Game:

Repton 3 (1986)

Duration: 6:04

307 views

1

The eighth, and tragically the last, level of Repton 4. (By contrast, the forthcoming release of Repton Extravaganza is set to increase the number of official Repton 3 levels to 400. There's no justice....) At least this final level is a worthy climax, building on themes seen in previous levels to create a truly impressive puzzle. I felt instinctively it would be possible to use all four photocopiers for ghouls, to reach the level's maximum possible score, but then spent some hours staring at the map trying to work out how it could be possible to kill them all.

The first problem is that there are eight cages but only four spirits. If no spirits are to be photocopied, all four must be sent into particular cages (two to reach the key, two to reach some jewels in the centre of the level). Or so I thought. Looking at Jonathan's FAQ afterwards, I found that he uses a rock to block one of the central cages, so the one blocking the jewels can be opened without first opening the other. I didn't adopt his method for the video, partly because it isn't mine, and because I needed that rock for a ghoul.

Anyway, reaching the key while keeping the spirits out of the other cages in the bottom-right is not easy; it requires breaking the egg, and I think you must photocopy this ghoul immediately, since it would be very hard to get a ghoul to cross this photocopier later on and still be able to kill it. Working out how to kill these two ghouls was the hardest part of the solution. Note that I take some jewels under the rock I use to the kill the level's first ghoul. This keeps the spirits out of the way long enough to kill the ghouls.

It's very important to leave the jewel two squares above the bottom centre photocopier. Ghouls have a preference for vertical movement 75% of the time, so if this jewel is taken, getting the ghoul to photocopy requires letting it get very close to you, and then it will be difficult or impossible to get round the rock before it goes over the top of it.

There are eight magiblocks in the top-right area of the level, but only two have complete freedom of movement. I could only make one line of three from this; the method of making two, one using each of the two free magiblocks, I afterwards found in Jonathan's FAQ, and this time I did incorporate his solution into my video route so as to get the maximum possible score.

I think the rest of the solution can pass without comment, although note that if I'd waited for one more "growth cycle" of the bottom fungus before dropping the rock through the magic wall, this fungus would become trapped. That's useful to know if you're solving the puzzles in a different order; in the video, I release this fungus so late in the solution that trapping it is unnecessary.

The music for this video is "E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca and "Nessun dorma" from Turandot, both operas by Giacomo Puccini, sung by Luciano Pavarotti. An appropriate note to finish on, I think. "Vincero"... although the second half of Robbo is still to come, so I don't know.

Other Statistics