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Dec 14, 2001


Found this interesting post on the Google's Usenet Databese.

Chuck Gray explains how he deciphered the encrypted Conversations with the Dead in PID back in Jan 1994. Here's the text:

From: Chuck Gray 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: PiD Dead Scripts Description
Date: 29 Jan 1994 07:43:10 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 18
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <2id42e$26m@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: slip-1-57.ots.utexas.edu
X-UserAgent: Version 1.1.3
X-XXMessage-ID: <A96F70FD0A01CC39@slip-1-57.ots.utexas.edu>>
X-XXDate: Sat, 29 Jan 94 08:48:45 GMT


Pathways into Darkness - Conversations with the Dead
____________________________________________________

If you've ever wondered if you missed some clue in PiD
when talking to the dead soldiers, this is your chance
to find out. A two-part post follows that contains all
of the scripts used by PiD in the conversations.
     The scripts were extracted from the 'scri' resources
of the game application. Each of these resources starts
with a four bytes which tell how long the resource is,
followed by the encrypted text. The encryption scheme
is simple: the first byte is XOR'd with 0, the second
is XOR'd with 1, the next with 2, and so on up until
255 is reached; then the XOR values starts again with 0.
     Anyway, the scripts are a bit rough; I haven't
tried to pretty them up much.

Chuck Gray               chukgray@cs.utexas.edu


Also discovered that Ron Hunsinger <Ron_Hunsinger@bmug.org> posted a follow post to Russ Taylor's Pathways point totals spoiler back in Feb 1994 correcting the errors and adding further interesting information. You can read it here. It's also linked in the Inventory window (right frame).


Dec 11, 2001


Thomas Resnick <tommyr@darkforces.com> writes concerning the "Monk" mystery:

Is it just me, or does it seem like the Zombies, Ghasts, and Sentinels are all part of some odd, arcane cult that has taken up residence inside the alien pyramid? All the other creatures (headless, nightmare, etc) seem to be weird, alien animals, but ANIMALS. These three seem to be a human or humanoid form. The sentinels are sustained somehow, and the Zombies and Ghasts appear to be undead sentinels or something. I keep getting fleeting visions of a cult that centers around the pyramid, with the most fervent members dying and becoming either a Zombie or a Ghast. Maybe this idea might shed a little understanding on the origins of the whole "monk" mystery as well.


Raul Bonilla (aka REB) <biomeca@hotmail.com> makes an interesting post on the Story Forum concerning PIDmastery:

Be a PIDmaster
Posted By: REB <biomeca@hotmail.com>
Date: 12/10/01 11:42 p.m.

In Response To: PID note... (bnevs)

A long, long time ago I started something I called the perfect PID game, that is, finishing the game with no damage taken and 100% firing accuracy. I stopped at the end of Beware of Low-Flying Nightmares and never retake the game. The pic below show my carnage status before entering The Labyrinth.

I even wrote down some tips on the parts of the game where taking no damage and not missing a single shot is very, very hard, thinking on posting this info on the web after completing the game. It's worth reading:

THE ROOM FULL OF MONSTERS IN HAPPY HAPPY, CARNAGE CARNAGE

It took me about 4 weekends, playing from 1 to 3 hours per session, to complete this part.

The first time I killed all the monsters in the room (about 10 nightmares, 6 Oozes and 8 Ghouls) I make a mistake: I entered through the West door, where you only have to face 2 nightmares before entering the room, but since you can't go back to the safe rune using the same door ('cause it won't open ever again) I have to go to the East one and before I was able to reach it I was toasted by 2 nightmares.

The better but harder way is entering through the East door, turn left, face 3 Ghouls, turn right, face a Ghoul and a Nightmare, and before entering the room with the 4 dead german soldiers, wait for the nightmare to appear from the East room and kill it.

How do you deal with all those monsters at the same time?

When you step on the green arrows there's a door in front of you, plus one to your left and one to your right. Lets call them, from left to right, door #1, door #2 and - you guess it - door #3.

When the doors open, drink the red potion, sidestep right, walk backwards and kill the monsters coming out door #3. If you're lucky the first group of monsters supposed to come out from door #2 will try to get to you through door #3 and they'll get stuck with the others.

Try to kill first the nightmares, then the Ghouls and then the Oozes, but since you can't stay in the same place for too long just try to kill the ones who are closer to you and do it quickly.

Now turn left and kill the monsters that are coming out from the other 2 doors (who are already firing at you) and enter the treasure room through door #1. Shoot as many monsters as you can and get back to the first room via door #3. Dodge those flying fishes and return to the treasure room using again door #1.

If you're still very lucky most of the monsters at this point are dead or need just 1 or 2 shots to die because they have been hitting each other while you were circling around them. You can wait for the remaining ones to come in and even check your carnage status. Chances are you'll have to revert.

THE BEGINING OF A PLAGUE OF DEMONS

In most of the cases you just have to deal with 4 Wraiths before getting to the infra-red goggles.

The 1st one is easy. When you enter the level, the player is facing a wall. Turn about 20 degrees to the left, wait a second and shoot twice. Blam! The Wraith is toast. Now climb back to "Feel The Power" and save.

The 2nd Wraith will come from the same direction as the first one, almost immediately, if not at the same time. This is the hardest to kill. You'll have to wait until it fires so you dodge the projectile as you shoot in that direction. Do it again in order to kill it. Now go back and save.

The 3rd is easy. Pass the left corner of the first room, turning 90 degrees, so you end up facing West. Wait for a second and shoot. The Wraith will wake up and fire at you. Now all you have to do is dodge and shoot (doing this after killing the second Wraith make it easier). Be careful and don't get to far from the wall, or the other Wraiths nearby will attack you. Now go back and save!

The 4th is standing at the entrance of the room where you'll find the goggles. Just look over the corner (don't pass it) and shoot straight to the entrance. Fall back and do the same as with the last 2 Wraiths.

Each time I killed the 4th Wairth, there was 2 Oozes waiting for me at the upper level near the saving rune, so watch out!

If you decide to go for the goggles before saving, you'll have to face 3 more Wraiths. The 5th and 6th will attack you when you enter the room where the dead soldier lies. The 7th will appear when you're going back to the stairs.

THE END OF A PLAGUE OF DEMONS

This problem have a simple solution, but you gotta be quick.

Activate the blue crystal before going into the large corridor leading to the final area of the map. Now take a look at the floor. There are 3 mushroom patches on this corridor. The first 2 Wraiths will attack you by the time you'll be walking over the 3rd patch. When you're reaching this patch, discharge the crystal and stop (in that order). You'll hear the first Wraith freezing at the same time it will come out of the darkness. Finish him with your gun before the discharge wear off.

Back-up, save your game and do the same to kill the 2nd Wraith.

The other 4 Wairths will attack you when you're passing over a water pond located a few steps after the 3rd mushroom patch. The blue crystal won't help you if they come out too close one from another. You gotta try until you can have enough time to kill one Wraith, turn around, kill the other one, and turn around again and kill the other 2. The small corridor where the first Wraiths came out will help you with this.

The rest of area is piece of cake, but I recommend you to save your game one more time before going for the Phantasm and the last 2 remaining Wraiths.


You can see Raul's prefect score pic here.


Aug 29, 2001


Simon Foreman <dah_man@silentubiquity.com> offers a suggestion for the meaning of the level name "I'd Rather Be Surfing". See the What's in a Name section for details.


Aug 13, 2001


John "Doombat" Rychlik <iamtheone89@go.com> writes:

I was poking my nose around in the Pathways resource and found that in the description of an M16 magazine, it states that it is 7.62mm. Of course, everyone knows that the M16 is 5.56mm! Not exactly a goofup of epic size *cough*.70*cough*, but still wothy of noting.

Time to activate that long awaited Weapons page I think.