The Island of Dr Brain

This page is dedicated to the Sierra game The Island of Dr Brain, and still under construction. A Castle page is coming up.
This game is built in a walkthrough section, which describes the paths between puzzles, and a puzzle section, which tries to help with the puzzles on all 3 levels.

Walkthrough

First of all, prepare yourself before playing the game. If you don't have adequate manual help, get a Periodic Table of the Elements (Mendelev Table), an encyclopedia, a dictionary, atlas, calculator, paper and pen. Secondly, remember the regular cheat: save around it. When you fail to solve a puzzle, leave it, save, play again, use hint watch, restore, and complete the puzzle without using hints.

At the start of the game, you have to bypass the copyright protection. You should find it in your manual. Enter the correct data that fits the symbol the program shows you.
There's no bypassing this scene. You will have to do this every time you start up the game, even if you just restore an old game. Even though you'll always do this at novice level, you get a Gold Plaque.

You receive a Plaque for every puzzle you solve. Bronze for Novice, gold for expert level. A bronze plaque gets you 1 point, a gold one 3. You also earn points if you have hints left, the more you have, the more points you get. You can also get Extra Credit if you solve a puzzle several times. The total amount of possible points is 1000. To reach this score, every puzzle must be completed 4 times in each difficulty level. For the word search, that means you have to solve 4 puzzles per difficulty level per language: 36 word searches in total. There is a small bonus involved if you complete it with 1000 points.

After landing on the island, you end in front of a wall. Click on the pieces in front of it to play the Shape Manipulation Puzzle.
In the room, press the red button on the table to turn on the monitor. Use the monitor to play the Algebra Puzzle. Click the receipt on the slot in the coffin. Solve the Logic Math puzzle. Click the disks on the poles on the table to the right. Solve the Towers of Hanoi. Then leave the room through the door you just opened.
First solve the jigsaw. Click a flamingo to start the Logic Pattern puzzle. Then click the sign for the Foreign Language Word Search.
Click the sign by the cliff for the Code Puzzle. Click the Botanic sign for the Animal Spot Puzzle. Click the basket with items on the door to the volcano for the Chemical Analysis puzzle.
Click the table near you to play the Magic Square Puzzle. Then open the door for the Spectrum Analysis puzzle.
In the next section, the Synonym (apple trees), Homonym (corn) and Antonym (ant hill) puzzles may be solved in random order. Whenever you solve a puzzle, click the apples/corn/watermelon on the scale at the end of the path. After all 3 items are placed on the scale, enter the hut.
In the hut, click the PC to play the Visual Pairing puzzle. Then click the key on the bookshelf for some General Knowledge puzzle.
In the next room, click on the cup section for the Liquid Weights puzzle. Then enter the elevator for the Physics Puzzle.
Then enter the Robot Room. Click any of the pink/yellow/green chips on the right into the back of the robot head, then click the PC to program the robot. Get one item at a time. Then, click the genetic tube on the circle in the table to the right and solve the Genetics Puzzle.
In the next room, click the panel for the Art Recognition Puzzle. Then click the organ for the Music Theory Puzzle.
Enter the final room. Push the button for the Logic Pattern Puzzle. Push the lever forward. Click on the machinery that just broke and remove the sparking plug. Click it on the PC for the Logic Gates puzzle. Then wait a little, pull the lever, and you've finished the game!

Puzzle Aids

Here I attempt to push you into the right direction. Most of the puzzles are random, so an exact solution is not possible. Remember you can change difficulty at any time, in case a puzzle proves too much for you.
Entering the wall
Unfortunately, this one is both random and impossible to hint for. The biggest aid I can give you, is to not give up and make sure you don't leave any small gaps. If you ask for hints, keep a 6*8 square notice paper at hand.
Algebra bacteria This one is manageable at novice level, at expert level it may get you more difficulty. First, set the blue, straight line to part the blue (and green, if there is any) section. On Expert level, you need to fit the parabole in the right place. Remember the following rules for the lines:
y = ax + b


y = ax2 +bx +c For more information on parabolic graphs, check Wikipedia.
Sarcophagus: Fill In The Blank
In Dr Brain, all possible sequences follow a low amount of different patterns. There are:
Towers of Hanoi
This is a well-known logical problem, created and named by Edouard Lucas, that is surprisingly constant in the way it is solved, no matter how many disks you have. There are 3 poles. There's a number of disks in varying sizes in the left one. They all need to be stacked onto the right one. You may only move 1 disk at a time. A larger disk may never be stacked onto a smaller disk.
If you have 4 disks, move the top onto the middle pole, the 2nd smallest disk onto the right pole, the smallest onto the right pole, the 2nd largest onto the middle pole, the smallest onto the left pole, the 2nd smallest onto the middle pole, the smallest onto the middle pole (there's now a tower of 3 on the middle pole), then the largest disk onto the right pole. Then the smallest disk onto the right pole, 2nd smallest on left pole, smallest on the left, 2nd largest on the right, smallest on the middle, 2nd smallest on the right, smallest on the right.
The larger puzzles will work in the same way. The amount of moves it takes can be calculated with the formula: 2n - 1. With 4 disks, it'll take 15 moves. With 5, 31. With 6, 63. And on the expert level, with 7 disks, it will take 127 moves. The biggest challenge is staying awake so you don't slide any disk on the wrong pole.
If you move a stack with an even amount of disks, move the top disk to the pole that is not the target. If the number of disks is odd, begin by moving the top disk to the target pole.
For more information on the Towers of Hanoi puzzle, check Wikipedia.

Jigsaw: Right-click any time to see the full picture. Remember the larger sections: the boat, the rocks, palm tree, wheel, the dressed flamingos, and the floating giraffe. Use the edges. Listen to the click when you put down a piece: there is a different click for one that is, and for one that isn't in the right location.
Logic Sequence Flamingos: Note which are flashing, and in which colour they flash. Write down which flamingo causes which birds change into which colours. You can always solve this puzzle, no matter how much you change the birds. On Expert level, there is a bird that flashes blue, one green, one purple. Try all the flamingos. You can find 2 that control the "blue" and "green" flamingo exclusively. There is also one that turns 4 flamingos into purple, and changes 3 back into red, leaving the one that should be purple in the destination colour.
Language WordSearch: As with most word searches, begin by looking at the less-frequent letters and other symbols. Blank spaces, ñ, ë, è, ï, é... In German, Z is useful. Also, look at double letters.
Note: There's some bugs here. You may have a double word in the list, and if you find them both, only one may be ticked. There are 2 workarounds: use the Hint Watch if you have only this word left, or click Exit and make a new puzzle.
At times the puzzle may not load at all, and you'll have to restart. And some of the words have REAL ODD translations...

Code Puzzle: There are 2 to 3 different techniques for mixing the words: Letter Swap, Insert/Delete Spaces, Word Swap. The word with the dot usually goes at the end, the word with the capital goes at the start. Note a quote may also contain names or I, or may consists of 2 or more phrases.
All quotes can be found in this printable text file: Quotes

Animal Spotting: The only tip here is to not give up, look away occasionally. Remember the animals can be everywhere, even in rocks or on the path. But not on the sign. Also note elephants may be smaller than spiders. If all else fails, leave, save, and use a hint. Difficult ones to find are the Red Kangaroos, which may show up on the path in a brown shape, on the rock in blue, or just behind the sign in green. Also troublesome for me are the ant lion in the leaves of the banana plant directly left of the sign, and the flying fox in the grass below the sign.
Chemical Analysis: This is where your Periodic Table Of The Elements, or Mendelyev Table, comes in handy. Most of the elements will put the atomic number or atomic wheight in the clue. The one at the bottom is always Trace Elements. In case you don't have any Periodic Tables lying around, click HERE for a complete table.

Magic Square: First of all, note the Goal button. Click it to change the total squares so they show how much you still need in the row/column/diagonal, not how much you need in total. You will have to use some numbers more than once. If you have troubles, try to make as many rows and columns and diagonals as possible correct. Then double-check the numbers and see if you can tweek some up and down. Otherwise, just save and get a hint.
Spectrum Analysis Just try them all once. The Expert level is actually the easiest one: just figure out which 2 elements don't match the spectrum, then throw the other 6 on the fire.

LANGUAGE PUZZLE BUG: If you have to use the Hint Watch, you may find a thick black stripe through the puzzle and discover it's not responding. Haven't found the cure or the work-around. Don't use it! A dictionary is easier.
Antonym Hill: In the quotes, look for a word that means the opposite. Some of the words chosen are pretty unfortunate. All quotes can be found in this printable document: ANTONYM

Homonym Puzzle: Fill in the blanks. There will be just one corn left. There are few phrases, and this one's fairly easy, though some of the phrases are odd. However, a dictionary can come in handy.
Printable list of homonyms: HOMONYM

Synonym Puzzle: Nice! Shakespeare! You may use some queerly abbreviated words, and you may have trouble with words that aren't used in a certain context anymore.
Printable list of Shakespeare quotations: SYNONYM

Match the Masks Look twice, three times, four times, as many times as you can. But don't give up!

Book ShelfMy homemade Braincyclopedia was constructed thanks to the SCI viewer, the handy tool that also let me extract the language puzzles. It is sorted well, but contains all difficulty levels so printing it will take some paper. BRAINCYCLOPEDIA

Liquid Weights: This puzzle is dreadful, as it calls for knowledge that is nowadays not part of European knowledge. It is also not found in most sources I looked in. So, I'll list it for you in a table:
Measure Water Mercury Alcohol
Cup 0 lb 8 oz 7 lb 1 oz (112 oz) 0 lb 6 oz
Quart 2 lb 0 oz (32 oz) 28 lb 4 oz(448 oz) 1 lb 8 oz (24 oz)
Gallon 8 lb 0 oz (128 oz) Don't try! (1792 oz) 6 lb 0 oz (96 oz)
There go 4 cups in a quart, and 4 quarts in a gallon. Also:16 oz = 1 lb. Calculate the total amount of oz you need, then use the measurements above to calculate how much you need. Remember: there's a limited amount of cups you get from every material, and if you run out of doses before you filled all sections, you lose. If you pour too much to one of the sides, you lose. Remember that in the Novice section, it's not you who decides where you put your liquid: water goes left, alcohol right and mercury in the middle. Once you've filled a cup, you have to put it in the funnel. Best save first, so that when you make a mistake, your math hasn't been in vain.
Tips for playing:

  1. Begin with handing out the mercury. Toss in a cup in every compartment with an odd number.
  2. Then, cut the large numbers. Use a quart on every section with more than 28lb 4oz.
  3. If you have an even number of Mercury doses left, pour 2 cups in a section with more than or exactly 14lb 2oz.
  4. Next, deal out the necessary cups of alcohol. Pouring water will only get half (8 oz) or whole (0 oz) amounts. If there is an amount needed in any compartment that ends on 2, 4, or 6, pour in cups of alcohol until it says 8 or 0.
  5. Now, you won't get stuck so easily. Check carefully what you have left in doses. Calculate what you still need. Remember 2 quarts of alcohol weighs 3lb.

Math ElevatorFirst, divide (Easy, Standard) or subtract (Expert) the counterweight from the elevator weight. Divide the result by 25. This is the gear ratio. If you multiply the top gear by this number, you get the bottom gear tooth number. Try all 5. In the Expert level, the result of your math may not be entirely exact.

Next comes the Art Concentration. The 6 painters have luckily very different styles. Still I found it hard to tell some Pollocks from Kandinsky, so I slapped together this nicety for your recognition pleasure:

Music Theory: OK here goes... there are 3 minigames here: clicking on the keyboard key that corresponds with the note the computer gives, the reverse, and the Tune Transcribing. The key that's in the dead centre is c''. On the score (the lines), that would be just over the line in the middle. The lowest note is c', two spots below the score. The top note is c''', 1 space above the score. A # in front of a note means that you should play the black key to the right of the one the note signifies. A b in front of a note means you should play the black key to the LEFT of the one the note signifies.
And on the transcription level, just get yourself some sheet music paper and copy it real fast.

Programming: The pink chip will function properly. If you use the yellow chip, take note while you program. If there's a bug symbol in the line, program the OPPOSITE action: pick up if you want to drop, turn left if you want to turn right, forward if you want to go backward. The green chip functions normally... until it faces a monitor, then it stops.
Remember that, unlike on Castle, the robot needs to turn and walk forward, not just MOVE LEFT or MOVE RIGHT. On Expert, use the proper chip for a distant crate, and don't steer the green chip into a monitor.
Genetics: Create the Ideal Cyborg.
There's a nifty Genetics card in this room that will tell you all you need.
The ideal you'll have to create, has 10 letters: let's say BbAaEeMmLl. In every pair, the first letter (in this case B, A, E, M, L) comes from paternal (left) side, the second (in this case b, a, e, m, l) comes from maternal (right) side. On Standard and Expert, when you create the father, look for a male of which all of the first letters correspond. You may use any female if you find a good male, but if the male is lacking (eg has ll) look for a female that complements him (with LL). Do the same om maternal side, look for a good mother and a father who complements if necessary. Then breed, check the right offspring in the generation, and huzzah!

Logic Pattern: Click on the symbol that fits logically in the blank. The difficulty level of this is primarily in the question itself: some symbols are much easier to read than others. The Save/Hint system is the only other advice I can give you.
Logic Gates: After testing the chip, find the right logic gates that will produce the outcome. After testing the old chip, study the table. Try to discover a logic pattern between input and output. Remember not all the input (A B, C or D) may be used.
For more info on Logic Gates, check Wikipedia's article.

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