The Collection Chamber: SAFECRACKER

THE ULTIMATE PUZZLE CHALLENGE

Your resumé as an elite security expert is flawless. And now, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to land the job of your dreams: as the head of security development at the world famous firm of Crabb & Sons Safe and Security Systems. To prove you have what it takes, you first must pass a test. You must break into your eccentric employer's heavily secured headquarters and crack the numerous puzzle-based combinations on over 35 safes. Each safe holds a clue to the combination of your ultimate goal, the Master Safe. Crack all the safes and the job is yours.

Between you and your goal lie a labyrinth of elegantly appointed rooms, filled with hidden clues, an exquisitely detailed collection of art and antiques - and most importantly - the many unique and challenging puzzles.

You think you can do it...

...now your challenge is to prove it!
Explore a massive 50 room mansion as you attempt to track puzzle after puzzle.
An arrange of tantalizing & complex puzzles that will challenge your skills to the limit.
Intuitive interface and addictive gameplay.
Beautifully rendered 3D environments.
Complete 360 degree camera movement.
Search for mostly hidden clues in every room.

~ from the back of the box

Safecracker is one of those games that gets a little lost in the shuffle when people talk about late 90s point-and-click adventures. It's not quite Myst, not quite The 7th Guest, but it shares a lot of its DNA to the two. Developed in 1997 by Daydream Software, Safecracker is a first-person puzzle game puts you in the shoes of a master locksmith, hired to break into a series of safes hidden throughout an eccentric millionaire's mansion. Sounds exciting, right?

At its heart, Safecracker is a slow-burn puzzler. You wander around the rooms searching for clues and items that will aid you in solving the many logic puzzles that keep each of the safes shut. And boy, is there a lot of safes. There are 30-odd rooms by my count, and each one holds as many as three hefty safes in them. Some are easy to open, the requiring patterns recognition or sliding puzzles, while others require you to find specific knowledge found around the house to crack it. And let's not forget the those that single need a key. Everything appears to be lock - including the kitchen fridge - but I guess that's how it is for the 1%.

The rich owner has an obsession with safes. I guess we always knew the one percent like to hoard stuff (left).
There are helpful hand books for each in-universe brand of storage strongboxes that are full of clues (right).

You begin the game on the streets outside of the gated home, in a classic British red phone booth awaiting the call that will give you instructions. You have full 360° view of what would now be called a "urinal" and you travel through the game world via a series of nodes. It uses QuickTime's VR capabilities, which any retro PC game knows was pretty standard fare for a first-person-adventure of the time. In any case, it's far more immersive than the static images of aging Myst even if there's not much in the way of animation going on.

The puzzles found on each of the safes wouldn't be out of place in The 7th Guest and much like that all-time classic, they are the most certainly star of the show. They feel a bit more congruous here - a sliding puzzle feel more at home on a lockbox than an art-deco carpet - and there's a lot more of them too. Most are fairly easy, though, and those that do stump are only because you overlooked that book on the coffee table that contained the answer. It rewards exploration far more, which again is more like Myst.

The game comes with a fully playable version of Minesweeper. It doesn't open a safe, but it's a fun diversion (left).
Reference materials are everywhere. I never knew signal flags could be so... cheeky (right).

What it does differently to those two games I tend to compare all first-person adventures to is in its inventory; in that it has one. You can pick up keys, notes, bananas... and you will rack up quite the assortment of knick-knacks by the end of the game. Some, like keys, are obviously useful. Some are red herrings; a distraction to mischievously lead you down the wrong path. Others, like the banana, are just there in case you get hungry on the job. Anything you've gathered are listed in a box at the bottom of the screen, and when you click on one an image of it will appear to the left of it. If you click on it and drag the mouse around, you will be able to see it from all angles, though the necessity of this feature is sadly lacking.

Most of the mansion is open to you from the very beginning, allowing you to play through the game in any order. It's commendably open, but be aware that the means to open some safes are found in others. Each of the rooms are well decorated and filled with interesting bits and bobs. Some can even be interacted with for a little chuckle. Some items will even let you take a closer look just like you inventory items, but as they're just staplers or coffee cups they won't be added to the list.

This guy even locks up his fridge (left)! It takes real-world knowledge of temperatures to open,

but in case you don't know it by heart it's found somewhere in the game world too (right).

There are a large number of nodes in each of them too, and it's easy to get turned around and forget which door you can in from. Thankfully, you have a compass on the bottom right of the screen which is a perfect solution for just such an occassion. There are maps in the game, but they are unfortunately not taken with you, remaining in the books from which you found them. I just took a screenshot which helped immensely.

Despite its occasional visual and audio shortcomings, the puzzles themselves are where Safecracker really hooks you. At its heart, it's a puzzle game through and through, and one that adventure game fans will surely get a kick out of too. This is definitely one code you'll want to crack, and once you're done you can check out the spiritual sequel from 2006 that's still available to by on Steam.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox 0.74 running Windows '95. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting DOSBox. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. The program will automatically shut down when you exit the game.

File Size: 625 Mb. Install Size: 960 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download