The Island of Dr. Brain (Game)

The Island of Dr. Brain

GAME » on 1992

You are now Dr. Brain's assistant, and are sent to his remote private island full of logic puzzles to retrieve his special battery in this sequel to the puzzle-adventure game Castle of Dr. Brain.

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Overview

The Island of Dr. Brain is a comedic edutainment point-and-click puzzle-adventure game developed and published by Sierra for DOS PCs in 1992.

A direct sequel to the 1991 game Castle of Dr. Brain, The Island of Dr. Brain has players, as a new lab assistant for the eponymous Dr. Brain, parachuting down to his remote private island in order to find and retrieve a special battery for his latest invention. Like the original game, players must solve a variety of new logic puzzles to progress (including math, science, language, and art theory).

While the game plays similar to the first, it includes certain quality-of-life updates, including updated system for achievements (which uses a point-based system) and hints (in which players now request video communication with a voice-acted Dr. Brain himself using "hint transmissions" or "hint charges").

Gameplay

Achievement Board

Rather than simply collecting plaques for solving puzzles, as in the previous game, players now have an Achievement Board that tracks both the plaques earned (bronze for Novice puzzles, silver for Standard puzzles, and gold for Expert puzzles) and extra points earned.

Players are now scored overall, based on not only the highest plaque earned per puzzle (5 points per bronze Novice Puzzle plaques, 10 points per silver Standard Puzzle plaques, and 15 points per gold Expert Puzzle plaques), but with "Extra Cedit points" for replaying puzzles at each difficulty level (four total playthroughs per level for most puzzles). However, using hints deducts points.

The maximum base score is 390 points, with the maximum overall score (counting Extra Credit points and using no hints) is 1,000 points. Reaching the maximum score earns players a bonus reward.

Puzzles

Navigation (Map Skills) - Designed as a copy protection mechanism, players must use the game's manual (the EncycloAlmanacTionaryOgraphy) to determine the island's geographic coordinates with the symbol given on the screen. Although the manual shows higher difficulties (which change the castle's offset, requiring players to calculate the coordinates relative to it), the final game only has one difficulty (which rewards the Gold Plaque regardless).
Polyomino (Shape Manipulation) - A simple tiling puzzle with polyominoes of different shapes and sizes. Higher difficulties use a less flexible assortment of larger-sized pieces.
Microscope (Algebra) - A graphing puzzle where players have to use two lines/curves to separate different-colored microorganisms on a graph by calculating all of the coefficients of both mathematical functions. Novice puzzles use simple X and Y lines, while harder difficulties use linear and polynomial functions.
Sarcophagus Lock (Numbered Series) - A number puzzle where players are given rows of seven numbers and must figure out the pattern to determine the center-most number. Harder difficulties add more rows to solve, some of which make use of more complicated sequences (such as the Fibonacci sequence).
Tower of Hanoi (Logic Sequence) - The traditional Tower of Hanoi (Concept) puzzle, with harder difficulties adding more discs.
Animated Jigsaw (Pattern Recognition) - A jigsaw puzzle similar to the original game's, but with oddly-shaped cut-outs and animated designs. Harder difficulties using smaller pieces. Players earn no extra points for replays if they did not beat their previous record time.
Coconut Tree Word Search (Foreign Language) - A word search puzzle focused on foreign languages, with players choosing between Spanish, French, and German words. Harder difficulties require players to solve more of the word list.
Cipher Bridge (Decoding) - A cipher puzzle where players have to decode a phrase on the sign by rearranging words and the spaces between each word. Harder difficulties also require players to unscramble each word by swapping letters.
Botanical Garden (Visual Skills) - A hidden object puzzle where animals are hidden in the picture and are revealed once players must drag a box directly over them. Harder difficulties add more animals to find.
Volcano Item Analyzer (Material Analysis) - Given three objects, players must deduce their material compounds using hints (such as the chemical's atomic weight and properties). Harder difficulties include objects with more a more complex assortment of materials.
Magic Square (Numeric Planning) - A number puzzle returning from the previous game, where players must arrange numbers in a square so that each row, column, and major diagonals add up to the same sum. This version now allows numbers to appear more than once (albeit not in the same row, column, or major diagonal), has some of the square pre-solved (which cannot be changed), and has an optional "Show Needs" display to show how far off the sum is. Harder difficulties increase the square size while allowing repeated numbers on the same row, column, or major diagonal.
Spectrum Analyzer (Spectrum Analysis) - Given a group of eight elements, players must find the correct combination of elements that would give the correct pattern on the spectrum graph. Harder difficulties require more elements.
Anthill Antonym (Antonym) / Apple Synonym (Synonym) / Hominy Homonym (Homonym) - Word puzzles where players are given phrases with some incorrect words, and must fix these phrases by swapping these words back. The Antonym puzzle uses famous quotes, the Synonym puzzle uses Shakesperian couplets, an the Homonym puzzle uses standard sentences with words missing instead of replaced. Harder difficulties have additional words to replace and additional words to choose from.
Match Three (Visual Pairing) - Players are given a large group of 30 objects and must find five groups of three matching objects, with harder difficulties giving more complicated objects.
Bookshelf (Subject Category) - A three-row bookshelf has books out of order, and players must rearrange them back by matching them to their correct categories. Harder difficulties have more books to rearrange and less empty spots.
Counterweight (Fluid Weights) - Players must fill the three-sector bucket counterweight for the elevator to the exact weight using a limited amount of liquids of different weights in cups of different sizes. Harder difficulties require players to choose which sector to fill while forcing them to maintain the counterweight's balance and having the entire puzzle reset on failure.
Robot-rat-driven Elevator (Physics) - A math puzzle where players must choose the two correct gears for the elevator based on the elevator's weight and counterweight. Harder difficulties add more gears to choose from while changing the equation.
Programmable Robot (Programming) - A programming puzzle similar to the previous game's, where players must compose a program that allows the robot to maneuver a maze (using only "move forward/back", "turn left/right", and "object pickup/drop" routines) to retrieve three marked crates. Harder difficulties require use of different "cartridges" that make additional challenges (with the Purple cartridge acting as normal, the Green cartridge adding "bugs" that do the opposite action on certain lines, and the Yellow cartridge having the robot turning every time they reach a monitor).
Cyborg Genetics (Genetics) - Given a group of cyborg organisms with different genetic structures, players must breed them together in a way so that their offspring matches the ideal cyborg's genetics. Harder difficulties require players to determine not only the two correct parents, but all four grandparents, and hides the design of the final cyborg (requiring use of the letter structure). This puzzle is notable for having a bonus section with detailed instructions.
Art Concentration (Art Recognition) - Given a collection of paintings on the wall, players must match them with busts of six famous artists. Each bust can be interacted with, having them talk about their art style and whether or not they have more unmatched paintings on the wall. Too many incorrect answers causes the puzzle to reset. Harder difficulties increase the amount of paintings, up to 18 total.
Music (Music Theory) - Three puzzles involving reading musical notation using a staff and piano, with three separate puzzles (one where players must find the correct keys for each note, one where players must listen to the key being played and place notes correctly, and one where players must reconstruct the staff from memory, including ). Harder difficulties have longer sequences and require players to determine sharp/flat notes, with the latter puzzle also requiring players to determine each note's octave. After completing the puzzles, players can then freely play the keyboard.
Navigation Computer (Visual Series) - Players must repair the computer by looking at four rows of four components, determine their sequence, and find the correct component from the pool. Harder difficulties make the sequence more complex.
Transistor Logic (Logic Gates) - Players must replace a broken computer chip by learning its logic pattern, then using a circuit programmer to determine the logic gates required to have a new computer chip match the same pattern. Harder difficulties add more inputs.

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