The Time Capsule
Escape games are often little more than point-and-click puzzles that take place in a single room with no narrative and no back story other than the simple premise of being stuck in the room and needing to find a way out. Occasionally you'll get some sort of explanation, like a friend locked you in (thanks, Tesshi-e). This week we feature a game that is heavy on story and light on escaping, since the goal is not to leave the room but to find a time capsule left by your now deceased wife to celebrate what would have been your 10th wedding anniversary. Welcome to The Time Capsule, a wonderful, sentimental "escape" from Gotmail.
Normally we would see this sort of sentiment from Robamimi (Smile for Me, Dad, First Love), who often likes to do escapes that are not, in fact, escapes. The Time Capsule follows this pattern of design, while packing in a lot of logic, math, and use of found objects. Search the room in your former house and find clues that will take you down memory lane to the bittersweet days of yore. Navigation bars at the sides of the screen and inventory controls are all fairly basic. The lack of a changing cursor does mean some pixel hunting, but the visuals are pretty sharp, clear, and uncluttered so it shouldn't be an big issue for you. There's also a save feature in case you wish to walk away for a while or if the schmaltz gets to be a bit too much.
The Time Capsule is a newly translated English version of a game that was originally released in 2009, but don't let that put you off of the escaping fun to be had. Even if you don't have a sentimental bone in your body The Time Capsule is still a lot of puzzle packed into a small space and definitely fun for any escape fanatic. Let the soothing music clip relax you as you solve puzzles that range from pretty simple to head-bangingly hard and enjoy the mid-week escaping challenge.
Walkthrough Guide
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The Time Capsule Walkthrough
General Information
Examine everything you pick up, items may be hiding clues.
Some items and clues may work on more than one puzzle.
Some puzzles in the game cannot be solved until you've viewed and clicked on all relevant clues. If something doesn't work when it should, go back and click on the clues.
In this walkthrough, every new inventory item is bolded on its first appearance.
Exploration I - Bookshelf Wall
You begin facing a wall with a bookshelf to the right, a window in the middle, and a small drawer to the left.
Click on the bookshelf for a closeup.
Take the DOLL to the right.
Examine the books on the top shelf.
Notice the fourth book book is titled "1999 DIARY" and has a four digit lock.
The rightmost book has a piece of Cellophane stuck between the books.
Back up and turn right.
Exploration II - Desk Wall
This wall has two paintings, a window, a drawer, a plant, a chair, and a desk.
Click on the left painting for a close up.
Notice the painting is locked by another four digit code.
Back up and click the bottom left corner of the window for a close up
Notice there's a lock with a five colour code and a strip of colour to its right in the order of purple-blue-green-yellow-pink.
Mmm, inputting those colours directly doesn't work. The colour sequence strip is identical to the colour order of the buttons on the lock, it must be helpful for the colourblind.
Back up and zoom in on the tree.
Cool, apparently it's a Pachira tree.
Click on the sign to reveal an equation written on its back.
There are two locked drawers here, one opens with a key, one with a five digit code. The rest don't seem to have no visible opening mechanism.
Zoom out and turn right.
Exploration III - Fireplace Wall
You're now facing a wall with a fireplace and two small shutter windows.
Click on the logs for a close up. Alright, they're wrapped up properly.
Back up and click on the top of the fireplace for a closeup.
You can zoom in on the closer left edge of the top of the fireplace and at the water pitcher, but it seems to do nothing for now.
There are close many wooden animal figurines here, but you can't interact with any of them.
Back up and zoom in on the the window on the right.
Click on the shutters to open them. And hey look! Something fell out!
Take the silver Key that fell out of the shutters.
Back up and turn right.
Exploration IV - Sofa Wall
You're now facing a wall with a sofa, a door you cannot leave (of course), and a closet.
Click on the couch for a close up.
You can click twice to zoom in twice on the yellow-brown table on the left see that the table seems to be missing something.
Back up twice to the sofa view.
You can click on sofa on the left hand side to recline and de-recline the seat.
Recline and bring back the seat two more times until a small green box fall onto the couch seat.
Retrieve the Matchbook from the seats.
Notice that after you recline the left seat back, you can click on the left seat to sit on the sofa.
There is a screen here, but you cannot lower it yet.
Back up to the couch view and click on the back support of the middle seat.
On the back of this seat, there's a brown table with a scratch in the center. There's also a beige suitcase behind the sofa.
On the brown table lies a Remote control you can pick up.
Zoom back out to sofa view.
Click on the aqua coloured book for a list of Italian holidays.
Close the book and open the closet.
Take the Coat off the rack.
Zoom in on the bit of aqua sticking out from behind the coatstand to view a wastebin and take the Light bulb inside.
Back up twice and turn right
You're back to where you've started.
Time to solve some puzzles!~
Top of the Desk
There a keyhole here, where do I find the key?
Insert the key from your inventory to open the desk.
Notice there's a laptop here where you can insert a disk.
Zoom in on the object on the right side of the laptop.
Notice the pattern on the object looks kind of like a set of numbers. I wonder what it says?
Click on the candle to zoom in.
Take the Wickless candle that's the second candle from the right.
Left Desk Drawer
Notice the object to the right of the laptop looks like it could be a five digit code.
What does it say?
HINT: The object is a stamp.
Flip the image once horizontally to see that it reads 58925.
Enter 58925 into the lock in the drawer and press "Enter".
Click the chair to move it.
Open the drawer and retrieve a stand.
Fireplace and the Lamp
Time to light the fireplace!
Use the matches on the logs.
It's too hot to have a fire on on such a nice day. I should put out the fire.
HINT: There's a pitcher of water above the fireplace, but you can't take the pitcher.
Wet the coat with the pitcher of water...
And extinguish the fire with the wet fireproof coat.
Take the Paper log you now see in the fireplace.
Interesting, the numbers written in the fireplace looks just like an equation I saw earlier.
The spread out Japanese paper log became a piece of paper with conspicuous vertical lines on it. Seems like I've seen something similar before, but what was it?
Place the Cellophane from your inventory on the Japanese paper.
Let me take a look at this Doll.
Looks like its dress is held up by a small Lampshade.
How and where do I construct a lamp?
Combine three items from the inventory to make a Desk light by placing the Light bulb and the Lamp shade on the Stand.
Go to the wall with the sofa.
If you haven't done so yet, click on the mid section of the back of the sofa to reveal a table.
Place the Desk light on the scratched table.
Stick the combined Japanese paper + Cellophane object on the Desk lamp.
Plug in the desk lamp and it should light up.
[Note: If the lamp doesn't light up after you plug it in, then take the desk lamp off the table, click the yellow mark in the center of the table (the text tells you the table is scratched), and then try plugging it in again.]
Making sure the left seat is reclined back (the seat angle can be adjusted by clicking on the top section of the seat backing), sit on the left seat
Use the remote control on the projector screen on the ceiling to reveal a clue.
Projected on the screen is "19991125".
Where do I use that?
Enter the four digit code "1125" into the blue 1999 diary on the bookshelf.
Neat, the diary is open!
There are four pages of clues here.
The Painting - Part I
The diary told me how to open the painting, what were the clues again?
"The password is the day we visited this place"
"Tomorrow is the celebration of the day Italy choose to be Republic"
What's Italy's Republic day?
The date is 6/1 according to the book on the sofa.
Therefore, which day did my wife write this entry?
Enter "0601" on the lock below the painting.
The Painting - Part II
Take the painting off the wall.
After examination, I find that the paint has a strange, soft, wax-like consistency.
How do I manipulate wax?
Maybe I could melt it?
Time to light the fireplace (again)!
Use the matches on the logs.
Try moving the painting over the fire.
Hey, look like it worked!
Now do it four more times.
Swimming Tadpoles? Nah, that can't be. Instead these are more like...
Music Notes!
But there are no lines to help indicate which notes these are. (Yes, there are letters below, but shhhhh...) Where do I find a set of horizontal lines?
Unplug the lamp and take remove the Japanese paper + Cellophane from the lampshade.
Remove the Cellophane from the Japanese paper
Place the Cellophane on top of the painting.
Sadly I don't have an instrument yet.
However, I *do* have another item made of wax in my inventory.
How do I melt the wickless candle?
Zoom in on the top of the fireplace
Zoom in again on the side left of the figurines.
Place the wickless candle on the left corner close to you.
Zoom out and zoom back in to find the candle has melted.
Take the Harmonica and the Hardened candlewax.
Now I can play the Harmonica using the sheet music from the Painting.
Click on the red dot on the harmonica to see that's the note for "do".
Use the harmonica on the painting.
Since I can't play "la", maybe something is stuck there?
Click on harmonica again to transform it into a Harmonica-shaped key.
Box and Safe Behind the Painting
Use the Harmonica-shaped key on the safe
Notice there's another equation here.
The box here wants a another 4 digit code, where have I seen such a code?
On the last page of the diary, it reads "closing price 7191". Enter "7191" on the wooden box. (Note: If you look at "GAIA" (found on the stamp) according to each letters' location in the alphabet, you'd also get 7191).
There are drawings of doves in the wooden box! Are there any doves in the room?
There was a dove missing from the table to the left of the sofa, wasn't there?
Where do I find the missing dove ?
On the top of the fireplace with the other wooden animal figures!
Take the leftmost figure on the first row.
Attach it onto the table to the left of the sofa.
Something fell when I inserted the dove onto the table.
MacBook
What fell down from the wall when I placed the dove in its rightful place?
The clock to the right of the window on the bookshelf wall is missing now.
Click behind the shelf to the right of the window to see the smashed clock and to obtain a Blue disk.
Examine the back of the Blue disk for the fourth equation.
Which one of these mechanisms take disks?
The wooden box with the two doves.
Awesome! I Exchanged the Blue disk for the Silver disk! Where does this new disk go?
Inside the MacBook.
Zoom in on the MacBook screen. Looks like I need a password, Mmmmm.
The password is written on the painting with the musical tadpoles. It's "AABAAB".
Nice, looks like I opened a lock somewhere, but where?
Click on the red rectangle on the laptop screen.
Zoom in on the toolbox behind the sofa.
Open the box of paints and notice the colours assigned to the tubes.
Where to enter this code?
On the bottom left corner of the window on the desk wall.
The code is Pink-Yellow-Green-Purple-Blue. For the colorblind, the sequence for the order of the buttons is Black->Purple->Blue->Green->Yellow->Pink->Black->Purple...
Alright, the window is unlocked now! Click to open the window.
The open window leaves a beautiful rainbow, d'awww. Click on the floor where the light hits
Is that a hole on the floorboard? Click on the small hole on the right side of the floorboard.
I tried inserting the File I obtained from the toolbox, but it's not smooth enough.
HINT: The file needs lubricant ;)
Cover the file with wax.
Most people hide other "secrets" under the floorboards - my wife hides a handle for me pull on. How sweet.
What did the handle do?
Look to the right of the bookshelf.
Hmmmmmm, Square-Circle-Triangle-Star, where have I seen these before?
Square - On the back of the blue disk. You can take the silver disk from the MacBook to exchange for the blue one in the wooden box.
Circle - On the back of the door to the safe behind the painting.
Triangle - Behind the Pachira tree sign.
Star - Behind the fireplace.
Therefore the the final four digits are:
"4335"
Take the capsule, it's time to exit!~
Posted by: skylightica
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June 8, 2012 4:28 PM