You try to recall the roman numerals you learned in elementary school. Things are colour coded, and there are more numbers. You unlock something which opens a whole slew of possibilities. It’s been half an hour. How much further do you have to go? Are you any closer to finding a way to escape the Alchemist’s Chamber? What is the walking stick for? Dare I stick my finger in the bubbling cauldron? What’s the meaning behind the colours on the pentagram? So many numbers. You look behind curtains, pick up magnifying glasses, find more keys than you know what to do with.
#ENCARTA GAME 2007 MINDMAZE PLAY ONLINE SERIES#
You find the first key and unlock a series of locks which get you one step closer, but you get stuck again. You need something to move forward, but what? You need to sort through the objects that are there to help you versus those that are there to distract you. Will this candle come in handy? What’s this giant key for? Where are the missing puzzle pieces?Ī black raven stares down at you and a hooting owl signals that you have already spent 15 minutes trying to piece together the clues that will ultimately help you get out of this room. You open a leather folder and pull out sheets – drawings of the human body, botanical studies, cryptic astronomical symbols – what do they all mean? But right now, you’re just looking for the first clue to get things rolling. What seems useless now may come in handy once you’re further in the game. You are looking for something, but at the same time you don’t really know what you’re looking for so you don’t want to discard any clues.
You and your teammate work your way around the room. You’re in a live game and it’s kind of surreal. You shake sculptures, pick up glass balls, sift through pebbles – are any of them the Philosopher’s Stone? You try pushing furniture to see if it will unlock a secret trap door. You start picking things up, turning them around, flipping through books in search of clues. You are surrounded by wooden chests, writing desks and little boxes, all of which are locked! There are stone walls, mysterious manuscripts, and bottles filled with colourful potions. Inside it feels like you’ve travelled back in time several centuries. You and your team enter the Alchemist’s Chamber where the door locks behind you. “You have 60 minutes to find the Philosopher’s Stone and use it to escape the Alchemist’s Chamber.” You descend the spiralling stairs and are met by someone who takes you into a room, sits you down on a sofa, and explains the goal of the game: Located on a quiet little backstreet, you press the buzzer on a purple door and enter a dimly lit building where the signs lead towards the basement. Well, Prague’s Mind Maze is a combination of these two games, except that YOU get to be the player, and YOU have to use your mind to find your way out! If you didn’t grow up watching this show, did you ever play Encyclopaedia Encarta MindMaze on the computer? Again taking you back to the 90s, this was a digital multimedia game set in an old castle, where you had to go from room to room – picture creepy looking dungeons and stone-walled chambers filled with treasure chests – and answer trivia questions in order to get past each door.
#ENCARTA GAME 2007 MINDMAZE PLAY ONLINE TV#
This was one of my favourite TV shows as a child and even though it didn’t come on until 10:00 p.m., I would stay up past my bedtime to watch the teams get locked in cells, decipher obscure riddles, piece clues together, win gold, and ultimately escape! Now doesn’t that sound like a fun game? The whole premise of the game was that each team had to solve riddles, find keys, unlock clues, and use their minds to solve the task in front of them in order to win the gold and escape this scary fort located out in the Pertuis d’Antioche Straits. One of my favourite activities in Prague is something that I actually can’t tell you very much about because it would simply spoil the game yet it’s something I enjoyed so much that I can’t keep it all to myself because I think everyone passing through the city should try it out! So in the interest of introducing you to one of the city’s best kept secrets, I will try my best to explain Prague’s Mind Maze while still sounding really ambiguous and not giving any clues away…ĭid you ever watch “Fort Boyard” as a child? It was a French game show from the 90s that was filmed in a fortification out at sea off the coast of France.