What would you do if you were stuck in a locked room with a post filled with monitors? Find keys and solve puzzles to unlock the door, of course! Silly question, sure, but this is just the situation in store for you in Monitor Post, a short and sharp-looking escape game from Ninja Motion.
Visible navigation bars on the left and right edges of the screen move the perspective around the room, but you'll have to pixel hunt for the first key that will get the game started (not a terrible offense). The graphics and animation are reminiscent of games by Toshimitsu Takagi, one of the first escape game designers.
With just enough keys and puzzles to keep you busy for a distraction break, the game will please all but the most hardcore of escapers out there who require a bit more challenge than this has to offer. I got out in about 10 minutes with the "Normal End", can you find any other endings?
Walkthrough Guide
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Dramatic Walkthrough
(with help for the colorblind)
First Key
This is Agent Ghost, reporting in from Recon Mission NinjaMotion. I have located the central computer bank and extracted the information. However, I seem to have tripped a security lockdown. All four central monitors are locked. From the green monitor I can see the outer green door and a red light: no doubt this console controls the door mechanism. Looks like it needs a keycard, though if I circle around to the other three screens, they seem to only require physical keys. Hmm.
To the left of the starting green computer is an orange computer. Looks like there's something below it. Yes! This key must have fallen out of some computer tech's pocket. It doesn't fit in this computer, though.
Blue Monitor
Back up, circling around to the other side of the computer bank (and to the right of the green monitor) is a blue monitor, the color of which seems to match this key. Clever: they color-coded the locking system. It fits, and the screen has activated.
What the ... ? Is this some kind of game? What do these people do here? Nevermind, that's above my pay grade. Let's see if I can figure this puzzle out. Looks like I can start and stop the little moving boxes by clicking the three larger boxes at the bottom of the screen.
Good thing I've honed my reflexes. I've stopped each box exactly in the middle so they're aligned under the flashing arrow. Then the screen changed and showed me ... some sort of mosaic?
More importantly, I can open the little hatch underneath the lower left corner of the screen. Another color-coded key. Great. I bet I'll have to open all three of these monitors to find the green keycard.
The Second Monitor
Moving to the right, opposite of the first green monitor, it's clear that this purple key matches the bright purple monitor, so I'll turn it on. Looks like four grey digital spaces and four more buttons underneath. Some sort of code?
Hmm. Clicking certain buttons gives a line of little red "X"s ... no doubt an error message. On the other hand, some buttons give nice green circles in the digital spaces. Ahh, I see, it's some sort of sequence. I have to push all four buttons in the right order to light up the digital spaces.
In case anyone has to follow my footsteps, I'll write down the final, correct order to push the buttons, numbered from left to right:
4,2,3,1.
Another strange mosaic, and once again I can open the hatch in the lower left corner for an orange key. What did I just say? I knew I'd have to deal with all four monitors.
The Third Monitor
Moving to the right again, back to the third monitor, which after being turned on gives a 4x4 grid. It seems like I can interact directly with the grid this time. The squares are initially empty, but one click fills them with green, a second with red, and a third clears them again. Now why does this look familiar?
Of course! The patterns on the previous two screens! Each pattern was a 2x4 grid, one on the left side of the screen, the other on the right. Put them together and I'll have the correct 4x4 pattern. I'd better get a piece of paper and make a little drawing.
I'll attach the paper here with the complete grid, for future reference:
Number of clicks on each grid space:
0 1 0 1
1 0 2 0
2 2 2 1
0 1 1 0
Finally! A keycard! I bet I know where this goes ...
The Final Monitor
Right again to the green monitor. The keycard fits, and the door opens! Finally, I can leave this computer lab and return to headquarters.
Perfect Ending
As I was walking out I noticed that the image on the purple monitor - the one on the opposite side from the green monitor - had changed. Huh, it seems to be pointing down now. Pointing down to what? I should look down ...
The base of the computer module is comprised of four black rectangular shapes stacked on top of each other. What's that underneath the purple monitor? On the second black shape from the top?
Looks like some sort of hatch. Wait, no, it's a drawer!
..."Thanks coin"? What the heck is this place, a Tesshi-e escape-the-room game? Nevermind, I'm getting the heck out of here.
Posted by: The Logical Ghost
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August 17, 2011 3:02 PM