Game:

Repton 3 (1986)

Duration: 3:11

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1

Level 8 (A Case for Sherlock Holmes) of the Victorian scenario is another example of a level where considerable time can be saved by a simple shortcut. By connecting the bottom centre cage momentarily with a cracked egg, I save having to shunt down several rocks and then wait for the spirit to come round again. I had known about this shortcut for a while, but recently I discovered that if this route is streamlined as much as possible, it is (only just!) possible to connect the bottom-right cage in time to stop the last spirit making another circuit of the level -- a discovery that immediately took nearly half a minute off my completion time.

The key to this method is, when first in the room with five spirits, to unblock the exit cage immediately after the single spirit goes past; then this cage and the bottom cage are each opened by one of the pairs of spirits, breaking up both pairs and sending one spirit back to the upper room (this is the spirit that will cage last, and its going back is what gives you time to connect the cage). Of the two spirits that remain, it is impossible to push the egg in time to get the front one into the next cage, but fortunately the gap between the spirits is just right that this spirit can serve as a timer telling you when to push the egg for the spirit behind it. Also fortunate on this level is that if the first rooms are done optimally, Repton arrives in the room with five spirits just as the single spirit is going past -- a fact that certainly helped me to discover this solution.

The music for this video is "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar.

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