What is The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain?

The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain, a CD-ROM brimming with highly imaginative and thoroughly amusing brainteasers, provides ten sections of puzzles. Not a single one could be accurately written down, played with a deck of cards, or otherwise manufactured without the interactive give-and-take provided by a computer. This is solitaire like you’ve never seen it.

The pretense behind solving the puzzles is to restore Dr. Brain’s mind, which he has accidentally transferred to his lab rat, Rathbone. Solve 100 percent of each of the ten puzzle areas, and brain and Brain are reunited. The plot is largely unnecessary, and the animated sequence that introduces the story is sufficiently silly to have inspired at least one Macworld editor to initially dismiss the CD. But once you get to the puzzles, the sophistication of the animation and humor jumps dramatically.

Your companions throughout the puzzles are Dr. Brain’s neurosurgeon niece. Dr. Elaina, and that shrew of shrewd, Rathbone. Dr. Elaina is ready to offer tips and encouragement at a moment’s notice. Rathbone is more inclined to harass, especially when you’re trying hardest to concentrate.

The puzzles range from word games to three-dimensional mazes, from memorization tests to simple computer programming. In the Music Region, you have to unscramble a familiar classical ditty by moving and flipping measures. You can select from three levels of difficulty — Novice, Expert, and Genius. Each level affects the current puzzle only; you can easily move up or down a level at any time.

The Last Word Based on my experience, it takes 25 to 30 hours of play to make Dr. Brain a productive member of society again, but you can continue to explore additional variations on the ten basic puzzles long after that. And while this CD is ultimately a collection of brainteasers, most of the puzzles have an arcade quality that inspires an exhilarating, sometimes comical sense of urgency. Even computer game haters — like my wife — will find much to like about this CD, and older kids can become just as proficient at solving the puzzles as adults. (The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain is recommended for ages 12 and up.)

But most important, there’s no downtime on this disc, no periods when you get hopelessly stuck or have to wander back and forth over increasingly familiar landscapes to locate some obscure clue. This is one of the very few games that I’ve found absolutely captivating from one hilarious puzzle to the next.

McClelland, Deke. (October 1995). The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain. Macworld. (pg. 93).

Download The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 6.0 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Architecture: 68K

At least 2.2MB of free RAM

Mac OS 6.0.7 - Mac OS 9.2.2

A monitor supporting at least 256 colors (8-bit mode)

 

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II