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SCARABAEUS WALKTHROUGH - Copyright 2003 Bobby R. Updated March 12, 2004
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I must first start off by saying this:

This is -no contest- the scariest, most confusing, most insane game ever
created by man... assuming this game WAS actually created by man...
We did actually buy the "English" game called "Invaders of the Lost Tomb" for
my Commodore 64 way back in the 80's, and it hasn't been touched in several
years. Recently, my
family and I sat down and began to play this game on our new TV. It was scarier
than ever. Once we got into the game, we found out its secrets, its REAL name,
and,
fortunately, its glitches.

So strap yourself in, and prepare for utter confusion as you enter the ...
tomb... of something... or.. SCARABAEUS!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA.


======================
[ADDED MARCH 12, 2004]
======================

I just finished playing Scarabaeus on my Commodore 64 downstairs, and it still
has the power to scare the living crap out of me. But, I figured out a couple
things, so if you've read this prior to MARCH 12th of 2004, then read it again.
I'm a LITTLE less confused about some things and a LOT more confused about
others.

I've played two versions of the game in my history of Scarabaeusing, and I've
noticed that
no two instances are the same, ever. If you find a glitch in playing one game
in one version,
the glitch may disappear or change completey in a different game or version.

An important note though. In the second level, be sure to note how you have the
spiders come
out of their caves. If you get them stuck so you cannot get around them, you're
in trouble.
For some reason, the mapping mathematics are terribly wrong during the game. I
think the whole
map is supposed to be shifted over one place when a spider is on the loose. So,
if you have him
stuck, as long as you're looking at the map, he can be RIGHT beside you. But,
if you walk toward him
coming from any direction, and he comes within one square of you, you're toast.
And even sometimes,
you have to throw every single thing I've told you right out the window,
because at certain moments,
I'm sure that this game would baffle even its creators.



===================
---Part 1--Story---
===================
Nobody knows. Everything about this game is unclear. The manual was bloody-well
written in German, and some genius thought it'd be a great idea to just slap an
English title
on the still German game and bring it overseas. Well, luckily for him, we were
born to do some investigating. That makes me feel mighty proud.

Apparently, you're some guy that wants to explore an ancient tomb. Now, as to
why you land in a spaceship is beyond me. You could be on Mars for all I know.
Anyway, a spider
bites you as you enter the tomb (no, you don't see this happen), and now you
have to find the Magical Scarabaeus before your health runs out. Had I known
ANY of that prior to actually playing out this game, I would have had a little
bit of insight as to WHAT TO DO. But, painfully, we worked our way through it.

======================
---Part 2--Controls---
======================
When you first start off in an orange room, you see a bunch of crap on the side
and what looks like a maze in front of you. As you can see, you already have
beautiful instructions and a great idea of what to do... or not. So, I'll help
you.

On the side is a little walking man. He looks like he's in a tube of some sort.
When the tube fills up with black, you're dead. The map just above this serves
almost no
purpose. It just tells you which level you're on. Maybe because there are so
many of them....   ... Nothing else really does anything... except for the
compass. The little hourglass DOES serve a purpose... but, I can guarantee that
you'll die before you run out of time.

By pressing M you can toggle sound/music. By pressing H you can see scores and
your current stats.

When you're in first-person mode, you can hang back on the joystick (or press
back) to look at the map, and see the crazy monsters that are coming to get
you. On this map,
you'll see all the walls and special... places that you can go to. Walls are
just pink lines, while these special places are coloured thick spots on the
map. You'll also be
able to see moving skeletons. Now, depending on which level you're in, these
skeletons may be .."ghosts".., spiders, or lovely zombies coming to pumble you.
If you're in the
2nd or 3rd level, I do not recommend waiting around for these skeletons.

In the 2nd level, on the right side of the map screen are the hyroglyphics you
collected. In the 3rd level, you can see the potions and the number of zombie
traps you have.

The fire button serves many purposes. In the first level, you can use it to
look at the hyroglyphics that you have collected. In the second... well...
nothing. In the third
level, you can use the fire button to lay zombie traps! Hoorah! (Note: YOU NEED
ZOMBIE TRAPS DESPERATELY!!)

To move around in the maze, use Forward, Left, and Right.

=========================
---Part 3--Walkthrough---
=========================
Alright, here we go. Go get some chips and a drink or something because this'll
take a while.


{---Level 1----}

When you arrive in the orange maze, you have to seek out the ghost (or alien,
depending
on what you make of the primitive pixelated drawings). You can see
where he is by viewing the map. He appears to be a skeleton symbol on the map,
and he's a
feisty little guy. You have to run into him 9 times. Each time you do, you will
acquire a new hyroglyphic symbol in what appears to be your hand. You might
want to write
down these symbols for future ease.

When you've collected all 9, proceed to the yellow square on the bottom of
the map. (for some reason, depending on which version of the game you posses,
this yellow dot may be in the wall on the RIGHT side of the map.) It looks like
it's inside the far right wall. Just walk into it.

{---Elevator---}

The elevator is the most annoying part of this game. You have to move the
joystick in a counter-clockwise direction without skipping a point. So, you
have to move UP,

UP-LEFT, LEFT, DOWN-LEFT, DOWN etc... until the elevator shaft turns a brown
colour. Press FIRE to get out of the elevator.


{---Level 2---}
If you haven't gone too far in the elevator, you'll now be at a humongous blue
level. If you're in a brown one, you've gone too far. No sweat, just go back
into the elevator
and turn the joystick in a clockwise direction to go back up.

Wow. Good job on making it this far. If it weren't for our handy friend, the
glitch, this level would never have been completed. Unless you're super-human,
there's no way to
outrun all of these spiders.

If you look at the map, you'll see many different coloured special spots with
squares inside each one. If the special spot is thick, it means that there is
something inside
it for you to collect. When you collect what's inside, it will no longer appear
to be thick. It's not as easy as that though. Spiders get in your way. Spiders
are invisible
until you let them out of their little house. For most cases there is a way to
trick the spider.

If the spider's home faces West, walk right in front of it, facing North, and
look at the map. Stay on the map screen until you see a skeleton appear. wait a
couple seconds
and you should see the skeleton moving farther and farther away. He may or may
not come
back, so hurry up. You can also simply stand in front of it and face WEST. The
spider should
just sit out in front of you (invisibly). The only way to see him is to run
into him or
see him on the map.

If the spider's home faces North, there is no hope for you.

If the spider's home faces East... it should be the same as facing West, but
after playing this game... who knows? You'll have to use the facing UP trick
here.

If the spider's home faces South, walk up to it and face West. Go to the map.
When the skeleton pops out, go into the spider's home. He won't come back in
this case.

If it's completely impossible to trick the spider, then you're going to have to
man it up and do it the real way. Here's how:
Run up to the spider's home and, as quick as possible, turn around and run in
another direction. Get as far away from the spider's home as possible and run
in circles around
the map. The beautiful thing is that the spider will follow the exact same path
that you ran on. So, run real fast and get back to the spider's home and go
inside!! Annnnnnnd sometimes, he just does random things and will choose his
own path. Just
part of the fun I suppose...

NOTE: Some of the above cases choose not to work at random moments, especially
if the spider in question is near an edge of the map.

Alright, now, when you've entered the spider's home, you should be able to see
a bunch of hyroglyphics. If there is a spider near you, an irritating noise is
your warning.

Depending on which kind of house you're in, and what method you used from
above, this might not matter. In the middle, there is a potion and a mask. The
potion is in fact a
potion, while the mask somehow symbolizes a zombie trap. Look at the
hyroglyphics you collected from the First level. If you see all of them on the
left side in ANY order, then move to the... pen.. or something... on the left
side WITHOUT the red line running through it. This will let you grab the
potion.
Now, this next part, nobody's exactly sure of. If you don't see them all on the
left side, check the right side. If you see them there, then pick the hand
WITHOUT the red
line running through it. You will now have taken the zombie trap.

When I recently played the game on the C64, all of the zombie trap theory proved
to be completely, utterly wrong. I collected 13 potions (when there are
supposed to
be 9) and no zombie traps.


Ok, now, you're suPPOSED to be able to collect 9 potions and 4 zombie traps,
and from experience I know this not to be true. I collected 11 potions and 1
zombie trap. But,
whatever... same thing right? Also, supposedly, when you get all 9 potions, the
spiders all disappear....or, just for fun, they might stay there, like in my
case!!
ONE of the spider's houses will have a different grid inside it. There are (I
think) 15 hyroglyphics and hands all the way around. By moving to a hand and
pressing fire, you flip tiles according to which hand you picked. Try to get
all the tiles to be facing down (no hyroglyphics, only the Female sign). You
will be greeted by a nice noise if you do this correctly. This is the Pharoh's
key...

When you think you have all the stuff, go to the elevator again.

{---Level 3---}
After going down the elevator shaft once more, you should be in a BROWN room.
Beautiful. When you look at the map, it looks much the same as the spider
level.

Before doing anything, it's a good idea to lay your zombie traps in
easy-to-get-to spots. This way,when you're running away from zombies, you can
quickly retreat to one of

your zombie traps and kill the zombie.

When you go into those special coloured spots this time though, you will see a
potion in the wall. Move the joystick up and down to choose whether or not to
take the potion.

I have no idea as to which potions are the ones to take because even though I
had all of them, some of them still gave me a nice jab to the health meter. If
you choose
correctly, a strange sound will play and you'll get some health. If you do not
choose correctly, a horrible screechy noise will signify a loss of health. In
either case, a
zombie automatically appears on the map. So, get in and out of those special
spots as quick as possible. Like the spiders, when zombies are close, a
screeching sound is
heard. If you have a zombie trap lain, lead the zombie toward it. If you stand
on it and get him really close, you can just step off at the last second and
let him ... get...
trapped. If the zombie does happen to get you, RUN. They don't give up like the
spider's do. They just keep punching you in the face.

Once again, this part has proved to be the most irritating part of the game.
Even though
all the potions I had matched the ones I looked at, I just ... lost. Not even a
health meter
deduction... just a game over. Fun.

Once you have all the potions, you'll know because you can walk through the
pink walls. You'll also know if you walk into the tomb in the middle and see 16
hyroglyphics along
the sides. I suppose that this is where the Pharoh's Key thing comes in, but
honestly, I couldn't tell you. I really have no clue what it's for.

The inside of the tomb looks like this:

If you have all the potions, there will be 16 A squares.

A BBBB A
AA BBBB AA
AA BBBB AA
AA BBBB AA
A BBBB A

There should be 16 scattered pieces on the B part of the board, and 4 open
spaces. If you want to get out of this screen, move to one of the blank squares
and press fire.
Otherwise, don't do anything at all... yet.  You have to arrange the B tiles to
be EXACTLY the same as the A tiles in 40 moves. This is seemingly impossible.
It took me 200
and some-odd moves to do it the first time. Then, I figured out a pattern. By
holding down FIRE on one of the tiles, and pressing a direction, you can move
the tiles. It's
like one of those little games that pisses everybody off!! Whee!! If you decide
to move a tile when there are a few tiles in front of it, they ALL move!!
Hoorah!! I really
can't remember how I did it because I was almost seizuring from excitement when
I did. But, I can remember that you have to somehow align the tiles around the
edges so that
you can get the tile with a woman on it up to the top, and the rest seem to
line themselves up. It's quite strange when you realize that you've done it. If
you try to push
all the tiles out to the edges, you can usually maneuver them along the edges
of the board so that they eventually line up. I did it in 38 moves. Youpa!

Anyhow, when you DO complete this next-to-impossible puzzle, you get ...
nothing. Well, you do get something, but it's about as gratifying as winning a
game of
rock-paper-scissors against a potato. But, for the sake of interest, I won't
tell you what happens.

===============
---Ow----------
===============

I wrote this walkthrough! Hooray for me. If you want to tell me how great I am
for actually figuring out what to do in this game, or have a question then
email me at:
[email protected]

I'd be happy to help out anybody who sits down and tries to play this game.

Until then, happy Scarabaeus..ing.


=============
---Credits---
=============

GAME BEATEN BY:
-----------------
Bobby
Adam
& Melinda


Walkthrough By:
-----------------
Bobby R.

Game By:
-----------------
Andromeda.. I think



I just have to put this at the bottom to get rid of the punks... If you
actually want to use my walkthrough somehow, just give me credit!! :

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