Version 1.2 7/11/2013 ?????? ???????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? Popcorn, Soda...Murder? A Walkthrough by The Lost Gamer (ilovecartoonssomuch@yahoo.com) Copyright 2013 For a list of all my various guides, check http://the_lost_gamer.tripod.com/guides.html Table of Contents: 001. General information 002. Walkthrough 002a. Investigation 002b. Preliminary Deduction 002c. Interrogation 002d. Scene of Identification 003. Credits 001. General Information ----------------------------------------------------------- This is a walkthrough for the iOS game called "Popcorn, Soda...Murder?". It is a text-based adventure game, in which you try to solve a murder mystery. You can also play this game online, through the developer's website. http://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/popcorn-soda-murder/ To contact me about this guide, use my email address: ilovecartoonssomuch@yahoo.com. You should probably make the subject something like "Videogame Walkthrough", so I know it's not spam. 002. Walkthrough ----------------------------------------------------------- The goal of this game is the figure out what happened on the previous night. Over the course of your investigation, you want to avoid being killed or being sent to jail. On the first screen, you have to pick a name for your character. He is a detective, who is watching a movie at a movie theater. About halfway through the movie, the screen goes white for a few seconds before continuing. After the movie is done, you notice a small crowd has gathered. Push through the crowd to find a dead body. Talk to one of the police officers, and Benjamin Elyot, the Chief of Police, asks you to help investigate. 002a. Investigation ----------------------------------------------------------- The investigation begins in the projection room. You can look around the room and you can ask questions about the case. When looking around the room, you can examine the body twice. The man's hands are at his neck, indicating a struggle. The cause of death appears to be pieces of glass, shoved down his throat. After seeing the body, you can examine the room, which smells like sawdust. Specifically, you can look at the film projector, the fire extinguisher and the floor. The projector has two reels, which are supposed to be changed about halfway through the movie. The fire extinguisher has a small can of bleach behind it, and the rugs are thick. You can talk to the Chief about five different things. 1. The time of death. The movie started at 2:15 and ended at 3:45. He was most likely killed during this time. 2. How long the murder took. The murder was probably two to five minutes long. We know this, because there was a struggle between the murderer and victim. Since this room shows no sign of a struggle, and since there are no extra glass pieces, the murderer presumably took time to clean up the crime scene. 3. The struggle. Nobody in the theater heard anything. That means the victim made no noise during the struggle, presumably because he was choked. 4. The door to the room. It was unlocked, as it usually it. 5. The suspects. The concession stand employee has named three suspects. Ask her for more details. When you finish talking with the Chief and exploring the crime scene, leave the projection room. You can go see the manager. If you asked the Chief about the suspects, you can see the concession stand employee. The manager is named Serge. He only has time for two questions. Pick whichever set of questions you want, except for the third one (about his mother's maiden name). Serge will mention that he found the body and was so surprised that he fell down and scraped his arm on one of the pieces of glass. The concession stand woman is named Helena. She says the suspects are Alan, James and Gabrielle. She says the Chief should be done interviewing them by now. Return to the projection room and talk to the Chief again. After Helena has told you about the suspects, you can ask the Chief about them. They all left the theater at one point during the movie. Alan went past the projection room to visit the men's bathroom. James went to the lobby to answer a phone call. Gabrielle went to the women's bathroom, on the side of the theater which is opposite of the projection room. James was gone for about half a minute, Alan was gone for about a minute, and Gabrielle was gone for about four minutes. 002b. Preliminary Deduction ----------------------------------------------------------- When you've done with your investigation, the Chief will allow you to make a primary deduction. If he does not do so, this means you still have something to investigate. There are many things you can deduce, during your primary deduction. There is no penalty if you make a wrong deduction. The three deductions about the murder must be done in a specific order. The Murder ---------- 1. There is something suspicious about the body. Select this, and say that the position of the body is wrong. What's wrong with the body? The hands. Say that the positioning of the hands is too perfect. You point out that the victim's hands (and neck) have no blood or cuts on them. This indicates that there was no struggle between the victim and the killer. The killer merely put the hands at the neck, to trick people into thinking a struggle took place. This finishes the deduction, as the Chief agrees the victim did not struggle with the killer. 2. Blood has been cleaned up here. Select this, and explain that the murderer cleaned themselves up, after the murder. The Chief says that the murderer probably wore gloves, so you should ask if any of the suspects have gloves. Alan and Gabrielle both have thick gloves on them. Alan protests, saying that if he was the murderer, his gloves would be torn or blood-stained. Disagree with Alan. This is not necessarily true. The previous deduction showed us that there was no struggle. This means it would have been easy to put the glass into the victim's throat without cutting the gloves. Why was there no struggle? The killer put the victim to sleep. The killer used chloroform to do this, but the Chief points out that there is no chloroform smell anywhere. Say that there is a strong smell in this room, which masks the chloroform. That smell is sawdust. This finishes the deduction, as the Chief gets the victim tested for chloroform. The tests are positive, and you have now proven that chloroform was used. 3. The murder was shorter than you think. That is, the murder took less than two minutes. When you have made the previous deduction, the one about chloroform, you can mention it here. Since the victim was unconscious, due to chloroform, the murder could have happened much more quickly than previously thought. The Chief agrees, and this deduction is finished. Suspicious Serge ---------------- 4. There are more suspects than you think. Select this, and say that the other suspects were not people who saw the movie. These suspects are Serge the manager and Helena the concession attendant. You can explain how Serge could have done it, you can be gentle, or you can give up this line of questioning. Pick one of the first two options. You explain that nobody saw Serge enter the projection room, when he found the body. It's possible he entered, killed the victim, then pretended to find the body. As for Helena, she could be lying about her actions. She says she was at the concession stand the whole time, but is this true? Say that two minutes is a short time, and if someone happened to exit the theater while the murder occurred, that person probably did not tell the police. This finishes the deduction, as the Chief accepts Serge and Helena as potential suspects. 5. There is something suspicious about how the glass weapons were used. Pick this, and say that the shards were cleaned up. Mention Serge at this point. As Serge said, he scraped his arm on a piece of glass. This is suspicious. Serge managed to fall and scrape himself on the only piece of glass which was on the floor? Suggest that there is a relationship between Serge and the killer. Say that Serge disposed of the glass piece, because he didn't want the police to notice the blood. Whose blood? His own blood. What is suspicious about it? The texture. If the blood on the glass was dry, that would mean Serge was in the room much earlier that he said he was. Serge must have cleaned the glass off, in order to cover his tracks. The Chief has the glass analyzed, but the results are not conclusive. It could be that Serge was in the room earlier, and it could be that he wasn't. Either way, the deduction is complete, and Serge is looking rather suspicious now. 6. Blood has been cleaned up here. Select this, and explain that the murderer cleaned themselves up, after the murder. The Chief says that the murderer probably wore gloves, so you should ask if any of the suspects have gloves. Alan and Gabrielle both have thick gloves on them. Alan protests, saying that if he was the murderer, his gloves would be torn or blood-stained. Agree with Alan, then ask to search everyone's clothes. The Chief warns you about making bad deductions, but assure him that you are correct. It is revealed the Serge has blood on his pants and sleeves. Explain that this is bleach, not blood. You are challenged to explain why Serge has bleach on him. None of your possible explanations work, but the deduction is finished. You have proven that Serge had bleach on him. 002c. Interrogation ----------------------------------------------------------- Once you make all six deductions, you can say, "I'm done. I deduced all I can." If you select this option before making all six deductions, the game will point you in the direction of a deduction that you still have to make. The Chief summarizes your deductions. The murderer went into the projection room, then used chloroform to make the victim unconscious. This allowed the murderer to easily slip glass into the victim's throat. The weird points in the murder are the extra piece of glass that Serge injured himself on, the bleach on Serge, and the missing chloroform-soaked object. You can choose to exonerate a suspect, or you can question someone. The suspect you can exonerate is James. If you try to exonerate a different suspect, the Chief disagrees. Choose to question someone. Serge is the person who gets questioned, because he is currently the prime suspect. Serge will give a testimony. There are five statements in his testimony, and you can move forward and backwards in the testimony. At the third statement, which is about the piece of glass, say "That doesn't seem right". Tell him that his story seems impossible. Why? It's impossible to get scraped by the glass, seeing as it would have been at the wrong angle and it would have been too small to cause a scrape. Your character explains that, due to the rugs and the size of the glass, the glass was horizontal to the ground. Serge could not have scraped himself against the glass. Caught in his lie, Serge gives a new testimony. He says that another person was in the room, when he entered. It was pitch black at the time, and this person threatened to kill Serge. The person cut Serge with the glass and pushed him down, at this time. Serge finishes by saying he tried to chase the mysterious person, but couldn't. Say "That doesn't seem right". Ask why he couldn't chase the person, and Serge says that he followed the person into the men's bathroom. He searched the entire bathroom, but the person was gone! Ask Serge to explain more. Serge adds a new statement to his testimony. He says that he entered the bathroom to find it empty. When he inspected the stalls, he heard a strange creaking sound. Say "that doesn't seem right". At this point, you have the opportunity to search the bathroom and talk to the janitor. In the bathroom, you can search the mirror, air vents and toilets. The mirror is broken and has glass pieces inside. The vents are too high for a normal person to reach, even if that person stood on a toilet seat. The toilets have easily-accessible tanks. When you talk to the janitor, he says that he discovered the broken mirror a little after noon. He reported the mirror to Serge, then got his cleaning supplies from the projection room. One of the supplies is a heavy bag, which he filled with mirror shards. When you're done examining the bathroom, you can return to the interrogation. I'm told that one of the earlier versions of this game did not contain the bathroom investigation. The Chief asks you how the killer escaped. Explain that the killer hid behind the door. Then, when Serge was in a stall, the killer walked out the door. The door closing was the creaking sound that Serge heard. As for the bleach, it was on the floor. The janitor used it while cleaning up, and Serge got it on him while he looked under the stalls. 002d. Scene of Identification ----------------------------------------------------------- This is the final section of the game, and it is the most difficult section. There are two sections. If you make a mistake in the first section, you must restart the entire scene. This section consists of 13 questions. Crime Explanation ----------------- The killer entered before 2:55 PM. You know this, because of what you saw in the theater. There was a minor problem with switching the film reels, around the middle of the film. Presumably, the victim missed his cue to switch reels, because he was dead or distracted. The killer probably spoke to the victim, to put him at ease. At this time, the killer took out the chloroform- soaked cloth, knocked him unconscious, then killed him with glass shards. The glass shards came from the theater's bathroom. Specifically, they came from the mirror. The murderer must have broken the mirror, well in advance of the murder, in order to get glass shards. Forensics confirms that the glass shards on the body came from the bathroom mirror. Something unexpected happened during the murder. Specifically, Serge entered the room. The killer took an extra piece of glass, stabbed Serge, pushed him down and escaped to the bathroom. Serge could not identify the killer, because of the lights. The projection room had all the lights turned off, so the movie could be projected properly. Once in the bathroom, the killer threw away the cloth covered in chloroform. The killer put it inside a toilet tank. The police search the tanks and find the cloth in question. To avoid leaving fingerprints, the killer had to wear gloves. After leaving the bathroom, the killer walked back to the theater. Final Identification -------------------- This is the second part of the scene of identification. If you make a mistake here, you have to restart the entire game from the beginning. You can choose who you want to accuse of murder. There are five suspects: Gabrielle Alan James Helena Serge The killer is Alan. If you name Gabrielle as the killer, you will talk about the bathrooms. She pretended to go to the women's bathroom, then snuck around the theater and used the men's bathroom to trick everyone. Accusing Gabrielle ends with her arrest. If you name James as the killer, you have to restart from the beginning of the scene of explanation. If you name Helena as the killer, you will accuse her of having an accomplice who watched the concessions stand while she committed murder. Accusing Helena ends with her arrest. If you name Serge as the killer, you say that the story Serge told was false. It is disproved by the bleach or the glass, which was a red herring to prove his innocence. Accusing Serge ends in his arrest. The true killer is Alan. Expose him in the open, in front of everyone. Use either Alan's gloves or his trip to the men's bathroom as your evidence. The detective explains how everyone else is innocent, leaving Alan as the only remaining suspect. Alan changes his story and says that the victim committed suicide. The two of them worked on the movie together, until the victim was fired and Alan was given his job. The victim harbored a grudge against Alan, so he committed suicide and staged the crime scene to make it look like Alan was the murderer. Alan claims that the victim wrote Alan's name on a towel and ate the glass. Alan was afraid of being falsely accused of murder, so he stole the towel and the remaining glass. That was when Serge entered the room, and we know what happened after that. Alan claims he had no idea the towel had chloroform on it. Alan says he can prove his story, with a piece of glass still in his possession. It has his fingerprints on it, along with the victim's. The same holds true for the glass piece that he says he threw in the garbage. Forensics tests the pieces of glass and find the victim's fingerprints on it, along with Alan's. You are given a chance to pursue a topic. Choose from one of ten topics. Six of the topics lead to a game over sequence. Three of them ("the existence of the washable marker", "Why Louis really got fired as production manager", and "his talk with Serge") send you back to the list of ten topics. To finish the game, choose "Louis calling Alan to the projection room". This question is about when the victim told Alan to meet him. Do not confuse this with "The time when Louis called Alan into the projection room", which discusses the time of the meeting (in the middle of a movie). Alan says that the victim spoke with him about the projection room, after the movie started. After they talked in the theater, the victim returned to the projection room. The Chief asks if there is a problem with this statement. Say "yes". It is wrong, because Helena would have seen the victim, if the victim left the projection room to go to the theater. Helena confirms that the victim never left the project room after the movie started. Alan changes his version of events, saying that he was confused. He says that he saw the victim, when he bought a ticket. THAT'S when he was invited to go up to the projection room. You are given a chance to discuss a crucial piece of evidence. There are ten options, and you have two guesses. If you guess incorrectly twice, the game ends. The correct option is "the film reels that would get changed". You ask about what happened after Alan entered the projection room. Alan repeats what he said earlier, and the detective points out a problem. Who switched the film reels in the middle of the film, given the fact that the projectionist was murdered? Alan claims he doesn't know, and the Chief examines the projector. It turns out that the double-reel projector was modified to work as a single-reel projector. The entire movie was played on the first reel, while the second reel was never used. The temporary flash onscreen, which everyone thought was the projector switching reels, was probably just an error that resulted from the projector being modified. The Chief plays the second reel. It is footage, taken from the set of the movie. At one point, Alan and the victim appear on the movie set, along with the director. A fight ensues, and Alan walks away sadly. The footage skips to the director's office, where the victim signs a paper. Shouting "This is for you, Alan!", he reveals that Alan's name is on the paper. Alan then confesses to the murder, but he doesn't explain why. He is arrested, and afterwards, the Chief talks to the detective. Explain that it is because Alan was fired, not the victim. The victim probably told the third person to take Alan's job as unit manager. Explain that Alan was lying about this too, as production manager is a higher position than unit manager. As for the scene of the victim signing Alan's name, it appears that the victim felt guilty for his role in getting Alan fired. To try to make it up to Alan, he arranged for Alan's name to replace his own, in the movie credits. This is why the victim invited Alan to see the film that day. He wanted Alan to see the name change in the movie credits. Also, the victim probably planned on showing the second reel to Alan once the movie was over. The Chief congratulates you on your fantastic detective work. He says that he's planning on retiring soon, and he offers you the job of Chief of Police. You can accept or reject the job offer, and the game ends. 003. Credits ----------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is copyright of The Lost Gamer, 2013. If you want to use any part of this FAQ, ask me first (instructions under general information).