Earthbound – Day 47

–Day 47–

We don’t waste any time today, and we head straight to the pyramids. It looks like the Photographer was expecting this and was waiting there to once again capture the moment.

Unfortunately, the moment is slightly ruined as soon as we try to actually try to enter the Pyramid. The entrance seems to be sealed tight and there isn’t much we can do about that. There is a Sphinx just south of the Pyramid with a very obvious button puzzle. Unfortunately the Sphinx won’t talk to us, and we don’t have any clues about what order to press the buttons in.

And so, the entire rest of the day was spent trying to find a clue of what to do next. We talked to everyone in town. We looked through the desert for the lost key. We even bought a bag of snakes to see if they would scare the Sphinx. I don’t know why I thought that, but you have to try everything at this point!

After wasting the entire day with nothing to show for it, I finally cave and pay the hint guy to tell me what to do. Actually, before I share his hint, I do want to say the hint guy is a very welcome addition to the game. Many retro games have moments like this where you simply can’t think of what the developers thought you should do next and you really need that little nudge to get you back on track. That is doubly true pre-internet when these games came out and the answers weren’t easily available to you.

Anyway, onto the actual hint. The Hint Man tells us we should check out the Second Floor of the Scarabia Cultural Museum in Summers. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to see the hieroglyph they have there. You see, that’s the kind of developer logic I wouldn’t have thought of. When we last visited the museum, the second floor was closed for renovations and the second floor guard simply turned us away. I wouldn’t have thought we’d done anything since then that would justify revisiting the Museum.

So I guess we have our destination set. Join us next time as we see what’s so important on the second floor of the Museum. See you then!