Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon Ra - Step by step guide

The game is divided into six acts. It’s worth noting that the detective here is a young girl, not an old bore like Miss Marple, the conceited Belgian Poirot, or the cocaine-addicted Holmes. The titular heroine — Laura Bow, is a well-bred daughter of a detective, who inherited her father’s passion for criminal mysteries. Her father gets her a job at a New York newspaper through connections. The Big Apple in the 1930s is a great and exciting city, but also full of criminals. It’s also worth remembering that the interwar period is the time of prohibition in the USA, so the golden age of gangsters like Al Capone. After a few rather unpleasant adventures, Laura finally reaches the editorial office, where she is greeted by an unfriendly boss. They say of him, „..he may look unpleasant from the outside, but inside he has a heart of stone.” Anyway, Laura is tasked with writing an article about the theft of the Egyptian Amon-Ra dagger.

To complete each act, you need a certain minimum of items and actions, but beware: you may finish one act but not the next. Furthermore, you need evidence to be able to present a case against the murderer(s) by the end of the bloody night. If you don’t gather them, the murderer still at large will thank you for helping to solve the mystery with a series of machine gun bullets. As in any adventure game, curiosity pays off. Try to look everywhere and see everything. Take all the items you can — who knows when these odds and ends might come in handy. Examine the corpses very carefully. Remember that many details can only be seen under a magnifying glass. Talk to everyone and about everything. The information you gather may prove invaluable, especially if you prefer not to use the description.

The game belongs to the type of adventures in which you are informed about some danger threatening the hero only after this trap kills him. Therefore, frequent saving of the game state on the disk is necessary. Now, a part for those looking for an easy way out, i.e., a complete solution, based on a general description of the basic activities in each act, and then a more detailed discussion of more complicated problems.

Step-by-step guide on how to progress through the game:

1. A NOSE FOR NEWS

  • Pick up the writing pad from the desk.
  • Take the key, use it to open the drawer, and retrieve the laundry coupon.
  • Grab the baseball from the trash can.
  • In some areas of the city, simply crossing the street is enough (make sure no vehicles are coming). For other areas, you need to take a taxi. Place your hand on the Taxi sign to hail one.
  • Once in the taxi, show the laundry coupon to the driver (it serves as your reporter ID). Then select your destination from the universal notepad.
  • Wake up the drunkard, enter the police station, and exit. Grab a newspaper — there's a coupon for a free sandwich at Luigi's.
  • Cross the street (watch out for cars!) and give the coupon to the vendor. Take the sandwich to the station and give it to the sergeant.
  • Ask him for the password to the bar (SPEAKEASY). Use this password to enter the bar.
  • Inside, ask the bartender about someone named Ziggy. Have a conversation with Ziggy, then enter the restroom and inquire about the cheerful lady.
  • Later, you'll have the opportunity to disguise yourself in the restroom.

2. SUSPECTS ON PARAM

  • Show your reporter ID to Heimlich at the museum entrance, and he'll let you in.
  • Approach the conversing individuals to eavesdrop on 14 different conversations.
  • Remember the names of all the characters and pay attention to what they say.
  • Grab an empty glass from the buffet — it'll help you eavesdrop on closed-door conversations in acts 3 and 4.
  • You can also enter the souvenir shop and inspect everything inside.
  • Talk to Steve at the port, the man in the tuxedo and shoes. In the souvenir shop, inspect the Amon-Ra dagger under the magnifying glass.
  • One of them is authentic! Unfortunately, as soon as you discover this, Wolf Heimlich will kick you out of the room. Check the display case later.
  • In the Egyptian room, examine the display case from which the dagger was stolen (but don't break it).
  • Inspect the hieroglyph tablet on the left wall under the magnifying glass. Also, check the medallion on the floor.
  • Investigate the red stain on the floor. Open the sarcophagus (the first one on the right) and search inside.
  • During act three or four, you'll overhear Carrington arranging a meeting with the Duchess Waldorf-Carlton in the armory. You can attend this meeting at the appropriate time and hide behind the curtain.

3. ON THE CUTTING EDGE

  • In Carrington's office, check the fireplace and take a piece of coal. You can listen to conversations using the intercom. Go through all the notebooks. You can also open the safe behind the painting above the fireplace. The combination is in B. Sayff's phone book.
  • In Yvette's office, check the trash can and take the carbon copy. Hold it close to the lamp and read the inscriptions. Turn off the lamp and leave the room for a moment. Come back and unscrew the bulb, which should have cooled down by now. Inspect the sculpture head in the hallway under the magnifying glass. Push it, and a secret passage in the adjacent room will open. It's a pity the light bulb just blew. Will the one you stole from Yvette's room fit? By the way, smash the mirror with the bone and take the lamp.
  • There are three more secret tunnels in the museum. You can go through them: from Wolf Heimlich's office to Carrington's office — it's activated by the button hidden behind the medals hanging on the wall, from Olympia's office to the room with specimens — the horn of the skull on the desk and from the laboratory to the mammalogy lab — the button on the wall in Ernie's office. Just don't forget to have your lamp on! Examine the letters CP written in blood on Carrington's desk. It's an acronym for the title "Crime and Punishment". Take the book from the shelf and open it. Listen to conversations through the intercom. Check the index of specimens on Ernie's desk and pay attention to which container contains the wart hog (container number 13). Now take the rope from the toolbox and the lasso for snakes from under the desk.
  • One of the paintings in the gallery of old masters depicts a skeleton holding a key. Actually, someone glued a real key to the picture. You can take the key. Cut it off with the rope.
  • In Wolf Heimlich's office, set the mousetrap by using the bone and take a piece of cheese. Search the little library. Take the book that is inserted spine into the middle. In the book, you'll find Yvette's garter and a note. Before you get eaten by the worms inhabiting the trunk in the laboratory, take a piece of meat from the fridge. Now open the trunk and quickly put the meat inside. Now you can calmly look at the contents of the trunk. From the room with the specimens, take the bottle of snake oil. Go to Vat 13. You found the Amon-Ra dagger!

4. MUSEUM OF THE DEAD

  • Talk to Yvette in her office.
  • Have a conversation with Steve.
  • Eavesdrop on Steve and Yvette's conversation.
  • After a while, enter Yvette's room, inspect the signs of struggle, and find a piece of fabric, red hair, and a slipper. Take the slipper.
  • Examine the paintings in the gallery of old masters. How can they be old if the paint on them hasn't dried yet?
  • Break the sculpture in the gallery with the bone and uncover Yvette's body. Take the glasses and red hair.
  • In the room with pterodactyls, cut a piece of wire with the lasso. Take Steve's shoe from the armory.
  • Go to Olympia's office. Spray the cobra three times with snake oil, catch it in the lasso, and put it in the cage.
  • Reveal the stone tablet with hieroglyphs lying on the floor and inspect it under the magnifying glass.
  • Go to the specimen room (PRESERVATION LAB) and fill the bottle with snake oil from the container on the table.
  • Return to examine the body. Check the left ankle of the duchess under the magnifying glass.
  • Take grapes and smelling salts. Leave the room.

5. REX TAKES A BITE OUT OF CRIME

  • You're in the mastodon room, being chased by a masked figure. Escape to the room with pterodactyls and close the door behind you. Secure it with wire.
  • Now go to the armory room. Again, close and lock the door. Move to the corridor at the top of the screen. Move the chair and open the vent.
  • Hide in the sarcophagus in the Egyptian room. The deceived murderer will leave, and break down the door in the corridor. Enter through the carved hole.
  • Move the hanging chest in front of the entrance and cut the ropes. Now move the chest in the right part of the room and enter the elevator.
  • Descend downstairs. Take the mummy from the sarcophagus and block the elevator door with it.
  • Use the lasso to move the top of the crown of one of the sarcophagi and open it. When you leave the room, you'll be caught by the secret sect.
  • The answers to the riddles are WOMB and TOMB, knock them on the notepad with hieroglyphs. You should now find yourself in the boiler room.
  • Wipe the coal off Steve's face and wake him up with smelling salts. Before he gets up, give him the shoe. Move the sun symbol aside. Behind it is a tunnel. Light the lamp and repel the snakes. As you proceed, throw the cheese to the left exit for the rats, and flee to the right yourself. Immediately after leaving the dinosaur's belly, press the button located on the plaque. Rex will start talking and block the path of the murderer.

6. THE CORONER'S INQUEST

  • In this act, the police question you about the events of the bloody night. You must answer each question correctly and have the appropriate physical evidence: the Amon-Ra dagger, Watney's police file, the medallion, a strand of hair, a watch, the wire, the carbon copy, the glasses, Pippin's notebook, the garter, grapes, the wart hog's hair, and Yvette's slipper.
  • The intrigue unfolds: it all starts when a petty criminal named Watney Little kills Carrington and assumes his identity. He, along with Ziggy Zigfield and Duchess W.C., steals paintings from the museum, replacing them with forgeries. Detective O'Riley discovers this and blackmails Watney Little, forcing him to steal the Amon-Ra dagger in exchange for his silence. Then suddenly, for unspecified reasons, O'Riley mercilessly murders Pippin Carter, Ziggy Zigfield, Ernie Leach, Yvette (most likely out of jealousy), and Duchess W.C. We also learn that the Amon-Ra sect has its temple in the museum's basement and that Ernie Leach was making money by installing fences. But that's less relevant now.

If you've followed the instructions, the game will end with a scene of O'Riley in prison.

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