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The Magician's Handbook: Cursed Valley: General Information

Ok, so I know it's an old game, but it's a good one I promise. I stumbled upon it late one night after I finished up the Dracula game I was playing. I was feeling like there was an empty void in me that I needed to fill with another game, and there it was, The Magician's Handbook beckonging me to put off my chores for just a few more hours. I remembered that someone had told me I should give it a try... something about it being my kind of humor, so late one night I started playing it... and after the first time I got stuck trying to find something, I went to see if we had a guide for it... and we didn't! And then I couldn't find a good guide anywhere, so I took it upon myself to write one... you're welcome.

General Story

Ok, so apparently you were bored one day at your day job and saw some late night television infomercial selling this Magician's Handbook that would teach you how to cast spells without having to spend years training under someone else. You thought about it for a little bit, and decided what the hay, it's only $19.95 or something like that... why not give it a try? Then you found out that to learn how to cast the spells, you would have to go to the cursed valley... apparently a very bad place... so you decided ummmm maybe not. Then you spent one more day at your day job and said....ummmmm yeah I'll try that cursed valley over these TPS reports any day!

Game Play

If you've played hidden object games before, then you'll have no trouble with this one. I immedietly changed my cursor to a magic wand to make it more authentic... you know I'm all about the props when it comes to games. Just go into your options area once you've started the game to change it. It's under help, and you want to make sure that custom cursor is checked. You have hints available to you in this game know to you oh aspiring wizard as the Reveal Spell, but you only have a certain amount per level so use them wisely. Although you start with only 2 hints per chapter, you eventually will work your way up to five... unfortunatley, you will need all five in some cases. You'll also have some magic spells that you can cast that can help you as you play. For instance, sometimes there are distractions when you are trying to find hidden objects. You can cast a repel spell that will stop them for a little bit and give you time to think! Repel will also light the way for you in boards like the Dungeon, where it's all dark except for the glow from your magic wand.

Magician's Coins

These little babies are really hard to find, but if you find them, they unluck hidden secrets in the game like a pink wand.... I totally want that. There are a total of 36 Magician's Coins in the game and each location has three. But they're not always visible. Some are onnly visible at later levels because you do visit places more than once. You can either try to find them as you play, or go back once you've reached the last level. I marked them in green on some of the boards as I played, but I also included a section that has the locations marked.

Hidden Handprints for Repel Spell

There are also handprints hidden throughout the game. Finding these will recharge your repel spell so you can continue to cast it in order to help. The repel spell can stop distractions. Same as with the magic coins, I marked this as I played each location, but also have included a section for just the Hidden Handprints if you're in a hurry.

Chapter 1: So you want to be a wizard?

Ok, here we go! This is your first foray into magic, so don't be scared. You need to gather objects throughout the Cursed Valley in order to be able to learn how to cast the first spell.

The first two places that you can visit are the Cemetary and the Wizard's Lab. It doesn't matter which one you visit first. I decided to do the Cemetary first!

The Cemetary

The first few levels were pretty easy to find the hidden objects. I've marked all the hidden objects I've found in pink and any of the special coins and handprints in green. Note, the hidden objects that you need to find won't be the same every time, so you won't be able to just follow the guide for that. However, a lot of them are similar so you may be able to get help if you get stuck on a certain object. Just look through all the chapters for that particular location for help.

The Wizard's Lab

Once you find all the objects, you're ready to make the potion to cast your magic spell. You'll be taken to a puzzle game where you just have to match the ingredients in three or more chains. The more in the chain, the faster the potion bottle will fill up. You can click on the potion bottle to mix up all the ingredients if you've run out of possible chains.

When you're done, you've completed chapter 1 are well on your way to becoming a first-class magician. Hang this one the fridge for mom! I got an A+! Wish I could say the same for my statistics grade... actually I would have been happy with a B.... oh well...

Chapter 2: Your First Spell!

Now that you have learned the Repel spell, you can move right along to the next. No use dilly dallying! You will have to collect 17 items in this level and the spell you will learn wll help increase the number of reveal spells you can cast on each level.

On this level, you have two places again to visit: The Vault and the Cornfield.

The Cornfield

The Vault

Once you complete those two locations, you will be taken to the second and final type of puzzle you will experience at the end of chapters. This one involves chanting a spell. You need to find all the word pieces of the spell and click on them and finally cast them. Be careful though because they can be tricky. Some works are in bigger phrases than others. Think back to when those poetry magnets were popular... this totally reminded me of that! I loved those things... I think it's time for a comeback.

Chapter 3: Repelling Power

Chapter 3 focuses on increasing the strength of your Repel spell. You need to find 25 items and you are able to visit three places in this chapter.

Enchanted Glen

The Haunted House

The Wizard's Lab

Chapter 4: The Dark Dungeon

The next chapter adds a new location for you to go to: The Dark Dungeon.... ohhhhhh so scary! I have chills just thinking about what lurks there. You will need to find 26 items in this chapter and you will be able to visit3 locations.

The Dungeon