> >
> > > >
> > > > > > Just for the heck of it, here's my inventory:
> > > > > > Leather Briefcase
> > > > > > / Supply Room Card
> > > > > > / Radio Receiver
> > > > > > / Washcloth
> > > > > > / Employment Papers
> > > > > > / Business Card
> > > > > > / Fire Extinguisher
> > > > > > / Plastic Cup
> > > > > > / I.D. Card
> > > > > > / Crowbar
> > > > > > / ISO Officer's Cap
> > > > > > / Round Pot
> > > > > > / Passcard (CQ60537)
> > > > > > / Light Tube
> > > > > > / Pet Snacks
> > > > > > / Small Mirror
> > > > > >
> > > > > > My solution for this whole business is to cut thru all confusion. I set the 1st 3 boosters E, the last 3 of them west. Then, I thoroughly screwed up the conduits. Finally, I QUIT! and went home to earth and watched a super-NOVA from the windows of my returning shuttle. ha ha ha.
> > > > > > I'm not an electrician, a scientist nor a mechanic. I have absolutely no sense of direction and get lost in my car whenever I try to go somewhere I've never driven before. Directions in "scientize' are over my MT head. HELP or I blow the whole Corelis out of the Sky. (Just kidding about the sabotage, serious about my lack of qualifications and totally frustrated!!!) Can't someone put it in simple layman's terms so even a numbskull like me has a chance? I read 50 or more posts and saw where people send e-mail addresses for a 'cheat sheet'. If a game is worth playing, one should be able to do so without cheating or give it up. Please Help with some plain talk. NORA
> > > > >
> > > > > If you search the board for "booster" or "conduit" and go through the resulting posts, you'll see an entire range of help for both problems, rephrased in dozens of ways for each. There may even be exact answers in there if you look in the right place.
> > > > >
> > > > > I don't send "cheat sheets" or maps to people by email, and I don't think those are necessary to finish any of the games. There are more than enough different explanations of things on the forum already.
> > > >
> > > > Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone. Just read (perhaps) too many 'solutions' to this 'booster' & conduit stuff and am more confused than when I started. Everytime I think 'AHHA, SO THAT'S IT!" I try it and nothing. I'll do some more hunting around in here. Just getting so I'm reading more in the hints than I'm playing the game. Most frustrating. Again, I apologize if I've offended. BTW. I think people have asked for solutions to be sent to their e-mail addresses. Not clear on if this has been done for these folks or not. I never said 'you' did such a thing. Nora
> > >
> > > No, I wasn't offended. Also, on my part, I wasn't trying to suggest that it's not a good idea to post to the forum because of all the information already there. (Personally, if I were to get stuck in a new game to come out, I wouldn't read the posts about it, because I don't like even the small details getting spoiled.) I was just saying that information's there, in case you hadn't found the right posts yet.
> > >
> > > Anyway, you have a point that reading too many posts on something can make it more confusing, so I've picked out just one on each that should help.
> > >
> > > Boosters: http://www.rinkworks.com/rinkforum/view.cgi?post=79485
> > > Conduits: http://www.rinkworks.com/rinkforum/view.cgi?post=46747
> > >
> > > The conduits post is rather long because it goes into careful detail about the problem, and it has some step-by-step hints about how to proceed, after the rules are explained.
> >
> > Thanks so much for going to all this trouble. Tried a staggered approach to that conduit thing and really thought I had it for about a min. NOPE. Hope one of these will give me an idea where I'm going wrong. BTW, met a RINK in GOA and wanted a pet one for Christmas. That didn't work out, either. ha ha ha. TY again. Nora
>
> It looks like you have the right idea with north links matching up to south links, but the other thing to be aware of is that pairs of junctions at the same meridian (like M01W/M01E) have to connect in such a way that BOTH use outer or BOTH use inner, because otherwise the links are not pointing to one another.
>
> Here's a few steps to get you started, if it's still confusing. Let's say you start at M01W. The conduit to the south is broken, so you can't point either link south. That leaves the combinations north/outer and north/inner, and it's not easy to see which one it will be, so you might have to guess here. (But don't worry, because after that point there's no guesswork involved, so it's just a 50-50 shot whether you get it on the first try or the second try).
>
> Let's say you try north/inner first. Okay, what next? Well, you know that the junction to the north (M26W) has to point south to match up correctly. But is it south/outer or south/inner? Well, the rule that you have to *alternate* crossings of the outer and inner parallels tells you it has to be the outer.
>
> (from M01E) -> going across inner -> M01W (links north/inner) -> going north -> M26W (links south/outer) -> going across outer -> (to M26E).
>
> The above is the information so far -- a sequence of 4 junctions and the 3 conduits linking them -- and notice that M01W having a link across the inner parallel forced us to choose the outer for M26W. Okay, so what about M26E? It has to point across the outer, to link back to M26W. But north or south?
>
> If it points south, you'll run into trouble: you'd have M26E (links south/outer) -> going south -> M01E. But M01E is already in the sequence! In fact M01E has to be the 12th junction and last junction we reach, so we can get back to M01W on the last move to make a complete circuit.
>
> So M26E has to point north/outer. Then we can move north to the next junction and continue like this. At each step -- at each new junction -- you'll automatically know one of the links, the one that points *back* to the previous junction, and the other link will be determined by using one of the two things we did above -- making the outer/inner crossings alternate, and not revisiting a junction before we get to all 12.
>
> So there's how to go about it, if you think about it carefully. A pattern shows up fairly quickly, which will speed things up. Like I said at the beginning, though, the choice of "inner" for the starting junction was a guess. You might get stuck where you're forced to use a broken conduit or break one of the other rules, and in that case you'd have to start over with north/outer.

Bulb went on and got the boosters before I saw your last post by some reverals. But, would never have figured out the other without that info. you posted. Should be able to muddle thru now. Thanks a ton!!! Nora