Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey

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Wishbone & the Amazing Odyssey
Wishbone & the Amazing Odyssey

Wishbone and The Amazing Odyssey was a computer program manufactured by Palladium Interactive featuring the dog from the Wishbone television series. Players tried to help Wishbone get out of the combobulator while learning Greek mythology and history.


[edit] How the Game Went

Wishbone has been zapped inside the combobulator and the only way out is to play out the whole story of The Odyssey on the combobulator. The game begins when leaving Troy, where the player picks up the crew roster and some wine. A duck has gotten there by accident. To leave, Wishbone had to get Eurylochus to lug a chest onto the ship, and they land on the Island of the Cyclops.

On the island, one must restore a statue at a temple to Athena in exchange for a Palladium, which could be clicked if a hint was needed. After giving the chest to Athena, one can take the helmet of wisdom, used as a doorstop to keep the cave of Polyphemus the cyclops open. In the cave, Wishbone takes Athena's map (which was stolen) for movement from island to island.

Wishbone gives Polyphemus some wine to put him in a drunken sleep. Instead of using a spear to destroy the Cyclops' eye as in Homer's story, a blanket is placed over Polyphemus' eye to blind him. Straw is used to take the Cyclops' sheep, one of which goes on to the ship. The crew sails for Aeaea, only to be attacked by Poseidon, father of Polyphemus.

On Aeaea, Athena warns about Circe, and Wishbone must give the wolf a turkey leg to get past him and get the moly plant which neutralizes the poison in Circe's food. Wishbone eats the food and survives, and must win a game of checkers with Circe to get advice. Wishbone takes wine and honey and goes to Hades where he offers the wine and honey, as well as the sheep from Island of the Cyclops, to the deceased. There he meets Tiresias, the blind prophet, who gives advice, as well as a lyre that Aeolus gave him. Elpenor has died on Aeaea.

He also meets Agamemnon, one of Odysseus' comrades in the Trojan War who was killed by his own wife when he got home. Since there is nothing to do in the Greek underworld, Agamemnon invites Odysseus to play a game called the Trojan War, based on the actual event. If the player wins, Agamemnon gives Odysseus a coin left over from paying the boatman to cross the River Styx. The coin is used back on Aeaea to bury Elpenor.

Then Wishbone returns to Circe for more advice, and also takes a tapestry and torch. When approaching Ogygia, the player has a choice of whether to face Scylla or Charybdis. On Ogygia, the ship has been destroyed. Wishbone meets Calypso, and he tells her the truth of how Wishbone got stuck in the combobulator. Calypso is lonely and wants to keep him, but Athena comes and releases Wishbone, who can take a sail cloth (to repair the ship)and an axe which he makes Eurylochus use to chop down trees into boards of wood, which are used to repair the ship as well as some mud and reeds. The torch is used to enter the forest leading to Mt. Olympus, where the right combination of question and answers must be performed to convince the gods to open the way home for Wishbone.

On the island of Thrinacia, Wishbone must play the lyre that Tiresias gave him, as well as play a memory game matching the gods with their symbols on the tapestry. This opens the tower of Aeolus where the bag of winds are, and the bag is opened letting the winds free. But the crewmen are too hungry to go on. They want to eat the cattle on that island, but they are sacred to Helios, the sun-god, and anybody who kills them will be destroyed. Wishbone therefore uses a rock to get ingredients for building wings: branches, beeswax, and feathers, and flies across a ravine to get the men some fruit to eat. Then they go home to Ithaca, where Wishbone must take a torch, pail, and a lion head, which is thrown into a well to get the key. But since Wishbone still cannot reach the key, the duck from the beginning of the game helps get it. The pail is filled with water and the key is used to open the thollos. In there, the pail of water and torch must be used to power a machine, giving Wishbone his bow. The bow is then handed to Telemachus, and Penelope holds an archery contest to determine who will be her next husband. Wishbone, disguised as a beggar, wants to try. If winning the archery game, Wishbone reveals that he is Odysseus, and is zapped out of the combobulator back to his real world.

[edit] If One Loses

A loser finds himself in the Underworld where Hades offers to challenge Wishbone to a game in which he must beat Hades to the magic potion of Asclepius. Winning will take you back to the game. Losing (or declining to play) will end the whole game.