The Dark Room – a whizzy little puzzle from Wooly Thinking (sic) that deserves a Walk-Through, a Guide, Help, FAQ, Hints and Cheats - call it what you will.

(Okay, that was a blatant search-engine nod there.. so shoot me.)

The Control Room

So you find yourself in a small, dark, cubic room.  Take a little time to get used to the rather irritating mouse-controlled navigation.  Look up and turn around until you can see a corner which is cut off the cube, with three concentric rings marked on it.  There are three buttons in this room, which look like small, faint, oddly positioned door handles.  The buttons aren't coloured themselves, but they turn on different coloured lights.

Clockwise from the corner with the concentric circles is the wall which holds the Blue button (at floor level, roughly in the middle).  Clockwise again are seven unlit blocks of four coloured squares.  Clockwise again is the door.  Clockwise again is the wall with the Yellow button (on the left side of the wall, half-way between floor and ceiling).  On the ceiling is the Red button (near one corner).

When you press any of the coloured buttons, the concentric circles on the cut-off corner of the room will light up the appropriate colour:

Red = Red

Blue = Blue

Yellow = Yellow

Red + Blue = Purple

Blue + Yellow = Green

Yellow + Red = Orange

Red + Blue + Yellow = White

When the concentric circles on the corner are lit up with any combination of the buttons, clicking on the corner will reveal a room of that colour.  You can try the rooms in any order, but White is best left until last.

The Red Room

This room is like the inside of a die.  Four walls are blank and two have nine buttons.  When you mouse over the blank walls, red spinning circles appear in various positions.  These are like pips on a die.  The buttons on the two remaining walls need to be lit so that the room looks like a normal die.  On a die, the pips on opposite sides add up to 7.

Looking at the corner between the two walls with buttons, on the LEFT wall the number 4 needs to be lit (i.e. the four corner buttons), and on the RIGHT wall the number 5 needs to be lit (i.e. the four corner buttons and the centre button).

When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The Yellow Room

The object in this room is to light up all the squares.  When you click a button, that square and all the squares around it change “status” (i.e. if they were off, they will turn on, and if they were on, they will turn off).  The diagram below shows the room: the numbers represent the squares on the wall, the black triangle represents the corner button, A is the floor, BCDE are the walls and F is the ceiling.

NB: this is a PLAN VIEW of the room.  The corner button is marked on the floor square (A) because you are standing on the floor, so it's easier to orientate yourself with it there, than if I'd marked it on the ceiling square.

Here’s my walkthrough, but there are lots of ways of doing it.  Click the buttons in this order:

B1, C3, D1, E3, A1, A1, A4, A4, F4, F4, F1, F1

When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The Blue Room

This room is a maze, which is revealed by moving the mouse over the walls, floor and ceiling.  Begin by facing towards the wall to the left of the corner button, and then looking down at the floor.  Move the mouse over the middle square on the floor.  A blue circle with a path leading from it is revealed.  The maze must then be followed from this square onward until the end is reached: the centre square on the ceiling.  Below is a map of how to reach the centre ceiling square from the centre floor square.  The black triangle represents the corner button.  The block of nine squares on the left is the ceiling.

Click in the centre of the final square (the centre ceiling square) to complete the maze.  When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The Purple Room

In this room, all the pictures of satellites need to be highlighted.  This is done by moving the mouse over areas where a satellite is hidden.  However, if the mouse moves over an area with a spider in it, all the satellite pictures will disappear and you will have to start again.  The diagram below shows the locations of the satellites.  The black triangle represents the corner button.  Because the satellites cannot all be reached by stepping from one area to another, sometimes you will have to move quickly between areas to avoid touching a spider.

NB: this is a PLAN VIEW of the room (see NB for Yellow Room)

When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The Green Room

This room is like a Tangrams puzzle.  When you highlight a shape, it is reflected on all the other walls in the same position.  You need to highlight the correct shapes – one on each wall – so that all the walls become green.  My diagram is below.  The black triangle represents the corner button.

NB: this is a PLAN VIEW of the room (see NB for Yellow Room)

When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The Orange Room

This is a matching puzzle.  You need to get all the shapes highlighted, but they will only remain highlighted if you click matching pairs consecutively.  My diagram is below.  The black triangle represents the corner button.  Pairs of letters represent pairs of symbols.

NB: this is a PLAN VIEW of the room (see NB for Yellow Room)

When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The White Room

To solve this puzzle, you need to have completed all the other rooms.  In the White Room, each wall has three concentric circles.  When each of the three circles is clicked, they cycle through the six colours: Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Green.  In each of the completed colour rooms there will be a black ring with a circling dot on one of the walls, the ceiling or the floor.  Note the position of this ring, and its size (small, medium or large), for each of the rooms - the sizes are different each time the game is played.  Return to the White Room and set the appropriate ring on each wall to the appropriate colour.

When you solve the puzzle, find the corner with the concentric circles and click on it to take you back to the first room.

The Control Room

The button for the door should now be lit up and flashing.  Click on it and then click on the door.  You’ve done it!