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[Mintilicious]

I have been playing this game for years, but when readind those controls posted on this thread, I learned a lot. For example, I never knew I could access a computer, or at a car chase either escape myself of arrest someone. Gotta try that today when I get home!

One thing puzzles me though.. what's the idea behind those bugs you can place on certain furniture? Apparently you need that headset with them, but how do you get info from them?

And, lastly, some hints I can give:
- Enter the hotel, and then visit the lounge. You will get info from there.
- When breaking into building, the game sometimes asks from which door you want to enter. I have noticed that door nro 1 is always the best, because sometimes the other doors are dead ends.
- When in cryptography, look for certain keywords. For example, the title shows the place and organization, and often they appear in the text.

Sorry if I'm repeating hints or questions or something

[Japo]

The computers are usually your only way to find the mastermind. Otherwise you can look for information to complete suspects files (is he involved in the current scheme, etc.).

When being pursued by car, you can only escape at certain locations marked on the map (CIA, MI6, KGB). And of course you can only arrest someone when you come into him head on. Anyway perhaps it's more convenient for you just to tail him, to see where he's going.

The headset has nothing to do with the bugs. It's a motion detector, with it you can see enemies in other rooms as dots on the floor plan. It's very handy, I always pick it.

The bugs are for listening after you've left the building. It has the same purpose as taping the phone line from outside. I never pick them because they take a precious slot, and I know if a wiretap was successful or not when I make it, whereas I think (did I read this in the manual?) terrorist may search for bugs depending on their alertness, and remove them.

The hotel lounge can be useful, specially if you have nowhere else to resort, but you'll attract the attention of enemies and raise their alertness in that city, the same as if you failed a mission and were detected.

When breaking into a building, personally I always pick the door that's a better starting point for tracing a route to explore the whole building, or to go to the room that I want if I already visited that building and know the layout.

The encrypted messages are made up of the same few whole sentences (changing names of cities and organizations) rather than words alone. There can't be many more than two dozens of them:

Time is of the essence.
Our project here in (city) proceeds on schedule.
How is (city) this time of year.
Fellow warriors of the (organization) now is the time for action.
(Organization) is ready to reward you for your success.
...

[Mintilicious]

Thank you Japo, that was very informative. I tried using a computer yesterday, but nothing happened. I had the password, then I went up to a computer and hit F4, but nothing

[DarthHelmet86]

Pressing F4 should bring up a text box for you to enter the password....you don't need the whole thing spelled out, you can guess what it is. Once you have done that you have to write in a word to search for, people, locations and the like. But you only get one search per password.

[Mintilicious]

Tried it again, and nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?

[Japo]

Originally Posted by Mintilicious

What am I doing wrong?

Are you sure you have the correct piece of furniture? I just remembered there are "computers" and "terminals". This game is old, and "computers" are supposed to be big mainframe CPUs without interfaces, you can only place bugs on them. It's only in the "terminals" (supposedly clients of the "computers") where you can get the password letters, and later use the password to access and search.

For all purposes, "computers" are just more furniture, it's the "terminals" what you're looking for.



As Darth says, after some experience you can guess the password with few letters, just like encrypted messages they're taken from a very small dictionary.

By the way, another use of terminals is finding the headquarters of any organization in the same city, or the headquarters in other cities of the organization that the building belongs to.

[Mintilicious]

There's the problem! I have tried working on those big white things, I thought the terminals were only for getting the letters Using those things for info sound like a great idea, because there are always some things you just can't figure out no matter how hard you go through files, wiretap buildings and decode messages.

Thanks again, Japo

[Japo]

NP. Some more tips I still had left, now that I'm at it:

I't usually easy to prevent the crime, even if you leave most of the involved terrorist go away into hiding. If you want to get 1000 points you have to arrest everyone and confiscate everything. If you want to score above 1000 you have to turn some of the terrorists into double agents working for you.

Originally Posted by Japo

Once they're "in hiding" there's no way you're catching them, that's why you must hurry. An agent goes in hiding once either he's accomplished his mission or he isn't able to any longer because you've foiled the crime. Everything depends on each agent's role in the crime, "Organizer", "Initiated plan" or "Contacted parties" are the first to hide and you should get them as soon as possible. Afterwards don't arrest anybody necessary for the crime until you've got the others located, then arrest everybody fast. If you need more time to find them steal some item (money, weapon, etc.) necessary for the crime but just steal, don't arrest the guy who has it if he's still necessary. Stealing that will delay the crime while the terrorists get another item. Once an agent necessary for the crime is arrested the rest will soon go into hiding.

[...] Sometimes you find "incriminating evidence" when breaking into a building (always in the big red safes), and when you arrest the guy he accepts to serve as a double agent for you. You get twice as many points compared to just arresting him (that's how you can get scores over 1000 º/oo), his comrades aren't alerted because he appears to continue working with them, and he informs you of his moves and meetings.

If you really want to get as many points as possible, when you're going to arrest somebody and you haven't found incriminating evidence to turn him, just get out of the building and go in again immediately afterwards, to try and find the evidence. As long as there is at least one big red floor safe in the building (in a building with an agent involved in the current crime), you're sure to find it sooner or later, because it's random if you find that or anything else. If there's no such safe in the building (only the black ones on the walls), don't bother because incriminating evidence able to turn agents can only be found in the big red ones.

The objective of the game is to arrest the masterminds of all the terrorist organizations. Every mission has the same mastermind until you arrest him, and unlike everything else you can carry your investigation on him along as many missions as it takes you to identify and arrest him.

Masterminds are hard to catch because they (almost) never involve themselves in the crime in a way you can investigate easily, so you never identify them during the course of your normal investigations, like the rest of the agents. (Only once I saw one mastermind send a message, that I intercepted.)

This is my method to nab masterminds, AFAIK it's pretty much the only one. When you're placing a wiretap (not afterwards when you intercept a message thanks to it), and every time you examine (F1) file cabinets and desk drawers after breaking into a building, people's names appear. Some of these names belong to agents involved in the crime, others to random people unrelated to the crime. Within the former case, it's possible for the name of the current mastermind to appear--it will appear sooner or later.

The files about normal agents involved in the current crime can be filled with information coming from all sorts of normal sources (wiretaps etc.). But you'll never (hardly ever in my experience) be able to do the same with the mastermind. So what you have to do to identify the mastermind is, note down ever random name you get. Then search it in the computers at every opportunity, until you know the role of that agent in the current crime. Exclude the ones you already have identified, unless you need further information about them. You'll get a lot of random agents unrelated to the crime; but eventually after more or less tries, depending on luck, you'll get the mastermind. As with incriminating evidence, I have often broken into the same building repeatedly, only to be able to search in the computers as many times as I needed.

Once you have identified an agent's role as "mastermind" you can arrest him. Of course you need to know his organization and city.

[DarthHelmet86]

I am sure there are other ways of finding out the Mastermind, I recall after turning one of the members of the group that he gave me a layout of all the people and their jobs, listing the Masterminds name. The Mastermind does send messages, but only a very small amount.

I think I will go back and play some more and see if I can confirm my ideas.

[Japo]

That wasn't the only way to identify the mastermind, but the only one that you can always bring about, the others depend on luck--on exceptionally good luck.

I forgot, in the big red floor safes sometimes you can also find the "master plan", listing all the involved (but not including the mastermind in this case).

Just another note, every computer in any headquarters (including ones not related to the crime) has perfect information, so it's just as likely to find anything in any computer, even if it's located in a hideout unrelated to the crime. (Compare that to the CIA, who don't know the location of most of the terrorist headquarters in Washington.)