I still can't make anything out in Mag's picture.
I'm hopeless.

What about if Michael never really went to the Mansion,
and this game is a dream he's been having.

What if we're dreaming now, and it's the game that's real?

What if ..oh never mind...this is getting to strange.

You and me both, Jenny! Tho' IMHO some of the conjecture seems to be stretching things a bit...

The simplest explanation seems to be that Robin was born...uh...different and Catherine and the good Dr. concealed it from James because they assumed it was from the Thalidomide but knew James would see it as a sign of the curse, and they didn't want to give him any fodder for his supposed delusions.

If this is the case, I don't think Robin could have been actually kept in the nursery at any time, or there would ahve been no way to conceal him from James (unless Catherine was in the habit of scaling the walls on a rope to get in there...).

I'm still not sure about the relationship between Robin and the Mask. I don't find it accurate to say that "nothing" happened when Michael waved the amulet at the mask, 'cause when I made the amulet this eerie hollow laugh started and waving the amulet at the mask caused it to stop.

Has anyone tried using the amulet on the hole in the wall where Robin's hiding (before the creepy glowing eyes appear)? Just curious. OR using the amulet in various places in Robin's cell? (I would expect Inferno has done this in her search for alternate endings....)

WW

BUT it may be that that doorway into the nursery was not ALWAYS bricked up like that and access to it from the house was at one time applicable. One could assume that after the baby was born and supposedly 'died' - remember, there is a coffin in the crypt with an R.... on the plaque - that the doorway was later bricked up by the good Doctor after James died? Lots of ways that could have gone. And I may have a pretty good imagination but I see what I see in Mag's picture she posted here - there is a face quite easily distinguishible at the upper right of that hole in the floor, I could identify who it is if I knew what James, Robin, or the doctor looked like....you don't have to stare at it very hard, just focus on it a bit, I can even see if with my glasses off and my nose up on the screen (I am myopic and have worn glasses since age 13 or so)... I heard that maniacal laughing too when I used the amulet on the mask, but I have to admit I did not check my inventory to see if it returned there or if I had it anymore when I went down to look in that hole in the wall in the cellar, thusly I did not think of using the amulet on the creature - never thought of it. I believe the mask was de-cursed but like the idea that it was done too late to 'cage' that evil spirit-god as it had already taken possession of a living creature.....the monster in the basement. And the darn thing is loose now out there in MY WORLD!
Love, Betty Lou

Hey Betty Lou:

My point about the nursery is, if Robin was kept there how would his existence have been concealed from James? I'm assuming James actually lived in the house.

You do still have the amulet in inventory after using it on the mask.

WW

I assumed the parents-to-be had fixed up the baby's room in preparation for its arrival... and after it was born deformed, they walled off the room. James would have been told it had died and Catherine and the doctor would have taken care of it elsewhere.

Did we ever figure out who was taking care of the plant in the greenhouse?

Betty Lou, I think I see the "face" you're talking about, but I don't think it's clear that it's really a face. It's like seeing a face in a rug or in a floral wallpaper pattern.

But if it is a face, it looks more mask-like than skull-like to me, meaning...

Hey, good point. Is there any indication that the mask in the closet is 'THE' mask?

I would think it IS "the" mask, since it is the one missing from that display case in the African Room, and only in that little 'closet/room' does it 'feel' eerie and supernatural(?) or 'evil'....I have to say that if I opened a 'closet' door and that thing was right there looking at me like that I would definitely be FREAKED OUT! And stepping into that 'closet' and turning to face that mask gives me the same blood-curdling reaction
I suppose that 'face' I see in the hole in the floor could be another mask or something....I just wish someone else could or would see what I clearly see there - boy my IMAGINATION is so much "huge-r" than even I thought....
Love, Betty Lou :kiss:

In the upper right of the floor...near where the end of the arm (attached to the torso) is? I see something there that could be a face (or more likely a mask), but it could just be my imagination...

Agree - If it were a mystery suspense thriller type, think Hitchcock, it would have been an In Your Face Conclusion (so you would have thought - How could I have overlooked that?)

But, it wasn't, at least for me it wasn't, and I thoroughly enjoyed it none the less.

Seems to me discussion here closes to an end.. but i when parsing through different scratchers forums, i found this interesting opinion(in Nucleosys forum).
I recite "
Then how to explain the fact that the handwriting of Jerry is so similar to Milton's? I'd like to say they are completey identical. I just wonder if it is possible that son's handwriting can be so similar to his father's."
Any thinking about this?

Maybe the English version is somehow different - but, there are minor but distinct differences. The doctor hangs a small loop under his capitol I, Jerry does not.

Now where does THAT come from? Nowhere was there any indication that Jerry (the writer who buys the old victorian mansion) does not know who his father is - that would be a totally whole different storyline that was not offered as far as I can see - did I miss something? Ya think there might be a sequel? to solve all these questions? or add more?
Love, Betty Lou

Note to self: Don't and work and play at the same time -

The 'I's are identical (wrong letter)

Oh, well - back to work..


edit edit edit -

And... back from work -

It's also the same handwriting as the note written on the newspaper in the attic. So... either Jerry wrote the note, or he writes just like the Doctor... Hmmmm.

I always thought Jerry was more involved than it originally appeared.

Of course, I also thought we were going to use the rare south african plant to induce vision, a la "Sherlock Holmes and the Devil's Foot." I was kind of disapointed that we didn't!

WW

Hi everyone. I've been wondering all of these puzzling questions too, and I'm curious if anyone on GB has heard from the guys at Nucleosys about what "actually" happened in Scratches. I'd love to get the real low-down from them---assuming they're willing to give away their secrets!

Cat

I believe Raul (spelling?) has the inside track on what's what with this game - did he write it? or work on it or was he a beta testor? Not sure.
Love, Betty Lou

Betty Lou,

Rael IS Agustin. He is the developer and program designed the game. Scratches is his baby.

Rael (Agust

HE sure is, but he's not talking! Just hinting mysteriously.

WW

Finished the game and must say I'm really glad our 'hero' didn't end up as lunch for poor deformed Robin. What I can't figure out is: After discovering he had no lights and no water (and no food because his car was dead), and after crawling through the furnace, he finds he has company in that big, old, long abandoned Victorian, why a (supposedly) intelligent writer of words stayed there. I wouldn't need a car to get gone. My feets would take me away very fast! And, what was the deal with Jerry and the eviction notice? -- as in The Black Mirror. I hate that. It totally ruins a game for me and puts the kibosh on any replays of same.

I think there's a phone conversation that addresses that, that Michael stays because he's becoming (perhaps unnaturally) obsessed with the events that took place there.

Plus, he IS a writer, and a writer of horror novels at that, and as he's growing interested in James's story anyway...well, he's not likely to leave without knowing the ending.

I was quite happy when he got into his car after getting that notice: "Oh, so we're going to go kill Jerry now?"