Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Description

Leave the nonmagical world behind and enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Be Harry Potter, learning to master all things magical in a world filled with wizardry, fun, and danger. Overcome adversity and challenges and encounter unforgettable characters from J.K. Rowling's worldwide bestseller.

As Harry Potter, players will hone their magical skills and advance through three terms of study during Harry's first year at Hogwarts. Each term will challenge players to meet a number of objectives, such as collecting and mixing potions with Professor Snape or piloting a flying broom through the Forbidden Forest in search of Neville Longbottom's Remembrall. In order to pass the first year of study, players must complete over 29 different objectives, while avoiding enemies and obstacles.

Introduction

Well, you can. Simply pick up a copy of the new game Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone from Aspyr Media. This immersive 3D title runs in both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9. All you will need to enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a copy of Harry Potter and your Mac.

A Phenomenon

“Harry Potter is a phenomenon,” states Aspyr president Michael Rogers. “From our first exposure to the books, we’ve been trying to work out how to make a Mac game of the experience, so when Electronic Arts announced that they were making the games, we went after them.”

Like the hit film of the same name, the game stays faithful to the characters and situations from J.K. Rowlings’ best-selling novel. You are Harry Potter, and as you explore the environs of Hogwarts, you encounter many familiar characters such as Harry’s pals Hermione Granger and the Weasley brothers, his nemesis Draco Malfoy, and school headmaster Aldus Dumbledore. You even get the chance to take broom flying lessons from Madam Hooch, which is important if you want to be successful at Quidditch (a wizard sport played on flying brooms).

The game begins with a series of storybook-like screens that explain Harry’s backstory: he lived with his rotten relatives, the Dursleys, until a giant named Hagrid rescued him and revealed the truth about his lineage: his long-deceased parents were wizards, and Harry is destined to be one too. Hagrid sends him to the London train station, where Harry boards the locomotive that arrives at platform 9 3/4, which is invisible to Muggles, or non-wizards.

The train whisks Harry away to Hogwarts, where he meets Albus Dumbledore, the school’s headmaster. All new students must don the Sorting Hat, which decides which of the four Hogwarts Houses they will live in during their time at the school. The hat places Harry in Gryffindor House, where he meets his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

There are four houses at Hogwarts, each led by one of the wizard or witch teachers at the school. As you complete various challenges in the game, you earn points for Gryffindor. The house with the most points at the end of the school year wins the House Cup.

Something for Everyone

“Harry’s world is full of mystery, adventure, growth, and, most of all, creativity,” says Rogers. “The stories offer something for everyone of all ages, which is rare for any medium.”

Like the book, the game revolves around Harry’s schoolwork and the adventures that come with it. You guide Harry to each of his classes, where he learns different spells. Use your mouse to trace the shape of each spell; if you trace it successfully within the time allotted, Harry adds that spell to his repertoire, and you get to try it out in a test set up by his teacher.

Each test requires you to gather the challenge stars hidden around an area of Hogwarts Castle. When you find them all, it is time for the next class. (Hermione is usually around to help you get to your classes.) As you progress through the game, you will need the spells Harry learned in previous classes to solve the increasingly difficult puzzles.

The Spider Cult

The Spider Cult appeared recently in Llancarfan, possibly growing its ranks with the many people who have vanished mysteriously. They claim to worship a god named Syrkrosh, who they say traveled from another world to bring them wealth and power. Units include Spider Cultists, Priestesses, and Giant Spiders.

(A tip for parents: If your youngsters do not have their hand-eye coordination mastered yet, go into the Options menu and activate the Auto Jump option. It will make Harry automatically jump in the appropriate spots.)

Trolls and Beans

Harry also encounters various creatures during his adventures at Hogwarts. Certain ghosts that haunt the castle, such as the malevolent poltergeist Peeves, try to distract you, a Troll attacks you, and carnivorous plants snap their jaws at you. Every time a monster hits Harry, he loses power in the meter (shaped like a lightning bolt scar, of course) that sits in the upper-left corner of the screen; if it reaches zero, Harry faints and you will have to start over from the last point in the game that you saved. (Do not worry — you will get opportunities to replenish the meter.)

Another type of creature to watch out for are the gnomes that try to steal your Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. The Beans are magical candy for wizards, and you’ll find them scattered around Hogwarts. Collect as many as you can, and somewhere in each level you’ll encounter Ron’s older brothers, George and Fred, who trade you wizard cards for the beans. There are 24 wizard cards, and each features a different wizard from history and some interesting facts about him. You place the cards in your Folio Magi, where you can look at them any time you want.

Superior Operating System

For the ultimate Harry Potter experience, you will want to play the game in Mac OS X.

“The folks at Westlake Interactive have done a great job of making the game run in Mac OS X,” says Rogers. “The Mac OS X version should run slightly faster [than the Mac OS 9 version], because of all the efficiencies in memory and task management, so Mac OS X will reveal the best of the game.

“We are very happy with Mac OS X and Apple’s commitment to making it a superior operating system,” he continues. “We are confident that the system will continue to improve and be an even better platform for playing and making games.”

Characters

Harry Potter

Harry’s parents, James and Lily, were killed by Albus Dumbledore’s arch nemesis, Voldemort, when he was just an infant. Left to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley and their rotten son Dudley, Harry was miserable until Rubeus Hagrid delivered his invitation to Hogwarts. He soon learned that the lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead indicated that he had powers that Muggles (non-magical folk) like the Dursleys could never understand.

Ron Weasley

Ron is Harry’s best friend at Hogwarts. He comes from a large family of wizards and has to live up to the legacy left behind by his five older brothers. His family is poor and he often has to wear hand-me-downs, which is a constant source of frustration for him. He has a younger sister named Ginny.

Hermione Granger

A brilliant student who teaches Harry a few spells during the game, Hermione comes from a Muggle family. Her parents are dentists. She can be bossy sometimes, but she and Harry are good friends, and she has been known to take up the causes of the downtrodden. She, Ron, and Harry are members of Gryffindor House.

Neville Longbottom

Neville is the kind of downtrodden soul to whom Hermione usually offers assistance. He is not a very good wizard, but she works with him on his spells and helps him as much as she can.

Draco Malfoy

Draco is the son of Lucius Malfoy, who was once an ally of Voldemort. Despite the fact that Harry would prefer to have nothing to do with him, Draco still tries to create havoc in his life every chance he gets. A star Quidditch player like Harry, Draco plays for the Slytherin House team.

Albus Dumbledore

The only wizard whom Voldemort fears, Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster at Hogwarts. He is well-known for discovering the 12 uses of dragon’s blood.

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva is the Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts. She teaches Transfiguration and is able to turn into a cat. She is the head of Gryffindor House, but she is not afraid to take points away from them if one of its members breaks a rule.

Rubeus Hagrid

Big and burly but possessing a soft heart, Rubeus Hagrid is the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. He helped Harry leave the Dursleys’ home, where they had practically imprisoned the boy, and he will often give Harry advice and watch over him.

Severus Snape

Severus teaches potions classes and is the head of Slytherin House. In the latter capacity, he is been known to undermine the efforts of Gryffindor House, largely because of the grudge he carries against Harry for things Harry’s father did when Severus was a student at Hogwarts.

Filius Flitwick

He is tiny of stature and prone to being emotional, but Professor Flitwick knows how to teach a charms class. He is also the head of Ravenclaw House.

Professor Sprout

Miss Sprout is the head of Hufflepuff House and the herbology professor at Hogwarts. She teaches Harry all she knows about dealing with carnivorous plants.

Madam Hooch:

If Harry is going to learn how to fly a broom, Madam Hooch is the person who will show him how. She’s the flying instructor at the school, and she also referees the Quidditch matches that are played between the four houses.

Sybill Trelawney

She teaches divination at Hogwarts.

Binns

The only professor at Hogwarts who is a ghost, Binns teaches History of Magic. His lectures tend to be very boring.

Voledmort

Also known as You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Voldemort was the one responsible for the deaths of Harry’s parents. The lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry’s forehead came from that incident, during which Voldemort tried to murder Harry too but was defeated when his spell deflected off Harry and hit him. He went into exile after his defeat, but there are rumors that he has returned and wants to finish off Harry once and for all.

Peeves

Peeves is a poltergeist, and most of the ghosts at Hogwarts care very little for him. He is a troublemaker who likes to throw things at people and make rude noises.

Nearly Headless Nick

Nick offers helpful advice during the game. In life he was Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, and he died in a botched execution during which he was hit in the neck with a blunt axe 45 times. A last bit of skin did not sever, and he was cursed to an eternity of walking around with his head nearly separated from his body. He wears a ruffled tunic to hide that fact as best he can.

Features

• Bring the world of Harry Potter home in one small, portable package.
• Turn-based battle sequences reward thoughtful use of more than thirty spells and potions.
• Adventure-based game with an emphasis on puzzle solving and interaction with other characters.
• Interact with over one hundred unforgettable characters from the book, including Professor Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, and Draco Malfoy.
• Faithful representation of the magical world created in J.K. Rowling's best-selling novels.

Cheats

Enter during gameplay

• harrytriggercheat: 15 Beans
• harrynormaljump: Big Jumps
• harrydebugmodeon: Debug mode (press F7 to enable)
• harrykoresh: Invisibility
• harrygetsfullhealth: Restore Health
• harrykorwalk: Silent Walking
• harrysuperjump: Super Jumps

Hint

Hidden items

During broomstick training fly directly at the Hogwarts seal. You will enter a secret room and find four Bertie Botts every flavor beans and a Wizard Card. The beans will be quite old seeing no one has found the room since 1867.

After learning the Alohamora spell, when you enter the room with Hermione for the test, cast the spell on the statue to get a bean and open a secret room with a magic card.

When you first enter the garden after defeating Malfoy, finish talking with Hagrid the look for a fountain. It will be on the right side of you. Cast a spell on it to open a secret room behind it. Collect everything in the room, then cast the spell again to close the room.

Defeating Malfoy

When you are chasing Malfoy in Remembrel Chase, speed up your broom stick. Try to keep Harry ahead of Malfoy so that Malfoy chases Harry, When he tries to go ahead, collide with him. Do this repeatedly until Malfoy loses all his health. You can do this trick when you are chasing Key and playing a Quidditch Match.

Defeating Voldemort

Go behind a pillar, and when it rocks, cast a Flipendo spell on it. If timed correctly, it will fall on him. Keep doing this and when all the pillars have been used, use the Flipendo spell to direct it into his green spell and it will backfire. Go behind the broken side of the mirror and when he tries to hit you, it will sometimes hit the cracks and backfires.

The pillars in the room that you battle Voldemort in rock slightly to the left. Hide behind the pillars slightly to the left and wait for him stop casting his first round of spells. If you must, while you are waiting, give him full health. He will then walk over to the left. Wait for him to start casting his spells, then use your Flipendo. It should hit him every time. Note: Once you hit him with about four of them, the final ones will explode.

Use the mirror to reflect spells from Voldermort. Make sure to be on the back side so that you can see him.