The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain is the third installment of the educational Dr. Brain

Dr. Brain

Dr. Brain is a series of educational games made by Sierra On-Line in the 1990s. The objective of each game is solving a series of puzzles in order to proceed further into the game. The series was later picked up by Knowledge Adventure who turned it into a more action-oriented game.The original two...

 series, created and published by Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...

.

As in the first two games, Lost Mind features science related puzzles. Where the previous installments featured a large, semi-free-roaming environment, however, Lost Mind confines the player to one single area (Dr. Brain's laboratory), with puzzles accessed from a central 'map' screen. Similarly, while the previous games' puzzles ranged across a variety of disciplines (both Castle and Island contained memory and word puzzles, as well as puzzles related to art and the sciences), Lost Mind focuses solely on the human brain, with puzzles related to spatial orientation, memorization, and symbolic association.

Due to the restricted game environment, much of the humor that was found in the first two games is missing in Lost Mind; since the player no longer has free rein over an entire island or castle, there is very little to explore, and very little with which to interact.

Between the second and third installments, several new characters have been introduced: Dr. Brain's niece, Elaina, is on hand to replace Dr. Brain as host, and also serves as a guide to Dr. Brain's mental pathways. Also, Rathbone, Dr. Brain's laboratory rat, provides what limited verbal humor can be found in the game.

Puzzles

• Train of Thought - A real-time path finding puzzle in which the player attempts to guide several (sometimes several dozen) colored balls along the tracks to their respective exit point. Rathbone resembles an Irishman in this puzzle.
• Synaptic Cleft - A real-time game of forces where objects enter from the left and must be guided to a small aperture on the right. Various attractive and repellent obstacles litter the center region. Rathbone has a heavy southern accent and resembles a cowboy in this puzzle.
• Neural Maze - A multi-dimensional maze in which the player must find a way from start to finish. The start and end points are usually on different levels, neither of which having paths leading all the way to the end. The player must often move up and down through dozens of levels several times before finally arriving at the destination. Rathbone has a heavy Brooklyn Accent and looks like a utility worker in this puzzle.
• File Sorting - A pure memory puzzle in which the player must store objects and then retrieve them at a later point. The higher levels involve swapping of compartments to further muddy the waters. Rathbone resembles Rod Serling
  Rod Serling
  Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
  
   with a similar theme from The Twilight Zone
  The Twilight Zone
  The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
  
   in this puzzle.
• Pentode - A real-time matching puzzle involving Greek
  Greek language
  Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
  
   letters, Roman numerals
  Roman numerals
  The numeral system of ancient Rome, or Roman numerals, uses combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as:...
  
  , ASL
  American Sign Language
  American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
  
  , or even periodic elements
  Chemical element
  A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...
  
  . Rathbone wears a smoking jacket
  Smoking jacket
  A smoking jacket is an overgarment designed to be worn while smoking tobacco, usually in the form of pipes and cigars, or for domestic leisure.-Design:The classic smoking jacket is a mid thigh-length jacket made from velvet or silk, or both...
  
   and talks like a stereotypical rich snob, and you must listen to him to solve the Pentode puzzle.
• The Music Region - A puzzle primarily involving musical aptitude, particularly for reading musical score. A piece is played and the user must correct the score to match the desired musical sound. Rathbone resembles a Baroque
  Baroque music
  Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
  
   or Classical
  Classical period (music)
  The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
  
   composer
  Composer
  A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
  
  , similar to Johann Sebastian Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
  
   or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
  
  , and plays the harpsichord
  Harpsichord
  A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
  
  .
• 3D Construction - A puzzle of pure spacial orientation. The player must reconstruct the plans for a multi-layered, 3-dimensional object based only on visual inspection and manipulation of an original model. Rathbone has a Scandinavian accent in this game.
• Motor Programming - A primitive (non-complete) programming language similar to Logo
  Logo (programming language)
  Logo is a multi-paradigm computer programming language used in education. It is an adaptation and dialect of the Lisp language; some have called it Lisp without the parentheses. It was originally conceived and written as functional programming language, and drove a mechanical turtle as an output...
  
   in which the player must programmatically guide a mini-Dr Brain through a maze of obstacles while collecting a number of items. Rathbone is "Rathbot" in this puzzle, and talks and looks like a robot.
• Word Surge - Similar to the classic word-scramble game, but with slightly more complex possibilities. The strategies for solving the puzzles are similar to those required to solve a Rubic's Cube. Rathbone resembles a British gentleman from the 16th century in this puzzle.
• Dreamland - The final puzzle, requiring that the player beats the previous puzzles before being able to access it. Almost exactly like the Synaptic Cleft puzzle, except the mouse is attractive rather than repellent to the desired object. Rathbone is not present in this puzzle at all.

External links

• The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain on MobyGames
  MobyGames
  -Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...