Some people never look at hints. They consider using hints an admission of failure.

Some people head straight for the hints. They know they can never solve the game on their own. They just want to finish the game, then brag to their friends, “Yeah, I finished it. Piece of cake. Wasn't that puzzle about the princess really tough though?”

I would suggest an intermediate approach: Try to solve the puzzle. When you get frustrated, try a hint.

The original game mostly did not have hints. I would have never finished the game were it not for a fellow worker who had played the game. I could go to him, explain where I was stuck and he would give me a cryptic hint which would put me on the right track. Since you don't have a mentor, I have included hints.

Clicking on Hint alone will tell you the number of hints for the room. (A large number of hints does not necessarily mean a tough problem. The puzzle may simply have been easier to explain as a series of steps.)

If there are 3 hints, then they are numbered Hint 1, Hint 2 and Hint 3. Enter the number after Object and click Hint.

A puzzle involving a room will have the hint in the room. A puzzle involving an item will have the hint in the room where the item was first found.

There is a five move delay between hints. You can't get hint 1 until you have been in the room 5 moves. You can't get hint 2 until you have been in the room 10 moves. This is to encourage you to think about the hint rather that just rushing through them all. (OK, if you have the patience of a pig at feeding time, you can click Wait five times to get to the next hint.) (If you leave the room, the hint clock will stop ticking. It will pick up where it left off when you come back.)

Hint  Hint without any plus sign after it means there is no hint in the room.

Hint++  Hint with two plus signs after it means it is more something that belongs in the help file. You can look at the first hint right away (no five move delay).

Hint+  Hint with one plus sign after it means it has hints for a puzzle. Usually, the first hint doesn't give much away. The hints will usually get more specific until the last hint tells you exactly what to do.

While developing a game, it is often useful to short circuit part of the game while developing another part or to display more information on the screen about what is going on inside the game than normal, etc. These capabilities are sometimes left in a game when it is released. Then, some wily gamer will discover how to activate these capabilities and post the cheat codes on their web site.

While the name "Cheat Codes" implies only cheaters would use them, I strongly recommend you use the following ones while working on the game puzzles. Otherwise, I expect you will get mighty frustrated.

In particular, every time you need an item far away to work on a puzzle, use the Abracadabra room number spell to jump to the room where the item is, get the item, use the Abracadabra room number spell to jump back to the room you're working on.

This game has a penalty for using even one Abracadabra spell: You won't be able to finish the game. You won't be able to go through or around a door that leads to the final puzzle.

Thus, work on each area of the cave using the Abracadabra spells as much as you want until you have figured out all the puzzles.

Then, go clean through the game from start to finish without using any Abracadabra spells.

Often, the hardest puzzle in a game is saved for the last. You might wonder if there is a monster puzzle waiting behind the door to the end. No. The difficult puzzles are in the regular part of the cave. The final puzzle is multi-part with traps but pretty mundane.

Note that when you finish the game, the game does not shut down. You can still wander around the cave. And, then, you can use the Abracadabra spells all you want.

*** Abracadabra 4  Turn on the cave lights.

*** Abracadabra 200  Add 200 points to your score. (200 is the only number of points you can add with Abracadabra. For example, Abracadabra 75 goes to room 75.)

*** Abracadabra room number  You can teleport to most rooms by Abracadabra room number. You can go to any room number between 11 and 96 except that it can't end in 0, 7, 8, or 9.

Each room has a unique room number.

*** Most rooms display their room number with their room name.

*** A few rooms do not display their room number with their room name because it would give away too much useful information for solving a puzzle.

Possible room numbers are 10 - 199. (0 is Limbo; 1 is Carry; 2 is On shelf.) The current maximum room number is 136.

There are some gaps in room numbering.

*** This allows rooms in a particular cluster to have room numbers next to each other usually starting with a room number ending in 1.

*** This also leaves space to add a room that expands the puzzle for a cluster of rooms.

Abracadabra + room number will teleport to any room 11 - 96:

*** except room numbers ending in 0 or 7, 8, 9. Those rooms usually have the puzzle in them. Use a nearby number to get to an adjacent room and then work on the puzzle.

*** Room numbers 100 and above are not accessible with Abracadabra. (They are in the sky (131+), under water (121+) or mazes(101+, 111+).)

When you first play the game, you might want to use Abracadabra to create a map.

First, use Abracadabra 4 to turn on the cave lights.

Then, try Abracadabra on each room number from 11 - 96. (Skipping room numbers ending in 0, 7, 8, 9 which Abracadabra will not go to.)

*** Go through the numbers one time to get a list of room names and numbers.

*** Go through the numbers a second time. This time move one or two moves away. This will map the connections between rooms.

Later on you can use Abracadabra with room number to jump to the puzzle you want to work on and then bounce around the cave to pick up items you need to solve the puzzle.

There is a salvation spell you can collect within three moves of the start location. You really need it. You can recover from brain freezes by using it.

It is not part of the Abracadabra group. It is not a cheat code. There is no penalty for using it.

*** You can use it in the early stages when you are just exploring. Try an idea. If it doesn't work, back up and try a different idea.

*** You can use it in the final push to go through the game cleanly to the end. If you make an “Uh oh” slip up and fear you will have to start completely over, just use the salvation spell to erase the error.

One caution is that, because it goes backwards in time, it is very difficult to test. It is more likely to have errors than the normal code, which goes forwards in time. Use it when you need it—but cross your fingers.