German educational game from 1997. Apparently a 2003 rerelease exists to transition the game from 16 bit to 32 bit to make it run on newer Windows versions.
Link to video
Important Note:
In the video, the player received a huge amount of elfstones at 6:12 for the GLAS-GRAS and BINDE-RINDE solutions, which allowed him to attempt solving a puzzle at 6:25 (which requires 10 or more elfstones).
Normally you receive only 1 elfstone each for these solutions.
I'm currently in the process of asking the video creator how he did it.
I have not been able to reproduce any bugs that could allow receiving multiple elfstone rewards.
Guide by Cornelsen (german)
TCRF pageGame's plot
The villain Marigor captured all the animals and magical creatures in the world of the Tobis and the Tobi children Ela and Alo set out to release the creatures and face Marigor.
Gameplay
On each screen there are 2 or 3 objects that you can click on and if you write the German word for it correctly, you can gain up to 3 Elfensteine (lit. "fairy stones", basicly magic points).
If you have 10 magic points or more, you can click on the little stones to attempt solving a task/puzzle to rescue an animal or creature.
When you successfully solve a puzzle, there will be a cutscene. Some creatures will give you items.
There are 5 worlds: 1) Forest, 2) caves, 3) lake, 4) mountains, 5) world of dwarves
When you clear all stones in a world, you are given an ice stone.
You need all five ice stones to enter Marigor's palace.
Note: When an ice stone is created and given to you, your elf stones are reset.
On some screens, there is a random event of Marigor's robots spawning into the screen, which wastes time, but it may be avoidable in runs.
For example, I tested with savestates and when entering to a screen where it takes 15 sec for the robots to arrive, it looks like the 15 sec won't be depleted while doing other things.
You need to use items to advance into certain areas of the game. Items are stored in your backpack, which will be shown on each screen.
The backpack also stores a map which lets you quicktravel to locations you've been to.
On each screen, there will also be a sign, clicking on that shows a menu to let you continue or exit the game.
When trying a task/puzzle, you can fail a certain number of times until you fail the task completely and drop out of it, losing 5 magic points.
While trying a task/puzzle, you can click on the sign symbol to exit the task without losing magic points.
When solving a task/puzzle, you gain 20 magic points.
Note on the Cornelsen guide
There are several things listed in the guide that aren't true when I'm playing the game (the 1997 version).
Perhaps the guide is based on the 2003 rerelease version.
For example, it states that the puzzle for WURZELGNOM appears after using the keys on the door, but when I was playing, the puzzle was already available.
BugsAnimation bugs
During normal gameplay, I witnessed strange animation bugs on two occasions or so. This seems to be very rare and looks to be the game's fault rather than the emulator's. I haven't been able to reproduce such animation bugs so far. This involves yellow rectangles and the wrong sprite rendered on certain parts of the screen.
Cutscene skip
Some cutscenes can be skipped by clicking on the sign and then continuing:
Cutscene when releasing a creature
Leaving the screen, i.e. the walking animation (apparently this only works if the game doesn't have to check if the exit is blocked)
Arriving at a new screen, i.e. walking animation but also one-time-only cutscenes, such as when entering the cave
This looks like a significant timesaver!
Leave screen instantly
When fading from inventory or sign back to the current screen, if you buffer a click to an exit, you will leave the screen immediately and the walking cutscene is skipped.
It seems you cannot buffer a click to an object or item, however.
Game breaking bug: Don't get an ice stone
If you cutscene skip out of the release of the last creature in an area, you will not receive the ice stone for the area since that cutscene will be skipped, too, rendering the game unwinnable.
Puzzle bugs
Some tasks/puzzles are bugged and will behave as if you solved something in it even though you didn't, although details will have to be figured out and tested for each puzzle individually.
Examples:
The task at the bridge (frog), when aligning the pictures, it is possible to fail and still clear the task at the same time.
A task in the dwarves' world where you have to align pieces of words together, you can fail and the game would still treat a word as valid.
The fox task in the forest, when typing in "Fuchs", it normally plays a song, but I've had it be skipped on a rare occasion. The circumstances seem not well-understood. Sometimes it happens, and other times it doesn't. It is possible to skip past the "Type in the word" part of the puzzle by typing F U C H, and then the wrong letter several times quickly. Somehow this lets you go on to the next screen...
[1]There is a song during this puzzle that can be skipped, but the circumstances seem random and not well-understood. I managed to get past the song by typing F U C H and then the wrong letter several times quickly. This would somehow let me go on to the next screen.
FOREST MOUNTAINSIDE
(Compoter can randomly appear!)
01 : FOREST ENTRANCE
02 : MOUNTAIN PATH
03 : LAKE MOUNTAINSIDE
passable after 02
01 : TONNE → TANNE
02 : BUCH → BACH
01 : BAUM
02 : AST
03 : BUSCH
04 : FELSEN
01 : SPECHT
unlocks after placing 01 at 01
Drops 03 RUSTY KEY on floor
02 : HASEcan sign skip after!
03 : ELCH
unlocks after 01
Adds item FLUTE
04 : POLTERTROLLcan sign skip after!
unlocks after placing 02 at 02
05 : ELFE
unlocks after 02
Drops 04 5 ELFSTONES on floor
01 : EGG
Usable only in this room
02 : ROCK
Usable only in this room
03 : RUSTY KEY
Dropped after 01
04 : 5 ELFSTONES
Dropped after 05
Optional item
01 : NEST
02 : LEDGE
CAVE AREA
Room
Objects
CAVE ENTRANCE
(Room has an arrival cutscene)can sign skip! [1]
01 : CAVE MINING CARTcan sign skip!
02 : FOREST ENTRANCEcan sign skip!
03 : CAVE FORGEcan sign skip!
passable after RUSTY KEY is used on 01
You enter the area automatically after using RUSTY KEY on 01
01 : ROSE → DOSE
01 : WURZEL
02 : KOPF
03 : KERZE
01 : WURZELGNOM[2]can sign skip after!
02 : TANZPFEIFENcan sign skip after!
03 : MAULWURFcan sign skip after!
04 : MAUS[3]can sign skip after!
unlocks after placing CANDLE at 02can sign skip!
01 : DOOR
02 : CANDLE HOLDER
[1]You might have to sign skip twice. The first skip cancels the cutscene itself, the second skip cancels the climbing down sequence.
[2]During the puzzle, you can click on the sign at the top to make the creature stop talking, to end waiting time prematurely.
[3]During the puzzle, when the mouse reached the finish, you can click on the sign at the top or the thumb up button to end the puzzle quicker.
CAVE FORGE
01 : CAVE ENTRANCE
01 : FISCH → TISCH[1]
02 : HUMMER → 02 HAMMER
01 : LAMPE
02 : SITZBANK
03 : BETT
03 : RING
01 : FLEDERMAUS
02 : SILBERMÄNNCHEN[2]
Unlocks after using 02 HAMMER on 01
Drops 03 SILVER KEY on floor
01 : MINING CART WHEEL
02 : HAMMER
Pickable after 02
Usable only in this room
03 : SILVER KEY
Drops after 02
04 : PLAN
Optional item
01 : ANVIL
[1]This seems to be the only eye object in the game that isn't required to progress the game.
[2]During the puzzle, after assigning a material correctly, you can click on the above sign to advance quicker.
CAVE MINING CART
(Compoter can randomly appear!)
01 : CAVE ENTRANCE
02 : CAVE DWARF ENTRANCE
Passable after using MINING CART WHEEL on 02
Passable only if the 02 MINING CART is in this room.
01 : SCHAUKEL → 01 SCHAUFEL (shovel)
01 KETTE
02 LATERNE
01 : SHOVEL
Pickable after 01
Used in this room and added to inventory
02 : ROPE
03 : MAGNET BRICK
Drops after 01
Optional item
04 : CANDLE
01 : STEINFRESSER[1]
Unlocks after using 01 SHOVEL on 01
02 : GRAUWESEN[2]
Unlocks after using MINING CART WHEEL on 02
01 : HEAP OF COAL
02 : MINING CART
[1]In this puzzle, you can click on the correct word a lot of times quickly in order to finish the puzzle.
[2]In this puzzle, you can click on the correct word twice in quick succession to advance quicker.
CAVE DWARF ENTRANCE
01 : CAVE MINING CART
Passable if you are positioned at 03
Passable only if the 04 MINING CART is in this room.
02 : CAVE MAZE
Passable if you are positioned in front of 01
Passable only after solving the riddle at 01
03 : MOUNTAIN BEAR'S DEN
Passable if you are positioned at 03
Passable if the bear at MOUNTAIN BEAR'S DEN has been given HONEY, otherwise triggers a failing cutscene[1]
01 : GITTER
Clickable if you are positioned at 03
01 : KRÖTE[2]
Unlocks after using SHOVEL on 02 CRATE, while in 03 ORIGIN POSITION
Clickable if you are positioned at 03
01 : RIDDLE
If you are positioned at 03, clicking on this makes you position yourself in front of 01.
02 : CRATE
03 : ORIGIN POSITION
If you are positioned in front of 01, clicking on this makes you position yourself at 03.
04 : MINING CART
[1]You can sign skip during the latter half of the failing cutscene, but there is no point in this...
[2]In this puzzle, you can click on the sign to make the toad stop talking in order to advance quicker.
(cave maze rooms)
CAVE MAZE[1]
01 : CAVE DWARF ENTRANCE
02 : DWARF ROOM 1 - FARBENZWERG
Passable after solving the riddle "WER NICHT LIEST, VERIRRT SICH LEICHT"
01 : WER
02 : NICHT
03 : LIEST
04 : VERIRRT
05 : SICH
06 : LEICHT
[1]During the maze rooms, you can sign skip and even backpack skip, but doing so will reset your walking rather than make you go forward quicker. If you click on a word right before the screen changes, it will cause the word to be rendered on the wrong screen but this seems to be only graphical. I have not found any actual shortcuts in this section.
DWARF AREA
Room
Objects
DWARF ROOM 1 - FARBENZWERG
objects go here
room image goes here
DWARF ROOM 2 - WATTEHAUS
objects go here
room image goes here
DWARF ROOM 3 - TRAUERMASKE
objects go here
room image goes here
DWARF ROOM 4 - ECHSENHÖHLE
objects go here
MOUNTAIN AREA
todo
LAKE AREA
todo
TODOs / open questions:
- Is Forest Mountainside accessible from Lake Mountainside when the book has not been made into a water stream?
- Are the elf stones dropped by the elf in Forest Mountainside optional, can be left on the floor?
- Can picking up keys from BUNTSPECHT be sign skipped?
- Can picking up mushrooms from PILZKÖNIG be sign skipped?
Check Cornelsen guide for CAVE ENTRANCE, CAVE FORGE, CAVE MINING CART.
- According to the guide, there is a creature DACHS in CAVE FORGE after changing the fish into a table, but in neither the video nor in my playthrough the puzzle for DACHS appears.
- is the PLAN required to pick up? (if not, mark it as optional item)
- is the MAGNET BRICK required to pick up? (if not, mark it as optional item)
- Can give HONEY to mountain bear from within cave?
Notes:
-Using map to go back to a room may be faster, especially if you can't sign skip the "walking out of the room" cutscene.
-Additionally to some one-time-only arrival cutscenes, some rooms have recurring "walking into the room" cutscenes that can sometimes be sign skipped, such as the CAVE FORGE room. These will not be noted in the above table.
: CAVE ENTRANCE
: BINDE → RINDE
: STAMM
: FUCHS[1]
: MUSHROOMS
: NEST