The Island of Dr Brain
Game Details: Fantasy, 1992
Links: Moby Games
Walkthrough Updated: 5/1/2001
Suggested Listening: Give Up Now (Ash 25)
Entry
Map Skills
Simply use your game manual to enter the correct coordinates to find the Island of Dr Brain.
Shape Manipulation
To get through the first gate, you need to click on the puzzle pieces at the bottom of the screen. Now put the pieces into the playing area so they completely fill it. Increasing the difficulty level increases the variety of pieces you need to place.
Science Room
Algebra
Click the red button on the microscope, then adjust the maths functions to enclose different types of organisms. Novice level only has horizontal and vertical lines, while standard has straight lines and expert has quadratics.
Number Series
Insert the receipt from the microscope into the slot in the sacrophagus, then use the counters to adjust the correct numbers to complete the sequences. There are 5 basic sequences to be completed:
- Simple addition/subtraction - 24, 28, 32, 36, 40...
- Addition then subtraction - 40, 45, 25, 30, 10, 15...
- Increasing addition - 10, 12, 15, 19, 24, 30...
- Square numbers - 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49...
- Fibonacci sequence - 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34...
Logic Pattern
Now place the stone disks on the poles on the right of the screen. You need to solve the Towers of Hanoi puzzle (with 4, 5 or 7 disks depending on your difficulty level). This is an easy but very time-consuming puzzle to solve. If they are numbered 1-7 (1 being the smallest disk) this is how to start:
- Move 1 to right
- Move 2 to middle
- Move 1 to middle
- Move 3 to right
- Move 1 to left
- Move 2 to right
- Move 1 to right
- Move 4 to middle
- Move 1 to middle
- Move 2 to left
- Move 1 to left
- Move 3 to middle
- Move 1 to right
- Move 2 to middle
- Move 1 to middle
Keep going following the same pattern to solve the harder difficulties. Once you are finished, head through the open door.
Flamingo Lagoon
Pattern Recognition
Click on the chest to get a new piece of the jigsaw puzzle, then put it in place. Repeat until the puzzle is complete. Two things to help you are to start with all the edge pieces (easy to identify) and the fact that pieces snap into place and make a different sound when they are correct.
Logic Sequence
Click a flamingo to start one of the hardest puzzles in the game. You need to change the color of the flamingos to match the one they flash. In the novice difficulty this involves 2 clicks (1 to change color of 2 flamingos and another to change 1 of those back). Standard difficulty requires four clicks in total (finish by clicking the same flamingo twice). Expert is quite hard. You always start by clicking the flamingo that ends up green 4 times. You then need to click another 3 times, then finally the last 1 twice.
Foreign Language
Click on the sign, then select a foreign language to continue. You must now find a set of foreign words in a word search. The difficulty level dictates how many of the words you must find to complete the puzzle.
Mountain Island Trail
Foreign Language
Click on the wooden sign to start another word puzzle. This time you must swap letters and rearrange words to make quotations. Here are some of the more common ones:
- Give me a museum and I'll fill it.
- Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
- There is more to life than increasing its speed.
- Nothing is terrible except fear itself.
- There is always room at the top.
- In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
- The report of my death was an exaggeration.
- Are you going to come quietly or do I have to use earplugs?
- The ground flew up and hit me in the head.
- I am not arguing with you. I am telling you.
- There's a snake hidden in the grass.
- Home is where the heart is.
- Gray hair is God's graffiti.
- Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
- Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.
- Is that a beard or are you eating a muskrat?
- A wolf will never make war against another wolf.
- Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket!
- People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority.
- I enjoy being a highly overpaid actor.
- Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
- There is never enough time, unless you're serving it.
- Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
- One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
- Never invest in anything that eats or needs repairing.
- I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way home.
- I phoned my dad to tell him I stopped smoking. He called me a quitter.
- Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.
- The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf.
- The best revenge is to live long enough to be a problem to your children.
Visual Skills
Click on the botanical garden sign, then go inside to find the hidden animals in the picture. On the hardest difficulty you must find 16 animals, which can actually be quite a challenge. When you are done you will get a bag of goodies.
Material Analysis
Place one of the materials in the analyser, and then select the appropriate elements that copmrise it, using the following list (always add Trace Element on the end):
- Lead cube - Pb
- Tin cup - Sn
- Platinum necklace - Pt
- Gold bar - Au
- Silver earring - Ag
- Iron grate - Fe
- Zinc bar - Zn
- Aluminium can - Al
- Coal (anthracite) - C
- Foil - O, Al
- Ice cube - H, O
- Plastic keyholder - H, C
- Diamond ring - Au, C
- Brass doorknob - Cu, Sn
- Block of salt - Na, Cl
- Helium balloon - He, H, C
- Limestone - O, H, Ca
- Marble - O, Ca, C
- Sugar cube - H, C, O
- Vitamin C tablet - H, C, O
- Aspirin - C, H, O
- Bleach - Na, Cl, O
- Sulfuric acid - O, H, S
- Plastic flamingo - H, C, Zn
Inside the Volcano
Numeric Planning
Use the controls at the bottom of the screen to start a magic square puzzle. You need to add numbers up in each row column and diagonal to match the totals shown. Just fiddle with the numbers until it all works out correctly (not too hard).
Spectrum Analysis
This is very simple. Just burn each individual element to determine which should be included in the mixture (ie. which ones have lines that match the desired spectrum), then group them all together and burn at once. Head through the exit when you are done.
Mountain Top
Synonym Apple Tree
At the synonym apple tree, you must match words with similar meanings, and you will be rewarded with a bucket of apples.
Antonym Anthill
This time you have to match words with opposite meanings to get a watermelon.
Hominy Homonyms
Use pairs of words that sound alike to get a bucket of corn.
Now put all three items on the counterweight to lower the bridge so you can enter the hut.
Mountain Hut
Visual Pairing
Look at the computer, then match the masks that look alike. You will be given a key, which you can use to unlock the bookcase.
Subject Category
You need to rearrange the books on the shelves so that the books match their subjects. All of the info you need is within the manual that came with the game.
Fluid Weights
This can be quite a challenging maths puzzle, particularly if you are used to the metric system! Just start by converting all of the measurements to ounces, and then work out a way to fill the containers with the desired amounts of fluid.
Physics
The instructions for this are given directly to you in the introduction to the puzzle. Simply take the elevator weight away from the counterweight. Divide by 25 to get the gear ratio, then find a pair of numbers in the gears section that equate to this ratio. Click the down button and continue to the next area.
Secret Laboratory
Programming
You have to program a robot to move about the laboratory and collect crates for you. Use the purple cartridge first to get the hang of the programming - put it in the back of the robot's head and write a program to get one of the crates. With the green cartridge, just program the opposite command to what you actually want the robot to do, whenever a bug appears on the command line. Finally with the yellow cartridge, try to avoid monitors if possible, otherwise compensate for the fact that the robot will stop and look at any monitors it passes. You will end up getting a key, some computer components and some genetic material.
Genetics
Depending on the difficulty level, this can be quite simple or quite challenging. You need to end up creating a cyborg with specified genetic morphology, composed of some recessive and some dominant genes. Start with appropriate parents (or grandparents on expert level) so that there is a chance of creating a child cyborg with the desired genetic makeup. When you are successful the door in the elevator will open. Use your key to continue.
Art and Music Gallery
Art Recognition
Click on the control panel on the left to start the puzzle. Now click on each bust's red button to learn as much as you can about the artists. Click on each painting then try to guess which artist painted it. Trial and error eventually prevails!
Music Theory
It really helps to actually know some music theory before attempting this puzzle. The first part involves sight-reading some sheet music. Next you must write music according to notes played on the keyboard, and finally you have to transcribe a piece of music that is played and shown to you. Once you succeed, the next door opens for you.
Battery Control Room
Visual Series
Click on the button and you will blow stuff up! Now look in the control panel - you need to insert the missing component to complete each series of objects. Just choose the one that looks like it fits in with the others in each row and you should be right. Now throw that lever forward and you are presented with the next problem.
Logic Gates
Read the manual carefully to determine the function of each of those gates. You need to set up a logic circuit that behaves as indicated on the left panel. Just think logically and its not too hard. Throw the lever again to complete the game.