CPU CRASH

Level by Richard Lawther

Walkthrough by Phil Lambeth

Lara, dressed in a colorful skimpy outfit, begins within the deep recesses of a gigantic computer motherboard, standing on some sort of relay station and poised for action. You're starting in a central hub location to which you'll apparently be required to return a number of times, and you have three possible routes to follow as you head down the steps ahead to the east. But first, look around you and note two empty gem receptacles in the lower north wall and three more in the other lower walls. There are also scroll pads attached to the central sloped platforms, some of which are occupied by scrolls and some of which are not. Your apparent goal is to locate and bring back here the missing gems and scrolls. Finally, there's an opening in the NW corner of this room that leads to a sheer drop into the blackness beyond. On the other end of this higher gray walkway is an artifact within the right alcove that you can't get to from here because of the glass barrier.

Go back down the east stairs. The walkthrough provided by the author with the level download begins with the south route, so that's where we'll start as well.

AREA 1 (SOUTH)

Turn right and climb up into the stairway. Continue up and around to the right until you reach an apparent dead end. That is, unless you stepped on the red square to open the blue door ahead. Go on through the opening, and the door closes behind you. Go up to the black west wall and jump up to grab the edge that's hard to see from below. Pull up and do the same thing twice more until you reach a mazelike upper level that allows you to climb up and down several layers of translucent blocks without seeming to accomplish very much unless you go in the right direction. It's difficult to see where you're going in this area, and you can easily fall to your death if you misstep, so it's a good idea to walk and not run. Your objective is to make your way up and across the room to access a vertical climbing strip in the middle of the east wall. The way I found it easiest to get up was by going across to the NW corner by climbing a series of short blocks, and from there facing south and taking a standing jump with grab across a gap. At that point you can continue climbing in relative safety. When you get to the top of this area, look toward the south and you can barely see an object atop a block. You can reach it with careful steps and a couple of running jumps. Pull up onto the block and pick up the REVOLVER.

Now you need to get over to the east side of the room. Drop off the north side of the block and turn to face east. Walk forward and you'll soon come to a halt. That's okay; just drop down to a slightly lower level and continue walking east along the path (making a slight dogleg to the left when you're about halfway there) until you reach the climbing surface marked by the pattern of square-within-a-square. As you approach it, you can look down through the translucent surfaces and see a small medi-pack (colored white and called a cure-half here) to your right and some revolver ammo to your left. Decide for yourself whether you want to detour for those pickups. (Getting back up from the ammo is easy, slightly more difficult from the medi-pack).

Climb up the wall and back flip from the next-to-last square onto a translucent green surface. Turn around and find yourself in an area much like Floating Islands from TR2. Your task here is also similar. Turn and walk to the north end of the beam you're on, then turn to the NW (facing in the general direction of the white coil in the distance) and take a running jump to the ledge. Still facing NW, take a running jump down to a plank jutting out beneath the coil platform. Make your way over to the SW corner of this section of connected blocks, and take a running jump down to the floating plank to the west. Walk out to the NW corner, facing NW, and take a running jump up to the ledge. Jump around the corner and climb up onto the higher pillar. Turn around to face east and take a running jump and grab to the highest pillar. Pull up and claim the large medi-pack as your reward, then turn around to face west.

Take a standing jump and grab to the giant memory chip that's hanging down from the ceiling. Pull up until Lara's feet get set, then shimmy to the left around two corners until you reach the opposite side. Position yourself over the jump switch and release to activate it. A cut scene shows a door opening in the wall near the SW corner. Turn around and go over to the NW corner of the block structure you're on, noting the coil within the alcove above that you'll be visiting shortly. Turn to face south, and from the lower ledge take a running jump and grab to the next beam. Pull up and run to the other end, and take a running jump to the next structure ahead. Make your way to the far end of this fairly large structure and stand on the east edge of the long beam. Take a long running jump to the SE ledge, turn to your left and take a standing jump to the lone floating block, than another running jump to the slightly higher block ahead to the east.

Continue east along this structure until you get to the opposite side. From the SE corner, take a standing jump and grab to the lone block to the south. Pull up and take a standing jump to the next block to the NE, and a running jump to the next one. You might be tempted to try grabbing the nearby memory chip like you did the other one, but don't do it. Instead, walk out to the NW corner of this beam and take a running jump to the top of the pillar to the NW. Take a running jump to the next pillar to the west, and a standing jump with grab to the next. From there, hop over to the adjacent pillar and stand within the coil. It begins spinning, and at the same time you can see that a stairway has formed in the long beam below you and to the left, affording access to the open SW doorway.

If you don't mind losing a little health you can turn left from here and jump down to the beam, then turn right and run along the beam and up the stairs into the hall. Make a horseshoe turn to the left, and as you continue east down the long hallway you'll alert a DEMIGOD and a HARPY. It might be the better part of valor to retreat around the corner and let them come to you. That way you can hopefully eliminate the harpy before having to deal with the demigod. When they're gone, continue east along the hallway and pass two openings on your right that are currently blocked at the far ends. Continue around the corner and you'll come to a stairway leading to what appears to be a pitch-black dead end at the end of a dark hallway. However, if you turn to your left you'll find that you're at a wall opening overlooking the floating islands room.

Turn left to face SW and take a long running jump down to the pillar below. Take a running jump to the next pillar west, and a standing jump to the next nearby pillar which triggers the chimes of SECRET #1. At the same time a HARPY attacks from the south, so draw weapons and eliminate it before stooping to pick up the first COMPUTER BUG (cute). Nobody told you that you were conducting a human Scandisk operation here, did they?

Jump back to the two previous pillars, then turn slightly to the NE and take a long running jump down to the single floating block. Turn to face west and take standing jumps to the next two blocks and stand within the second white coil. It too begins turning, and in the distance to the west you can see that another set of stairs has materialized. Safety drop from the south side of the pillar to the plank below, then cross over to the SW end of this structure. Take a running jump down to the floating plank ahead, then walk to its NW corner and take a long running jump up to the NW ledge. Turn left and take a running jump to the stairs to the NW. Turn left and run up the stairs, but be sure to stop before you reach the end, as there's a gap between the top of the stairs and the west wall. Take a standing jump and grab to the alcove, pull up and walk inside to stand within the third white coil. A cut scene shows that one of the blocked hallways you bypassed earlier is now open.

You're now in the NW corner of the west wall, and you want to get back to the opening you visited earlier near the SW corner. So hop back down to the stairs, turn right and take a long running jump back to the long beam to the south. You've done this once before, so return to the long beam along the south wall and use the stairs to get back into the SW hall. Make the horseshoe turn to the left again and take a right into the first side hallway. Go through the opening into a new area.

Remember those gem receptacles and empty scroll pads in the starting room? Well, here you'll find two gems and a scroll that need to be collected. The problem is that they're suspended in mid-air, and you can't pick them up until you can solidify the ghostlike blocks beneath each artifact. Around the central structure are four platforms, three of which have a red surface and the fourth with a brown surface. Don't climb up on the brown one; it's a disguised burner tile. Stepping onto the red tiles creates a shimmery effect in the opposite wall. Somehow, hopping from red tile to red tile in apparently random fashion makes the boxes underneath the artifacts solid so that you can climb up onto them and claim the SOFTWARE CODE (scroll) and two CPU SILICONS (gems). I did this one at a time, by trial and error, which didn't take me very long, so I'm still not sure if there's a reliably methodical way of doing it. Anyway, after all three artifacts are in your collection, leave this room, take a right in the main corridor, and turn right at the next intersection. Here too the way has been opened up for you, so go to the long chute and slide a long way down to the beginning area.

AREA 2 (NORTH)

Now we're ready to tackle the second major section of this level. Head back up the stairs and turn to your right to enter the north passage. Climb up the stairs until you reach an intersection where you can turn either left or right. It doesn't matter which way you go, because they both lead to the same large room. You need to cross to the other side, but the tiles are for the most part disguised burners. The safe tiles are indicated by the darker gray tiles on the ceiling, so don't rely on the green floor tiles. In fact, you don't use those tiles at all, even though a couple of them are safe. Start by taking a running jump (but not from the very edge) on the far right side to the first safe tile straight ahead. The metallic-looking part of the wall to your right has a climbable surface, so jump straight up to grab it. Shift all the way to the left (the equivalent of three blocks) and backflip from there to the next safe tile. Turn to your left and take a standing jump to the final safe tile, and then a final standing jump to the far side of the room, where it's safe to move on.

Turn to your right and use the crawl space to access what seems at first to be a diabolical maze. As you enter, you'll alert a HARPY, so wait for it to approach you and then dispose of it. When you stand up and begin to move forward a door closes behind you. You begin facing east, so dogleg to the right at the first intersection and continue moving east along the passage from whence came the harpy. Go all the way to the end and turn left, then continue north all the way to the end and turn right. When you reach the dead end, which puts you at the NE corner of the maze room, turn to your left, light a flare and use the crawl space at floor level to access the second COMPUTER BUG for SECRET #2.

Exit the crawl space facing south, and make a little detour around to your right so that you continue heading south. Go as far as you can and take another little dogleg to your right, and then another (continuing to go south), and take the next left. Zigzag around to your right and you'll soon arrive at the extreme SE corner of the maze room. Turn right and make a series of doglegs as you make your way west along the southern margin of the maze room. You'll need to make a larger loop around to your right as you near the end, but you should be able to reach the SW corner with no problem. When you get there, locate the climbable surface in the alcove to your left and use it to exit the maze room and reach a new passage. (The author's walkthrough says there's some explosive crossbow ammo in the maze somewhere, but I never found it.)

Enter the next room, and you'll find a giant central computer chip surrounded by two tall glass structures. Go to the south and use the marked climbing surface to reach a higher level. Pull up and note the open area ahead. There are pickups here that you need to get, but they won’t be accessible until you complete the tasks to follow. Turn around and jump to the top of the nearer glass structure. You'll note a block at each corner of the square formed by the two structures. When you stand on each one, you'll open a timed blue door at the opposite corner. You need to hop down from each block, run toward the corresponding opening and jump inside to perform a task before the door closes. We'll take them in no particular order.

SW trigger platform

Let's start with the closest block, the one in the SW corner. Climb up onto it and you'll see the left door opening across the room in the east wall. Hop down, run to the far side of the glass structure, turn left and jump over to the other side, and turn right and jump into the opening (with grab, to be on the safe side) before the door closes. Run down the passage and vault up onto a block overlooking the next room while the blue door closes behind you. Step down into the room and note five red tiles spaced out on the floor ahead. Walk on all five of them (you don't have to jump from tile to file, as the rest of the floor is safe), and when you reach the one in the SE corner the blue door in the central structure opens. However, if you try to run directly toward it, it will close before you can get there, sprint key or no sprint key. Instead, turn and run back along the green path alongside the south wall and stop just before you reach the first red tile. Turn to your right and run down the second row of gray tiles to the west until you cross over the green portion and reach the next gray tile. Turn to your right and run along the dark gray path until you reach the opening on your left. Go inside, vault up onto the platform with the spinning coil to de-activate it. Step on the nearby red tile to re-open the other blue door at the entrance, then return to the room with the four trigger platforms by taking a running jump to the tall glass structure.

NE trigger platform

The closest unused trigger platform is the one in the NE corner, so climb up onto it to open the left door in the west wall. Get over there quickly the same way you did earlier, and run down the passage while the door again closes behind you. In the next small room you find two green floor tiles and two closed blue doors. Turn to your right and locate the hole in the ceiling in the NW corner of the room. You can use the west wall to climb up into the opening. When your hands reach the gray-green dividing line, back flip into the passage, reverse roll and run down to step on the green tile (picking up the crossbow ammo in the process). Go back to the hole and safety drop down to the room below. Step on the two green tiles down here and the door in the SW corner opens.

Go inside to the next room. Run forward, dogleg slightly to your right and turn left into the aisle separating what looks like a couple of devices you might find in a gymnasium. Pull up onto either side, backflip to the other side, slide and jump back to the other side, using the appropriate directional key to bring you gradually up and over to the higher east side of the devices where you'll finally land on a flat surface in the NE corner. From here, take a standing jump to the pillar against the north wall, then turn to your right and jump up to grab the ceiling. Monkey swing over to the pillar in the SE corner and drop down onto the green tile to open the other blue door in the previous room.

SE trigger platform

Safety drop to the floor, go back to find the new opening and climb the blocks inside until you reach the second spinning coil. Step into it to de-activate it and take a standing jump down to the SW platform in the trigger platform room (which you've already used). Run down to the SE platform and climb up onto it to open the right door in the west wall. Get over there and run up the steps, including a green tile that causes a door to open in the next room above. When you round the corner and see the three blue doors in the east wall (the middle one being open), you're not surprised when the middle door closes before you can reach it.

There's another readily visible green tile in this room, and stepping on it opens the blue door on the right. However, it too closes before you can get to it. So you won't tear out your hair in frustration, I'll tell you up front that the two doors opened by the light green tiles are of no use to you. What's important is getting the left blue door open. There's a short pillar near the SW corner of the room. Climb up onto it and you'll step on a darker green surface. Get back to the floor and go over to the blue doors. There's a tile of the same darker shade of green in front of each one. Step on all of them and the left blue door will open. Go inside and to your right to find the third spinning coil to de-activate. Step on the green tile in the nearby corner to open the exit door. Jump back to the glass structure in the trigger platform room.

NW trigger platform

Go over to the NW corner and climb up onto the final unused platform to open the right door in the east wall. Get into the opening and proceed down the passage until you reach a room with several large gray structures and the spinning coil presently beyond reach up against the east wall. The procedure here is deceptively simple (so simple, in fact, that I wonder if I bypassed what was intended to be the "proper" way). Go over to the SE corner, use the climbable surface there (marked by the vertical green strip) and back flip to the gray pillar behind you. Turn around and step into the spinning coil to de-activate it, then step on the nearby green tile to open the exit door. Go back to the trigger platform room and jump over into the area to the south that looks somewhat like the inside of a warehouse. You can now climb up onto the four corner pillars (the room’s configuration is different from when you first arrived, thanks to your completion of the foregoing tasks) and pick up two CPU SILICONS, a SOFTWARE CODE and the CROSSBOW.

AREA 3 (EAST)

Now it's time to negotiate the final major area of this level. Jump back to the glass structure in the trigger platform room and continue across to the large black opening in the north wall. Slide down a series of slopes and return to the main hub area where you started. Hop down to the floor and go through the east opening at the bottom of the stairs. Make a horseshoe turn to your left, and as you run down the long hallway toward a closed blue door you'll pass an alcove to your right with another closed blue door. Step on the red tile to open the blue door at the end of the hallway, then draw a powerful weapon and return to the main hub area to deal with the DEMIGOD who has been awakened. As soon as he succumbs, his nearby buddy comes out of hibernation, so eliminate him as well. Then resume your mission through the east opening.

Go through the open doorway, and the blue door slams shut behind you. Drop down into the large and very tall room ahead, and note the hallway going off to your right. Go straight ahead, climb up onto the level with all the boxes, and head behind the group to your right. Climb up onto the lone box and use it to get to the top of this stack. Turn to face west and take a running jump to the next stack, and another running jump to the stack against the west wall. Turn to your left and take a running jump with grab to the next stack. Pull up and take a standing jump to the next stack, then walk over to your left and take a standing jump around the corner to the next box. Jump up to grab the monkey bars, and monkey swing over to the east side until you can go no further. Drop and immediately grab the crack below, then repeat. Shimmy to your left around two corners and drop down to the ledge. Use the brown surface on the wall to your right to climb up as far as you can go, then shift to your right and drop down onto a box.

Turn to your right and take a running jump and grab to the next box jutting out of the south wall, then use the overhead monkey bars to monkey swing in a horseshoe turn to your right. Drop when you reach the end and grab the edge of the box. Pull up onto the box, turn to your right and jump up to the second story of this huge room (for some reason you can't simply vault up onto the lower ledge). To the NW is a small structure with two red sloping panels facing you. If you go over there and jump onto the panels, you'll see that they open the two blue doors across the room to the east, but only for a few seconds. Line up Lara so that a standing jump will cause her to land on the bottom portion of the left red panel (so she'll only slide down a short distance), then turn to the right and jump to the right panel, and sprint down the ledge to your right. Turn to your right and jump past the first blue door before it shuts, then continue jumping forward past the second blue door.

When you're safely past both timed barriers, save your game (so you won't have to do it again), angle Lara to the left and jump over to the far ledge. Use the nearby brown wall surface to climb up to the next level. Head over to the ledge with the red tile at the end and stand facing the east wall with your left foot at the edge of the red tile. Run across the corner of the red tile to open the timed blue door ahead, jump to the boxes and take a running jump across to the gray ledge. Turn to your left and jump through the opening before the blue door closes. You should be able to do this without using the sprint key, and once you're safely across the door stays open.

Run forward along the gray ledge and use the brown climbing surface to your right to access the next higher level in this room. Turn to your right, vault up onto the gray block and note the closed blue door ahead. Before proceeding, however, turn around and take a standing jump with grab to the higher north ledge. Pull up, turn to your right, jump up to grab the wall, and climb up a short distance to a crawl space. Use it to access the third and final COMPUTER BUG for SECRET #3. Congratulations, your CPU is now virus free, at least for the moment.

Lower Lara out of the crawl space and return to the gray block facing the closed blue door. Turn to face west and note the large climbing surface to your left and the small climbing area ahead to your right. Take an angled standing jump and grab the surface to your left, shift all the way to the right (climb down a rung or two to be on the safe side) and take a rolling back flip to grab the surface behind you. Pull up onto the red tile to open the blue door across the room in the west wall. Drop or climb down the other side of the tile to the small ledge below. Hop down to the ledge running along the north wall and run along it to the west wall. Climb up onto the box and use the overhead monkey bars to swing over to the red tile near the SW corner. Drop down onto it to open a higher blue door against the east wall.

When you leave this red tile you activate a 32-second timer, so take a running jump (without grab) to the east ledge and repeat the steps you took earlier to reach the gray block facing the timed blue door (including the maddeningly slow climb up the brown wall strip, which is unavoidable). Take a running jump down to the ledge in front of the blue door and run through the opening before the door slams shut. Save your game here so you won't have to repeat this ordeal.

Use the brown climbing surface to reach the highest level in this room. Shift to your right and drop down onto the green-patterned ledge. Turn to your right and jump over to the matching ledge, and from there jump down to the gray ledge against the west wall near the open blue doorway. You'll be tempted to detour for the large medi-pack on the other end of the ledge, but don't run across the brown tiles or you'll be fried. Instead, shimmy past the deadly tiles and pull up to claim your prize. Return in the same manner and go through the open doorway and up the stairs into a new area.

Turn to your right and find more steps lined with green rectangles. Follow until you reach an opening to your right leading to a long chute. Save your game here and make sure Lara slides down the middle part of the chute (so she won't overshoot the fourth green tile below). Slide down and wait patiently until Lara comes to rest atop a fifth green tile in the floor below, and a door opens silently in the west wall ahead. Go on through and enter a room where you'll find a CPU SILICON and a SOFTWARE CODE in the alcoves in front of you. They're both behind an invisible force field, so turn around, enter the passages at the SE and NE corners and activate the white coil you'll find behind each one. This removes the force field so you can vault up into the alcoves for the last remaining artifacts you require. (You should now have in your inventory five CPU silicons and three computer codes.)

Return to the previous room and exit through the east corridor. Vault up into the opening to your right, go through the open blue doorway and turn left into a familiar passageway. Follow until you return to the main hub area, and go up the stairs to your starting point. First, place the software codes on the three empty scroll pads. This opens the blue door up on the gray ledge in the NE corner of this room, so go there and enter for that CPU/GAME INTERFACE you saw earlier behind the glass barrier. Now you need to raise some blocks so you can place the five CPU silicons, so turn around and walk over to the adjacent platform. Pull the chain once and you'll see a cutscene showing a rising block in front of a gem receptacle (the one on the left in the south wall). Go over there and place one of your CPU silicons, which causes another block to rise in the north wall. Place the second CPU silicon and repeat until all five have been placed.

When the fifth CPU silicon is snugly in place, a brief flyby shows you that purple translucent blocks have appeared in the inky blackness beyond the NW opening, so go there and jump the blocks until you reach the last one. Jump up, grab the climbing surface, and climb up a long distance until you reach the top. Shift to your right and around the corner, and pull up into a small upper room. Place the CPU/Game Interface in the nearby receptacle to open the door to your left. Go outside into a more traditional (TR-wise, that is) Egyptian environment. Run forward into the exit trigger to end the level.