Walkthrough of Conan: The Mysteries of Time by Niko =^.^=
Contents CC v 3.0 By-NC-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

Thanks to Lord Gelgothia for his walkthrough. I wouldn't have been able to
complete the game without his guidance.

This is a detailed walkthrough with spoilers. If you find the game too
difficult to pass in a section, just refer to it here with the level headings.
I played this game through with an emulator, so as to have the instant load
function so I could actually get past the third stage.

*******
* Listing
*******

Controls
Story
Commentary
*******
Stage Number           Made up names
*******                *******
Stage 1                Cave Area
Stage 2                Desert Ruins
Stage 3                Gorgon's/Hydra Lair
Stage 4                Viking Ship
Stage 5                Forest Adventure
Stage 6                Ledge Jumping Castle Area
Stage 7                Tomb of the Cryptic Pharaoh
*******
Weapons and Enemy Details

*******
* Controls
*******
[A]                     Weak or high attack
[B]                     Strong or mid-height attack
[Left and Right]        turn and run in that direction
[Up]                    jump straight up
[Down]                  jump forward in direction facing
[Start]                 Pauses the game
[Select]                Enter item menu

Combo Buttons! Yes, with great skill comes greater customization of your
controller.

Hold [A/B]+[Left/Right]         An attack, but no movement (?)
Hold [A/B]+[Left/Right]+[Down]  (which is also to say)
Hold [A/B]+[Diagonal Down]      Crouch down, also picks up things!
Tap [B]+[Up]                    An amazing jump kick which you will never use!
Tap [B]+[Down]                  Pick up an item
Tap [Up] then [Left/Right]      Controlled Jump!

*******
* Story
*******
You are Conan! Fight monsters and defeat bosses! Win the Mysteries!

*******
* Commentary
*******

Seriously. It's just as bad as Athena, where your sprite has no real motivation
but to continuously go right and fight or avoid monsters, then defeat a boss.

This game is twice as good as Athena in that you can actually backtrack in a
stage! Who's the genius that came up with that?

Something else I noticed while destroying skeletons and imps for hours on end:
there appears to be a randomization to the damage dealt by both Conan and the
monsters. I'm not absolutely certain, but every once in a while, I can kick and
poof an imp with one hit, and sometimes it takes three. Skeletons always take
four kicks to fall. It's either damage or health randomization. Don't know why
they did that.

Something else to note while attacking. Every once in a while the kick attack
will cause Conan to step forward a full step. This means if you attempt to kick
someone while you are teetering on a ledge, you may fall off. Be careful about
kicking!

Another important note, if you decided to play this game, and were smart enough
to use an emulator, save often! You just got past a difficult to get to in the
jumping area? Save! You just defeated that annoying Hydra? Save! Finally made it
to the burning witch in the woods? Save! There are no continues or save points
in the game. There is no "Try Again". It's "HA-ha! Loser! Restart at the
beginning!"

Something else that's annoying, When you enter the Item Menu, by pressing
Select, you have to exit it by pressing A or B. Select, left, and right just
change your item selection.

*******
* Stage 1
*******

It looks like a cave. But beware the lava below! No really, it's easy to step
off a ledge and fall straight into the lava. There is no mercy in this game.

You start on one ledge, possibly just having freed yourself from somewhere no
longer accessible to the left. There's a ledge below, and another below that.
It looks safe enough, until a skeleton pops up and, in your attempt to avoid it,
you slip off the lip into the abyss.

Figure out your controls in this level. Learn the hit box with Conan's foot.
When you defeat a skeleton, you'll see that the hit box with the sword is all
over the place. The sword is the only weapon you never lose, by the way. But
it's also not much better than your foot.

Once you've gotten the sword from a skeleton (after which they drop nothing)
free the hanging skeleton from it's chains. Now drop down here and try to find
the remains. You may wish to get the fireball from the imp at this point, too,
as a pink, winged and beweaponed beast appears and blasts fireballs at you in a
continuous stream. If you approach him, *poofs* away. Catch him in the air by
gaining higher ground. Hit him with a fireball and as he lands he'll collapse
and drop his weapon. Once you have the trident you can escape this dreaded
place of fire.

Jump right past the chains where the skeleton remains were freed, onto one
ledge, then up to another, and drop down to the third ledge for a leap across
the gap. Don't miss, because you'll end up stuck and having to kill yourself
(although resetting at this point is okay; it's just the first area) if you
didn't fall into the lava. Once you cross that gap, you'll see a golden lion
spitting fireballs at you from a slightly higher ledge. He's got a snake tail,
so it makes me think of a Chimera, but we all know Chimera have two heads.

Anyway, Trident away! Everything in the path of the Trident of the gods is
destroyed and the Chimera explodes! Now you can trot on your merry way. If you
want, drop down through a gap in the next section of this area, to alert the
pink demon again, and blast him with a fireball to get your Trident slot
refilled.

Keep going right-

*******
* Stage 2
*******

Plop! You're in a desert landscape with broken columns and whatnot. Suddenly,
what look like a Greek warrior charges you! You kick him in the gut and he
collapses. Suddenly, an imp *poofs* near you and slaps you in the head! What is
going on? Go right, and you soon feel a rhythm for the charging Greeks. Wait!
There's a lady waving at you. Another Greek charges you, but she ignores him.
Weird. Well, better kill her to be safe.

You have to hit the lady quite a few times. As you edge closer, she should
disappear, and you'll be good to go. If she doesn't disappear, watch out! She
*poofs* into a snake and you instantly die! What fun!

Have you noticed the annoying "bronze" sound your sword makes? Try hitting the
statue of the Trojan. Two hits and it collapses in a pile of dust and rubble.
And a strange thingy falls from the sky. In your item slot, it looks like a
shiny metal sand dollar. In actuality, it's a shiny metal shield, the same kind
Perseus used when defeating the deadly Medusa. Hmm. Why would you need that?
And why is it so well hidden? Thanks to Lord Gelgothia for that one.

*******
* Stage 3
*******

Plop! With no pomp nor circumstance you are in another darkened area.
Presumably, the columns you passed that were still in good shape in the
previous stage were the entrance to a lair.

Be super careful with your jumps here. This will frustrate you if you don't
time them well. Getting caught in mid-jump by the imp is the worst.

Make your way across the ledges and approach the fat, four-legged lady (A
Chakat!) quickly, drop down in front of her and brandish your sword. She's so
impressed, her head falls off. Take it and keep jumping. If on the other
hand, you didn't charge in bravely, you'll need to get that sand dollar out and
wield it (press A) to deflect the chakat/medusa eye beams. Otherwise she zaps
you and that's one less life. Insta-death! Gotta love it!

Woah! Empty space? Be brave, and take the longest leap you can. Or just fall
off here, it doesn't matter. The game designer's just wanted to freak you out.

Continue onward, being wary of that annoying imp. There's a skeletal three
headed dragon thingy! Looks hard to beat. What can we use to kill it? Can't get
close enough for the sword. Hands and Feet are no good. Not sure if the Trident
will destroy all three heads with one hit (it won't), and the fireballs run out
too quickly. And I really don't feel like trying to kill that imp to get more.
Guess we'll use the object we just got, Medusa head!

Time you shots here just right. Each skull only needs to be hit twice. Six
shots, and you're still holding her head. Sweet. Put it away because right
after the skeleton dragon explodes-

*******
* Stage 4
*******

Plop! You're in a storm. On a boat? Ah! A viking is attacking you! And he's
really hurting you with that ax. Better hurt him back. Three vikings fall
bravely beneath your boot, or blade, or whatever you used. Now what's that? A
bird? It just flew overhead, to the stern of the ship. Now it's coming back to
the prow. There's a streak of something through the sky. Suddenly, you're dead!
What? No, seriously, what the hell was that?

Looks like the bird is a Raven, a harbinger of death. And to save your fragile
existence, you must end its. But how? It doesn't even fly down where you can
hit it? Try and try again, really. The best way I've found is to kill the
vikings in view of the bird as quickly as possible. This can be done by
punching them in the head, instead of trying to stab them. As the third one
*poofs* the bird swoops down low over the deck, moving all the way right, then
back again left. I would suggest you try to punch it (A) with your sword as it
moves past you.

If you take too long here, a lightning bolt strikes the boat, scaring the
vikings away and instantly killing you. Wow! Fun Times!

*******
* Stage 5
*******

Plop! You're in a forest. Suddenly a giant, furry man charges you and starts
mercilessly pummeling your head and torso. You try your best to stab him, but
his hair is too thick and dirty to really find a good "killing" spot. A blue
faerie trots by and shoots an arrow in his back. The giant falls over,
clutching his legs in a fetal position, and dies. A brown orb floats away from
his *poofed* body. You grab it and feel much better. A then another giant
charges you.

I'm calling this giant Calibos, because of his horns and "goaty" legs. No other
reason. He's a pain in the butt. Just like the Greek warrior, he keeps
appearing on the right and blocks your way. You cannot push past him. And, when
you do push him, he hurts you. The best bet is to punch him until the blue
faerie shoots him in the back, then punch the faerie and take his daggers. Use
the daggers to finish Calibos, every time. Two daggers is all it takes.

Now you've made it to the scene in The Lost Arc, where the ghosts are flying
around the person on the stake. Wait, no, these seem to be will-o-wisps, or
bogarts, or some sort of bodiless ghoul. Ghast even. I don't know. Let's go
with ghast; it's not used enough. So the ghast pick you up and drop you a short
distance away. Why? Who cares. All you care about is grabbing the thingy on the
ground in front of the fire.

Now that you have the thingy, you can see it's a torch. Start punching ghast
likes it's going out of style. Once all the ghast are gone, the person tied to
the stake floats away. Let's assume that was their spirit leaving this mortal
coil.

Continue right through another Calibos onslaught. There peeking out on the
right is a green dragon. It's tossing fireballs from its claw. Get close enough
and it breaths fire! Sweet! As Calibos and the faerie run past the dragon, it
fireballs and flames them. Makes it easier for you to kill them, and the
dragon. Woot. Work your way to the dragon and get a dagger or two into it's
heart. A few Caliboses later, and-

*******
* Stage 6
*******

Plop! Your on a floating ledge thingy and suddenly there's a dude in a nice
outfit, with horns on his head, throwing magic bolts at you. It's Tim, the
Disenchanter! And, zip, outa nowhere comes this baby dragon looking thing that
gets up on your leg and starts breathing fire up your chest. Come on!

Punch Tim, punch the dragon, and start jumping. Looks a little like Stage
1, eh? Well, it's not. You slip off one of these ledges and you're likely to
fall forever. So jump to the right. There's a castle? No place to jump onto (I
tried) so jump up and to the left. Then to the right again. Then left again.
Then right. Had enough? Some guy pops out a drawbridge and throws what looks
like a mattocks at you. Great, one more thing to worry with.

So if you managed your items right, you should still have a Trident. You could
use it here to destroy this guard, or you could attempt to use the daggers.
Your choice. Doesn't that feel good?

Actually, use the daggers. They are replenishable. Do this by facing away from
the gate-guard, and ducking. He'll pop out and try to hit you, but the weapon
will pass right over-head. Quick now, turn around and throw some daggers! Don't
forget to let go of Down before you hit Right. Otherwise you'll do a standing or
running jump right off the ledge.

Once he stops opening his gate and throwing things at you, continue up and
left, then up and right. Another guard! What? Okay, treat him like the last,
and fill his knees full of knives. Now he's gone, he left the door open.
carefully jump up and right on to the door. Don't Down leap, or you're likely
to over shoot it and go sliding down the castle wall into the blue.

Landing squarely on the gate-

*******
* Stage 7
*******

Plop! You're in a tunnel of sorts. Moving away from the safety of the light,
you venture forward. Ach, Gotteslieben! A mummy! Stabbing doesn't seem to do
much, punch it! Whew! And now a four way intersection. Falling is never good,
so it's time to get those honed jumping skills in order.

Really simple setup: the first intersection leads you up and down to new
tunnels. Going straight will take you to a three way intersection where you
should just go straight, and straight again at the next intersection.
Basically, going down at these two will lead you to falling on spikes.
Insta-Death! Woohoo!

As you travel straight, you come to an Egyptian style dog that looks up at you.
Then puts it's face back to the floor. Huh. Whatever. There's a really high
ledge here, too. Wonder what's up with that.
So you're wandering around, beating up or jumping over mummies. What are you
supposed to do? Got your sword out? Go hit a vase. Keep doing that. Eventually
a gray urn will appear. Grab it. Go and destroy all the vases. Because you're
Conan, that's why!

Eventually you'll come back to the Inubus. With four urns (that's all you need)
you'll see Inubus raise its head and start blasting you with eye beams. What?
Stupid guard dogs. Sand dollar doesn't work. Medusa's head doesn't work.
fireballs, trident, nothing! Hey, did you get a thing from the mummies? No? Go
back and kill some more until you get a blue thing. Got it already? Good, wield
it and attack Inubus when it start attacking you.

What's that blue thing? Looks like an Egyptian hieroglyph "eye". Lord Gelgothia
called it "The Eye of Rah" which seems good here, because it blasts a beam at
your enemies.

Once you knock out the guard dog (ain't no drugged steaks around, this time) an
item appears. It look like an ankh. Okay. Grabbed and selected, it lets you
jump really high. Great. That takes care of two ledges. Are there anymore? Don't
know. Next door.

*******
* Stage 7.5
*******

Hey, now you're in a tomb of sorts. There's a set of four ledges and four
niches around a bust. There's a sarcophagus. There's a giant mask. Huh. So, now
what?

Apparently the urns go on the ledges. But, ha-ha, of course you can't just _put
them_ where ever and how ever you want! No, sir! No, no. Go ahead and try.
Oops! You died? Imagine that! Here, LG gave us a good start on the right order.
My game gave me a different order. Yours might be different as well! There's no
logic to this puzzle! Top left gets the third urn. Bottom left gets the second.
Top right gets number one, and bottom left gets number four. Yay! And an axe
falls from the ceiling.

Now when you go over and take a look at the giant mask on the wall and it's eyes
flutter open and start blasting you like in The Never Ending Story. Except they
don't cause instant death. Yay! So far, every new thing you've gotten has been
used on the next baddie. So whip out that ax and start whuppin' on the mask.

Done? Alright! Now walk to the next screen on the right and-

*******
* Game Over
*******

That's it? Yup, that's it. Conan the King. Good job. Almost none of what you
went through had anything to do with Conan. You know why? The game is a port of
an old C64 game called Myth: The Mysteries of Time. I think they added Conan
for marketing purposes. Not because C64 games weren't well circulated (because
they weren't; I certainly never heard of this game, but then I played with an
Apple ][ e instead). Just for marketing. Great.

*******
* Weapons and Enemies
*******

There are 15 slots in your item list. Each one represents an item you could
discover in the game. Some appear optional, others are needed to pass bosses.
Almost like my death maze I made in Kindergarten, except for the useless
weapons. My maze only had items you actually needed.

* Fist          Conan's most trusted weapon, along with his foot.
* Sword         Conan's iconic weapon, never to be dropped.
* Fireball      Possibly the gizzard of a green winged imp; they don't use it!
* Trident       Awesome weapon of the gods that destroys all creatures, once.
* Shiny Disc    This shield looking thing is good for deflecting Gorgon rays.
* Medusa Head   The Gorgon no longer needs this snake infested cranium.
* Torch         Fist bump some ghast heads with this one.
* Dagger        This tiny weapon is not surprisingly stronger than your sword.
* Eye of Rah    Good for making a bad dog heel.
* Ankh          Good or jumping really high. Used twice in the whole game.
* Urn           Inubus urn
* Urn           Fat, Gray Majin-bu urn
* Urn           Water spirit urn
* Urn           Fire spirit urn
* Ax            An infinite supply of double bladed battle axes.

There is the greater part of two dozen enemies throughout the game, but due to
its memory limitations, it looks like you only fight at most three on each
level. Don't worry: there's enough variety to annoy you to no end.

* Green, Winged Imp
* Drops: fireball, green orb of health.
* Stages 1, 2, 3
* Destroyed by: one to three kicks, or one fireball
 This little guy will *poof* into existence above, below, or next to you. If
he appears above, he attempts to alight your scalp. You can hit him for his
efforts and usually he will poof away without hurting you. If he appears
elsewhere, or you are far enough away to force him to land before he reaches
you, he walks across the ground in an attempt to bite your ankles. He cannot be
halted in his attempts to reach the other side of the screen, but you can make
him pause with a hit, and make him *poof* and drop his goods with a second boot
to the head.

* Skeleton
* Drops: Sword (once)
* Stage 1
* Destroyed by: four kicks, five punches, or two fireballs
 This punk is always popping up near you, giving you a hard time. Ha-ha! No
bones about it! LOL! He really sticks it to you! Oh, man! Okay, really though,
he'll take like four kicks, or five punches, then he just falls to pieces. Every
once in a while he'll drop a sword, if you hadn't figured out how to pick things
up. Other than that, he's a nuisance.

* Pink Demon
* Drops: Trident
* Stage 1, Appears after the skeleton is unchained.
* Destroyed by: one fireball
 This guy's not much of a threat, though when he lands he'll start blasting
fireballs at you. What a coward! When you go in for a hand-to-hand
confrontation, he just *poofs* away. Kill him with a fireball to get his
trident. Shoot him while on a ledge, then get him to land. That's the easiest.

* Chimera
* Drops: nothing
* Is guarding the mid-point in Stage 1
* Destroyed by: one trident
  Not a big threat, but once you approach him, he's difficult to safely escape
from. You'd better have the trident before attacking him. That is all.

* Greek Warrior
* Drops: dead (haha!)
* Stage 2, continuous stream
* Destroyed by: one kick, one punch, on stab, one fireball
  You can't jump over this guy for whatever reason. Either kick him in the
gut, punch him in the head, or push past him.

* Mirage Lady
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 2, guarding the 1/3rd point
* Destroyed by: lots of punches, stabs, kicks or fireballs.
  Really annoying lady. Hit her until she stops moving, then hit her some
more. Eventually, when you get too close, she'll disappear or turn into a
snake. So you're either free to pass or instantly killed. What a challenge!

* Trojan Statue
* Drops: shiny disc
* Stage 2, minding it's own business
* Destroyed by: two sword punches
  There is no precedence for interacting with the background scenery, but
apparently if you punch it a few times, it falls apart. Then drops a prize.

* Medusa/Gorgon/Chakat thingy
* Drops: Her head
* Stage 3, guarding the mid-point
* Destroyed by: a sword punch or two
  Your first go at a boss thing and it blasts you with insta-kill rays.
Great. And she doesn't even move around. You just need to get underneath her
head and swing your sword. Then take her head.

* "Hydra"/ Three headed skeleton dragon
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 3, end boss
* Destroyed by: Medusa eye blast, two per head
  You apparently need the Gorgon's head for his guy. Each head only needs two
eye blasts. Time it right, or you'll waste your shots.

* Viking
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 4, comes up from the oars then *poofs*
* Destroyed by: four punches, kicks, stabs, or one fireball
  These guys are persistent and tough. Punch them in the head more often than
stabbing them for a quicker kill. Or use your fireballs. In either case, you
have to kill three in view of the raven, and kill them quickly.

* Raven, Harbinger of Death
* Drops: nothing
* Sits calmly on the prow, just behind the maiden-head
* Destroyed by: one sword punch
  Once you've killed three vikings while in it's view, it flutters around like
a freak. You have to hit him with your sword punch when he flies down low. The
jerk even flies under you! Makes it really hard to finish this level quickly.
If you can't kill this bird, a lightning bolt strikes the boat and you're
all dead. D.E.D. dead.

* Calibos
* Drops: brown orb of health
* Stage 5
* Destroyed by: lots of punches and kicks, or two daggers
  This guy's angry about losing his hand to Perseus. So he takes it out on you.
Punching and kicking takes five-ever! Use a sword and he falls after four or
five hits. Use a dagger and he falls, eventually, after two hits.

* Blue faerie thing, could be a gnome or a brownie
* Drops: daggers
* Stage 5
* Destroyed by: one punch or one dagger
  It's easier to punch this guy than to kick him. He *poofs* and drops
daggers. Awesome. He indiscriminately stops and shoots an arrow. If it hits
Calibos, great, otherwise, your face is in for a treat.

* Ghast
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 5
* Destroyed by: several torch punches
  These buggers will grab you and drag you and lift you and drop you.
Surprisingly, they do hurt you while dragging. Not a lot, but if you're already
down to one or two bars, you're done for. Just be sure you have the torch in
your hand before you try to punch them, or you won't be able to touch them.

* Tim the Disenchanter
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 6
* Destroyed by: several punches, kicks, or daggers
  This guy's so pro that if he *poofs* in air with no land below, he'll just
keep going and *poof* out again. He *poofs* in and lands, waits a sec then turns
his head toward you and points a finger to blast a bolt at you. The blasts are
annoying, but after a while, they hurt. Punch and kick him, but he won't feel
it until he's attacked you once.
*Warning* His shots will catch you in mid-air if you're jumping. Time your
jumps accordingly. Your hit box against these bolts is huge!

* Little baby dragon thing
* Drops: Daggers and black'n'red orbs
* Stage 6
* Destroyed by: well placed punch, kick, dagger, or Tim bolt
  These little snots will breath fire on you and hurt you faster than Tim.
They can even breathe fire on you from above or below on a separate ledge. Yay,
for x,y location checks!

* Drawbridge Guard
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 6
* Destroyed by: Lots of daggers, or one trident
  This guy's a jerk. He doesn't stick around long enough to make friends,
unless he's waiting on his mattocks. To get him good, make sure you have
daggers equipped, then face away from him and duck his throw. The mattocks goes
a ways away, you turn back and toss a couple daggers in his knees. Duck and
repeat.
  You'll find this difficult at first because Tim and the baby dragon are
constantly coming at you for autographs. And by autographs, I mean they are
damaging you. At some point, either before or after you kill the first guard,
you will need to replenish your health. Use Tim to kill the baby dragon. So
much faster and easier.

* Mummy
* Drops: Eye of Rah, eventually
* Stage 7
* Destroyed by: five punches, four kicks, two fireballs, one Eye of Rah
  As LG says, it's basically a skeleton wrapped in tissue. They hurt, but if
you just punch it in the head five times, they leave you alone. You can jump
over these guys, but you'll need to kill a few to get the Eye of Rah.

* Inubus
* Drops: probably that Ankh
* Stage 7
* Destroyed by: Eye of Rah blasts, about five
  Super simple guard dog. He sniffs you for the four urns, ignores you if you
don't have them. He'll zap you if you have all four urns, and it doesn't hurt
but a little. Just use the EoR on him until he lays down again.

* The Sanctum
* Drops: you, if you do the puzzle wrong.
* Stage 7
* Destroyed by: nothing. just get the urns placed correctly
  It's so simple! You just need to know where to put what. No, you don't get
any clues! Go ahead, search the internet. There is no rhyme or reason to this
puzzle.

* Giant Pharaoh bust
* Drops: nothing
* Stage 7
* Destroyed by: a bunch of axes to the face
  The last boss you'll ever have to face, unless you're playing this at work,
on company time. Doesn't quite give as good as he gets. And really, you just
stand there and throw axes at him. That's it. Easy.

Done. Don't forget the CC v 3.0 in place
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

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