The Gene MachineThe Gene Machine

Game Details:  Sci-Fi, 1996

Links:  Moby Games, Adventure Gamers

Walkthrough Updated:  2/4/2025

Suggested Listening:  Help Me Out (Ash 25)

The Gene Machine is a globe-trotting classic 3rd person adventure game. You play as Piers Featherstonehaugh, a British gentleman, who returns home to find a talking cat on his doorstep. You set off on a grand adventure to track down a machine that is causing genetic mutations.

London

Train Station

Walk right and talk to the newsboy to learn he is selling the Sporting Times. Leave the platform by walking to the left. Talk to Mossop about everything, then continue left and use the taxi cab to head home.

Home

You will automatically head inside. Talk to Seventy Three in the living room. Take the cigar case from the small table, and the old newspaper from the sofa. Search your wallet 3 times. Go up into the study. Pick up the artefact from the table on the left and look at the books in your shelves repeatedly. Leave this room, then exit to the left to reach the entrance hall.

Pick up the letter from the floor, then search it twice and read the letter in your inventory. Head through the next door to the left (immediately to the right of the stairs) to find Mossop's room. Pick up the whisky and the syrup of figs. Leave this room and go upstairs. Pick up the key from the chest of drawers, then go back downstairs and head back to the study. Unlock the desk drawer, then search it to get some deeds. Read the membership card in your inventory.

Go back outside and use the taxi cab.

Train Station

Go right to the train platform again. Give the newsboy some money to receive a newspaper. Click on both newspapers in your inventory.

Mirabella's Residence

Go inside and talk to the maid, then return outside and go left to the garden. Talk to Mirabella about everything, then return to the right. Pick up the catnip from near the edge of the house. Go back inside and talk to the maid again, asking her to make some tea.

Highborn Club

Go inside and pick up the snuff box from the table. Continue left and talk to the Earl of Lytton. Try to take his calling card. Head right and add your syrup of figs to the port. Talk to the butler, then return left and pick up the calling card. Talk to the club members about everything. Give them the deeds, and show them the current newspaper.

Docks

Talk to the harbourmaster about everything, then talk to Mossop about everything, including meeting people of "dubious reputation".

Royal Scientific Institute

Go inside and talk to the curator, then give him the artefact. Now head left and take a punchcard from the machine. Put this into the slot, then take another punchcard.

Home

Inside your house, show the punchcard to Seventy Three and it will be modified. Also give the catnip to Seventy Three and you will end up with a mouse.

Royal Scientific Institute

Head inside and go left, then use the modified punchcard on the slot - you will automatically talk to the professor.

Buckingham Palace

Show the Earl's calling card to the guards, then head inside. Walk to the right and talk to Queen Victoria to get a Royal Warrant. Pick up a letter of recommendation from the pile of letters on the floor.

Whitechapel

Talk to Jonathan T Ripper. Enter the pub on the right. Talk to the labourer, then give him your handkerchief and it will come back greasy. Go to the far right and listen at the door, then go through. Talk to the forger. Now return left through the pub to the street, and continue left into a brothel. Talk to the receptionist, then show her your letter of recommendation. Head upstairs and talk to Dollymop, then take her camera.

Mirabella's Residence

Go inside and pick up the cup of tea. Open the cigar case and use it to collect the cake, then use the dirty handkerchief on the teacup. Head out to the garden and give the teacup to Mirabella, then give her the mouse. Go right and pick up the engagement ring from the grass.

Professor Tipple's Residence

Talk to the professor, then enter the building on the left. Pick up the vitriol from the bench on the right, and the remote control from the bench on the left. Go back outside and give both of these items to the professor. Talk to him again.

Whitechapel

Go through the bar to the forger again. Give him the old newspaper, then the engagement ring, the old newspaper and the current newspaper - he will start working on your forgery. Return to the bar and talk to the barman about a ploughman's lunch. Pick up the scrumpy and drink it in your inventory. Talk to the barman again and take the ploughman's lunch.

Professor Tipple's Residence

Give the ploughman's lunch to the professor, then talk to him again. Combine the whisky with the snuff box in your inventory. Talk to the professor once more. Head left through the building to the space rocket and get inside.

Space

Space Rocket

Take the spacesuit, spade and hammer. Hit the oxygen pipe with your hammer, and you will pick it up. Now look out the porthole about Mossop. You need to adjust the 3 levers to aim to the moon. Adjust them in this order:

  • Right Lever: Second position from the top
  • Left Lever: Second position from the top
  • Middle Lever: Fourth position from the top

Use your oxygen pipe on the levers to hold them in position. After reaching the moon, go through the door on the right.

Moon

Place your camera on the moon surface, then use the camera. Examine the photo in your inventory. Enter the cave to the right. Control Robert (the automaton), then look through the hole on the right. Control Robert, guiding him to the far right - he will knock over a stone to create a bridge.

Continue right to the next area and dig in the mineral area. Search the hole to get a moon rock. Return through the caves and enter the space rocket. Talk to the professor to get an extractor, then use this on the moon rock. Return to the space rocket once more and you will automatically talk to the professor again. Combine the phosphate and vitriol flask in your inventory.

London

Whitechapel

Go through the bar to the forger again. Pick up the amended newspaper.

Highborn Club

Go inside and give the amended newspaper to the club members - you will win the bet and have access to a ship.

Docks

Talk to the Harbourmaster, then give him the Royal Warrant. Talk again, then give him the cigar case and you will receive a world map. Head to the right and look at the ship, then climb aboard.

Exploring

Ship

Climb up the stairs on the right to reach the bridge. Talk to the captain several times, then show him the world map. Talk to him again, then return downstairs. Head right and pick up the boat hook, then go inside. Go through the second door on the right. Pick up the bagpipes, and search the porcupine, then take the quill. Return out to the deck again.

Go right to see a winch, then enter the doorway just to the right. Pick up the screwdriver and the oilcan. Use your quill on the gauge here. Click on the gauge to see there must be a leak. Go back outside and talk to the sailor to see that he spits. Look at the hole in the deck just to the left. Use the oilcan on the winch, then use your boat hook on the winch. Talk to the sailor to get him to spit again.

Return left and inside, then go through the first door. Use your screwdriver on the porthole to get the glass. Head back outside to the deck and go right, then place the glass on the hole in the deck. Talk to the sailor to get him to spit again. Pick up the expectoration on glass.

Return left and head inside. Examine the pipe on the wall to see it is leaking. Go back out to the deck, then head right and inside. Use your expectoration on glass on the valve.

Head back outside then go left twice. Try to take the flag, but you can't reach it. Talk to Mossop and you will end up with the flag. Head right and inside. Use the flag on the leaking pipe. Go back outside, right and inside. Click on the gauge to see there is now some pressure. Use your bagpipes on the boiler.

Iceberg

Head right through the archway, then board the submarine.

Submarine

Talk to Mossop, then go right and talk to Captain Nematode. Head left and talk to him again, then climb up the ladder.

Secret Base

Go right 3 times. Play the organ, then pick up the bundle of letters and read them in your inventory. Continue right again and take the diving suit. Look at the mermaid picture on the right wall. Read the bundle of letters again, then return left 4 times and climb down into the submarine.

Submarine

Talk to Captain Nematode and he will take you back to the iceberg. Climb up the ladder.

Iceberg

Go back through the archway and board the ship.

Ship

Climb up the stairs to reach the bridge. Talk to the captain, then show him your photograph.

Tropical Island

Pick up a rock, then head into the jungle to the right. Follow the path further to the right and enter the village. After talking to the chief, return to the left. Grab the ivy just to the left of the path, then return towards the left along the path and head up the steps. Follow this high path to the right. Take some berries from the bush here. Look at the water, then use the ivy on the rock and the berries on the rock - you will make a trinket.

Return left twice, then go right to return to the village. Give the trinket to the chief and he will give you a guide. Follow the guide to the right, then continue right and enter the cave.

Pick up the cutlass. Look at the floor panel, then return left twice. Use your cutlass to cut the ivy. Pick up the animal that falls to the ground. Go right twice and put the animal on the floor panel. Now you can continue right through the next doorway.

Try to walk over the lava, and look at the plug in the roof of the cave. Return left 5 times, then go up the stairs and right to return to the lake. Enter the lake and head right, then use the plug. Leave the lake again, then return left twice, right to the village, and continue right 4 times. Continue right through another doorway.

Atlantis

Look at the crystals, then take the blue crystal near the back on the right. Continue right again. Look at the 3 pedestals, then go right once more. Use your oilcan on the altitude adjuster on the right, then use the altitude adjuster to go down. Head through the archway to the right.

Enter the large building on the left. Walk to the left and take the red Atlantean rock from the pedestal. Return right, then enter the large building on the right. Look at the model, then take each of the 4 crystals from between the chairs on the right. Go back outside and return through the archway to the left. Use the altitude adjuster to go back up, then continue left.

Place crystals on each of the 3 pedestals:

  • Left Pedestal: Purple crystal
  • Middle Pedestal: Green crystal
  • Right Pedestal: Blue crystal

Go right and use the altitude adjuster to head down again. Talk to Captain Nematode. Use the altitude adjuster to go back up, then continue left.

Tropical Island

Go left 6 more times, then talk to the chief. Give him the Atlantean rock. Back on the beach, return to the ship.

Ship

Climb up the stairs to reach the bridge. Talk to the captain, then show him your reef map.

Dinsey Island

Once you are trapped in a cage, talk to the henchman about everything. Talk to the green tentacle, then talk to the henchman again. Go right and take a flare from the box on the floor. Use the flare in your inventory. Next use the switches on the machine. Talk to Dr Dinsey - once he is on the pedestal, tell Mossop to throw the switch.

Back in the room with the cages, pull the switch on the left. Head out to the left, then continue left and use the flying machine to escape.