Today's games do not challenge the mind like some of the archaic gems of yesteryear.
HYDRAX is one of the most challenging that I have ever played.
I have always had a thirst for a good medieval, type adventure. HYDRAX was compelling.
I think it was the title screen that got me. The Toccata en Fugue along with the HYDRAX glaring at you... beckoning you to find him and to defeat him in his lair. I had this game when I was a kid...played it on my old C64. Forgive me, but those loading times were horrid. Back then, it seemed to be acceptable. I think waiting so long for the next room to load helped to build suspense in the game.
I have for you the "bare-bones" solution to beating the game as well as most (hopefully)
of the riddles solved after the walkthrough.
The game is afoot.
Entrance to the cave:
walk to suit
"get suit"
"wear suit"
RIGHT
Fairy room:
RIGHT
Store room:
"get lamp"
"get matches"
"light lamp with matches"
LEFT
Fairy room:
"BACK"
Snake room:
quickly "drop lamp" and the snakes catch fire and die
LEFT
Sloth room:
LEFT
Trolls and treasure room:
"open left chest"
get joystick ready, "get 20 gold coins", immediately walk to the left (do not jump left)
to the far wall. As soon as the trolls get near, jump over all three trolls (without
touching them). They will shatter the brick wall to make an exit.
LEFT
Desk and cord room:
"pull center cord"
"pull left cord"
"pull right cord"
with this combination, a CLINK will be heard. This mechanical device opens a trunk
in a distant room.
LEFT
Witch room:
RIGHT
Mirror room:
"spin mirror 3 times"
you will be transported to the Trunk room.
Trunk room:
the trunk is open because you did this mechanically with the cord pulling combination.
"FRONT"
Empty room:
RIGHT
Window room:
RIGHT
Empty room:
RIGHT
Empty room:
"FRONT"
Empty room:
LEFT
Empty room:
"FRONT"
Witch room:
"open left door"
LEFT
Desk room:
"open back door"
"BACK"
Fairy room:
RIGHT
Store room:
"drop 20 gold coins"
"get sword"
"get strength potion"
"get cork"
LEFT
Fairy room:
"BACK"
Snake room:
LEFT
Sloth room:
"BACK"
Crevice room:
position yourself somewhere in the middle of the room (get joystick ready).
"put cork in hole", immediately press up on the joystick as the water fills the room.
You will rise with it. Red Snappers will enter the room from both sides. You must slash
each of them with sweeps from your sword. You only have so much air underwater,
naturally, so you must go up for air if you are under for a long duration. You will not
have much time to reach the surface of the water when you are warned the first time
that you are running out of air. Be careful not to collide with a red snapper because
they will make you sink all the way to the bottom before you are allowed to resume
control of your hero. When all of the Red Snappers have been defeated, swim to the
opening in the ceiling to exit.
Pitch dark room:
walk to the right until you bump into a flashlight. GO NO FURTHER.
"get flashlight"
"turn on flashlight"
the room will reveal a car with skeletal passengers.
RIGHT
VICE and magic book room:
immediately "drink strength potion"
walk to the right until one of the bats (evil VICE) flies down from the ceiling.
Move to the left quickly and jump towards the bat with your sword extended to
kill it in mid-air (this is the only way to vanquish them). Now continue to dispatch
the rest of the evil VICE. It is best to take them on one at a time to avoid taking too
much damage. Wake them one at a time by moving to the right. Have patience, they
will fly to the clear, left side of the room and you can have at them.
After they have all been destroyed, move to the right side of the book.
"read book"
"say KRANGSNATZ" and you will levitate out of the room via the opening in the
ceiling.
Bar room:
"UP"
Wailing lady room:
"get silver coin"
"DOWN"
Bar room:
"open right door"
RIGHT
Empty room:
RIGHT
Empty dungeon:
"FRONT"
Store clerk room:
"open right door"
RIGHT
Werewolf room:
quickly, "display silver coin" this immobilizes the werewolf (but do NOT stab at it
with your sword if you do not wish to be swallowed whole).
"get amulet"
"FRONT"
Store clerk room:
"BACK"
Empty dungeon:
LEFT
Empty room:
"open back door"
"BACK"
Bar room:
"get water bottle"
"drop silver coin"
"drop matches"
"inv" in your inventory you should have:
water bottle, key, rusty sword, amulet, and flashlight (yes you still need
to see where you are going so you don't trip on a rock and die)
"FRONT"
Grate room:
"unlock grate with key:
"open grate"
"DOWN"
Tight crevice room:
"back" your bulging muscles prevent you from entering the tiny crevice.
"relax muscles"
"BACK"
Raft room:
"get raft"
"launch raft" Bon Voyage!
Waterfall room:
I would hate for you to be without the raft in this room. Painful experience.
Whirlpool and tentacle room:
Text will scroll telling you about the whirlpool that you are approaching.
Then more text will scroll telling you about the tentacle that just emerged from the
depths to render you unrecognizable. As soon as this text stops, hit the old space bar...
"grasp tentacle"
You will be swept across the whirlpool and into the next room.
Riverbank room:
Hold right on the joystick until you are safe on dry land. Your raft will look like a
Lego explosion but you will still be in one piece with all of your belongings.
Do not venture back into the water or you will drown...even at the shallow end.
RIGHT
Old man room:
"FRONT"
Vault door room:
"put amulet in hole"
LEFT
Lava pit room:
"dip sword in lava"
"quench sword with water"
Oracle room:
RIGHT (get joystick ready)
The Lair of the Seven Golden Dragons:
Simply kill them in mid-air as you did with the evil VICE. Only this time you do
not have the luxury of stirring them one at a time. These dragons are all jammin it
together.
Sparkling spring room:
"drink 3 times" all of your wounds are healed and you are ready (are you ready?)
to face..... Da, Da, Da, Dah!
THE HYDRAX:
You now have to battle the HYDRAX to accomplish your mission.
Stand, facing his ugly, gaping maw. He will send out two blasts of fiery breath and
pause with head slightly lowered and then repeat two more blasts and a head lower.
That is his attack pattern. Now, when the HYDRAX's head is lowered jump onto his
head and you will notice that you will keep ascending (this might take a few tries to get
right). During the ascension, keep the joystick at a diagonal UP-RIGHT and you will
land on its back. Keep holding UP-RIGHT but now, before you reach the sparkling
gem in the sky, extend your sword. This final blow shatters the HYDRAX's "heart"
which is its power source or "life force" if you will and you have achieved victory.
The End:
No spoilers on this one...guess you will have to see it for yourself : )
CLUES, RIDDLES, AND THE LIKE:
1) Those Fairies and their indistinguishable voices!
In order to correct the fairies speech impediment you must do the following:
*get the gloves from the desk in the "Desk room"
*Wearing your asbestos gloves, pick up the charred snake
*Take that smoking reptile to the Witch and she will reward you with a
magic "Tongue potion".
*Drink that potion in the Fairy room and you will be able to comprehend
the native tongue of the Fairy-folk. "Two toes from a five-toed Sloth we need...
twenty gold coins would be a good deed."
*Stab the Sloth anywhere on its body and there you have it. Two blubbery toes.
*The 20 gold coins are, of course, obtained from the "Trolls and treasure room".
*The Fairies are pleased with your gifts: "The water room you should have gone
for your adventure to carry on"
2) The Mirror room that had me just stumped for years:
If you look into the mirror your reflection will dissolve and a mist will materialize.
A voice from within the mirror will recite one of the most cryptic and tantalizing of
riddles: "Tis a long road that has no turns, but for a brave warrior whose thoughts are
turning oddly. Off to a junction where ye may learn. Off to a place to capture the key.
Off to a deeper horror for thee." I had long suspected that this room was the entry point
to where the key was hiding. Examination of the program's code told me that this room
connected to the "Trunk room" with the key as well as a couple others. I tried
every combination of words that I could think of. Exhausted, and frustrated at several
attempts (every once in a while I would go back to have another crack at it) I gave up.
I searched the web for answers. Somebody else might have had a fresh approach that
might have solved the problem. One person, on the entire internet, had the solution to
this conundrum. "Spin the mirror 3 times". Now you can spin the mirror 5 times and
you will be in the "Wizard room" but you better have already obtained the right items
from earlier on because you will not be able to go back for them.
3) The Trunk room:
You can push the trunk to reveal a hole in the floor. However, when I try to go down
it my game crashes. If anyone knows whats down there I would be interested in having
the details on that.
4) Sleeping Trolls:
You may come across some Trolls in that endless labyrinth to the front of the "Witch
room". Give them some crackers and then some Sleeping potion to drink. Take
the 15 gold coins that they are guarding and walk away.
5) Trolls and treasure chests:
As you know the left chest contains the 20 gold coins. Opening the center chest reveals a bottle and then it disappears. Opening the right chest reveals a wisp of smoke and it
dissipates. If there is a riddle to be solved here I would love to have an answer for it.
Or it just may be another one of many red herrings that this game loves to throw at you.
6) The Futuristic dudes in the freakin car.
This whole scene must be another brain duster, but if there is any substance to it,
please let me know.
7) The Wailing lady:
She's on the table sobbing away because there are big nasty trolls patrolling the alley
behind her tavern. There is no need to jump out the window into the alley with the
trolls. That room can be totally avoided.
8) The Wine Cellar:
There is a wine cellar below the Bar with a mouse in the right cask (break it with your
sword). It tells you to beware of Kobolds. I'll tell you why. It's because they are
deceitful. In the bar the Dingy Kobold says, "There is no sword like an auld sword
be it well tempered". The Nifty Kobold says, "A sword to slice an evil VICE as cold as
ice would be nice". If you listened to the Nifty Kobold speak of ice you probably went
for the ELVIN sword and had it melt on you when you dipped it in the lava pool.
What they are implying is that the same rusty sword that you used to kill the evil VICE
with is the same one that you are going to "temper" and kill the HYDRAX with.
9) The Big Misdirection:
*get the peanuts in the Bar
*give peanuts to elephant
*Elephant says to stare at the salamander to bring it under your control
*get the salamander
*locate the block of ice that holds the great ELVIN sword
*squeeze the salamander to melt the ice to obtain the ELVIN sword
*Have the great ELVIN sword melt on you when you go to "temper" it
>>Another red herring; a big one. Take heed to those riddles, there is a little more to
them than you had originally thought.
10) The Scale and the Mouse:
If you go to the left of the "Old man room" you will find a scale with something weighing
down one end. Balancing it out by putting the mouse on the other end opens a secret
passage to the front. In that room is a gaping pit with a sign that reads, "This way
down." Don't fall for it man. That first step is a doozy. Upon inspection of the back of
the sign, it reads, "No way out".
11) The Clues that lead to the destruction of the HYDRAX
The Wizard sells two spells; Truth and Generosity. Purchase the "Generosity Spell"
and cast it on him. He will give you the "Truth Spell" and your 15 Gold coins back.
In the "Old man room", Old boy's got your pet mouse trapped for his starving cat's
dinner. Bribe him with 15 gold coins to free the mouse. The Old man thanks you
and says, "The HYDRAX's heart is burning bright, like a beacon in the night".
That is the first clue we need. The Oracle is accompanied by the little mouse that
you freed. The mouse squeeks, "All lies, all lies!" And the Oracle instructs you to go
for the HYDRAX's "soft pale under-belly". But, when the "Truth Spell" is cast upon
him, he sings like a canary, "Have no fear of heights...jump ahead". Do not
misinterpret this as having to just jump into the Pit of Doom. The two clues that you are
given have accumulative force. The "beacon in the night" refers to the power source
above the HYDRAX and "jump ahead" means that you have to jump on the HYDRAX's
head in order to reach it. There you have it.
As a final note and point of interest: When this game first came out there was a large cash prize for beating the game. I believe it was in the ballpark of $2000. My hat's off to the man who collected it. If...someone actually had beat it while the offer was still valid.
Also read these ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - In The Walls Of EryxRichard Johnson - The Zodiac Stellar Stories
Pamela Ball - The Ultimate Book Of Spells
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