GameBoomers
Walkthroughs and Solutions The City of Lost Children
by Psygnosis
Walkthrough by Jenny100
Introduction
This is a step-by-step walkthrough, including the keyboard commands you use to
control the game. I wrote it because the only two other walkthroughs for this
game that I found on the net were somewhat sketchy.
City of Lost Children is a keyboard-controlled game. The arrow keys move your
character around and the Escape key accesses the Main Menu for saving and
loading games. The Escape key also skips cut scenes. The P key pauses the game,
which can be useful because some parts of the game are timed. Holding down the
Control key along with the forward arrow key will make your character run. The
Alt key will cause your character to crouch, which can be useful for hiding
behind things. The
Page Up key will cause your character to pick something up or put it down. The
Page Down key will cause your character to speak to another character. The Tab
key will open inventory or cause your character to stow an item she's holding in
inventory. The Enter
key will cause your character to interact with something or take some action.
The keys themselves aren't that complicated, but it can be difficult to orient
your character into the proper position to make them active. So it's easy to
miss things like inventory items. The camera that appears in the upper right of
the screen doesn't indicate an action can be made. It only indicates that you
can shift to a different camera angle by hitting the Spacebar. If your character
isn't facing the right direction when you click Page Up, Page Down, or Enter,
she'll say she "can't manage it" or "I can't do anything" or something similar.
She doesn't give you many clues.
Walkthrough
Your character is a little girl named Miette. You start out in what looks like a
schoolroom at the orphanage, run by Pieuvre, the Siamese twins. Pieuvre wants
you to steal some money. Hit the Page Down key to talk to Pieuvre and get a hint
on where to get a necessary key. You can try to talk to her some more, but you
won't get any more clues. There's nothing in this room that you need yet and if
you don't leave the room and get to work, Pieuvre will have you thrown in the
cellar. So don't take too long about leaving. Walk over to the door, orient
yourself, and hit Enter to open the door and leave. If you get thrown in the
cellar, don't worry. This time they forgot to lock the door. You won't always be
so lucky. Usually when you get thrown in the cellar it's Game Over.
Outside, walk over to the old man, Pelade, who is sitting in the chair, orient
yourself and hit Page Down to talk to him. The image of a camera that flickers
over in the upper right corner of your screen means you can get a different
camera angle by hitting the Spacebar. What a crabby old grouch. At least he
gives you a key. Click the Tab key to put the key in inventory. Walk out past
the dog and across the next screen to go down the stairs. If you want Miette to
run, hold down the Control key. Going downstairs is automatic, but she'll
probably do a little dance to line herself up. You can make her run downstairs
instead of walking by holding down the Control key.
Run all the way down all the flights of stairs. When you reach the lowest level,
turn around and walk next to the water. There will be a niche under the stairs.
Walk into it and move your character around until you see the icon for a
scrubbing brush appear in the upper right corner. While the brush icon is in
view, hit Page Up to pick it up and Tab to put it in inventory.
Move back out the way you came to the foot of the stairs. Don't go back
upstairs. Turn left into an alleyway with a barrel shortly after the foot of the
stairs. Follow walkways through several screens. Ignore the watchman wearing
dark blue unless you want to hear him chase you off. He's going to be the victim
of your robbery and you have to find a way to get him away from his post.
Continue following the walkway around the building. At the bottom of a short set
of stairs, turn right onto a pier. See that little silver line on top of a brown
package? That's an inventory item you'll need. Walk behind the pole and next to
the building and you'll find a way to get to it. Miette will probably need to
dance around to orient herself before stepping up on the boxes. When you see the
icon for the item appear in the upper left, click Page Up to pick it up. It's an
iron bar. You can either put it in inventory or not, because you will use it
soon.
Walk back onto the pier and then follow it out toward the lighthouse. You'll
want to save your game somewhere around here in case you can't figure out how to
hide yourself quickly enough. Before you commit your act of vandalism, you may
want to practice hiding. The place to hide is behind the barrels and big reels
of rope that are standing to the right of the lighthouse door. Move Miette over
there and hold down the Alt key to make her duck down and hide. Find a spot
where she'll bend down. She seems to like to be facing front when she bends
down.
Now for the vandalism. Miette is going to short out the lighthouse. Move Miette
over to the other side of the lighthouse. If you've put the iron bar in
inventory, take it out by first using the Tab key to bring up the inventory,
highlighting the iron bar by using the arrow keys to select it, then clicking
Page Up. Stand Miette directly in front of the control panel on the side of the
lighthouse that has the little orange light on it and click Enter. If you're
oriented right, you'll see a cut scene where Miette shorts out the lighthouse
and the watchman has a fit and starts out to investigate. Now Miette must hide.
The watchman may take a little while to arrive, but keep holding down the Alt
key so Miette remains hidden. When the watchman arrives, Miette makes a comment
about how she thinks she'd better stay put for a bit. After fussing around a bit
with the control box, the watchman will eventually go inside the lighthouse to
try to fix it. Now is Miette's chance to break into his office.
Run back down the pier, turn left up the stairs, follow the walkway around the
building, and take the walkway that angles off the main walkway to reach the
place where you first saw the watchman. Move around until you see the camera
icon in the upper right and click the Spacebar in order to see the door you must
go through. You have the key. Open the inventory with Tab, cycle to the key with
the arrow keys, and click Page Up to get the key "in hand." Click Enter to
unlock the door. Put away the key using Tab and click Enter again to walk inside
the building. If you don't put the key away, Miette will just lock the door back
up.
Once inside the building, aim Miette at the light switch next to the door and
click Enter to turn on the lights. See that electrical stuff going on around the
cabinet at the other end of the room? The booty is in the electrified cabinet
and Miette can't get it until the electrification is turned off. For some reason
it's tied into the cash register. Go figure. Anyway, move Miette in front of the
cash register, click Tab, cycle to the brush, and click Page Up to get the brush
in hand. Click Enter and Miette will put the brush in the cash register drawer,
wedging it open. For some reason this turns of the electricity to the cabinet. I
have no idea why. Anyway, now Miette can walk over to the cabinet, orient
herself, and click Enter. This starts a cut scene where Miette sets off an
alarm, grabs what she came for, and is accosted by the watchman. She is rescued
by the man called One, who seeks Miette's help in rescuing his little brother
Denree, who was kidnapped in the introductory video. Miette has to get back to
Pieuvre though.
You find yourself back in the schoolroom and Pieuvre gives you your new mission.
This time she wants you to break into the loan shark's safe and bring back
whatever you find there. You can ask her/them a question with Page Down, but you
won't get anything else out of her/them besides threats. Immediately turn around
and run (hold down the Control key) to the back of the room and pick up the bag
of marbles off of the shelf using Page Up. Put them in inventory with Tab, run
to the door, and click Enter to get out before you are thrown in the cellar. The
timing isn't all that close, but better safe than sorry.
Once outside, turn to your right, walk to the door, and click Enter to enter the
kitchen. Walk up to the boy and click Page Down to discover he's making a potion
for Pieuvre. Try to pick up the potion bottle with Page Up. The boy wants you to
find his marbles first. Click Tab to open inventory, then cycle to the bag and
click Page Up. Then click Enter to swap the bag for the potion. If Miette is not
close enough to the bottle, she'll let you know. Put away the potion bottle with
Tab and click Page Down to talk to the boy. He'll give you a hint where to find
the loan shark, but he won't tell you anything else. Walk to the other side of
the kitchen and locate a chicken drumstick on the countertop to the right of the
refrigerator. Page Up and Tab to pick it up and put it in inventory. Walk to the
door and hit Enter to leave the kitchen.
Walk forward and look in a corner between the cellar stairs and the dog to find
an empty bottle. There are two there, but you only need one. Orient Miette so
the bottle icon appears, Page Up to pick it up, and Tab to put it in inventory.
Walk past the dog and continue toward the top of the screen to exit. Follow the
walkways and go down all those flights of stairs. As you go downstairs, you'll
see an old drunk. Continue to the bottom of the stairs and continue back past
the niche where you found the brush earlier in the game. Go talk to the drunk.
He's hungry so give him the chicken leg. Tab, cycle to the chicken leg, and Page
Up to select it. Then click Enter to give it to him. He offers you some of his
wine in return. Good thing you have that empty bottle. Walk up to the barrel
he's sitting next to, Tab to open inventory, cycle to the empty bottle (not the
potion), Page Up to get the bottle "in hand," and hit the Enter key to fill it.
Put the bottle back in inventory with the Tab key. You can hit Tab again and
cycle to the bottle to make sure you were successful in filling it.
Go back upstairs and give the potion to the crabby old man. Stand in front of
him, Tab, cycle to potion, Page Up, and Enter. It was a sleeping potion. Now
Miette can loot his house, but first she needs to collect a couple of items. Aim
Miette at that crank that's attached to the stair rail to her right and click
Enter to lower a basket. Walk Miette under the basket until an icon appears at
the upper left of the screen. Put it in inventory with Tab. Pick up a second
item from the basket using Page Up. You should have picked up a sausage and a
door handle.
Climb the stairs and get the door handle ready to use on the door. If you've put
it in inventory, Tab, cycle to the door handle, and Page Up. Stand in front of
the door and Click Enter to enter the old guy's place. Put the door handle away
with Tab. There is a light switch next to the door. Aim Miette at it and click
Enter to turn on the lights. Now walk Miette over to the other side of the room
and locate the key on the bed. With the key icon at the upper left of the
screen, click Page Up and Tab to stow it in inventory. That's all you need here.
Walk Miette back to the door and click Enter to open it. If you want to, you can
turn out the light first by aiming at the switch and clicking Enter. If Miette
isn't close enough to the door or the light switch, she'll tell you she can't
manage it.
Go back downstairs and walk over to the dog. Give the dog the sausage. Click
Tab, cycle to the sausage, click Page Up to get it "in hand," and Enter to give
it to the dog. You didn't want that old sausage anyway, did you? Let the dog get
sick on it. Walk to the door that's a couple of steps away from the dog, click
Tab, cycle to the "key of the courtyard door," click Page Up, and then the Enter
key to open the door. Click Tab to put the key away and then Enter to go through
the door. If you didn't give the dog that sausage, he'd bark and wake up the old
man. And you'd have had to endure all that snoring for nothing.
You're at the top of a long flight of stairs. Go down and turn to Miette's right
(player's left) past the Deli. Walk over to the guard and Page Down to talk to
him. Another disagreeable old crab. Go back past the stairway and through a
couple of more screens to see a man fixing a car. Walk through the gate,
approach the man, and talk to him using Page Down. If you get Miette oriented
right, you can see the man has a tool Miette can pick up. Wait until he leans
over and has his head down in the car and snatch the tool with Page Up while
he's not looking. Turn Miette around and walk toward the back wall. There is a
bell on the back wall that Miette needs. Use the tool to detach the bell from
the wall so Miette can retrieve it. With the tool "in hand" and the bell icon in
view at the upper left of the screen, click Enter. Put the tool away with Tab
and pick up the bell with Page Up. Now let's go harass that pesky guard.
Go all the way back past the stairs and the deli to where the guard was posted.
If you've stowed the bell in inventory, click Tab, cycle to the bell, and click
Page Up to get it ready. Standing next to the guard, click Enter. Aha! So he has
sensitive ears. And there is a metal stairway conveniently located right next to
him. Walk over next to it and click Enter to hit the bell against the stairway.
The guard is overcome by the noise and falls in the water. Good riddance.
Click Tab to put the bell back in inventory and walk on up the stairway. At the
end of the walk, click Enter. The door is not locked and Miette walks on in.
This is the loan shark's office. Walk Miette forward and to the left of the
screen to locate a little grey cubical object which will be identified in
inventory as "a little safe." Pick it up with Page Up. Walk Miette over behind
the desk with the chair to find the real safe. There is a balance scales next to
it. Walk up to the scales and, with the little safe "in hand," click Enter. The
door of the big safe opens. Walk Miette over and pick up the green "jewels" with
Page Up. Stow it in inventory with Tab and leave the office. Use the Enter key
to use the door out.
Oops. Miette is attacked by the kidnappers as she leaves. The kidnappers are
weird men with a single mechanical eye, called Cyclops. Miette falls in the
water and sinks like a stone. That inventoryshe's carrying must be pretty heavy.
In a cut scene, she is found by a strange man in an antique diving suit. She
awakens in his submarine with all her inventory gone missing.
Explore the room. You're in a submarine belonging to your rescuer, who is
currently snoozing on his bed over in the corner. You'll find a couple of
switches on the wall. Face one of the switches and click Enter to pull it down.
Now try pulling the other switch. The first switch pops back up. What can we use
to make the switch stay down? There doesn't seem to be much we can pick up.
Well, there is something, but it's a little hard to find. There is a block of
wood hiding over in one of the corners. It's in the view with the brown brick
thing (furnace?) over in the corner, with a barrel to the right, the wall ladder
to the left, and the periscope near the top of the screen. Walk Miette right in
front of the brick thing, behind the boxes and garbage can, and rotate her
around, if necessary, until the icon for the block of wood appears in the upper
left. Click Page Up to pick it up and walk to the right side of the screen to
return to the switches. With the block of wood "in hand," face a switch that is
pulled down and click Enter. Face the other switch and pull it down.
An alarm goes off. It startles the man sleeping in the bed, who you may have
noticed earlier. He's a restless sleeper, but tough to wake up and he goes right
back to sleep. Walk over to him. He speaks a word here and there in his sleep,
but Miette won't talk to him or try to rouse him. Walk to the end of the bed and
face the green thing at the edge of the shelf above the bed. Miette will see a
key. Click Page Up and Miette will reach up and get the key. Oops, she knocked
down the green thing and it broke, releasing some sort of green gas. The man
breathes the gas and suddenly becomes somewhat coherent. Here is your chance to
get some idea of what is going on in this weird game. The man says he's created
a monster. He must be a mad scientist. The monster is called Krank and is
stealing the dreams of children, since he is unable to dream himself. Krank
kidnaps children and has them taken to his lab to use them as guinea pigs. Well,
there's no sense standing around listening to this nut. He's gone incoherent
again. What else can we do here?
There is one thing. Walk over to the screen where you picked up the wooden
block, only instead of walking behind the garbage can, walk up to the side of
the gray crate that's under the periscope. Miette can climb this crate. Walk her
into it from the side, using the forward arrow. She'll probably do her little
dance like she does when she's preparing to climb stairs. Once on top of the
crate, walk up to the periscope eyepiece and click Enter to see a cut scene of
small figures being herded onto a tugboat by a larger figure. The children being
taken to Krank's lab, apparently. Looking through the periscope is not required
to finish the game, but once you leave the submarine you can't get back in. And
no, you don't get to navigate the submarine. This isn't Lighthouse.
Now you're ready to leave. Walk over to the door at the opposite side of the
room. Face the door, get the key "in hand" with Tab and Page Up. Then hit Enter
to use the key to open the door. If Miette says "I don't think I can manage it,"
make sure she's close enough to the door to interact. Miette unlocks the door.
Put the key away with Tab and click Enter to exit the room.
Go up the stairs and follow the walkway into the next screen. There is a
cigarette lighter in this screen that Miette will need. It's hidden behind that
gray trapezoid-shaped block thing that's on the curved gray area that projects
slightly off the walkway and over the water. Walk Miette behind the trapezoidal
thing and rotate her around until the icon for the cigarette lighter appears in
the upper left of the screen. If it doesn't appear, try taking a step in one
direction or other and rotate her again. Once you see the icon, click Page Up to
pick up the lighter and Tab to stow it in inventory.
Continue toward the front of the screen and up the next stairway. Follow the
walkway around and down the next set of steps down into the next screen. Go up
two short flights of steps and follow the walkway into the next screen.
You will get an isometric view of a fenced-in area with some crates on the lower
left side. Miette can climb the crates just as she climbed the crate in the
submarine. Once you get her in the right position, you can just walk her onto
them with the forward arrow and she will climb into the fenced-in area. Walk her
down the crates on the other side.
Now to find another inventory item which you can't see. It's near the lowest
corner of the enclosed area. A gray roof that runs from the bottom of the screen
to the right side of the screen blocks any view you might have had of the
object.
Just walk Miette around along the line of the roof and keep checking for the
icon to appear in the upper left of your screen. The item isn't too far from the
lowest roof seam. Page Up to pick it up and Tab to stow it in inventory. It was
a candle. Who could have guessed?
Now walk toward that table under the awning near the top of the screen. Miette
will find a scissors on the table. Wow. It actually looks sort of like a
scissors. Pick it up with Page up and stow it in inventory with Tab.
There's what looks to be a stone block dangling by a rope over an open hatch in
the floor. Looks like an accident waiting to happen, doesn't it? Let's get to
work. But SAVE your game first if you want to experiment. If you try the
scissors, you'll have a Game Over. You need a delayed reaction. Put the candle
on the table. Click Tab, cycle to the candle, Page Up to select it, and Enter to
put it on the table not far from where the rope is. If you aren't close enough
to the table, Miette will tell you she doesn't think she can manage it. With the
candle in place, bring up the cigarette lighter with Tab, cycle, and Page Up.
Click Enter to light the candle and a cut scene starts. Miette will go hide
behind a nearby door. A woman in a red dress comes out and investigates. Miette
ducks inside while the woman's attention is diverted and finds One blubbering
and drinking himself silly because he thinks the Cyclops have killed Miette.
Miette tells him she's OK and that the Cyclops are taking the children to
Krank's lab on the oil rig to be used in experiments. One is worried about his
little brother Denree. The woman in red returns to the room and One tells Miette
to run.
You find yourself in another brick area near water. Walk forward and toward the
left and follow the walk through two or three screens until you find a man
painting a boat. Walk around behind the boat, face the man, and talk to him
using Page Down. Miette asks him how to get to the oil rig. The man says to ask
the fisherman. Pick up the painter's spare paint brush if you can. If the
painter is on the wrong side of his paint can, you won't be able to get to it
and you'll have to go away and look around at something else for a while.
Hopefully he is standing on the opposite side of his paint can from Miette and
she can reach his second paint brush, which is sitting on the edge of the paint
can. Use Page Up when you see the icon for the paint brush. Then click Enter to
fill the brush with paint.
Toward the back of the screen with the painting man is an exit to the left. It's
located near where you first entered the screen the first time. This exit to the
left will take you past one screen to a screen with two stairways that lead down
to piers at the right and the left side of the screen. If you take the stairway
on the right, you will find One waiting in a boat. If you take the stairway on
the left, you will see the fisherman who you need to talk to. Go back upstairs
and move to the screen to the left. A man with a Cyclops eye blocks your path
and will slap you if you try to talk to him, telling you to get lost. If you
weren't able to get the paint-filled brush earlier, go back to the man painting
the boat and get it now.
If you have the paint brush, use Tab, cycle to the brush, and click Page Up to
get it "in hand." Go to the obnoxious Cyclops man and click Enter to use the wet
paintbrush on him. Miette paints over his Cyclops eye and he freaks out and
falls backward into the water. You can go talk to the fisherman now if you want.
But he won't answer your question about the location of the oil rig unless you
have a certain item. Let's go look for some inventory.
Go back to the screen with the boat-painting man, then up the long stairway
behind the painter's boat and again up another long stairway. At the end of the
stretch of walkway after the stairs, before it makes a right angle turn, there
is a window with an empty tin can on the sill. Pick up the can using Page Up.
Go back the way you came down the walkway, down the two flights of stairs, past
the man painting the boat, toward the back of the screen, through the exit on
the left, and across the screens to where you painted the Cyclops man. Walk down
the dock to where the fisherman is sitting. Talk to him using Page Down until he
mentions he's fishing for his lost can. Get your empty can "in hand" with Tab,
cycle, Page Up. Click Enter to give him the empty can. It also seems
to work if you use Page Up to put down the can near the fisherman. He is most
appreciative and tells you about the Chinese tattoo artist who has a map to the
location of the oil rig. He even tells you how to get hold of the map without
having to pay the guy a lot of money. Sounds like a plan.
Go back past the screen with the stairways leading down to the piers. Exit
right, through one screen to the screen with the man painting the boat. Go up
the long stairways and this time pass the windowsill where you found the empty
tin can. Continue along the walkway to an alley with grey cobblestones. At the
far end of the alley, where the exit is blocked by a wooden gate, locate an
atomizer near the base of a gray oil drum. Page Up to pick up the atomizer and
Tab to stow it in inventory. You'll need it later and picking it up now will
save some time.
Move along the right side of the alley. You may have to hit the spacebar when
the camera appears in the upper right to access the screen with the tattooist.
Stand to the left of his kiosk, just in front of the orange railing, and click
Enter. Miette will use an unseen screw which will cause a piece of wood to fall
down and clobber the tattooist. Take advantage of his unconscious state to steal
the map on his table. Page Up to put it in inventory.
Follow the walkways back from the alley, down the stairways to the guy painting
the boat. Walk or run to the exit partway up the screen and to the left, then
down through the next screen to the screen with the two stairways to the piers.
Go down the stairway on the right and out to where One is waiting in the boat.
Aim Miette at One. If you stowed the map earlier, click Tab, cycle, and Page Up
to get the map "in hand." Click Enter to give One the map. Well, it's a good
map, but how are they going to find their way through the fog. Looks like we
need more inventory.
Go down to the end of the pier you're standing on to find a stick. Page Up and
Tab to pick it up and stow it in inventory. Walk or run back up the pier and
climb the stairs. You should now be in the screen with the two stairways leading
down to the piers. Move toward the back left of this screen and you should find
another exit. Make your way through a couple more screens and you'll find
Marcello sitting near his trailer. There's no doubt who it is. His name is right
on the trailer. There is also a sign saying Cirque de Puces, which means "flea
circus" in French. Guess what Marcello does (or did) for a living. Talk to
Marcello using Page Down. Use Page Down about five times to hear all he has to
say about his unique killer fleas, trained to kill when they hear his music.
Getting any ideas? Walk over to face the crank organ and click Enter a couple of
times to get more comments from Marcello.
The fleas are in a jar to the left of where Marcello is sitting. You can't get
past Marcello, so you'll need your stick. Face the jar, Tab, cycle to the stick,
Page Up to hold the stick and Enter. Miette knocks over the jar. The fleas get
out and jump on Marcello. Face the crank organ and click Enter and the fleas
will kill Marcello. The icon for Marcello's compass/watch will now appear if you
aim Miette at Marcello correctly. Click Tab, cycle to the atomizer, and click
Page Up to get the atomizer "in hand." Move around Marcello until you see the
icon for the compass/watch appear in the upper left, then click Enter to get rid
of the fleas. Click Tab to put away the atomizer and Page Up to steal Marcello's
compass/watch. Yes you killed the poor guy just to steal his watch. Nasty. If
you try picking up the watch before you use the atomizer on the fleas, Miette
refuses, saying the fleas will bite her. I wonder what's in that atomizer
anyway. Maybe some really cheap perfume like "Avon's Revenge."
Now that you done the dirty deed and have your ill gotten gains, exit right from
Marcello, past two screens, to the screen with the stairways leading down to the
piers. Go down the stairway to the pier on the right and walk to where One is
waiting in the boat. Aim Miette at One. Tab, cycle, Page Up, and Enter to give
One the compass/watch. A cut scene will start in which Miette and One row out to
the oil rig and rescue about four kids, one of which I assume is Denree, One's
"little brother." The movie was better.