The Castle of Dr. Brain/Dungeon



Through the door at the end of the puzzle room, you find your way into the dungeon, complete with a skull flower vase and a dummy hanging over a piranha pit. Dr. Brain has even found time to throw darts at a picture of his own face. Strange guy, that Dr. Brain.

The Dummy
The first order of business here is to free the dummy. Click on him to bring up the hangman game.

The object of this game is to figure out the word at the top by guessing the letters that go into the white block spaces without guessing too many letters that are not in the word. Correct guesses will show up in green at the top. Incorrect guesses will add a piece of the dummy. On Expert difficulty, the words will be longer and more obscure than those on lower difficulties. If you enter in the letters RSTLNEA at first, you will usually get a good sense of what the word is without losing too many body parts.

The words are randomized, but common words used are honest, antelope, entrance, train, session, pattern, doctor, resistance, rental, brains, complete, editorial, newspaper, magazine, western, dentist, resistance, password, and entrance.

Each time you correctly guess a word, the dummy will give you a combination for the cabinet. Make sure to write them down or enter them after each word, for once he is freed, he is not coming back (and who can blame him?) When you have all three combinations and the dummy is safely lowered to the floor, click on the cabinet beneath the red book and skull with flowers. Enter the codes the dummy gave you and the doors will open, revealing a red "Pay TV" token and a letter counter.

Cryptoquote
Take the red coin you just retrieved from the cabinet and insert it into the coin slot in the door across from you. The TV will light up and the cryptoquote puzzle will start.

The goal of this puzzle is to decipher the saying. Each letter stands for another letter, and it works both ways. That is, if "A" stands for "B", "B" also stands for "A". The letter counter from the cabinet can be useful here if you know the more frequent letters. If not, it is conveniently available via the red square at the bottom right of the screen as well as on display above the red book on the cabinet you just unlocked in the form of an eye exam chart.

At any rate, the ciphers are the same every time. For Beginner difficulty, the cipher says "Your mind is the key to every door. When you set your mind free, no lock can hold you, no bars restrain you." On Intermediate, the cipher is "Free from every earthen tide, past stars and planets you  must ride, until you reach the farther side." On Expert, the cipher is "The elevators of the mind only operate for those who keep their minds open to new possibilities."

Solving the cipher will open the door revealing yet another elevator maze.

Dr. Brain's Safe
Clicking on the portrait of Dr. Brain will reveal a safe. Clicking on the safe opens up a mastermind type game. This is a logic game that requires you to guess the combination based only on guesses and whether or not any part of the guess was accurate. There are many strategies on how to solve this kind of puzzle, and an explanation of these strategies could take up another three or four pages. Luckily, this puzzle is technically optional and the objects inside will only be used at the very end of the game, and will not be necessary at all if you are using this guide. If you're no good at this puzzle, it's okay to skip it and jump into the elevator instead. Nobody's judging.