Scratches: Director’s Cut

The Alternate Ending:

Note:I
must confess that I had a difficult time triggering that alternate ending,
because I was trying to do it without the patch!As I mentioned at the beginning, you cannot
trigger the alternate ending without this patch.So I am truly grateful to a friend, for
steering me in the right direction.(Thanks, MaG).

To repeat then,
the first thing you need to trigger the alternate ending is the
patch, of course.Once
you install this patch, you must play the original game from the
beginning.You do everything the same as
before, as outlined in the preceding walkthrough, with the following exception:
you
must go and click on the typewriter frequently.Note that you will get the hero to actually
type only once in the game, i.e., on the second evening, as indicated in the
above walkthrough.Nevertheless, you
must still go to the typewriter and click on it, even though the hero will
refuse to type just then.

Other players have indicated that you need to type every
2-3 hours.Having already played the
game so many times, in trying to trigger that alternate ending without the
patch before, I decided not to "take any chances" and went to click
on the typewriter every time I did something new in the game (like picking up
an item, talking to Jerry, etc.).I
noticed though that when you click on the typewriter, the message at the bottom
of the screen does change once every two to three hours.The changing of the message tells you that you
are on the right track, of course, and you need to "catch" each
message in order to trigger the alternate ending.So feel free to go and click on the
typewriter as frequently as you wish.I
noticed a few things, however, that might help reduce your "labor."

(1)I noticed that the message changed at the
following times in the three days:On
the first day, after the first message at 9:00 a.m., the second appeared at
12:00 noon, the third at 2:00 p.m., and the fourth and final at 3:00 p.m.When I woke up the first night, I clicked on
the typewriter right after I woke up and before going back to sleep – it was
the same message both times.On the
second day, after the first message at 9:00 a.m. again, the second appeared at 1:00
p.m., the third time the hero started typing, at 3:00 p.m., and then the final message
appeared at 4:00 p.m., after the hero finished typing.When I woke up the second night, I clicked on
the typewriter right after getting up and before going back to sleep, and it
was the same message both times.Finally, on the third day, after the first message at 9:00 a.m., the
second appeared at 11:00 a.m., and the third and the final appeared at 1:00
p.m.

Note:As you
may already know, you don’t need to go down and click on the grandfather clock
to keep track of time.When you want to
check the time, just save your game; and then, click on either "Load"
or "Save."The time in the
game will appear in the title of the Save (for example, "guest room,
Sunday, 9:00 a.m.").But you don’t
have to actually load or save then.Just click on "Back" a couple of
times, to return to the game.

(2)You can safely do everything that you need to
do, all at once, in the garage, the greenhouse, the crypt, and the chapel,
without having to run back to and from the house to click on the
typewriter.Do only ONE location at a time though, so the time won’t
change too rapidly and cause you to miss a click, and thus a new message, on the
typewriter.

Note:Some
players have noted that you can tell if you are on the right track if, on your
last click at the typewriter, the comment at the bottom of the screen reads
"I didn’t want to touch the typewriter," and you find the entry
"I am not Michael Arthate" in the journal.This is actually not true.Both those things (the comment and the
journal entry) appear whether or not
you have triggered the alternate ending.

As you thus proceed through the game, you should get your
first confirmation that you are on the right track when you call the police
chief on the third day.After a little
bit of dialog between the two men, you will be given a choice of two statements
at the bottom of the screen.Pick the second choice ("Please, Mr.
Bailey, I beg you!").The dialog
will continue and then, you will be given a choice of two statements at the
bottom of the screen once more.Pick the
second choice again
("There’s got to be something else.").

Continue the game, clicking on the typewriter frequently,
until you come down the stairs at the end of the game.As you go down the fireplace in the living
room, and through the hidden passage, you will know that you have triggered the
alternate ending when you unbolt the door and enter the Lair…

Note:Be sure
to pick up the piece of paper in the "critical" corner, and read the
messages at the bottom of the screen on your way out of the Lair…

About the Alternate Ending (Warning: Spoiler)

I am not
going to say much about the alternative ending except to note that I personally
found it to be rather counter-intuitive, for two main reasons.First, at least in the United States,
banks tend to declare an account as Dead, and the contents "revert"
to the State, unless you make a deposit (even of a penny) once every three
months.In other words, the government
thinks you must be dead and makes off with everything in your account!I confess that I don’t know if the same is
true in England,
but I would expect them to have a similar rule.(What government wouldn’t want to make off with a citizen’s money,
especially if they think he or she is already dead?!!!)Yet, if you called the bank in this game and
picked the choices outlined in my walkthrough, the banker (Robert Blake) will
tell you that James Blackwood’s account is still active.According to this alternate ending, however,
everyone has long been dead!So how is
Blackwood’s account still active?

The
alternate ending also fails to answer another critical question: since everyone
is supposed to be long dead
(Catherine is buried in the garden, both Milton and Robin are supposed to be in
their respective coffins in the Crypt, and now we find James Blackwood’s body
as well), who bolted the door to the Lair?

Once again though, this is just my personal take on the
ending.Please, feel free to disagree or
discuss your own ideas about any and all aspects of the ending or the game
itself.

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The Last Visit

Peter
Banks, a reporter, is assigned to investigate the mystery at the Blackwood
Manor, before the house is demolished in two weeks.He arrives at the estate and parks his
vehicle in the same spot as Michael Arthate had done in the original story . .
.

Step forward towards the Manor, then to your right and
approach the garage.Click on the garage
door, only to find that it cannot be opened because of a lot of
"junk" blocking the door from inside.Look down on the ground to your right and pick up the CAN of
Motor Oil.

Turn around and return to the main path from your car to
the house.Step towards the central
fountain on your right.Go to the left of the fountain and towards the
path that used to lead to the greenhouse and the chapel, in the original
game.Try to go down on this path, only
to find that you cannot do so anymore.Click on the magnifying-glass icon appearing on the ground to your
right, to find that "a huge pool of water" is blocking your way.Bring out the CAN of Motor Oil and
click where the magnifying-glass icon appeared, to fill your can with water.

Turn around and return to the central fountain.Go to the left of the fountain and approach
the house.As you reach the stairs,
click on the magnifying-glass icon appearing on the ground to the right of the
stairs, to close up on the three golden objects and a black hole.Click on any or all of the objects twice, to hear Peter’s comments about
them.Now click on that black hole, twice, to hear Peter’s comments about that
too.

Go up the stairs and enter the house, to find yourself in
the main hall.Step into the living
room, on your right.Go to your left,
and try to open the door that used to lead to the study in the original game,
only to find that there is no doorknob.So step toward the fireplace on your right and click inside it, to
arrive in the hidden passage.You can
click on the bricks on your left, or the sink in front of you, to hear Peter’s
comments about them.Step towards the
broken door on your right then.It seems
to have been taken off its hinges and placed loosely against that wall opening
from the basement furnace in the original game…

Since the door has been removed, you can just step into
the Lair on your left now.As you enter,
step to your left.Feel free to click on
the teddy bear lying on the ground against the wall to your right, to hear
Peter’s comments about them.Step to
your right then, but there is nothing here to click at anymore.So step to your right again and look at the
big hole in the wall on your left.Close
up on the hole, by clicking on the magnifying-glass icon that appears on
it.There is a bright round object lying
on the ground, slightly to your right.Click on it, to discover that it seems to be "guarded" by a
black cat inside…

Click on the hand icon now appearing on the round object,
to hear Peter’s comment.There is a
magnifying-glass icon that now appears in the darkness, slightly above and to
the left of the round object.Feel free
to click on this icon a few times, to hear some amusing comments by Peter about
the cat hidden in the darkness behind the round object.

Turn around and go back out to the hidden passage.Step to your right and use the ladder against
the wall on your left, to return to the living room above.Step to your right, turn around, and step
towards the right side of the living room this time.Feel free to click on the wall painting in
front of you, to hear Peter’s comment.But that is the only thing in this area that you can click on anymore.

Step out of the living room, to return to the main
hall.Enter the reception hall on your
right.The phone is still on the table to
your right.Click on the phone, to hear
Peter’s comment about it.Now click on
the door to your left, to enter the dining room.There is nothing at all in this room that you
can click on anymore.So step to the
double doors, on your right, and try to enter what used to be the study in the
original game.But the double doors
appear to be stuck.So turn around and
step through the door on your right, to arrive in the small hallway.

Again, there is nothing here that you can click on and
thus examine anymore.So try to go
upstairs, but Peter will refuse to do so, finding it dangerous to do so, no
doubt because of the condition of the staircase.So try to click on the kitchen door, to the
right of the staircase, only to find that the doorknob is missing.So turn around and return to the main hall (by
going through the dining room and then the reception hall).Step out of the front door, go down the
stairs, and turn around to close up on the ground, to the right of the stairs
again.

Bring out the CAN of motor oil that you had filled
with water, before entering the house.Click where the magnifying-glass icon appeared on the black hole in the
ground, to pour the water from the can down into the hole.The sound of the cat will tell you that the
water has hit its "target."So
go back into the house, down the fireplace in the living room, and towards that
hole in the wall in the lair.Close up
on the hole and pick up the round object from the ground, to find that it is a
doorknob.

Climb back up to the living room, through the
fireplace.Go to the small hallway again
(by going through the main hall, the reception hall and then the dining room).Step towards the kitchen door.Bring out the DOORKNOB from your
inventory and attach it to this door.Click
on the doorknob then, to enter the kitchen.

Step forward to the door that used to allow you to take
the path to the crypt, in the original game.As you click on this door, however, you will find that it is now
"rusted shut."So step to your
right, turn to your left and click, one by one, on the two drawers to the left
of the sink, to hear another comment by Peter.Turn right and try to open the door to the maid’s room, only to find
that it is "severely damaged" and there is nothing left there to explore
anymore.So approach the door to the
basement, on the right of the maid’s room.Before you go down in the basement, however, click on the cans on the shelves
to the right of the basement door, to hear another comment by Peter.

Enter the basement and go downstairs.Step to the furnace on your right and click
on the magnifying-glass icon appearing on the furnace, to hear Peter’s comment
about it.Pick up the RAG that is
practically hanging down from the top-right corner of the furnace (above the furnace
door that Michael Arthate had used in the original game to enter the furnace,
on the second night of his stay at the Blackwood Manor).Look down on your right and pick up the CLEANING
FLUID, in a blue bottle that is leaning out of the box that is partially
covering the drain cover in the ground.

Go back up to the kitchen and then go through the small
hallway, the dining room, and the reception hall, to arrive back in the main
hall.Step outside the house and go over
to that path on the right of the central fountain.Click on the magnifying-glass icon appearing
on the ground to your right, to locate that "huge pool of
water."Then bring out the RAG
from your inventory and click on where you had found the magnifying-glass icon,
to wet the rag.

Return to the house and go up the stairway in the main
hall.Step into the guest room on your
right, and Peter will tell you that it is the room where Michael Arthate had
spent three days, in the original game.Step to your right and click on the suitcase, still resting on a table
in the right corner of the room, to hear another comment by Peter.Go around the bed and approach the fireplace,
to the right of the bed.As you will
find, however, there is nothing left in this room — except for that suitcase
— to click on and thus examine anymore.

So step out of the room and step forward, in the lower
hallway.Enter the main bedroom, on your
left.You cannot go to your right,
towards the safe or the mirror anymore.So just step forward, turn left, and click on the right portion of the second drawer from the top.Peter tells you that he can see "a
bottle of Thalidomide"
inside.Hmmm…

Step to your right, but there is nothing left to click on
anymore.Since there is nothing else to
explore in this room, step back out into the lower hallway and click on the
double doors in front of you, to enter the gallery.Not much left to explore here either.Step to your right, turn left and click on
the broken glass of the showcase, on your right.Turn left then, step towards the desk in the
left corner, and click on the desk to hear another comment by Peter.Click to your right then, to find yourself
inside the storeroom.As Peter finishes
his comment, click either on the boxes below or straight at the floor, on your
left, to learn that it is "just useless junk."

Step out of the storeroom, then the gallery, and go to the
right end of the hallway.Click on the
wall painting to the left of the staircase going down to the first floor, to
hear Peter’s comment.Try to go down
that staircase and Peter will decline to do so, again because it looks too
dangerous in its present condition.So
turn around and try to go upstairs, to the floor where Michael Arthate had
found Blackwood’s studio, etc.However,
Peter will refuse to do that either, because it looks "too dark… and
dangerous."So turn left and step
into the lower bathroom.

As you enter, you will note that it is considerably
darker inside than it used to be in the original game.Step forward and click on the window, to let
Peter tell you about the mud on the window.Click on the shower curtain on your right, but it is much too dark for
Peter to do anything about it.So bring
out the wet RAG from your inventory and click on the window, to try to
clean it, and find that a wet rag is not enough to do so.So open your inventory and click first on the
blue bottle of CLEANING FLUID, and then on the wet RAG, to add
the fluid to the rag.Bring out the RAG
again from your inventory and click on the window, to remove the mud from it
this time.As the bathroom brightens up,
click on the shower curtain on your right, to move it aside.Then, click on the mask lying in the tub, to
hear Peter’s comment about it.

Step out of the close up, exit the bathroom and take two steps down the lower hallway.As you thus reach right between the doors to
the main bedroom (on your right) and the gallery (on your left), your
directional icon will suddenly disappear and, if you listen hard enough, you
will hear a faint eerie music in the background.The directional icon will return
shortly.As it does, turn around and go
back into the lower bathroom.Approach
the shower curtain again and click on the magnifying-glass icon that appears on
it.A hand icon will now appear on the
same curtain.Click on this hand icon
and then,

Sit back and enjoy the ending …

(Don’t miss the screenshots, and the accompanying commentary,
after the cutscene.)

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