downloading-game-walkthroughs

name	downloading-game-walkthroughs
description	Downloads multiple walkthrough files for point-and-click adventure games by searching web archives and fan sites. Use when given a game name and needing to collect 3+ walkthrough sources for puzzle analysis.

Downloading Game Walkthroughs

Quick Start

For any game, immediately try these three approaches in parallel:

# 1. Create directory
mkdir -p walkthroughs/[game-slug]

# 2. Search web archive
websearch query="[Game Name] walkthrough site:archive.org OR site:lparchive.org"

# 3. Download from Wayback Machine (most reliable)
curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/web/2015*/http://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/*/faqs/*[query]*" \
  -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0" \
  -o walkthroughs/[game-slug]/walkthrough.txt

Instructions

Step 1: Create Directory Structure

Always create a dedicated directory for each game's walkthroughs:

mkdir -p walkthroughs/[game-slug]
# Examples: kyrandia_1, simon1, monkey_island, kings_quest_vi

Step 2: Search for Sources

Use websearch with specific keywords to find archived walkthrough URLs:

websearch query="\"[Exact Game Title]\" walkthrough OR site:lparchive.org -download"
# Include author names if known (e.g., "Vision Assembler", "Tricrokra")

# For older games, search archive.org CDX API:
curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=gamefaqs.gamespot.com/faqs/*[game-query]*&output=txt" | head -10

Step 3: Prioritize Download Sources

Tier 1 (Most Reliable): Archive.org / Wayback Machine

• lparchive.org — Let's Play walks with screenshots+text
• Archived gamefaqs.gamespot.com pages
• web.archive.org/web/YYYYMMDD/http://[original-url]

Tier 2 (Often Works): Direct Fan Sites

• Personal walkthrough pages (bonny.ploeg.ws, ladyofthecake.com)
• classicgamesparadise.com
• Small adventure game fan sites

Tier 3 (High Failure Risk): Cloudflare-Protected Sites

• Modern gamefaqs.gamespot.com (returns captcha HTML)
• strategywiki.org (403 errors)
• adventuregamers.com (Cloudflare challenge)

Fallback: If Tier 1 fails, try archive.org CDX search for historical URLs.

Step 4: Download with Fallbacks

# First attempt: direct download
curl -sL "[url]" -o "walkthroughs/[slug]/source1.html"

# If Cloudflare captcha detected in output, try Wayback:
if grep -q "Enable JavaScript and cookies to continue" walkthroughs/[slug]/source1.html; then
  # Search for archived version
  ARCHIVED_URL=$(curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=[original]&output=txt" | head -2 | tail -1)
  curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/web/[timestamp]/[url]" -o "walkthroughs/[slug]/source1.html"
fi

# Verify content: check for game-specific text, not just captcha page
grep -c "[Game Character Name]\|[Game Location]" walkthroughs/[slug]/source1.html

Step 5: Handle Multi-Page Walkthroughs

Some sites split walkthroughs across multiple pages. Merge them:

# Example: classicgamesparadise.com often has parts 1-5
for part in 1 2 3 4 5; do
  curl -sL "http://classicgamesparadise.com/pc/[Game] Guide ${part}.html" \
    >> walkthroughs/[slug]/merged_walkthrough.html
done

Step 6: Validate Downloads

After downloading, verify each file:

# Check line count (should be substantial)
wc -l walkthroughs/[slug]/*

# Check for game-specific keywords (not captcha pages)
for f in walkthroughs/[slug]/*.html; do
  if grep -q "Cloudflare\|captcha\|Enable JavaScript" "$f"; then echo "FAILED: $f"; fi
  if grep -qiE "[game-characters|locations]" "$f"; then echo "GOOD: $f ($(wc -l < "$f") lines)"; fi
done

# Remove failed downloads (captchas)
rm walkthroughs/[slug]/*captcha* 2>/dev/null || true

Step 7: Target 3 Quality Sources

Download attempts until you have at least 3 substantial, different sources:

Source Type	Expected Size	Content Quality
Full walkthrough HTML	10KB+ / 150+ lines	Excellent - complete solutions
LP Archive page	15KB+ / 250+ lines	Good - narrative + screenshots refs
Fan guide (multi-part)	30KB+ / 350+ lines	Excellent - often best coverage

Acceptable: Any combination totaling 3 complete walkthroughs from different authors/sites.

Examples

Downloading Legend of Kyrandia Walkthroughs

# Setup
mkdir -p walkthroughs/kyrandia_1

# Search for sources
websearch query="\"Legend of Kyrandia Book One\" walkthrough OR solution -download"

# Direct download (fan sites often work)
curl -sL "http://bonny.ploeg.ws/lok.html" \
  -o walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/bonny_ploeg_walkthrough.html

curl -sL "http://classicgamesparadise.com/pc/Legend%20of%20Kyrandia%20Guide%.html" \
  -o walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/cgp_part1.html

# Merge multipart walkthrough
for part in 2 3 4 5; do
  curl -sL "http://classicgamesparadise.com/pc/Legend%20of%20Kyrandia%20Guide%20${part}.html" \
    >> walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/cgp_complete.html || true
done

# Archive.org fallback for Cloudflare sites
curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/web/2015*/http://lparchive.org/Legend-of-Kyrandia/" \
  | grep -o '/web/[0-9]*/[^"]*' | head -1 | xargs -I {} curl -sL "https://web.archive.org{}" \
  -o walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/lparchive_walkthrough.html

# Validation
ls -lh walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/
wc -l walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/*

# Cleanup captcha files
grep -l "Enable JavaScript and cookies" walkthroughs/kyrandia_1/*.html | xargs rm -f 2>/dev/null || true

Downloading Simon the Sorcerer Walkthroughs

mkdir -p walkthroughs/simon1

# Wayback Machine search via curl
curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx?url=gamefaqs.gamespot.com/faqs/*simon*&output=txt" \
  | grep -v "^$" | head -3

# Download archived versions
curl -sL "https://web.archive.org/web/2015/*/http://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/*/simon-the-sorcerer/faqs/*" \
  -o walkthroughs/simon1/faq1.txt

Guidelines

Naming Conventions

• Directory: [game]_[number] (e.g., kyrandia_1, simon1)
• Files: [source_name]_walkthrough.[ext]
• Extensions: .html for HTML, .txt for plain text

Content Quality Checks

Valid walkthrough contains:

• ✓ Character names from the game
• ✓ Location/room descriptions
• ✓ Solution steps or hints
• ✓ 100+ lines of text (substantial content)

Invalid download (delete):

• ✗ Cloudflare captcha page (<200 lines, contains "Enable JavaScript")
• ✗ 404 pages ("Not Found")
• ✗ Redirect loops (>5KB but no game content)

When Sources Are Scarce

If you can only find 1-2 sources after extensive searching:

1. Try alternate game titles ("The Legend of Kyrandia" vs "Fables and Fiends: Book One")
2. Search for author-specific walkthroughs ("Vision Assembler kyrandia")
3. Check forum threads that may contain embedded walkthroughs
4. Accept fewer sources with a note

Tools Used

Tool	Purpose
websearch	Find walkthrough URLs and author names
curl -sL	Download files (follow redirects)
wc -l	Verify file size/line count
grep	Validate content quality, detect captchas
bash loops	Multi-part downloads

Success Criteria

Mission complete when you have:

1. ✓ Created dedicated directory (walkthroughs/[game-slug]/)
2. ✓ Downloaded 3+ walkthrough files from different sources
3. ✓ All files contain substantive content (150+ lines, game keywords)
4. ✓ No captcha/404 pages in final collection
5. ✓ Files properly named and listed with sizes