Perusing "Pandora's Box" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tetris

Muscovite Alexey Pajitnov was a specialist when it came to the development and design of puzzle games. He will always be most associated with "Tetris", a game that took the world by storm in the mid-1980s, but it is with "Pandora's Box" that the depth of the Russian's ability comes to the fore.

Other games that Pajitnov became associated with include the 3D sequel to "Tetris", "Welltris", and the 1997 release for the Nintendo 64 console, "Tetrisphere".

Answer: New York City

In the traditional manner of video games, the first level of "Pandora's Box" is the most straightforward. New York City serves to introduce players to the layout of the game and to that end, tutorials on some of the puzzles are available. The three types of puzzle available in New York City are 'focus point', which requires the rearrangement of pieces of a picture, 'rotascope', which is similar to 'focus point' but is slightly more restrictive, and 'overlap', which is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. As puzzles tend to completion, the underlying pictures become more and more apparent.

Answer: Honolulu, Hawaii

Maui is Hawaii's second-largest island and the name derives from the mythological character. The mythological Maui is associated with a fish-hook, an object that was used to pull the Hawaiian islands from the ocean floor to the surface of the Pacific.

In honour of this story, Maui the trickster can be found in the Hawaiian capital of Honolulu but to capture him, one needs to complete a tricky fish-themed 'overlap' puzzle.

Answer: Puck

Once Maui is defeated, players needs to chase down and capture the second trickster, Puck. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Puck is an elf with a character that is rather mischievous; indeed, Shakespeare described him as a "shrewd and knavish sprite". In-game, the theme music for Puck's challenge is in keeping with that theme of slyness and cunning. Puck is found in London, at the end of level two and prior to arriving at the British capital, players must first navigate their way through the African city of Lusaka, Brazil's Rio de Janeiro, Philadelphia in the USA and Russia's Saint Petersburg.

Answer: The Apple of Discord

In Greek mythology, the goddess Eris is supposedly responsible for starting the Trojan War; by tossing the Golden Apple of Discord into a crowd at a wedding to which she was not invited, she had started a feud between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. It is quite fitting then that the challenge provided by Eris to players who have completed level three of "Pandora's Box" is to reassemble a golden apple from smaller chunks, or slices.

This is quite a tricky challenge and the final challenges put forth by the other tricksters thereafter are all difficult and time consuming.

Answer: Ocelot

Coyote's challenge comes at the end of level four and it is the only trickster's puzzle that is classified as a 'find and fill'. In this challenge, players must fill various shapes (which are all interlocked) with paint. As easy as this sounds it is actually quite tricky as the shapes are often quite confusing, such as being the outline of a jackal, a dingo or a hyena. To make it more difficult, the outlines are sometimes placed on a rotating platform or, as is the case for Coyote's challenge, wrapped around a rotating cylinder.

Answer: Focus Point

Monkey's challenge is one of the hardest puzzles in the game, which is not a fact that is unexpected given how deep into the game the puzzle is. Access to the puzzle is granted to those who complete Shanghai, a region packed with difficult puzzles that obscure many facets of Chinese culture. Monkey's challenge, rather unremarkably, reveals a picture of a troop of monkeys but the time frame of the reveal is quite long, with players having to complete both an 'overlap' puzzle and a 'focus point' puzzle.

Answer: Spider

In west African mythology, Anansi, the god of stories, is thought by many to take the form of a spider. In the Microsoft game, Anansi's challenge consists of two puzzles, one 'overlap' and one 'rotascope', which, when completed, reveals a spider at the centre of his web complete with glistening water droplets.

The symmetrical and repetitive nature of a spider's web renders this challenge quite difficult as the pieces of the puzzle could conceivably go anywhere on the grid. This can be a frustrating challenge for sure but satisfaction increases with difficulty!

Answer: San Francisco

Fisherman's Wharf is an area of the coastal Californian city of San Francisco that is very popular with tourists due to the neighbourhood's numerous museums, aquariums and restaurants. The Fisherman's Wharf sign, complete with its brightly coloured crab is a famous sight in San Francisco and is also the subject of one of the first 'interlock' puzzles in "Pandora's Box". 'Interlock' puzzles have a fixed grid of a given number of triangles and a player has to fit differently-shaped pieces perfectly on to the grid.

There aren't many 'interlock' puzzles in the game, indeed they are only seen in the final two levels.

Answer: Vancouver

Vancouver, Canada holds the distinction of being the final location of the final level in "Pandora's Box". The city in British Columbia is well known for its totem poles, structures that can be seen across the Pacific Northwest including in nearby Victoria. In addition to the totem pole puzzles, Vancouver is home to a 'focus point' puzzle where players have to rearrange pieces to form a complete and correct picture of the city's Robson Square, an area defined by award-winning architecture.

Once a player finds the missing piece of "Pandora's Box" that resides in Vancouver, access is granted to Raven's challenge, the final puzzle of the entire game. Once this puzzle is complete, all that is left is hope!