Many Years Ago Walkthrough

Welcome to the Many Years Ago Walkthrough! Many Years Ago, an entire civilization was destroyed by the incredible eruption of the Boggo volcano, and now they need your help to rebuild their homes! Gather the necessary supplies and food as you gain members and advance their technology in this fun and exciting Strategy game. Whether you use this document as a reference when things get difficult or as a road map to get you from beginning to end, we’re pretty sure you’ll find what you’re looking for here. This document starts with general game tips then launches into the complete Many Years Ago game walkthrough complete with annotated screenshots from actual gameplay! We hope you find this information useful as you play your way through the game. Use the menu below to quickly jump to whatever part of the game you need help with. Remember to visit the Big Fish Games Forums if you find you need more help. Have fun! This walkthrough was created by Chie.

General Tips

Starting a Game

There are 27 tasks you have to complete to finish this game.
From the main menu, you can adjust a variety of settings, like music and sound volume, screen size, and system cursor from the option menu. You can also play any mini-games you have discovered so far.
At the beginning of the game, you can choose your main character's sex and appearance.
You can change your tribe member's profile, such as their names and skills. The skills can be increased through the tribe experience points (XP) that you receive from finishing tasks or collecting coins.
Raising one skill will require 10 XP.

Villagers

You will need to pick up a variety of tools to complete some tasks. These will always be located somewhere around the main house.
People have four status bars underneath their name that keep track of their wants: HUNGER, FAMILY, THIRST and TIREDNESS.
Water - Your tribe member will go to the river to get water automatically when he/she is thirsty.
Sleep - Your tribe member will go to the main house, or one of the small huts, to get sleep automatically when he/she needs sleep.
Food - Your tribe member will go to the food storage area to eat something automatically when he/she is hungry.
Family - People will have conversations when they get lonely. Sometimes when a man and a woman have a conversation, they will fall in love and have a baby.
Children - If children are inside of the kindergarten, they will talk to adults and disturb their work. Once children reach a certain age they will become young adults and be able to work and gain points.
Sickness - Sometimes your tribe members will get sick. The upper left hand corner of their name plate will show a green icon when they get sick. They will also stop working on anything.
New people - When your village has hit certain milestones new people may join it. They will not have any skills, and you will need to raise their skill points with tribe XP.
Death - When the icon around the villagers’ images has been completely filled by colored blocks, the person will die. The tribe leader is the only member that can eat plants to get younger.
Question mark - When people don't work on your selected task, there is usually something stopping them from doing it; the maximum amount of people are working already; they don't have the right tool; or they are doing something else like drinking water.

The Island

Bird coins - Birds are flying above the village often. They drop coins into their nest, and you can collect them for 3 XP. This is the one thing that you do not need a villager to collect.
Magical flowers - The bright blue flower is used to cure people when they're sick. The red flower is used to make your tribe leader younger.
Skins - Randomly, you can find skins lying on the ground; they are one of the resources used to make buildings. Use the Map view on the bottom left to help you find skins.
Gems - When they are needed, you can find gems on the ground randomly on the island. If you can't find all the gems you need, wait a bit a search again.
Mini-games - There are eight mini-games in total. Some games help you complete tasks, some give you resources; it depends on the game what you need to complete. After a certain amount of time the mini-games become skippable. See the mini-game section for detailed solutions.

Island: Part 1

Tutorial

There is a tutorial to show you how to read and edit a tribe member's profile, get tools and food, start building, use icons, and move around.
Every tribe member can increase skills by using tribe experience points from the character's profile. These skills include woodcutting, building, foraging, fishing, and gathering stone. Tribe members with higher skills can work much faster than a member without skill.
Raising a character's skill will make them faster at doing the tasks you raise. There are three levels to each skill represented by bones. You won't get the benefits until a new “bone” is reached. Each extra bone adds one to each amount you gather from a starting point of two.
When you put your cursor over the icons on the bottom menu, you will be able to see your current maximum amount of each resource. Later, buildings will help you raise these maximums.
When you click the Locate icon, your location will move until your selected character is in the middle of the screen.

New Tool - Hammer / Task 1: Build the main house

After getting the hammer, your tribe can build structures.
The hammer will be used to build things around the island, like a main house.
Once you let go of your mouse, the tribe member will start the building process.
You need 50 wood, 50 stones, and 10 skins to build the main house.
Since you already have all the needed materials, click on the main building with both tribe members to start building.

New Tool - Basket

There is a basket near the main house, beside a fruit tree.
Get the basket to fill with fruit. Then, people will be able to gather food and materials with it.
Fruit trees will sometimes become picked clean. You can tell if there is no more fruit underneath the tree, but if you wait a little while the tree will bear fruit again. The same goes for the coconut trees.

Task 2: Gather 30 fruit

There is fruit on a palm tree beside the right side of the main house.
Also, you can pick coconuts from the coconut tree that is located on the left side of the food storage area. Some tribe members like coconuts, and some like fruit.
Select a tribe member; then click the fruit tree, and he/she will start to pick fruit.
You should always keep some fruit or coconuts to eat, so tribe members will not be hungry.
The maximum storage amount is 50 of each. This means that your tribe members will stop gathering fruit if there are 50 fruits already in storage.

New Tool - Axe

Near the kindergarten spot, there is an ax. After getting it, you can cut down trees for wood.
There are no fruit or coconuts underneath the trees that you can cut for wood. You cannot get wood from a tree with fruit.
The maximum amount of wood you can store is 200 pieces.

New Tool - Pick Axe

Beside the axe is a pick axe that can be used to quarry stones.
Click on the large stone underneath the kindergarten to start collecting stones.

Task 3: Build kindergarten

There is a kindergarten spot near the main house.
You need 100 wood and 20 stones to build it.
After quarrying at least 20 stones, make all of your villagers but one start cutting wood. The other villager can continue to gather food.
You may want to put points into woodcutting until one of your villagers gains a level. (This is symbolized with a filled-in white bone).
One extra level in woodcutting will get you one extra piece of wood per trip.
After building the kindergarten, select any children you have and send them to the kindergarten. This will keep them inside and stop them from disturbing the adult's work.

Task 4: Build the first Totem

The first Totem spot is located in the upper right corner of the map.
You need the three gems located on the ground nearby to build it.
Gem location is randomized, but all the gems should be there to start.
Put at least two villagers on this spot to build the Totem, while you keep your food stores filled with the other villagers.
Put any leftover XP into the Foraging skill of some of your villagers.

Task 5: Build the camp

The camp spot is located under the First Totem.
You need 80 wood and 40 stones to build it.
Put one tribe member on rock quarrying and one on woodcutting (the one with the skill point). Use the rest of the tribe's people to help out, or gather food and keep the food stores full.

Task 6: Kindle the fire

Select your main character to work on kindling the fire because only your character is able to complete this task.

Task 7: Gather two magic flowers

After kindling the fire, tribe members can pick magic flowers. These flowers are bright blue and have the ability to cure the sick. Before you can use the flowers, you must dry them in the camp.
When you have collected five magic flowers, the drying rack will be full and you can't collect any more.

Task 8: Build a swing

Open the green BUILD submenu that is in the right bottom of the screen, beside the Tools button. Drag the swing icon and drop it inside the kindergarten.
You need 80 wood, 20 stones, and one skin to build it.
As before, first make sure that your food stores are full; then, have the food gatherers help collect resources.
You should have at least two food gatherers with two skill bones each, and a woodcutter with two skill bones. This will make the work go faster.
Start adding points to your chief's Build skill as he/she is almost always going to be involved in building things.

Task 9: Build a water tower

You need 100 wood and 100 stones.
You should now make sure one of your villagers has at least two bones in Mining Stones.
Once the food stores are at maximum capacity, split up the villagers: half mining stones and half cutting wood.
The woodcutters should finish first; move them over to stone mining afterwards.
Pick up any skins that appear around the camp.

Mini-game - Finding differences

The water tower spot is located in the bottom left corner of the map.
Before you start building it, find six differences in the picture of two water towers.
Follow the solution in the screenshot.

Task 10: Build a spring

There is a spring spot below the camp where you dry the flowers.
You need 30 wood and 30 stones to build the spring.
After all the hard work from building the tower, tribe members will be hungry and tired. Make sure to replenish your food stocks and wait for them to eat and sleep before starting to gather more materials.
After building the spring, tribe members can drink pure water from it.

Task 11: Build a house

Open the BUILD submenu and click the house icon. Drag it to the location where you want to build the house.
You need 100 wood, 40 stones, and two skins for each house.
After building the house, two new people will join the tribe.
Make sure to pick up any gems you see lying around the island.

Task 12: Build the food storage

The food storage spot is located below the main house. It is where the tribe’s people collect the food they harvest.
You need 100 wood, 100 stones, and 15 skins to build it.
With two extra people you should be able to gather a lot of materials quickly; just remember to keep the food storage at maximum at all times. Because food storage is so limited, build the new larger storage area as quickly as possible.
After building the food storage, tribe members can keep more food than before, 400 of each.

Task 13: Building the material storage

The material storage is located beside the food storage.
You need 100 wood, 100 stones, and 15 skins.
Before building the material storage, you should stock up on food as much as possible. Use no more than four people to harvest though; only two people can pick fruit or coconuts at the same time.
150 of each fruit and coconuts is a good level to get to right now; then, you can start focusing on the material needed for building the storage.
After building the material storage, tribe members can keep more materials than before, 1000 of everything excluding gems.

Task 14: Build two more houses

Now you need to build more huts to house your villagers.
Open the BUILD submenu and click the House icon. Drag it to the location where you want to build the house; an example layout is shown in the screenshot.
You need 100 wood, 40 stones, and two skins for each house.
Your main character should be able to build these houses by themselves while you continue harvesting materials.

Task 14: Fishing / New Tool - Lance

The lance is needed for fishing and located near the material storage. It may not be in the exact same place as in the screenshot.
After you’ve received the lance, your tribe member can go fishing at the river.
In order to fish, select your tribe member and click inside the river space. Then your selected character will start fishing.
Give one tribe member one bone's worth of skill in fishing.

Task 15: Build the second Totem

The second totem spot is beside the water tower.
You need six gems to build it. These gems will be lying around on the ground, especially by the first Totem. Use your main character to build this alone, while your other tribe's people work on collecting materials and food.
After building the second Totem, a new mini-game will be unlocked.
Play the first few levels of this game to get XP to upgrade your tribe's skills. You should be able to max one attribute for each member.
See the mini-games section for solutions to this game.

Task 16: Build three cornfields

The first cornfield is located by the second Totem, under the kindergarten.
The next cornfield is located between a river and the spring.
The last cornfield is located in the upper right corner of the map.
You need 30 wood to build each, and you can build all three at once.
Only two people can work on building one corn field at once.
You will not be able to plant in the fields yet.

Task 17: Build the mill

The mill is for grinding flour; you need 300 wood, 300 stones, and 25 skins to build it.
The spot for the mill is between a river and the spring, under one of the corn fields.
Before building the mill, you must solve the tile puzzle mini-game. This is explained in the mini-game section.
After building the mill, two new people will join your tribe.

Task 18: Harvest the corn / New Tool - Sack

The sack is located near the food storage and material storage areas. It may not be in the same place as in the screenshot.
It is necessary to plant the corn and bring it to the mill.
Take the corn crops from the three cornfields. This is only possible when the corn is fully grown, as it looks in the screenshot.
After harvesting the corn crops, tribe members will bring them to the mill automatically.

Task 19: Build the oven

The oven spot is on the right side of the map.
You need 100 stones to build it; also, only two people can work on it at the same time.
After building the oven, you can start baking bread.

Task 20: Bake 10 loaves

You need to follow this process to bake loaves.
First, take corn crops from the three cornfields.
Second, make flour at the mill beside the river.
Third, take flour bags and bring the bags to the oven to bake loaves of breed.
Finally, take the bread back to the food storage area by clicking on it.
The baked bread will be optional food for your tribe members.

Task 21: Build the bridge

The spot to build the bridge is in the middle of the map, near the kindergarten.
You need 600 wood and 400 stones; also, only two people can work on building the bridge at the same time.
This is a large amount of materials, but you should have many villagers by now and a lot of food stored up. Put at least four people on woodcutting and three on quarrying.
Play the mini-games again to get more XP to increase all of your woodcutters and quarries skills to the maximum three bones.
At this point you should have your tribe leader eat a longevity flower; the other tribe members cannot eat these flowers and may start dying soon of old age.
After building the bridge, your tribe can explore the whole valley's territory.

Island: Part 2

Task 22: Build the stable / New Tool - Rope

The stable spot is located in the upper right corner of the map.
You need 300 wood to build it; many people can work on building the stable at the same time.
Before building the stable, you will need to finish the finding footprints mini-game. See the mini-game section for a detailed solution.
After building the stable, your tribe will have a dwelling site for dinosaurs.
The rope is somewhere around the main house; it may not be in the same place as in the screenshot.
After you receive the rope, you can get eggs from dinosaurs.

Task 23: Gather 10 eggs

First, click the rope that is tied to the gate of the stable; then, a tribe member will collect 20 fruit from the food storage and put the fruit near the stable's entrance automatically.
Secondly, one of dinosaurs will come to the stable to eat the fruit, so you will need to wait for the dinosaur to come.
Thirdly, after the dinosaur eats the fruit, the dinosaur will sit down to leave one egg on the straw in the stable.
Finally, your tribe member can take the dinosaur's egg.
After gathering the first dinosaur's eggs, there is the new mini-game: five in a row.
Finishing this game should give you all the eggs you need to finish this task.
See the mini-games section for more details on how to play this game.

Task 24: Build the third Totem

The third totem spot is in the left side of the map, where you can see some big rocks.
You will need five gems to build the Totem. These gems will be spread out between both islands, and you may have to wait for awhile before they appear.
While waiting, make sure all the children are in the kindergarten and all the adults are continuing to work on their specialized tasks. Use XP to make sure everyone working on a task has three bones of XP in it.
After building the third Totem, your tribe will receive extra resources to get off of the island.
The third Totem will also open up a new mini-game. See the mini-game section for more info on how to play this game.

Task 25: Build a spring

The new spring spot is located in the middle of the smaller island.
You need 30 wood and 30 stones to build it.
Have your tribe leader build this after finishing the third totem, before returning to the village.

Task 26: Mega task

In order to build the ship to get off the island you first must collect a certain quantity of resources: 150 fruits, 150 coconuts, 150 fish, 30 bread, 30 eggs, 1500 wood, 1200 stones, and 80 skins.
You will need to build more wood storage to be able to fulfill this task. Go to the BUILD menu and pick wood storage once you have hit the maximum.
If you have been keeping your food stores full, you should be close to everything except for wood, stones, and skins. Skins will disappear if left too long.
Skins only appear after time has passed. Make sure you continue to collect them as you get other resources.
Always keep extra bread and dinosaur eggs ready when you reach your maximum. If you try to collect them when you are full however, you will lose them.
Keep everyone working on their specialized tasks, as you use the tribal leader to do complicated tasks such as baking bread, getting dinosaur eggs, and finding hides.
After collecting all these resources, you can start building the ship.

Task 27: Build the ship

There is the ship spot in the upper left corner of the map for you to build. This is also the final task of this game.
You need 1000 wood, 400 stones, and 40 skins to build the ship.
You should have these materials already from completing the mega challenge.
Before you can start building the ship, you must solve a jigsaw puzzle; the solution to this puzzle is in the mini-game section.

Congratulations you've escaped the island and won the game!

Mini-games:

Match 3 game

After building the first Totem, the mini-game, match 3 game, will be unlocked.
There are 50 levels in this mini-game and you will receive some resources, like wood, stones, skins, and fruits every time you play.
In order to complete each level, the tiger needs to move to the treasure chest in the tile board. You need to match the tiles in the way, and he will move forward. When you play this mini-game, the way you need to move the tiger may be covered but it is always highlighted with a bright light.
After level 2, there are dark brown decorated tiles in the tile board in some levels. You need to match the decorated tiles as well as moving the tiger to the treasure chest to complete the level.
If any of these dark brown tiles are left when the tiger reaches the treasure chest, you will fail the level; so you should try to clear all of these tiles before moving the blocks in front of the tiger.
After level 3, there are dark brown decorated tiles with one or two chains criss-crossing them on some levels. One chain means you need to match the tiles two times, and two chains means you need to match the tiles three times to complete the level.
As with the brown tiles, these need to be taken care of first before moving the tiger to the treasure chest.
Sometimes there will be very little space to match tiles and move the tiger. The best way to move forward in these cases is to match from below. If the titles in front of him are moved down because of a match, he will move down with the line.

Flower puzzle

In order to start this mini-game, click the flower sign that is located beside the second totem.
There are 50 levels in this mini-game.
To complete the game, rotate the tiles to make way for a vine and connect it to the topsoil.
If the vine touches a wall, or the dirt on the sides, and can't continue, it will result in a game over.
Time is limited, so it is best to look at the tile setup before clicking on the first tile to start.
The screenshots show one possible solution for all of the levels. You may be able to get more resources by taking a longer route.

Sliding tile puzzle

Before building the mill you need to solve this puzzle.
This puzzle is very similar to a simple number shuffling puzzle; starting positions are randomized.
Clicking on a stone will move it into the space that is open; clicking a stone that is completely enclosed does nothing.
Put all of the lines together so that there is no box in the middle, and the lines of the other boxes form a square.
See the screenshot for the solution.

Finding footprints puzzle

Before building the stable you need to solve this puzzle.
You must arrange the footprints in the correct order. The footprint below must match the animal/person above it. Starting positions are randomized.
You can only switch neighboring footprints.
See the screenshot for the solution.

Memory game

After building the third Totem you will be able to play the memory puzzle.
There are 20 levels in total of this mini-game, each represented by a different drawing on a stone.
Pick two different stone cards, and if they match, they will be removed from the board.
A card with another card on top of it cannot be matched.
Many times one level of cards can be totally removed before continuing to the next level down.
Matching cards of certain resources (wood, stones, and skins) will give you one of that resource, if played in the game.
The card layouts never change; see the screenshots for all the card layouts.

Jigsaw puzzle

Each puzzle part can be rotated and moved to put it in correct position.
To rotate a puzzle part, right-click on it. To move it, use the left mouse button.
See the screenshot for the final image.
You will receive 50 skill points for completing this puzzle.

Created at: 2009-07-16