Xiama

Xiama

(Note: Letters in parentheses refer to areas on the accompanying map.)

(Note 2: Puzzles are completed when a triumphant horn piece plays. You can further confirm success by opening your book (with TAB) and reading the note next to the puzzle name.)

(Note 3: This is a game where most puzzles can be solved in any order. I would recommend only using this walkthrough when you are stuck on a particular puzzle. It is a much more enjoyable process if you do what you can and then concentrate on the more challenging puzzles later. I only created this walkthrough in this linear pattern to match my map!)

(Final Note: Make sure you read your book after solving each puzzle to gain some insight into the creative process that created Xiama.)

Starting Point ("A Brief Note")

You start in a clearing with a sign marked "Alligator Falls." There is a note on the ground from Peter. On reading it, you will be allowed to venture right to (B) or straight twice to (C).

Camera Puzzle ("Getting Nature in Focus")

You hear a crash and find your trusty camera smashed. A little tricky this puzzle, but when done, it should look like this:

(C, D, E, F) Notes by a River ("... Not a Billabong")

At this screen and the next three right screens, you will notice fragments of stanzas from "Waltzing Matilda." Collect them all. When you have collected them all, walk back left until you find the campfire. Click on the campfire to compose the poem. It should look like this:

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me.

Go back to (F) and head straight to arrive at (G).

Kaleidoscope ("Give Piece a Chance")

At the bank of the river, notice a shining star (get used to these: there are several in this game). Click on it to try the kaleidoscope puzzle. The goal is to sequence the 16 middle pictures from the top left to the bottom right. Click on the top right picture to observe the changing pattern you need to copy. Click on one picture and then another to exchange their places.

The easiest way is to watch the movement of the tongue shape around the center of the figure.

When complete, it should look like this:

Proceed straight to (H).

Jigsaw Puzzle ("Getting it Together")

You'll see another shining star in the water. Clicking on it causes the landscape to become segmented and distorted. The goal here is to swap pieces of the puzzle to form the complete picture. The twist is that the pieces are different sizes and resize when you exchange them. When a piece looks fuzzy, it's not in the right spot-move it until it looks clear. Incidentally, like most puzzles in Xiama, this is randomized every time.

The target picture looks like this:

When done go straight to (I).

Turtle Machine I ("Shapes of Things to Come")

Clicking on the "Turtle" takes you to a drawing board with three shapes down each side. These are the target shapes. Below the display screen are two green buttons. The left button resets your current drawing while the right button draws the figure to your specifications entered in the boxes. At the bottom are the numbers 0 through 9 and some spaces for certain shapes you have to make and then use to make the target shapes. The goal is to draw the pictures on the sides. A little experimentation reveals that the format for drawing is:

"X" arrow "Y" right button

where "X" represents the number of times the movement is to be performed, "Y" represents what angle the turtle turns after each line, and right button is "enter" or "perform action." When you have made a shape that is used to make the target shapes, it will show up in one of the bottom squares. Then you can apply the above method substituting the shape for "arrow."

Take some time to get used to the turtle because there are two harder turtles still to come. Your attempts here are the foundations for much harder problems.

Specific answers:

8 octagon 45

6 hexagon 60

9 pentagon 40

5 square 72

4 square 90

8 square 45

Turn right, then straight to reach a crossroads. You may turn right to go to (J), straight to another crossroads, or left and then straight to go to (N). The straight path (up a cliff face) has turns to the left for some more nice photography. Keep heading straight up until you can go no further. Turn left to arrive at (K).

Rock Scramble ("Getting the Picture")

On entry to this screen, the screen fragments into blocks that need to be oriented with the left and right mouse buttons. This makes four configuration for each block. The target picture looks like this:

Head back to the crossroads (I).

Bird Call Puzzle ("The Bird That You Heard")

Pick up the note on the ground. There is a list of ten bird names with a description of their call. This is a straightforward puzzle. When you hear the call corresponding to the bird, click on the bird name. It will highlight if correct. If wrong, you start from scratch.

Be careful! Even after you have heard any particular bird call, you may still hear it again. Reclick the name or ignore the call. Don't click on the wrong bird name!

Head back to the crossroads.

Eleusis ("See it in the Cards")

Unusually, though not unusually for this game, you stumble upon a card table set near the water. Click on it to play a game of cards with Peter. The goal is to guess the rule involved in a sequence of cards. You will need to run through each of the eight sequences a number of times to work out the rules. With each card, you need only guess "yes" or "no" as to whether it should follow the card at top left. When you have 15 successes in a row, you win.

The required rules are:

Alternate colors
Same suit or value
Alternate odd and even
Suits in alphabetic order restarting with spade
Odd followed by red, even by black
Black followed by higher value until king, red followed by lower value until ace
Club followed by two hearts, diamond followed by two spades
Increase until king, then decrease until ace

Proceed straight once. To the right is another pretty photograph. Continue forward three to arrive at another crossroads. Go right to area (M), straight to a waterfall (no puzzle), or left to area (N).

Green Stones Puzzle ("And Then There Was One")

In the water at the lower left is an unusual pattern. Clicking on it reveals a grid with green stones on it. This is your traditional solitaire game-when you jump one stone over another you remove the one that was jumped over. The goal is to have one stone left. The first two are quite easy. The third is quite hard!

Label the columns by letters A through G (from left to right at a diagonal slant) and the rows by number 1 through 7. Disregard that some have fewer holes than others (i.e., A, B, F, G only have three holes whereas the others have seven). A solution for each of the three solitaire puzzles follow. Please note there are several other solutions for each puzzle. The coordinates indicate starting and ending points for each stone.

Arrow Solitaire (Puzzle 1):
D5-B5
D3-D5
E5-C5
B5-D5
D6-D5

Cross Solitaire (Puzzle 2):
C4-A4
E4-C4
D2-D4
D4-B4
A4-C4
D6-D4
C4-E4
F4-D4

Fireplace Solitaire (Puzzle 3):
D3-F3
E1-E3
E4-E2
C1-E1
E1-E3
F3-D3
D2-D4
D4-B4
C2-C4
B4-D4

There is another triangle solitaire but this is not required to complete this puzzle.

Head back to the crossroads when complete.

Turtle Machine II ("Things Are Shaping up Nicely")

More turtle madness! Here are the solutions:

40 square 9

hexagon 30

10 pentagon 36

5 arrow 144

6 triangle 60

10 triangle 36

Proceed straight to a crossroads when complete. From here, you can go right three screens to area (T) or left one screen to another crossroads. At this crossroads, go left to area (O) or straight to area (Q).

Eight of Four Puzzle ("Blocked Out")

Click on the shining star in the water. Keep clicking until you reach a 4-by-2 grid of squares. The goal is to click patterns of 4 linked blocks. The trick is: different colors indicate different dimensions. There are blocks behind these blocks! Green indicates no block, purple one block, and blue two blocks. Ensure after you have chosen the blocks to highlight (i.e., not green), click on the lower right green square. Each correct sequence (there are eight) will display itself on the screen.

Here are the solutions:

When complete, move straight to area (P).

Gold Cup Pokerette ("Flush with Success")

Another card table in the middle of the bush. This time you have to play poker solitaire but instead of the usual 5×5 configuration, it is only 4×4. Click on the examples to familiarize yourself with poker hands.

When dealt a card, put it in the grid. As you turn more cards up, you will have to try to fit them in to score points according to the target hands. You must score over 35 to win the gold cup. Note that hands count across and down.

Continue to proceed straight when complete. This will take you to (P).

Nine Stars Puzzle ("Oh My Stars, the Mouse Doesn't Work")

You find yourself looking up a cliff face to another shining star. Click on it and night descends. The stars come out and the mouse disappears. This puzzle requires the use of the letters of the keyboard.

The correct letters must be pressed consecutively to win. Any failure and the puzzle resets. However, this puzzle always has the same solution:

O for one followed by
T' for two and
T for three;
F for four and
F for five
S for six and
S for seven
E for eight and
N for nine

So simple, yet so hard to figure out!

When complete, backtrack to the last crossroads with three directional choices.

Postcards ("Do You Have a Photographic Memory?")

This puzzle is probably the hardest in the game because it requires that you remember the order of the screens through which you've passed and only the top postcard is most visible.

Unless you are a glutton for punishment or out-of-this-world lucky (there are 1,124,000,727,777,607,680,000 possible configurations of the 22 postcards (actually marginally less because the postcard with "Xiama" on it is a given)), I recommend using this picture as a guide:

When complete (aren't you glad you cheated?), proceed forward 2 screens to (S).

Turtle Machine III ("I'm Bent out of Shape")

Easily the most complicated of the turtle puzzles. This time, each design is a two- or three-step process using the blue and gold smileys (activated by pushing the blue button at the right and bottom of the screen). You will need to create the derivative pattern through the usual method, save it as a smiley, and then use the smiley in another method.

Here are the answers for the final (Phew!) turtle machine (the parentheses mean save as a smiley of that color; B means "blue smiley;" G means "gold smiley").

4 arrow 90 (B)
B B B B (G)
9 G 40

arrow 120 (B)
3 B arrow B (G)
6 G 60

4 arrow 90 (B)
arrow B home (G)
9 G 40

arrow 60 arrow (B)
B 90 arrow (G)
12 G home

3 arrow 90 (B)
180 (G)
4 B G

5 arrow 72 (B)
B B B B (G)
5 G 72

When done, treat yourself to a waterfall. Go forward two. When rested, return to the crossroads.

Animal Matching ("The Game of the Name")

On arrival, you see an upright board. Click on it to play concentration. This is concentration with a twist: instead of just matching picture pairs, you are required to match the animal picture to its name. Furthering the challenge, you have a limited number of turns to match them all. This is gauged by the rising bar at left.

For those uncertain of native Australian fauna, here is a picture of the animals matched to their names:

When finished the matching game, go back one for a refreshing dip in the waterfall. Then, return to the last crossroads. This time, go forward three times to another crossroads (feel free to look at the screens to the right as you proceed for more nice photography but no puzzles).

At the crossroads, go straight ahead to area (U) or right to area (V).

Ulysses Puzzle ("Butterflies Can Be Caught Without a Net")

As you enter this area, you notice an entrancing view of the canopy of the trees. As you look, a lone butterfly flies past. Click on it to "catch" it--on film, of course. However, if you haven't repaired the camera, you'll have to go back and fix it at area (B).

When you've caught the butterfly, go back to the crossroads and go right to (V).

Cave ("Still in the Dark")

Botticelli ("Tugging the Art Strings")

At the entrance to a very dark cave, you'll see a shining star. Click on it to descend a twisting tunnel. Click again and you are at the bottom. Luckily, you have a torch or flashlight. Shine the torch around (it only has a small beam) to find another shining star. Click on the star and the cave is illuminated.

Notice the top of a sign sticking out of the water. Click on it and it will rise up. The sign rises up: it has a screen area and nine buttons underneath it. Pressing any button reveals part of "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli. Only if the buttons are pressed in the correct order will the picture turn out correctly.

The buttons need to be pushed in this order:

5, 1, 7, 8, 4, 3, 2, 9, 6

When this is complete you may proceed left to (W) or right three times to (X).

Nine Colors ("Waltzing Magenta")

If you are unfamiliar with the tune of "Waltzing Matilda" before now, that situation is about to be rectified. When you move into this screen, you can see a number of colors near the top of the cave. Click on them and you will be transported (with the colors) to a river scene with a row of squares.

The goal is to put the colors in the correct order to produce the tune "Waltzing Matilda." Each color square is awarded a part of the tune. As each color is placed in sequence, the computer plays all parts of the tune placed in the sequence. Hence, you begin to dread the very name of the song!

The order of the colors is:

Orange; Red; Yellow; Green; Dark Blue; Purple; Light Blue; White; Pink

(There is another way to solve this: simply find which square can move under all the others. That one is the first square. Perform the same action to find the next square and so on.)

Note: Make sure you let the song play all the way through. Otherwise, the game does not recognize you have produced the correct order.

From here the only way is back.

(X) Pentominoes ("One Sighs Fits All")

This part of the cave has the pentominoes puzzle. When you click on it, you have an arcade-like puzzle to try to catch it while your cursor gives off bright sparks. When you finally catch it, you are required to fit pieces at top left (inconveniently stacked one on the other) into the outline suggested by the blue squares. Peter says there are two solutions. Here's one. Fit the following pieces across the top:

Then, these two directly under them:

Next, it's these four:

The last row:

Continue along once more to the right to (Y).

Word Square Puzzle ("A Consonant Problem with My Vowels")

In this screen, you will see a wooden sign with a crisscrossed pattern on it. You are presented with a 5×5 grid of letters and blanks.

The task is to fill in the blanks with consonants to make words that read the same across and downward. You will need to use the keyboard for this task. There are a number of solutions but one of the two correct ones is:

SALAD
AROMA
LOCAL
AMAZE
DALES

On completion, proceed right to (Z).

Astronomical Puzzle ("Starsearch on a Universal Scale")

Click on the star in the top corner and you will again be transported, this time to an image of numerous stars. At the top are seven rings with names of star systems.

The goal of this task is to ensure the star lies within the bounds of the circle with its corresponding name. This can be checked by clicking on the "smiley" at the bottom right of the screen. It will chime when any of the stars lies within its circle.

The correct positioning is:

The only way out of the cave is one screen to the right at ($).

($) Spiral Staircase Puzzle ("A Light the Stairs")

When you arrive at this screen, you will see a set of 5 lights light up in a pattern as a staircase rises from the water. After it has run through once, you are required to assist repeating the puzzle by manually switching on and off the third light when needed.

The best way, I found, was to count as lights went on "one, two, one, three" click the third light on "three" until the staircase completed.

To the right is an empty part of the cave. The stairs will take you up to area (K). Unfortunately, if you leave in error, there is no way back down the stairs. You must find your way back to the cave.

Conclusion

When all puzzles are complete, there is one final puzzle to complete the game. You must go back up to area (K), however now you find you can climb higher up. Keep going straight, but do pause to look either side for some breathtaking photography. You climb up and then over the other side of the cliff. Then a video of you falling starts. You hear a nasty thud.

You wake up to the sight of heavenly clouds. No, Peter hasn't put a nasty twist in this, although you may not be able to get up. To your right, you find a note with the single word, "Xiama."

Turn left and find a mobile phone. Switch it on (button at lower left) and press 9 4 2 6 2 (these are the corresponding numbers for the letters X I A M A). You get a message indicating you have pressed the right number of digits but wrong numbers.

Hmm. What does Xiama stand for? Think back to the title screen: "Xiama is a Mulawa adventure." Count the letters in each word: 5 2 1 6 9. Switch phone on and dial. After a number of rings, a man at the State Emergency Services picks up. He cannot hear your replies to his questioning, so he asks you to press 1 if you hear. Press 1 and he tells you they will track your position and rescue you.

The final screen tells you you have a bonus feature next time you start Xiama. When you restart at point (A), you can now go left to a screen where you can transport to individual areas automatically or reset your scores and start again.

Map