter C twice).
Alternatively, you could spend your time examining your surroundings, smoke
your pipe, or even wander around the house, as long as you are back in your
sitting-room before 12:00.
Dr. Fordham will arrive as soon as you are in your sitting-room between 11:30
and 12:00, and stay for a couple of turns. Make notes of what he says. Then say
to Fordham "where is the manor". (In fact, as long as this question has "where"
or "what" as its first word, Fordham will answer as if that's what you'd asked.
Ask anything else, and he won't understand you or ignore you.)
That's all Fordham can tell you, so it's time to do some investigating
yourself. Go east, down and west, get all from stand and wear coat and hat,
then unlock the door and go west. Hail a cab and climb in. Say to the cabby
"Victoria Station", and wait until you arrive (one C). Pay the cabby, then get
out. (Note, by the way, that you have to spell it "cabby", even if the game
itself occasionally errs into "cabbie".)
Go east twice, and buy and take a ticket. (You won't have, or be able, to
specify where to.) Then go north twice and east twice, and wait around until
1:01 (two C's should do the trick). The train for Lamberley will arrive. This
will entail going to part 2, so get your save tape ready, then "get in" and
follow the prompts.
Upon loading your position in part 2, you arrive at Lamberley Station. Go
east, where a four-wheeler is waiting for you. Climb in, and say to driver
"Pycroft". Wait for 19 minutes (one C, four Z's), then get out - no need to pay
this driver.
Go east, then north twice. Inspector Hopkins should be here, and tell you
what he knows about the case. If not, wander around the house and grounds until
you meet him, then return to the drive. Then go north and west, into the study.
Examine the body, then say to Watson (who is, after all, a doctor) "examine
body". Take and read the note, then examine the bottle. Next go north and
examine the doors. That's all we need to see in Pycroft Hall itself, so go
south, east, and south three times.
We'll now visit both neighbours, Mr. Randall first. Go east twice, north
twice and east twice again. Randall should be here - if not, find him in the
house, probably east of here. Interrogate Randall - that's all from him for
now. Next, Miss Wilder. Go back west twice (or back outside from wherever you
found him), south twice, east once and south.
Go southwest. Examine the dressing table, then take and examine the pen. Go
back northeast, then south and east. Interrogate Miss Wilder. Examine the
flowers, then the knife. Ask Wilder "who lived here", then go west and north,
where Mrs. Roylott will appear. Now ask Roylott "who lived here", and make a
note of her reply.
We've discovered all we can in Cheeseman's, so it's time to go back to
London. Go north, then west four times. Climb in; say to driver "the station";
and wait for 19 minutes again. Get out. It should be dark by now, so light
lantern. Go west. You have over an hour to wait before your train arrives.
Enter 0 (that's zero, not oh), 2 C's, and 9 Z's, if you haven't spent a turn
examining something random. Get in, and answer "yes".
The game now asks you where in London you want to go. We want to see what the
house-agent has to say about Pycroft Hall, and particularly about Cunningham,
next. However, it will be evening when we arrive, and they'll be closed.
Realistically we should go home, but that would involve yet another tape
change, so we'll go straight to Edgware Road and wait it out there. Presumably
we'll sleep on the train... Anyway, prepare your save tape, enter "Edgware
Road", and follow the prompts again.
Having loaded your position in part 3, you arrive back at Victoria. Go west
twice, south twice, west twice. Hail cab, get in, say cabby "Edgware Road".
Wait for a while - just enter "0", we have time aplenty right now. Pay the
cabby, get out and wait (seven 0's, three C's and a single Z) until the
house-agents' opens.
Go east. Ask assistant "Pycroft Hall". Note Cunningham's new address. We'll
pay him a visit. Go west, hail another cab, and climb in. Get out your save
tape again, say to driver "Kennington Lane", and follow the prompts. Note that
this time, you will have to go through the menu (command "M" or "menus" -
strangely enough "menu" won't work) to load your game. This is supposed to be
easier than entering the command "load", as in most PAWed adventures. Your
mileage may vary on this; mine certainly does.
Pay the cabby and get out into Kennington Lane (which isn't a lane but a
major road; London can be funny that way.) Go north and east. Interrogate
Cunningham. Go back out, west and south. At some point, Watson will now suggest
that you go to your club. If not, you could wait around a bit until he does.
In any case, back in Kennington Lane, hail a cab, get in, and say to cabby
"St James's Street". C, pay cabby, get out. Now wait around until the club
opens at 10:00 (three C's should do it). Go west twice, then southeast. Say to
Pike "find Mrs Cunningham", then pay Pike (a bit crass, that, in a St. James's
Street club, but never mind...)
While Pike is trying to find Mrs. Cunningham, we have another lead to follow:
Moulton, at his hotel, about whom Mrs. Roylott told us. This will take us to
another part of London, in part 3 of the game (even though it's very close to
St. James's Street, and in real life you'd not bother with a cab), so get your
save tape ready again. Go nw and east twice. Hail cab, climb in, and tell cabby
"Craven Street". Save, and load in part 3 again.
Pay the cabby, get out, go south and east. More waiting, this time for
Moulton to turn up at noon: one 0, one C. Interrogate Moulton... or try to.
Follow Moulton, and follow him again out into the street. You'll never catch
that cab, but "get number". Hail a cab of your own and get in. Ask the cabby
"who owns that cab", then tell him "Shipley's Yard".
Wait (C), pay the cabby, get out and go east. Ask the boys "who owns cab
136". There's something fishy about that look... A bit of silver is good for
memories. Pay the boys, and they'll cough up the correct name. Go north. Wait
until Shipley leaves, at 7:00 (six 0's, one C, 8 Z's), then examine the desk.
Read the list. (Note that you can also "Find Brunton in list". You will then
get the same message, but no points, and a relevant flag will not be set,
leaving the game unfinishable unless you come back here and use the simpler
command.)
Go south and west, hail a cab, climb in, and tell cabby "Audley Court". Wait
until you arrive (only four turns this time), pay the cabby and climb out.
Knock on the door. If it's opened, go north and east. If it isn't, Brunton
isn't in, and you'll have to wait until he arrives, which should be at 8:00. In
either case, ask Brunton "Where did you take Moulton" (or a similar question).
If you were inside, go back out to Audley Court.
Hail another cab, get in, and say to cabby "Conduit Street". Wait (one C and
seven Z's) until you arrive, pay the cabby, climb out. Knock on the door, then
go west and north. Say "yes" to Moran. Make a note about what he says about the
hidden room. Take the key, then go south and east.
We still have one lead left to follow in London: Pike's search for Mrs.
Cunningham. He said he'd be in touch, so let's go home to see if he's left
news. This will involve another part change, so get your tape, hail a cab, say
to the driver "Baker Street", save the game and load part 1 again.
After another trip through the menus, pay the cabby and get out. Go east
twice, up and west. You should find that a letter has arrived. Read it - that
name sounds familiar. Time to pay another visit to Lamberley... Go back east,
down, and west twice, hail a cab again, climb in, and tell the driver
"Buckingham Palace Road".
Wait (one C), pay cabby, climb out, east twice, buy ticket, get ticket, north
twice, east twice. Wait until your train arrives (one 0, two C's), get your
save tape ready again, get in, and follow the prompts.
Back in part 2, go east, get in, say to driver "Cheeseman's", wait one C and
four Z's, and get out. First we'll tie up the loose ends with "Miss" Wilder. Go
east four times, south twice. She should be here; if not, try finding her
elsewhere in the cottage. Interview Wilder.
Go north twice, west, north twice, east. Before confronting Randall, let's
take a look in that hidden room Moran told us about. Go north and east. Break
the ceiling. (Funny how unperturbed that butler is by all this...) Go up,
unlock the chest, get all from it. Examine the belongings.
Go back down, then west, south, and east twice. Randall should be here - if
not, find him. Interrogate Randall. Now all that's left to do is make the
arrest, but Holmes can't do that himself: blow your whistle.
And that's that: another solved case for the notebooks. I'll leave you to
find the remaining seven points yourself.
