7th Guest
“Welcome to my … house!” Old Man Stauf built a house and filled it with his toys. Six guests were invited one night, their screams the only noise…
About 25 years ago, my sister and I rented a game from the public library: 7th Guest. I remember us sitting at my father’s desk in his study. We’d play this game on his laptop while in semi-darkness: not good for our young teenage minds. With trepidation we played the game that week, and darn, it was scary!
Notebooks by our side, each of us knowing our strengths and weaknesses when it came to solving the puzzles, we made copious notes, saved the game frequently and we battled on. I cannot remember finishing it, but we had a good time playing the game anyway. We begged our parents almost every time at least to let us finish one more puzzle, because (yeah, duh!) we were at a critical strategic point in the game! No way we could stop now!
While we often did not get along, this game was a time where we got together and played together without many of the usual clashes we had as sisters. And of course, I do remember the games’ badly played scenes1] in between moving around the house, sometimes forgetting which rooms contained which games, but it was fun!
And scary!
But fun!
And it was something I enjoyed doing together with my (younger) sister.
When I read in 2012 this game was going to be republished for the Mac and iPad/iPhone, I purchased a copy for my own Mac, and I gifted the iPad/iPhone version to my sister, with the promise we’d play it again together. We haven’t yet played the game, but tonight on the eve before her birthday, I came across the game again and I decided to have a go2.
The music still freaks me out, the voice-over will haunt me tonight, I have yet to finish the game3, but I am still having fun. The game is slightly dated, and while I am using a walkthrough, I am yet again spooked by the music, the voice-over and the freaky puzzles!
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These scenes could not be skipped. ↩︎
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And now with a little help from a walkthrough, something that simply did not exist over 25 years ago! The 7th Guest/Walkthrough ↩︎
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It seems I’m stuck in the Laboratory where I cannot get the Microscope game to play. ↩︎