A significant characteristic of Rama is its randomization of play
components, affecting inventory item locations, the timing of animation
sequences, a few puzzles, and certain destination locations in the central
plains. For example, many inventory items have no fixed location where
they may be found - if you need something you haven't found yet, you're
just going to have to search carefully for it (fortunately, items do not
seem to migrate within a particular game). As a result, it's not possible
to give an exact step-by-step procedure for progressing through the game -
your mileage may vary. If you can't find an item that you need for a
puzzle, continue on with the game and it may become available later. The
game designers' purpose in creating these randomizations is not clear -
they change only the details of the game, not the basic concepts or
gameplay strategy, and add little to game replayability.
As a basic strategy, pay particular attention to the ground, as artifacts
may often be found there. A painstaking, but effective approach to moving
through the environment is to turn completely around at each node position
and check each view carefully.
Much of the inventory turns out to be "red herrings" - unneeded in your
actual gameplay sequence, but perhaps confusing your choices at various
points and making gameplay a bit more complex.
To prepare for several tasks in Bangkok and other locations, brush up on
your base-8 and base-16 arithmetic skills.
Project Newton Crew:
ID Character Game Role
002 Yourself Adventurer
004 Shigeru Takagishi Scientist
005 David Brown Mission Commander
006 Francesca Sabatini Video Journalist
007 Otto Heilmann Chief Security Officer
008 Michael O'Toole Codemaster
009 Richard Wakefield Chief Engineer
010 Reggie Wilson Print Journalist
011 Irina Turgenyev Career Cosmonaut
012 Nicole des Jardins Medical Officer
Hiro Yamanaka IBI Agent
Janos Tabori IBI Agent
Valeriy Borzov Your predecessor, now deceased
All characters are from the Clarke/Lee book Rama II
After the game introduction and animation of Nicole, move F L F2 to the
computer console. Click on it, then on the MAIL command to bring up your
vidmail. Each message adds a bit to the backstory of the game and
introduces you to the basic personalities of the other astronauts. In
particular, note Wakefield's Falstaff creation (you'll see more of it
later) and O'Toole's favorite primes sequence
41,43,47,53,...,1601
or
x^2 - x + 41, for 1 <= x <= 40
The cable car code is derived from the first two elements of this
sequence: 4143.
Move L and watch the animation of an avian flying by. Move F4 L F and
descend the ladder. Move R F and click on the nuclear device. Pick up the
locker #6 key next to the INACTIVE light. Go back up the ladder and move
F R F R to the lockers. Open Locker #2 with the key in your inventory and
pick up the ISA multi-tool and your wristcomp. The wristcomp has a map
feature that will often come in handy during gameplay. Open the unlocked
Locker #9 and pick up your trusty sidekick, Puck. If you get a vidmail
message from Sabatini requesting her cigarette lighter, you can ignore
it. Open Locker #6 with the key in your inventory and pick up two pattern
artifacts, a blank key, three symbol plaques and a datacube. Combine the
datacube with your wristcomp to read a message from Sabatini to Brown. Use
the blank key to open Locker #7 and pick up an optical lens and a datacube
containing an encoded message from Heilmann to his underlings. If you spend
a lot of time at the hub camp, you'll eventually get a friendly reminder from Nicole to come on down.
From the lockers, move L F2 R F L and get in the cable car. Enter the code
from O'Toole's vidmail message and press the red button. Enjoy the ride
down to the base camp, with a rare third-person POV.
Central Plains
Move R F to the table and pick up a note from Nicole and a datacube (both
shameless plugs for Clarke's upcoming book 3001). Move L2 F R and open the
storage box on the other table. Inside, pick up any pattern artifact(s) and
symbol plaque(s) you may find. Other astronauts add items to this storage
box from time to time, so check back on it (and the refrigerator) later if
you seem to be missing an item. Move B L2 F and watch the animation of
Turgenyev. Move F3 out onto the central plains. To identify fixed
destinations on the central plains radar map, we'll use a clock analogy.
It's often possible to enter and exit a central plains location from more
than one direction. There are a few randomized locations on the central
plains that contain a moving biot symbol. You can check these out for
information on how the biots move and act, but be careful not to get in
front of a triangular sextet of crab biots, or you'll get trashed! In
particular, be sure to visit the centipede biot location (4 green squares
in a row) and pick up a symbol plaque if it drops one.
Find Nicole's position (012) and watch the animation of her. Back out to
the radar map and head for the biot garage area at 3 o'clock. Move F L F
to the cube of alien plastic containing a symbol plaque; you'll return
for this one later after the plastic is melted. Move R2 F2 and get a
datacube from Reggie Wilson describing crab biots. Move L2 F R F R F R
and pick up a red crystal from the remains of the broken sphere. Move
L F R F into the biot garage and let Puck describe the various types of
biot inside:
Biot Type Purpose
Centipede Repairs other biots
Mantis Uses colored light
Crane Lifts heavy loads
Crab Trash collector
Shark Water-borne
Spider Assassin
Exit the biot garage, move L F2 R F and be sure to check for items on
the ground under the large slanting building. At various points, you may
be interrupted with an animation sequence in which you are given an
inventory item (symbol plaque, optical lens, etc.) from one of the
astronauts. Move back to the radar map and head for London at 1 o'clock.
Move F and listen to Takagishi. It's a little hard to pick up through his
accent, but he does make a reference to a "pattern" in the pulsing of the
forcefield blocking entry to the red London building ahead. If you count
the individual pulses of the forcefield, you'll note that after every
ninth pulse there is a short pause during which the field is off. If you
time it right, the pause will give you enough time to move through the
forcefield without getting fried. After you've passed through, move L and
pull the tan-colored drawer to turn off the forcefield. Note the encircled
triangle at the top of the forcefield switch - you'll need to use that
later. Pick up any items lying on the ground. Move R2 F to the London
entrance.
Click on the small flanking column to the right, having a red design on it.
This is the London entrance puzzle. Pick a symbol plaque from your
inventory that has an appearance appropriate for the pattern displayed by
the other eight plaques; for example, a horizontally-split yellow-and-
green pentagon with two white and two black dots. You have undoubtedly
picked up some "red herrings" along the way, so examine your choice
carefully. When the correct plaque has been placed, you'll hear the
sound of the London entrance door opening.
Move F2 and and turn all the way around checking for inventory items,
looking in particular between the decorated column supports. Also check the
doorway through which you entered and the doorway on the opposite side of
the room. To the left, you can operate a device showing various aspects of
the Rama spacecraft, including a red sphere that seems to show the
locations of various species inside Rama. Another sequence shows the
fabrication of the Rama spacecraft shell, but a more likely construction
method (at least for humans) would involve hollowing-out an existing
asteroid.
On the opposite side of the room, zoom in on the left panel and place
your pattern artifacts to create an oval representation of New York island
in Rama's cylindrical sea. When complete, the oval shows a map through a
maze of corridors to three plazas. Zoom in on the right panel and place
your six remaining pattern artifacts. Getting the order right is tricky,
descriptions may help:
Left to right:
1.Yellow island in purple sea at center
2.Italy-shaped yellow protuberance at lower center
3.Small rectangular yellow region at lower center edge
4.Irregular yellow region extending down to lower center edge
5.Single yellow island in purple region at lower edge
6.Several yellow islands in purple region at lower edge
When complete, the display shows a map of the central plains, with red
dots representing artifact locations and white smudges providing close-
ups. Left to right, the locations are:
Dock Biot Garage London Big Wheel Bangkok
The second door puzzle in London requires two symbol plaques. After you've
opened the door, move F2 R F L F and watch the animation of the mantis
biot using a red laser (twice) to descend on an elevator. Move F2 and pick
up the biot box. On examining this box, you'll see that it looks like it
can be opened, perhaps using the triangular button on its back. Have you
seen this triangular shape before?
Move B L and create a red laser equivalent from your inventory by combining
the red crystal shard and the ISA multi-tool (use its button to put it
into flashlight mode). To summon the elevator, use the red flashlight on
the laser target in front of you. Move B F and repeat the laser procedure
to descend into the sewage pit. Explore the pit areas at the ends of all
three walkways to pick up symbol plaques, which will be dirty from the
fluid in the pit. There may also be clean symbol plaque(s) on the walkways
themselves. Exit the pit using the elevator as before.
Facing the door the mantis came out of, move R F2 R F2 R F and observe the
trash transport carts. Move L to yet another door puzzle. The plaques on
this type of door puzzle are most easily identified by the symbolic base-3
notation at the bottom; for example, the symbols represent the digits 0 0
1 2 0 in base 3 (which translates to 15 decimal). By translating their
base-3 digits, you'll see that the symbol plaques in the door puzzle are
arranged in sequence, left to right and top to bottom. It then becomes
straightforward to identify which symbol plaque(s) you need in order to
fill in the gap(s) in the sequence - make a note of them. Of course, the
trick is getting the plaques themselves and cleaning them if necessary,
for they won't insert into the door puzzle when dirty. Also, be aware
that "red herrings" may creep into your inventory; for example, plaques
with the correct base-3 symbols, but with the other symbols wrong.
With this goal in mind, exit the London structure and return to the
forcefield control switch outside. Put the biot box on the triangle at
the top of the switch. Remove the symbol plaque from the now-open biot
box. Move L F3 to the central plains radar map. Return to the base camp
and pick up a box of powder from the refrigerator. Go back to the radar
map and head for the Big Wheel area at 10:30.
If you run into Francesca (Princess Leia with a jawbone), she'll give you
a decryption card. First her cigarette lighter and now a computer card --
she does consider you to be her gofer, doesn't she? Go ahead and load the
card into your wristcomp, and you'll be able to read the encoded message
from Heilmann (subject: Trinity) that you intercepted earlier. You'll also
be able to read any other encoded messages you happen to come across in
the course of gameplay.
Move F and pick up a symbol plaque from the trash dump transfer tray.
Move B R F2 R and pick up a metal seed from one of the cone-shaped "plants"
on the ground. Move L2 F R F and pick up a bent rod at the site of the
damaged biot. Move L F2 to the distillation mechanism. Zoom in on the
central part of the mechanism and insert the metal seed into the
star-shaped hole at right. Put the box of powder into the adjacent
receptacle. Turn the thumbwheel at upper right to get fluid flowing into
the mechanism. Move B and click on the device at right shaped like a
pot-bellied stove. Press the triangular red button to clean the blue
material off the tray. The vertical graduated tube at left indicates you
have four remaining cleanings. Find the needed symbol plaque(s) in your
inventory and clean each one by putting it in the tray and using the red
button.
Return to the radar map and find Wakefield's position (009). Watch the
animation of him and get a third optical lens. Return to the big wheel area
and move to the gun in the center of the area. Click on it to open its
barrel and insert the three optical lenses from your inventory. After the
gun fires, return via the radar map to the biot garage area. Move F L F
and pick up the symbol plaque from the now-melted plastic cube. This will
probably give you everything you need to open the third door in London.
While in this area, check the trash dump transfer tray for any artifacts.
Return to London via the radar map and go back to the closed door at the
top of the sewage pit. Use symbol plaque(s) from your inventory to open
the door. Move F2 L F L F2 R F R through the biot demonstration room. Click
on the device to fire a green laser at the crane biot and get it to disable
the spider biot guard. Move R F L F2 L and pick up the alien palette. Zoom
in on the display console behind the spider biot and pull the lever down to
activate a video link with the big wheel control room you'll visit later.
Exit London and return to the radar map. Along the way, Nicole will give
you a datacube describing Wilson's death, and Rama will make a course
correction, apparently now heading for impact with Earth. Go to Bangkok at
the 9 o'clock position on the radar map and solve another symbol plaque
puzzle to open its front door. This puzzle uses base-2 symbols rather than
base-3.
Move F and use the three machines at left to solve simple symbol-matching,
counting and addition/subtraction problems. On completion of a set of
problems, each machine will open. In the left machine, click on the
phonograph-like device to open the door at the far end of the room. In
the right machine, pick up a red gem. Enter into the first Bangkok level,
a human museum (don't forget to keep hunting for symbol plaques).
After exploring the museum (and admiring the bikini, if you're so
inclined), move to the elevator car at the back of the room. Click on the
marked post at center to bring up another symbol plaque puzzle. This
puzzle typically involves sequences of white, black and circle sectors,
and requires, for example, plaques with
White at 5:30, middle ring
Black at 3:30, outside ring
Circle at 5:30, inside ring
White at 9:30, middle ring
Black at 6:30, outside ring
Circle at 12:30, middle ring
Click on the purple triangular button to take the elevator up. Turn
around and enter a room containing Raman arithmetic teaching machines. The
machines on the right can be used to define the base-16 Raman numbers.
After listening to Wakefield's lecture, solve the base-16 arithmetic
problems using the three machines at left. On completion of a set of
problems, each machine will open. In the left machine, click on the
phonograph-like device to open the door at the far end of the room. In
the center machine there are 11 marks per display row, and number buttons
range from 0 at upper left to 15 at lower right. Note that the base-16
answers you must provide may contain more than one digit; for example,
if there are 72 marks shown in the display, you must enter (4,8) using
Raman symbols, since 72 = 4 x 16 + 8. Similarly, if there are 111 symbols
in the display, you must use the buttons for Raman symbols (6,15); that
is, the button second from the right in the top row, and the button at
far right in the bottom row. When the problems in the center machine
have been completed, pick up a human icon from inside the machine. In the
right machine, addition is symbolized by a simple hexagon and subtraction
by a circle inside a hexagon. When its problems have been solved, pick up
another red gem.
Enter into the main room of the second Bangkok level, a Raman museum. Go
to the display to the right of the Raman furniture and pick up a Raman
cutting tool. Note also the statue of a Raman (looking like something out
of Yellow Submarine) and a slideshow of the weird Raman life cycle.
At the far side of the room, enter the second Bangkok elevator. Click on
the marked post at center to bring up the last symbol plaque puzzle. This
puzzle again typically involves sequences of white, black and circle
sectors, and requires, for example, plaques with
White at 10:30, outside ring
Black at 12:30, middle ring
Circle at 6:30, inside ring
White at 12:30, middle ring
Black at 8:30, middle ring
Circle at 11:30, middle ring
One or both of these symbol plaques may require cleaning in the
distillation mechanism at the big wheel area; while there you can free
an avian from the clutches of the broken biot you saw earlier. To
accomplish this, zoom in on the sparking area in the bottom of the biot
and use your Raman cutting tool to sever the electrical cable. Move B
and use the bent rod in your inventory to free the avian. Be sure to
pick up the red neck ring the avian gives you.
Return to the second elevator in Bangkok and activate it with your now-
clean symbol plaque(s). Again operate three arithmetic machines, this time
with rainbow-colored base-8 octospider numbers:
0 White
1 Red
2 Orange
3 Yellow
4 Green
5 Blue
6 Dark Purple
7 Light Purple
+ Red/white striped
- Blue/white striped
As before, complete the problems to open the door and obtain an octospider
icon and a red gem. Enter into the main room of the third Bangkok level,
an octospider museum. Note the interesting statues showing a pregnant
octospider and a communications demo. Pick up an indigo-green jewel on
the floor in this room.
Return to the elevator you just used and put the three red gems you have
in inventory into the receptacle at center. Pick up a number box showing
equivalences between human, Raman and octospider number systems, coming in
very handy later in the game. You're now finished with Bangkok; return to
the central plains radar map via the two elevators.
Head for the big wheel area. From the gun at the center of this area,
move F2 D F to the perimeter of the big wheel, then move L F3 R F2 into
the control room. Zoom in on the display screen and press the right button.
Watch an animation of a mantis biot releasing spider biots from the biot
garage. Move B L F2 L F3 R F6 to the radar map. Note that there are new
location(s) on the radar map where you can (fatally) encounter a loose
spider biot. Return to the biot garage area. Make your way to the back
of the biot garage and pick up the gate lying on the floor.
Return to the big wheel control room and put the gate up against the
central pillar. Using the gate as a ladder, go up and take the blank
plaque from atop the control pillar.
Return to the central plains radar map. For an interesting perspective
with the Rama lights on, you can revisit the hub camp by taking the cable
car back up from the base camp. You've now visited all the important
areas in the central plains, so you might as well head for the docks
(iceport) at 4:30 and meet Brown (005). If you wait a few minutes, you'll
get vidmail from Nicole asking you to come there anyway. In the meantime,
you can track down Heilmann (007) and listen to his Rama paranoia. By the
way, if you try to go to the iceport earlier in the game, you'll be
repeatedly warned to stay away, and eventually "fired" from the expedition.
From your initial entry from the radar map, move L F R to meet Brown and
obtain a datacube. Brown and Nicole will block your exit back to the
central plains, so you're forced to eventually take the icemobile with
Nicole to New York island in Rama's frozen cylindrical sea. First,
however, view the vidmails from Sabatini, O'Toole and Takagishi that
you received in the datacube from Brown. Also, be sure to note the
second nuclear device on the upper level of the iceport, currently
inactive as was the first one you saw at the hub camp. The bomb's
disarming code apparently consists of 20 digits, grouped as a sequence
of five 4-digit numbers. Go on down the ramp and notice that Nicole is
sitting in the icemobile's cockpit (if you watch her from two steps back
on the lower platform, she kind of looks like one of those bobbing-head
toy dogs people used to have in their cars). Join her in the icemobile
and change CD's. Enjoy the ride to New York island while listening to
Nicole's chatter.
New York
Don't feel bad when Nicole abandons you on the New York dock so she can
"look around" in the icemobile. Yeah right, she probably just wants to
hotrod it on the ice. Anyway, you're on your own again, and won't see
Nicole (or much of anyone else) until the end of the game. Go on up the
stairs and use the alien palette to open the doors into New York. Move
through the doors (which lock behind you) and pick up a datacube lying
on the ground. It contains a message from Heilmann to his underlings, and
mentions a bomb whose disarming code is "five of (O'Toole's) favorite
numbers". Move F3 into the Avian Plaza.
Initial Explorations
Looking up, you'll get a view of the walls around the perimeter of this
jewel-shaped plaza, as well as gaps at the top and lower left indicating
passageways leading out of the plaza. In the distance, you'll be able to
see the cylindrical sea on the far side of Rama. The mapping feature of
your wristcomp will come in particularly useful during your explorations
of New York; use it frequently to maintain your bearings and to identify
points of interest. Throughout New York, you'll find alien artifacts in
the form of bi-colored jewels, optical tuning forks and other devices.
Unlike in the central plains, the locations of these artifacts do not
seem to be randomized for each gameplay of Rama.
Using the following Avian Plaza map:
EXIT TO MAZE TALL WHITE
SCULPTURE RAMP
AVIAN LAIR
MANNA MELON
PICTURE
TETRAHEDRON
RECESS PURPLE MAT LATHE
ENTRANCE
FROM DOCK
visit the Raman manna-melon picture to the right of the central tetrahedron
structure. Then make your way to the cul-de-sac behind the semicircular
tank to the right of the central tetrahedron structure. Zoom in on the
lathe-like device having five vertical red lights on it. Put the blank
plaque from your inventory into the similarly-shaped depression in the
center of the device. The green triangular buttons can be used to move
the yellow-tipped rod over the plaque; each position is identified by one
of the red lights. Each position (except the center one) records a tone
onto the blank plaque. Each of the three tones corresponds to an
initially-locked door in the New York maze that you'll be entering
shortly. If the plaque has been recorded with the corresponding tone, the
door will be opened. The simplest way to open all the doors in the New
York maze is to record all three tones onto the plaque, which fortunately
can be done by moving the rod until it's fully extended and the rightmost
red light is glowing. If you remove the plaque while the rod is in this
position, it will have been properly recorded.
Use the New York map you first saw in London to explore the maze
passageways. If you have trouble finding the exit from the Avian Plaza to
the maze, find the central tetrahedron and face its front steps (flanked
by avian and Raman statues), then move L F R2 F2. Inside the maze, Puck
will point out the location of five "tuning fork" devices; you need only
the red and blue ones. The color of a tuning fork can be checked by
pressing the switch on its handle. After picking the red and blue ones
up, make your way to the Octospider Plaza.
Using the Octospider Plaza map:
LATHE
GROTTO
TETRAHEDRON
ENTRANCE
and the mapping function of your wristcomp, you'll find a lathe device in
a cul-de-sac identical to the one you found in the Avian Plaza (in fact
all three plazas have one and the rod position seems to be synchronized
between all of the lathes). However, you won't need it if you've already
programmed your blank plaque with all three door tones.
From the plaza entrance, move center-forward toward the aqua-colored
dome, then move R F2 L and pick up a green-green octahedron lying on the
ground. Move R2 F and pick up a blue filter from the ground. For more
of the backstory, move L2 F L F2 R F2 L F and pick up Takagishi's video
camera. Remove the datacube from it and play it in your wristcomp (the
particular area shown in the octospider lair is not actually encountered
in the game). Using the New York map, proceed to the Human Plaza.
From the plaza entrance, move R F2 and note that access to the door
opposite is prevented by a deep chasm. Looking down, you'll see two
shiny rods reminiscent of elevator pistons, so maybe there's a chance
you can bridge this gap. Your wristcomp map does seem to indicate some
sort of indirect access to that area of the plaza. Move L2 F2 R F R F
and pick up a blue-yellow octahedron. Move L2 F R2 F2 R into the lathe
cul-de-sac and pick up a green-red octahedron lying in the corner. Move
R F2 R2 F R and zoom in on the large green tuning-fork sculpture. Put
the blue tuning fork (the one with a single red mark on its handle) into
the similarly-shaped depression in the sculpture to provide matching blue
colors. Move L and watch the animation of a mantis biot coming out of the
pyramid and entering the far door using a blue laser. Using the same
method you employed inside London, prepare a blue laser simulacrum by
combining your ISA multi-tool flashlight with the blue filter in your
inventory (first removing the red shard, if necessary). Move F and use the
light on the laser target to open the door. Enter the room and get into
the blue subway chair.
Click on the large red button to take the subway counterclockwise to the
next station. Move F2 R and note the nine monitors at top and three at
bottom. If you zoom in on the lower monitors, you'll see that they each
represent a form of Earth life. Your goal, which will require visiting
other stations along the subway ring, is to put the lifeforms in
"evolutionary order" along the top row of monitors. The correctness of
any answer you try can be checked simply by returning to the subway chair
and then immediately re-entering the room. When complete, the left-to-right
order of images in the upper row of monitors should be:
Protozoa
Ant
Snail
Frog
Cat
Eagle
Seal
Cow
Elephant
although it's not clear how the Ramans decided a cow was more advanced
than a cat! When you've completed the puzzle, go to the now-open fourth
subway station and get into another subway chair. Press the red button and
exit at your destination. Press the yellow handle to raise the platform
in the distance. This action bridges the chasm.
Return to the Octospider Plaza entrance and move L F L and pick up an
indigo-yellow octahedron lying on the ground. Move R2 F R F into the
"grotto".
Click on the bright green pedestal at left. Borrow the green-green jewel
from your inventory to release O'Toole's anniversary photo. Pick up the
photo and make a note of the numerical value on its back (which varies
from game to game). Back out and click on the gray-and-white pedestal to
the right. Use the blue-yellow jewel from inventory to obtain a yellow-red
octahedron from the pedestal. Back out and click on the central pedestal
flanked by gold-and-bronze columns. Ignore the obvious solicitation for
a yellow-orange jewel (which you'll never find) and instead use your
ISA multi-tool flashlight (without a filter) to shine white light into
the prism on the pedestal. If the light does not release the prism from
the pedestal, try clicking on the little circular mirrors about five
times with your hand cursor to re-orient the prism. Pick up the prism
and move B R3 F L F L F R F to the tetrahedron in the Octospider Plaza
(although the grotto contains a number of other interesting items, you
won't need any more of them). Put the prism into the triangular hole at
left. Click on the inserted prism with your flashlight to open the
tetrahedron door.
Move B F into the tetrahedron for yet another color-related puzzle. Here,
the object is simple - just use the three large slide controls to mix
colors matching the targets shown at the top. Press the central red button
to turn on the puzzle, and use the tan-and-red control at right center
to select each of three colors to match:
Left color:
Left and center slides all the way down,
right slide 3/4 of the way up
Center color:
Left slide 3/4 of the way up,
center slide half way up,
right slide all the way up
Right color:
Left slide half way up,
center slide 3/4 of the way up,
right slide 1/4 of the way up
When the puzzle is complete, you'll hear the sound of another door opening,
this time in the back of the Octospider Plaza (which you'll visit later).
Return to the Avian Plaza. From a position facing the front steps of the
central tetrahedron (flanked by avian and Raman statues), move R F L2 F2
R F R into a hidden courtyard. Zoom in on the wall recess and put the red
tuning fork (the one with four red marks on its handle) into the
similarly-shaped depression in the wall recess to provide matching red
colors. Click the tuning fork on the recess again to move the white
ramp behind you into position at the open doorway above. From the
recess, move B L2 F2 L2 up the white ramp and into the upper room. Pick
up the piston device lying in the corner.
Move F2 R F R and zoom in on the base of the tall sculpture in the
courtyard. Place the piston (in its retracted mode) on the sculpture base.
Click on the piston to cause the sculpture to tip over. Move B and use
the sculpture like a staircase to reach the reviewing stand on the upper
level. Move R and pick up an avian perch. Move R and go back down the
staircase. Move F L F R2 F2 L to a close-up of the avian statue at the
entrance to the tetrahedron in the plaza. Put the avian neck ring from
your inventory onto the statue to disclose a handle that operates the
tetrahedron entrance door. Move R and put the avian perch on the top
step so you can reach the door handle. Zoom in on the handle and click
on it to open the tetrahedron. Move B F2 into its interior. Click on
the red handle to activate the device. Use the left rotary dial to
select an image of the Raman manna melon you saw earlier in this plaza,
then click on the right slide control. You'll hear the sound of another
door opening, this time an access portal to the Avian lair. Move B L F2
R2 and observe the flightpath of an avian. Move F2 L and watch the avian
jump down into its now-disclosed lair. Move F2 to the edge of a deep
shaft and listen as the avian you saw earlier moves through some tunnels
and activates a ladder for your descent into the shaft. If you move F at
this point, you'll not be able to back up into the Avian Plaza until
you've completed the full avian lair solution.
Avian Lair
Move F into the avian shaft; the portion of the ladder you used is
retracted. Your initial orientation is looking down into the shaft from
the remaining rungs of the ladder; move F U L to the north corridor on
level 2:
Avian Lair Map
Level North Side South Side
1 (top) Control Room (locked)
2 Roost Hatchery
3 Theatre (locked)
4 (bottom) (locked) Schoolroom
Move F2 into a large roost area (if you try to exit back to the shaft,
your way is blocked by a purple avian). Watch the red avian obtain a
manna melon from the dispenser and hold it out to you. Take it from him
and cut it in half with your ISA multi-tool knife. Eat half of the
melon using your ISA multi-tool spoon. As "your brainwaves are being
altered within your optic lobe", note the hidden purple figures on the
wall murals. These are visible because you're able to see ultraviolet
light (like the avians) for a short time after eating some of the
manna melon. This ability, although temporary, will come in handy later
in the game. For now, return one half of the melon to the red avian, and
he'll direct you to an elevator at the rear of the room. Take the
elevator up to the avian triumvirate and accept their gift of a Raman
numerical translator. Move L for a view of the entire avian roost. Move
L, then wait for the avian kingpin to send you back down the elevator.
Move L F R2 and operate the handle of the dispenser to obtain two more
manna melons. Cut them open so they're ready to eat later. Move R2 F2 D
F U L F into the theatre in the north corridor on level 3, and watch
the avian actors leave the stage. Move F L F and pick up the oil-filled
gourd to the right of the lit one. Move R F3 R2 and watch the upset
green avian fly up. Move L and take the octospider pyramid from the
stand holding the octospider costume (the other stand holds a costume of
a Raman). Move R F3 L and then move right-forward to leave the stage
area. Move R2 back to the shaft.
Move R and click on the bridge control mechanism at lower left. If you
try to move the green wheel, it jams. Put some of the oil from the gourd
on it and you'll be able to fully turn it to extend the bridge across
the shaft. Move B L F L D F U L F L into the schoolroom in the south
corridor on level 4. Note the room code at the top of the entrance; you
can use the number wheel from Bangkok to translate it to (11,8,3). Move
L F2 L F L F to zoom in on a wall mural depicting extended ledges in the
avian shaft. Eat one of your manna melon halves to disclose a hidden
three-digit Raman number code, which translates to (6,9,8). Move R F R F
R F to a circular wall mural. Eat another manna melon half to show a
special relationship between the rings of Raman, human and octospider
numbers:
The only sector in which the numbers in all three systems agree is the
one at right, for which all values are 4. This structure of rings of
numbers will be seen again later in the game.
Move R F L3 F3 U F D F R U F2 D L F to a closed door in the north corridor
on level 1. Note the Raman number code above the doorway, which translates
to (7,2,15). Move F and play this number sequence on your avian translator,
whose buttons are numbered from 0 at upper left to 15 at lower right. The
door opens; move F2 to the control panel at left. Click twice on the large
circular red knob to activate the third monitor from the left. Use the
16-button Raman keypad to enter the schoolroom code (11,8,3) - keys are
numbered from 1 at upper left to 13 at lower left to 0 at lower right. The
monitor now displays a real-time view of the schoolroom on level 4. Move
the blue sliding knob at the right of the control panel down to its
lowest position in order to activate both upper and lower staircases to
the schoolroom podium; you can see the results of your changes on the
monitor. Move R F and again use the (7,2,15) code on the translator to
open the door. Move F2 D F2 U F L U F D L F R F2 L F U into the avian
hatchery in the south corridor on level 2. Grab the overhead bars to enter
a recess near the ceiling. Move L and pick up a grappling hook and cable.
Move L2 and use the bars to descend to the floor of the room.
Move F4 D F2 U L F3 R F3 R to the podium in the schoolroom in the south
corridor on level 4. Attach the grappling hook to the handle in the
elevator shaft and use it to descend to the lower level. Move F R F2 L
and pick up a bowl from the storeroom. Move F4 L F2 L to a pool filled
with a caustic liquid. Use the bowl from the storeroom in the pool to
obtain some of the liquid. Move F L F and use the liquid from the bowl
to loosen a corroded lever on the pool control panel. Click on the
now-freed lever to bring it down. Click twice on the central triangular
pointer so that it's pointing left, then click on the red post at right
to move it into a vertical position. Click on the small red button at
the center of the triangular pointer to drain the left pool. Move B L2 F
R F R and take the small white pyramid from the center of the now-drained
pool.
Move B R F4 R and use the rope to climb back up to the schoolroom podium.
Move R F2 R F L2 F3 U F2 D L F R F L F L2 to the back side of the large
purple cylinder in the hatchery in the south corridor on level 2. Zoom in
on the hatch and place the costume (octospider) pendant in the receptacle.
After it's been scanned, return it to inventory and place the pool (human)
pendant into the same receptacle. Pick up the magnetic card after the
hatch opens.
Exit the hatchery back to the central shaft. Move D F U F L U F2 D L F2
back to the closed door in the north corridor on level 1. Again use the
avian translator to gain access to the control room. When you have gone
through the door, note the Raman number code above the entrance to the
elevator shaft, which translates to (9,14,7). Enter the shaft, look down
and use this code on your translator to ascend to the upper level. Move
U L F and insert the magnetic card into the slot to activate the control
panel. Using the Raman keypad, enter the (6,9,8) shaft platform extension
code. Return to the central shaft; you'll now be able to move up and exit
the avian lair.
On exit, listen to Wakefield's warning about the bomb detonation countdown
and get Falstaff from him. From this point on in the game, you're under a
time constraint to find the bomb and disarm it before the six-hour
countdown elapses. You can check on the countdown status by using your
wristcomp, but be aware that the rate at which it counts down accelerates
when you move through the New York environment, just as if you were
actually taking the time to walk about rather than just clicking with a
mouse interface. However, when you are standing still, the countdown
progresses in real time. During your explorations, save and restore
your game frequently to avoid running out of countdown time.
Octospider Lair
Head for the Octospider Plaza. From the entrance, move forward toward the
tetrahedron at right, then move L F3 R F L to the row of gray squares at
the back of the plaza. This door was disclosed by the prism-tetrahedron
puzzle you solved earlier.
Zoom in on the hexagonal access panel and put the star-shaped octospider
icon in the lower triangular hole and the costume pendant in the upper
triangular hole. Move B F3 R F2 L F3 R3 F5 down to the fountain room.
Zoom in on the closed door ahead, then click on the left-center region
of the door. Use Falstaff to retrieve the blue-orange octahedron. Move
B R F R and take three datacubes from Sabatini's uniform for more of
the backstory about the guilty parties. Move B L2 and press the second
white key from the right on the left-hand keyboard. Move L2 and zoom in
on the wall panel. Put the indigo-yellow jewel from your inventory into
the indicated receptacle to open the panel. Pick up all the octahedra
inside the panel, in particular the orange-red one at bottom.
Move B L F2 and use the blue-orange jewel to open the door back to the
octospider hub. Move F2 onto the central purple sinking platform in this
room. Look up and note the displacement of colored squares on the
ceiling. This is part of a puzzle that needs to be solved in order to
reach the lower level of the octospider lair. It works like a base-8
clock - note the number of positions (0-7) the white square has been
displaced clockwise from the home position at right. For each clockwise
displacement of the inner ring white square, count 8, and for each
clockwise displacement in the outer ring, count 1. The total is a key
number that will be used in an alien device you'll find later. For
example, if the inner white square is at 6 o'clock (a displacement of 2)
and the outer white square is at 9 o'clock (a displacement of 4), the
key number is 2 x 8 + 4 = 20.
This puzzle re-randomizes every time you step on the sinking platform.
From the sinking platform, move L2 to face the doorway to the immediate
right of the entrance ramp. Move F and use the yellow-red jewel from your
inventory to open the door. Move F6 R and zoom in on the alien device.
Click on the spongy blue button at bottom to bring up the alternate
display. Find the position of your key number from the ceiling puzzle
and click on it to light up that many red bars. Click again on the blue
button; the black circle at left will show spikes extending outside its
perimeter and the right diagram will match what you saw on the ceiling
in the hub. Move B L and use your green-red jewel to open the door.
Move F2 L F D F3 R into the lower level of the octospider lair.
Zoom in on the octospider lair map and click on the blue button to
activate one of the doorways on the upper level; the colored triangles
start blinking. You are again standing on a sinking ceiling-puzzle
platform; move B U and figure out its key number. Move D R F3 and use
the alien device with the new key number to activate the spikes in the
access tube. Move B L F R and notice O'Toole's crucifix lying on the
ground - not a good omen! Move U F R and head for the left-hand door.
Use the violet-blue jewel from your inventory to open it. Move F R F
into the octospider trophy room. Here you'll see such gruesome sights
as Takagishi stuffed, and a photo of him getting that way (with clamps).
How about those octospiders, anyway? If you read the Rama book series,
you'll find a similar episode occurring, in which Takagishi is later
found to have died by "natural causes" (perhaps heart failure on first
encountering an octospider!). There's also a good color photo of a
couple of Ramans here, and another tri-lingual number wheel in which
the sector directly to the right is again emphasized.
Move to the closed door at the far side of the room and use your
orange-red jewel to open it. Enter the back room and observe the
octoteacher. When it displays 7 and waits for your response, click on
the upper-left corner of the color tower to rotate it a quarter turn,
then click on the light-purple square second from the bottom. The
octoteacher seems thrilled by your response, gives you O'Toole's
catechism card, and exits the room. Oh, well, I guess O'Toole won't be
needing it any more!
Before leaving the room, pick up O'Toole's favorite-number chart from
the top of the color tower, and an organic lump from the octospider
food dish (it could be part of Takagishi for all you know!).
Move L2 F3 L F2 R F D F4 L F into the subway room in the lower level
(you needn't re-solve the ceiling puzzle if you avoided the main
octospider hub). Put the organic lump into the miniature subway car,
followed by Falstaff. From Falstaff's perspective, take the organic
lump and click on the white button in the subway car. Move F and
watch the animation of the big octospider stealing food from a
miniature one. Move L and take the hand laser from the wall. Move B R
and put the organic lump into the empty light-green feeding dish at
right. After the octospider returns to his meal, move R and get
O'Toole's ID card. Move B R, re-enter the subway car and use it to
return to the subway room. Move F out of the subway car and restore
your normal perspective. If desired, move R F2 and note Sabatini's
scarf in the full-size inoperative subway car. Exit the subway room
onto the sinking platform. Since you've now reset the ceiling puzzle
at least twice, look up and derive the new key number.
Use the previously-established procedure to exit the lower level, then
return through the right-hand tunnel to the main octospider hub. Exit
up the ramp back into the Octospider Plaza and head for the Human Plaza.
Endgame
From the entrance to the Human Plaza, move R F3 to the door that was
previously inaccessible on the other side of a chasm (for which you
raised a bridge by solving the subway puzzle in the back of this plaza).
Zoom in on the hexagonal access panel and put the human icon in the
right holes and the pool pendant in the left hole. Move B F2 inside.
Solve the tri-lingual number wheel puzzle by making all rings display 9
at right; that is, by clicking on the inner, middle and outer rings 3, 1
and 4 times, respectively (pi?). Move F L F R and use the green laser on
the crane biot to have it disable the spider biot guarding the bomb.
Move R F L F and zoom on on the bomb's code panel.
The bomb's disarming sequence is a set of five 4-digit numbers, with
leading zeroes used when necessary. Each time Rama is played (at least
from the point when you've exited the avian lair), the disarming sequence
is re-randomized.
From Heilmann's message to Yamanaka and Tabori, there's every reason to
believe the disarming code is generated from five of the numbers on
O'Toole's prime sequence chart. Each of the forty numbers on the chart
contains four or fewer digits.
The clues in O'Toole's belongings all refer to the sequence number in
his list of forty favorite numbers; for example, if the reverse side of
his anniversary photo makes a reference to "21st", it means that one of
the 4-digit disarming code numbers is the 21st element of his sequence,
which from his chart is 0461 (you may have a different number on the
back of the photo). On O'Toole's ID card, the month and date of his
birth are circled, providing two more sequence numbers.
Looking at the reverse side of O'Toole's catechism card, you'll see that
the first 4-digit code number is the 15th in the sequence (0251), and
the last is the 33rd in the sequence (1097).
You now know what all five code numbers are, with the only question
being the positioning of the middle three. Of the four digits already
displayed on the bomb's panel, the first two are the trailing digits
of the second code number, and the last two are the leading digits of
the third code number. Using O'Toole's sequence chart in conjunction
with the above information, you can define the positioning of the
middle three code numbers.
Here's an example from one particular Rama game:
Bomb digits displayed: 61|00
Source Sequence Number Code Number Position
Catechism card 15 0251 First
Catechism card 33 1097 Fifth
Photo 21 0461 Second
ID Card 3 0047 Third
ID card 29 0853 Fourth
The positioning of the second, third and fourth code numbers is the
only arrangement matching what is already displayed on the bomb.
Once the disarming code numbers have been entered, click on the INPUT
button to disarm the bomb (you get three tries before the bomb
automatically detonates). If you hear the sound of compressed air being
released and a majestic fanfare begins, you've done it! Back out and
listen to Nicole's vidmail describing what's going on upstairs. Move
R2 F4 and watch the endgame sequence, at the end of which Arthur C.
Clarke makes a vague reference to a game sequel.
Acknowledgement
Thanks to Steve Charles for assistance at a few crucial areas in the game.
Copyright (c) 1996 Balmoral Software. Portions copyright (c) 1996
Sierra Online, Inc.
