The game starts in the year 1936 and Ripley is in Egypt being chased by some Chinese men. Luckily for him, something unbelievable happened and he was able to escape. This will be your first Believe It or Not story in the game. You then jump to New York and meet Mei Chen, a friend of Robert Ripley, and Feng Li who takes care of Ripley's Odditorium and wears a candle on his head. When Ripley and Mei Chen return to the Odditorium, they find that the world's longest snake is missing from his tank and is threatening Feng Li. This is where you get to play your first move as Robert Ripley. There are a few possible choices for you to save Feng Li, but some of them are more profitable than others so take a close look at what is available to you in the room. Feng Li then explains to you that two Chinese men did this to him and that they took your file on the tomb of the First Emperor of China. Someone is searching for the Imperial Seal which could be used to create a dictatorship if in the hands of the wrong person. You then decide that you must solve the riddle of Master Lu and plan a trip to Peiping to talk to the Priest in the Hall of Classics, and you take Mei Chen with you. Feng Li reminds you not to forget to send some new and exciting exhibits back to the Odditorium while you are away because the Odditorium is bearly paying the bills.
There are six areas in the world that you will explore. Some of these areas are in China, England, South America, and India. To travel, you visit the local Posh Express office and talk to the agent there. You'll be able to pay your expenses from your account or with cash. Your account may end up being empty but you'll never run out of pocket money while traveling. You can also exchange your money which is found in your carrying case for some local currency. It is important for you not to forget about your Odditorium and to have new exciting exhibits for the public to see. You'll also be able to send the oddities you find back to the Odditorium from the Posh Express office. Some of these items you will discover on your own and others will need to be bargained for. If you ever find that an item you placed in your Odditorium is required further on in the game, you'll be able to retrieve it.
The interface is quite simple to use and everything can be done using the mouse. You simply left click wherever you want Ripley to go on the screen and if you are in a rush and prefer not to watch Ripley walk over to his destination, you can right click to skip the animation sequences. You'll be able to talk to others by clicking on them, sometimes Ripley will know exactly what to say, and other times he'll ask for your help by providing you with a few choices. At the bottom of the screen you'll find a magnifying glass to take a closer look at certain items, two hands for picking things up and using them etc, and a case in which you will be keeping your inventory. The hand in the bottom right corner allows you to load or save a game, restart the game, and quit to dos. You can also quit the game by typing an ALT-X or ALT-Q during a game.
Ripley carries a journal with him and writes down all the clues to The Riddle of Master Lu that he finds inside it. Taking a look inside of it will let you know what your progress is. Just use the look button to read your journal and point your hand at the bottom right of the page to turn them.
The graphics are absolutely gorgeous mixing high resolution SVGA graphics with digitized characters whose animations are smooth, realistic and fit perfectly into the various backgrounds. The game contains over 200 locations faithfully reproduced so that you will really feel being as if you were in Ripley's place, travelling around the world in such mystical places as Easter Island. To serve this stunning visual environment, the game comes with an excellent soundtrack that will accompany the player during the game. Character voices and sound effects are clear and you won't have any difficulties at all understanding what people say.
Saving your game is important, especially if you have a crash or something like that, but don't worry if you kill Ripley and realize you forgot to save your game. The game comes with an "auto-resurrect" feature which will restore you to the point in the game where you made your fatal mouse click. There is one puzzle in the game found in the Baron's laboratory inside the Ace of Spades castle in which you cannot leave the laboratory until you have solved the puzzle. Saving your game before entering this lab might just be a good idea.
Although the game will run under Windows 95, it is recommended to be played under an old version of DOS. If you have Windows 95, simply press the F8 key while booting your computer and select option number 8, which will boot your computer in DOS 6.2. The game is easy to install and to run afterwards.
The Riddle of Master Lu is simply a terrific adventure game that will provide you with many hours of entertainment (approximatively 50 hours). You'll discover many oddities, interesting people and amazing stories which Ripley uses to write his cartoons.
486 SX-25 MHz or higher,
Min 8Mb memory,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
Hard drive required with 8Mb free,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
VESA compliant SVGA video graphic card (with VESA driver installed),
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatibles supported.
Most popular soundcards supported.
See developers.
In Europe:
In UK:
U.S. Gold Ltd.,
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Holford, Birmingham B6 7AX.
Technical Support: +44-(0)121-3560831
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