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by Alexander Tait
May
15, 2002 |
Haunted
Casino
Walkthrough
(Crystal
Vision/Micro-Star, 1995) |
A couple of weeks ago my
wife said to me: "I really enjoyed the 7th
Guest and 11th
Hour games. I wish there were more like them". Strangely,
within a week of those words being spoken, I received this game from
1995 that could have been made by the same team. Admittedly, the graphics
are not as good as the original 7th Guest one, but they are fine.
The game even features brief video cutscenes like the original game.
The foyer looked so much like the one in the 7th Guest that
I had to check the makers weren't one and the same. The music must
violate some copyright-it's a note-not-quite-perfect replication of
the score from the original game. What's the story? Well, it's set
in an abandoned and haunted casino. A man who lost all his money at
Madame Zuinga's Hotel & Casino left a mysterious necklace in the
casino. He had tried to pawn the necklace without success. He summoned
spirits from the dark world to get revenge for what the casino had
done to him. The necklace sat untouched for some time, until Mira,
one of Madame Zuinga's daughters found it. Now the spirits run the
casino in an attempt to recover the man's lost fortune. You have arrived
at the casino with one mission: starting with $1000, you must break
the bank (by winning $500000) and thereby lift the curse. No mention
of Stauf, just a reference to an unknown man. The movement in the
game is similar to that in the 7th Guest, first person perspective:
click left to go left to whatever room. No skeletal hand in this game,
though! The interface is pretty easy to use, though having only one
save game (casino.sav) can be a problem when the spirits decide to
erase it! You must play a variety of casino games to win the money.
Anyone unsure of how to play the casino games should check the gamedoc.exe
file on the disk. The specifications are pretty low, even when you
compare them with my very low-end system. I had a bit of trouble running
this game until I changed the properties of the shortcut on the desktop-it
must be run "maximized" in "full screen", otherwise
it crashes back to the desktop. The best news of all about this game
is it comes free when you purchase Last Half of Darkness (a far better
game, in my opinion) at www.lasthalfofdarkness.com.
So, will this spawn a new adventure sub-category, the casino adventure?
I think not…
HINTS/WARNINGS:
- There is a card located
in the house that can be used for cheating.
- If you are caught cheating,
your save game is erased!
- Use the map to jump
from one part of the house to the other.
- Certain games and rooms
have minimum cash requirements before you can enter.
- Joker Poker has the
best odds but gets "mean" when you have more than $100000.
- Losing at Lotto or Dark
Roulette can erase your game!
- The best way to win
money quickly in gambling is to save your game before betting and
then betting all your money (or the maximum you are allowed). If
you win, save your game and continue. If you lose, reload your game.
FOYER
After watching the introductory video of Mira finding the necklace,
you start in the foyer. Go left to the dining room.
DINING ROOM
Continue through to the kitchen.
KITCHEN
Exit left to a dark hallway to see a cutscene of Mira. Return to the
kitchen. Go to the other doorway. Enter another dark hallway.
DARK HALLWAY
Continue through to blackjack and slots. Enter the unfriendly pool
hall for an amusing animation. Enter the slot machine room. In Slot
Machine, bet all your money. I won $10000 giving me $11000 and a red
key. This allows entry into Joker Poker. Return to the dark hallway
and enter the Blackjack room. I won and now had $21000. Exit the room
and enter the hallway to Caribbean Stud.
HALLWAY
Enter the bathroom.
BATHROOM
Play Caribbean Stud in the bath (!). I won and now had $28000. After
a certain point of playing, this opens up Lottery (but I didn't do
this). Return to the dark hallway.
DARK HALLWAY
Try the locked door. The red key obviously doesn't open it. Enter
the door with the staircase leading into darkness. It's too dark to
go down-you need a candle (which I never found!).Return to the foyer.
FOYER
Go through the French doors to bet on the roaches. I do not recommend
this. The chance of winning is very low (33%) and it is completely
chance. Return to the foyer and go upstairs. Get the card (2 of clubs)
hidden in the picture. This can be used to cheat. Go right to the
craps game. Not being a craps player, and not being very interested
in becoming proficient in this area, I found craps difficult. Unless
you are very good at it or know what you're doing, I recommend avoiding
this game. Return to the top of the stairs in front of the painting.
This time go left. Go left again to enter a bedroom.
BEDROOM
Go in to play video poker. The spirit croupier has a shirt unbuttoned
and tied as a midriff. Are ghosts interested in sex appeal? I played
a couple of rounds and ended up first with $38000 and then $48000.
Return to the foyer and enter the corridor.
CORRIDOR
The first door has Joker Poker (a form of poker where a joker is instant
loss). I played one round and ended up with $68000. The second door
in the corridor has Five Card Draw with another fashion conscious
croupier who reveals more than her hand! After one hand, I left with
$79526. The third door has Roulette. I played one round and ended
up with $99524. Return to the corridor and go through the hidden passage
in the bookcase. You will see a strange cutscene of Mira and end up
at Dark Roulette. Zero and double zero causes significant loss of
money, so I stayed for only one round and ended up with $119324. Return
to the slots in the dark hallway.
DARK HALLWAY
After a few attempts, I had earned a total of $349324 on the slots.
Go downstairs to the foyer.
FOYER
I went through the French doors and bet on the roaches. I won and
now had $369124. Return to the bathroom.
BATHROOM
Play Caribbean Stud. I now had $409124. The game was wearing me down.
Return to the dark hallway to make the "big bucks" on the
Sots.
DARK HALLWAY
With a bit of luck, you can make a bit of money here. I stopped when
I had earned $499124. Return to Roulette off the corridor.
CORRIDOR
As soon as you earn more than $500000, you are taken to the finale.
FINALE
You must now battle "The Machine" in a game of red dog.
The Machine is a skeleton in one of those skilltester machines enclosed
in glass. You must bet on the likelihood that the middle card falls
between the value of the left and right cards. You must play until
either you have lost (and have to reload your game) or you win. Your
reward is a very vague cutscene revealing events of past and present.
The credits roll, listing a large number of cast members (far more
than I recall seeing!). You leave with a check for $1000000 signed
by Madame Zuinga herself. I was glad it was over. It was a disappointment,
because it could have been a variation on the 7th Guest series but
was little more than a series of puzzles (gambling games) with little
plot, but didn't they say that about the 7th Guest?
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
486 DX/4-l00 MHz (Pentium
133 MHz rec.)
DOS 5.0 or better or WIN 95 WIN
2 MB hard drive space
4 MB RAM 192 MB
16 Bit SVGA Video Card with 1 MB RAM (2 MB rec.)
Sound Blaster (or 100% compatible) sound card
4X CD-ROM (6X CD-ROM rec.)
Mouse
MY SYSTEM
Athlon 600 MHz
98SE
14.3 GB hard drive
64 MB Voodoo 5 5500
Sound Blaster Legacy sound
card
52X CD-ROM
Mouse
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