Return to Archipelago
If you managed to escape the Archipelago, you may have felt a sense of relief watching the volcanic islands dwindle as you floated away. Well, you may not want to breathe easy just yet, as creator Jonathan May has recently made the sequel, Return to the Archipelago, available to the general public.
As it turns out, you didn't drift far. The volcano and rainbow beams of the last puzzle are still visible in the distance, along with a new series of islets and puzzles to explore. With pyramids and triangles abound, the riddles seem to follow a theme of threes.
While this game may challenge the geometrical and logical parts of the mind, the cartoon-like atmosphere and gentle melodies offer a pleasing and casual point-and-click experience.
At least one of the puzzles in this game involves sound, proving difficult for any tone-deaf gamers out there (such as myself.) Never fear, as there is a hint section offered from the main site for those who need it.
In addition to the Archipelago series, Jonathan is also the creator of the Dark Room and the Dark Complex, which recently scored in the top 20 in the Best of 2005.
Whether you seek a tropical escape or simply an entertaining series of puzzles, your Return to the Archipelago awaits.
Walkthrough Guide
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Hey guys - thanks for playing & thanks Karmen for your lovely review!
I realize this is the kind of game you'll either love or hate, as some of the puzzles are quite challenging because they involve rhythm & pitch, and colour (apologies to those who are tone-deaf or colour blind).
The 'philosophy' behind my games is that everything should be solvable by observation and by taking your own notes (with a pencil and paper!) and possibly a LITTLE bit of trial-and-error, but not too much. I LOVE games like Crimson/White Room etc. but I find them to be more about randomly clicking until you can get something new to happen.
So, if you want the challenge of de-coding morse code, or creating music, it's there, but I also realize that it could be completely boring/frustrating if you just want to proceed, so...
The hints section on the woolythinkng page has complete spoilers for the Bell Towers & the Morse Code puzzles.
Regarding the Standing Stones & the singing head...
Karmen - it seems as though you have the correct solution. Maybe you tripped up in the execution. You have to leave the head in the centre of the circle the whole time you move around it, and also be careful moving from "7" to "1"... It's tempting to go to "2" instead - you have to move the camera far-right to actually see #1 from #7.
Anyway - thanks again for playing!
Jon :-)
Posted by: Jonathan | January 5, 2006 7:41 PM
Archipelago Walkthrough
This walkthrough will lead you to accessing all three doors and then to conquering each puzzle beyond those doors until you are able to free yourself from this place. I suggest using the "find on this page" command from the Edit tab in order to find specific information on the puzzles.
ANCHOR Door
Check all the islands for notebook pages (you can store them on the pink hand on the bottom right corner of the screen)
head to the island with a blue control panel by the tall yellow bell towers
lay out the pages with the musical notes in front of you (there should be only 3)
each note has dashes below it. The number of dashes indicates the timed spacing to follow each note when played.
See those bell towers ahead? From left to right, number them 1 to 4.
See the notes on the control panel? Those are the corresponding notes to be played at each bell.
Now, go to bell number 1 and hit the button.
Then head to bell number 2. Wait for bell number 1 to ring, count to 2 (short quick counting), then hit the button. Now both bells should sound well spaced apart. *Only count to 2 because by the time you hit the button, another count will be taken...thus there will be a total of 3 pauses. The same goes for the following amounts that you need to count to.*
Next head to bell number 3. Wait for bell number 1 to ring, then as soon as you see bell number 2 move to ring, hit the button. This will give you a quick ding-dong effect when bells number 2 and 3 sound.
Finally head to bell number 4. Wait for that ding-dong sound, count to 1 (that was quick), then hit the button. If you pulled this off correctly, you should hear bell number 1, a bit of a pause, a ding-dong, a short pause, bell number 4, another short pause, and then bell number 1 again.
To truly check if you are close enough to the correct melody, go back to the blue control panel and hit the big triangle button. If the tall door island (by the red anchors) in the distance lowers to sea level, then you have done it! If not, then go back to the bells and readjust your timing of them.
CRYSTAL Door
Click on the island with the blue control panel by the red anchors.
Check the symbols on the base of the control panel. A pattern? Positive and negative.
Look up. See the Buoys in the distance...lined up...with lights on the tops?
Okay, now click on the big green mound on the other side of the buoys. There is another control panel here. It has triangle symbols that you can press.
Go ahead, try pressing one. What does that do?
That figured out, make a note (yes, on paper, you know..that flat form of trees?) of which button controls which buoy. This is slightly tricky due to the fact that it is difficult to see all of the buoys in front of you and distance is slightly warped as well. But, you can always check yourself by going back to the previous control panel island to check the pattern.
So, having discovered which button controls which buoy, do your best to match the pattern carved into the first control panel. With the lights. On or off. I hope you are following me here.
Once you can see the matching pattern in the buoys from the first control panel island....HIT THE BUTTON!!
If done correctly, the tall door island (by the crystals) should lower to sea level, hooray! If not, then re-check your buoys. Make sure you can see all of them by turning the camera view.
TREE door
Click on the island with the blue control panel by the big group of palm tree islands with the little wooden levers on them.
Check the number on the base of the control panel. Hmmm.
Look up. See all those crazy palm trees? (Sure, but what do trees have to do with that number?) Good question. Head to the first tree island and pull a lever. Take note of what that lever does.
Alright, so knowing what can be done to the trees, the only question you must ask yourself is: "How would the Romans write that number if all they had were some slanty trees?"
Here's a good way to keep yourself from getting too confused with the lever controls. Draw a basic map of these 7 islands (4 in the back, 3 in the front). Go to each island in this group, make note of how many trees are on each island. Pull each lever and make note of which tree it controls on which island. (I corresponded lever symbols to tree symbols by using the alphabet - Lever A controls Tree A, Lever B controls Tree B, etc.) After doing this mapping, you will easily be able to get the visual effect you want for completing this puzzle.
Return to the blue control panel island. Look ahead at the trees. Starting from the left, and with the first Roman numeral, how should the first tree be slanted? How about the second tree? And so on. P.S. M=1000 L=500 X=10 V=5 IV=4 III=3 II=2 I=1. Once you know how the trees should be slanted, check your map to see which lever you need to pull in order to slant each tree the way you want it...either slanted or left straight.
When you are done, you should be able to see the Roman numerals clearly in the tree arrangement. To truly check if you have done this correctly, push the big BUTTON!!! If you have done it, the tall door island (by the group of leafless trees) in the distance should lower to sea level. If not, then recheck your slanty palms and your Roman translation of the number. Make sure the slanting is clear as well.
Paper World (Door by the leafless trees)
*Before entering, check the trees surrounding the door. Each has a weird colored fruit. Take note of the fruits. Also check all over each tree for a tiny dark brown marking that will resemble a small pattern of lines, or squiggles. On your paper, match the symbols with the colored fruit from the same trees.*
Okay, now you can go in!
Sensory overload. Ahead of you is a weird origami thing. Green thing. Anyways, look around for trees with orange/gold coloring of the leaves. (They're pretty obvious and there are only 5 of them.)
Go to each one of these trees and look up in the branches. See a weird colored fruit? Okay, now open the tiny door in the tree trunk. See a colored origami thing that matches the color of the fruit? Good.
This is kind of tricky, (drawing it might help) memorize the types of SHAPES that make up that origami character. Do this for each Tree (fruit - tiny door - origami shapes).
Knowing the shapes of the origami should give you some specific results. Two pairs of origamis should be made up of the same kinds of shapes. One origami does not match the others.
Now, go to the tree stump area surrounding the big green mound in the middle of the forest. Choose the tree stump that has 5 symbols on it. 2 pairs of symbols should be linked and the 5th will be in the middle. Sound familiar?
Okay so...Pick a pair of origamis that matched each other. What color fruit do each of those correspond to? Which symbol do those color fruits correspond to? Make sense now? I sure hope so. When you have this all figured out, input the symbols into the tree trunk to show the pair relationships with the non-paired symbol (non-paired origami thing) in the middle.
TA DA! And no sound is made? Correct! But you can check if you've done it right by turning to the left slightly. See a pink goatish origami? See the green hill to the right of it? Go TO THE GREEN HILL!! There is a lever here (wooden). Go on, pull it. It will make an initial bendy noise and then..Did you hear a soft "click"? That's it! That means you got ONE minor puzzle accomplished! (You can make sure you are hearing the right click by undoing your symbols and then listening to the lever again to see what it sounds like before the puzzle is completed)
The Puzzle piece tree stump seems like it should be easy with all those puzzle pieces lying around right? Wrong! (okay its kind of easy)
There are three puzzle pieces in this world (one on the blue origami, one on the paper plane hill, one BELOW the pink/red lantern near the kite with the egyptian eye symbol). Still, none of these fits into the tree stump!!
Instead, take these pieces to the easel in the forest. Place them on the easel so that they can fit together. Hmm. One is missing. Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until METAL WORLD to complete this puzzle. Oh well. We'll come back to it.
Now for the colored petals tree stump. Take a look at these symbols. You can see three set of buttons. Now look up and to the left slightly, see the pinwheels? Yeah, that's right. But those are not stationary. How do you find out which color to input where?
For starters you could Click on the Blue and Yellow pinwheel on the left. Then look down and to the right slightly. See a lever? Yeah, click on that.
Click on the lever to activate it and see which pinwheel it controls. If you look slightly to the left you can see another lever, and yes there is also a third one that is hidden from view by the little hill in front of you. Hmm. But this doesn't really tell you how to arrange the colors.
Okay, since you are still at that first lever, turn your camera view all the way around, keeping an eye out for a small patch of colored flowery things a short distance from you. Go to them!
Now you have a guide for how the pinwheels should be arranged, or at least half a guide. Take note of this guide's arrangement of colors for each pinwheel. Now, go to each of the three levers to make the pinwheels match this guide.
Once you have a match, then click on the left-most pink and blue pinwheel. From here, look down and to the left. You will see a lever and a patch of colored flowery things a short distance from you. Go to them!
Here is the other half of the color arrangement guide. Now you must make the pinwheels match this guide from this angle. Fun!!
The only tricky part is that you must finish with the following results: When looking from each guide, the pinwheels from those respective views must match the guide you are standing at.
Once this is accomplished, head back to the tree stump!
Now, look up towards the pinwheels. This shows the pattern that must be put in the tree stump! To see if you've done it correctly, head to the smaller green hill with the wooden switch. When you press the switch, you should hear the initial sound of bending, then 2 small soft "clicks" - one for each puzzle you have solved!!!
Now head to the kite with the Egyptian eye symbol. There is a lever here that controls the direction of the kite. To the Left is a RED Lantern and to the Right is a GREEN Lantern. Go pull on both lanterns so they are both lit.
Needless to say, the direction of the kite determines which color SOMETHING is. For now, it does not matter which direction the kite is facing, but those lanterns MUST BE LIT before heading to STONE WORLD or else you will have to make 2 trips later on...
Alrighty, this is all you can do in here without having gone to the other worlds...so lets move on!!
METAL WORLD (Door by the red anchors)
*Before entering, check out the skeleton island (poor guy) just beyond the door. Past this island, there is another island with a bottle on it. Check out the bottle!! There is a treasure map inside showing three islands. two of them have arrow shapes pointing in specific directions. Hmm.. Islands with "arrow" shapes. Well, we don't have anything to dig with yet, so just store that map on your hand for later.*
Okay, go into the door!
The first things you see are: (To the left)3 Antennae with small plaques on them showing different items (scissors, a wheel, and a wrench) also there is a small green vent in the center. (To the right)3 tall buildings each with three layers (2 buildings start by only showing 2 of their layers). Also there is a small green vent in the center and a rock off to the right of it.
Head towards the buildings. Look at the very tops of each of them. See anything useful?? But how to get it...hmmm.
Start by drawing the three buildings on your paper (nothing too fancy...and I suggest numbering them as well, left to right, 1 to 3). Go up to the 1st building and click on the big metal square. ON your paper write down which section of which building this button controls. (EX:So on drawing of building number 3: bottom layer is labeled =2T or Number 2, Top Layer).
Having figured out the controls, you should be able to get the PRIZE at the top of the 1st building. Yay for that!
Now head to the Antennae. I think you know what to do with that new item.
Next, turn around. Aim for the middle pine tree in between the other two antennae and click! (did you see a small green thing go by on the left??!!!) You should be in the vicinity of a small mechanical looking thing. A lever that seems to do nothing. Turn to the right to find another machine. HMM..that wheel sure looks familiar. But for the time being, it is securely attached to the machine. For now, just click on it to turn on the machine. (Is that steam in the distance??)
Check around for that Green thing amidst the pine trees. Hey, whaddya know? It's a puzzle piece. Keep that handy.
Now head back towards the collapsible buildings. Pick up that rock while you're there. (That's heavy!! Feels like it could stop the flow of anything that tried to get by it.....umm...yeah...).
If you look around from where you are, you should see a green safe in the distance. go there.
Hey! A Shovel!!! And some combination lock that we don't have the numbers for yet...dang. Alright, well, for now we can at least do some treasure hunting!!
*Before you leave this world, you can put that rock to use some where nearby if you know what I mean, or else just hang on to it for now*
Head for the red anchors in the main world.
On Skull island, look at your map. If you were to determine which islands in the Main world match up with the islands on the map, from where you are standing, then which island has the treasure on it??????!!!! The point is imagine a skyview of the three islands, so that when looking down, your view of the "arrows" directions would match the ones on the map.
Now go get the treasure!!! Just dig wherever on the treasure island and eventually you will hit the treasure box. Open it up and claim your prize!!
It may not be the best thing you'll ever hope to find in a treasure box, but hey, now you can SEE things that are REALLY FAR AWAY, possibly even FLYING AROUND. Upon further inspection, you might even be able to identify some sort of blinking light.
I'm afraid this is where morse code comes in. You've probably noticed all those notebook pages with letters and morse code on them. Well. You can either watch that moving blinking light until you've decoded the mystery words
....OR you can look right here:
nineteen seventy
Sounds like a safe combo if ever I heard one.
Okay, head back to METAL WORLD!
You know where to go...to the safe! Input the numbers and viola...Just what you've always wanted. Take this item to the appropriate Antenna..and leave Metal World once again.
STONE WORLD (by the crystals)
*Before entering this door, stop on the island with the small white crystal. Break it off. You heard me. Now you have a crystal stick. Tap it on the adjacent crystals. Hear those tones? If you do, then good. Now comes the fun. You must go to each set of crystals and determine the order for all 7 from highest note to lowest note. Bwahahaha. Once you have that written down (according to color), then head through the door*
Scariest place EVER.
Okay, to start with, lets get the dang tone thing out of the way. Head to the center of this world where there is a pillar with down-pointing triangles being lit up with familiar colors...7 of them. Hmm. The colors seem to be appearing in a particular order from top to bottom. Take note of that. See that imprint below? It kind of looks like a miniature version of......that creepy thing at the far end of this world.
check out the archways around that creepy statue. In each frame it shows a musical note placement....from high to low. Go around and match a color with each arch according to the sounds the colored crystals made outside. To help, let's number the archways like this: highest note on the left is number 1....going around the arches to the lowest note which will be number 7. Got it?
Okay. To activate the sounds, go to the creepy statue. If you run into it, it will replace itself onto the center podium. GOOD. Now using the order in which the colors appear from top to bottom on the pillar, Go to the corresponding archways in the same order. DONT FREAK OUT...the statue can't hurt you. :) I swear. Be careful though. If you screw up by going to the wrong arch....you have to start over (Use the many trees as stopover points). Also, It helps if you reset the statue again by moving it off of the main podium and then back onto it. (This may not be truly necessary, but whatever helps right?). Anyways, good luck. I hated this part. In the end if you just are tone deaf like most of us and can't figure out the right color-sound thing....then use this number pattern: 2365174.
Done correctly, something amazing will happen. And you will now have the perfect item to complete that colored pillar!! Go ahead and do that. To check your progress, head to the tiny pyramid in front of the large pyramid. Press it. You should hear one soft "click" for one completed puzzle.
Now around for the pillar with the two dogs heads on it. Each head is facing a different direction and has a different eye color. Look to your right. See those pillars with dogs heads on them? Connection? I THINK SO!!
Grab the torch on the ground and go to each dog pillar and check out the eye. See anything? Maybe we could adjust something.
Go to the pillar with fire in it. (What's with that Egyptian Eye symbol? Wasn't that on a kite somewhere??) If you activated the colored lanterns in PAPER WORLD already, the fire here should be either PINK-ish or GREEN. If the fire looks ORANGE-ish, then you have to go to PAPER WORLD and make sure both the RED(PINK-ish) and GREEN lantern are open and lit up.
Light your torch and put the fire into the bowl shaped pillars. Then check the dog eyes again. HMMMM. Seems interesting. But only one dogs head should use that color... So, make one more trip to PAPER WORLD to adjust the fire color.
In PAPER WORLD, head to the kite and simply pull the lever so that the kite is in the opposite direction, facing the other colored lantern.
First of all, since you're here, go to the easel and place the last puzzle piece into position.
Hey!! It's another puzzle piece!! Grab that and fit it into the puzzle piece stump.
Let's see what happens when you pull that lever now. 3 clicks and .....wow. YOu've just moved mountains. Grab the object that has been revealed and keep it in your hand.
Head back to the Stone World.
Okay,to fix your fire situation, go to the Egyptian eye fire pillar. Different color right? Good. Light your torch and use that to light one of the bowl-shape pillars. Done correctly, (according to the main dogs head pillar that shows an ankh symbol on the bottom) an amazing thing will happen. What have you just summoned??
If nothing happens when you have 2 different color fires in the bowl pillars: Make sure you are not using ORANGE-ish fire for either, make sure when you look through each dog head pillar that the image matches the main dogs head pillar. (correct color for correct dog head direction).
Now, take your summoned item and place it appropriately on the main dogs head pillar. Hooray! You can double check your progress by pressing the small pyramid button. 2 clicks for 2 puzzles done!
Lastly, you must figure out the puzzle for the main pillar that has something like an "A" on the top and a grid of stars that you can light up.
Start by checking out the grave markers that line the front path into this world. Each has some sort of symbol on the top that consists of a round border with a line design inside. Hmmm. How does that rounded "A" type symbol fit with these?
Oh look! One grave marker is broken. But what symbol did it have? Click on the rubble to recieve...A ROCK. Oh boy. That doesn't really help, but keep it in your hand anyways. We might be able to use that somewhere. (So we should have 2 rocks total by now, one from the METAL WORLD also.)
Alright, back to the grave markers. Using skillfull deduction, it is safe to say that the broken grave marker had a symbol like the symbol we've already seen. Now what do they do?
Go ahead and press the button on one of the grave markers. Hmm. Where is that light headed? How does that relate to a STAR grid. Where could you possibly LOOK that would answer both of those questions?
With that grave marker still activated, look at the STARS. CAREFULLY. What stands out to you here? Are some stars doing something differently than the rest? Good.
To help with this puzzle, make a crude map of the STARS. Mark the stars which are activated by that particular grave marker. (I simply played connect the dots for each set). Then go to each grave marker and do the same. In the end, you should have a set of stars for each one.
And lo and behold, there is a set of stars remaining that one can assume was meant for the broken grave marker. What pattern would this set of stars make if you played connect the dots???
Head to the main "A" pillar and check out the star grid there. Can you input that same pattern here? Of COURSE you can. If there is no way your pattern would fit into this grid, then you must go back to each grave marker and double-check that you correctly marked which stars fit into each set.
Getting the right pattern can only be truly known when you hit the small pyramid button. It should give you 3 clicks for 3 puzzles!.......AND SOMETHING MORE.
Wow. That was ominous. Grab your prize and kiss STONE WORLD goodbye!
Now for one more task and you will be home free...or something.
Head back to METAL WORLD for the last time.
Okay. So you have 2 Rocks. What could you possibly do with 2 Rocks in a world that has collapsible buildings, antennae, 2 Vents with steam coming out, a Wheel firmly attached to the machine that's making the steam...
To solve this one, just think like a teenage boy...EXPLOSION. Take those rocks and FORCE the steam to blow up the machine.
KABOOM. Now to get that wheel. But the wheel is not around the explosion site. No worries! Just look in the area to the right, by those weird lumps of snow. By one of them, there should be a small metal round thing.
Grab the wheel and head to the antennae to complete the last part of this puzzle. And I'm sure you're thinking "hey, we never checked our progress with that lever thing". Well, you're right, because it's unnecessary in this world. You know for sure that you've correctly completed a puzzle when you fit the appropriate object into the corresponding antenna. BUT now that all three antennae have been activated, it is time to use that Lever for its true purpose.
Head to the lever next to the blown-up machine. PULL IT!
If you look ahead of you, you will see that big satellite dish re-direct and shoot some crazy ice-melting ray at the large see-through ball of ice. Once that is done, go over to the melted ice area and claim the final PRIZE.
Now you are ready to escape the islands.
Leave METAL WORLD for good and go to any one of the rainbow islands (one has a triangle on top, one has a square on top, and one has a circle on top). All you have left are your three prizes now: a pyramid, a box, and a sphere.
For this puzzle, I'll leave it to you. Just remember that you've survived worse right?
(its quite long)!!!
Posted by: jess | December 29, 2006 3:51 PM