Cluefinders Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Cluefinders Wiki

The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano is a computer game released on June 29, 1999.

Plot[]

The ClueFinders embark on an oceanic expedition aboard a ship captained by Leslie's grandfather, Captain Clark. While searching the sea floor in a submarine, Joni, Santiago, and LapTrap come across a sunken ship. Inside the ship are mysterious stone tablets with carvings on them. Joni, Santiago and LapTrap return to the Captain's ship and show him the tablets they found. Santiago thinks they may be a clue to why so many ships have been disappearing in the area. One of the ship's crew calls out to the Captain to inform that the ship is approaching an island. The Captain remarks the island isn't on any of his charts. Suddenly, a tsunami approaches the ship, threatening to capsize it.

Later, Santiago and Joni are seen lying on the island's shore with LapTrap throwing water to wake them up, isolated from the rest of the ship's crew. As they try to comprehend what happened, a quake goes through the island. Santiago realizes that they are next to an active volcano that is going to erupt soon. Leslie and Owen contact Santiago and Joni with the video phone, and explain that they are trapped in an underground chamber somewhere, where there are thousands of the same kind of artifacts Joni and Santiago retrieved earlier. Joni, Santiago, and LapTrap set out to explore the island and find Owen, Leslie, the Captain, and the rest of the ship's crew.

As Joni, Santiago and LapTrap start exploring, they meet several island residents who all claim that the island is "alive". For centuries, anyone who dared enter the island has never left. Every time the islanders tried to leave in boats, they were mysteriously pushed back by the waves, and since they were cut off from the rest of the world, they had no way to call for help. Furthermore, people on the island have been steadily disappearing, seemingly swallowed up by holes in the ground that move on their own. The islanders appear to be from different periods in history, ranging from the Revolutionary War to the American Civil War. The ClueFinders discover that the key to solving the island's mystery could lie in the CrypTiles, artifacts with strange writing scattered throughout the island. The CrypTiles are needed to complete the challenges near the top and bottom of the island.

After Joni, Santiago, and LapTrap complete the challenges near the top and bottom of the island, they are transported inside the volcano. They fall down a passageway into a chamber where they reunite with Owen and Leslie. Suddenly they hear a loud sound, and a strange creature with a green hand tries to grab them. They quickly run in different directions. Leslie, Owen, and LapTrap end up in a chamber with a large chasm. Joni and Santiago end up in a strange room with a lot of containers filled with a green, jelly-like substance. They are startled when they suddenly see Captain Clark in one of the spheres, frozen. Joni and Santiago get trapped inside one of the spheres themselves, and as they look around, they realize that many of the spheres contain many people from centuries before who got trapped on the island. They are all perfectly still and staring straight ahead, as if locked in some form of stasis. Joni and Santiago alert Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap as to what's going on, when they suddenly hear an ominous, beast-like shrieking sound.

Meanwhile, Owen comes to the conclusion that they are actually on a spaceship. A robotic face on a wall starts speaking to them and informs them that they must create a bridge sequence in order to access the first biosphere containment tank. Leslie, Owen, and LapTrap discover that the aliens have secretly been using the island to trap and contain various species of animals, and humans, for the purpose of raising them on their planet. The aliens wish to harvest human brains for sustenance, since human brains are considered a fine delicacy on their planet. Leslie and Owen find a way to release the specimens using the computer guarding them to simulate a predator-prey relationship that would allow the species to thrive on the aliens' planet.

After Owen, Leslie, and LapTrap release all of the specimens, including the people who were captured, the aliens finally catch up to them and attempt to seize them. All of the people flee into a nearby room and close the door. The ClueFinders find themselves looking at a control panel with four large buttons. Leslie advises not to push them, since they have no idea what the consequence will be, but Owen points out that they have nothing to lose. One by one, they each push the button in front of them, which cause different effects to the island. The button pressed by Joni initiates a launch sequence, the button pressed by Santiago stops the rainfall on the island, the button pressed by Owen causes a door to open up to the sea outside and Leslie was the last to push a button, which initiates a tsunami sequence. One of the islanders that they met prior arrives at the door in a ship, presumably Captain Clark's after it was patched up, and all of the people quickly get on board. As they all escape on the ship, a giant wave from the tsunami pushes them far out to sea, just as the volcano on the island erupts, and the entire island breaks apart and sinks into the sea. For a moment, the water is entirely still as the ClueFinders look on in wonder. Then, a gigantic spaceship shaped like the island emerges from the water, and in a flash, it zooms away. Joni remarks that no one will believe what happened, but Santiago insists that they will, since they should still have a couple of CrypTiles left in Joni's backpack. However, when they look at Joni's backpack, the bottom is completely torn. Leslie wonders where the last CrypTiles went, and Captain Clark replies that they are somewhere out there, in the depths of the ocean.

Characters[]

Voices[]

  • Chrissie McCarron - Joni Savage
  • Clayton Stroope - Santiago Rivera
  • Brian Gregory - Owen Lam
  • Keoni Asia Gist - Leslie Clark
  • Les Hedger - LapTrap
  • Duane Lawrence - Captain Clark
  • Becca Barnes - Charlotte No-Haira
  • Jackie Brambles - Lab5
  • Wally Fields - Tube, The Big Fish
  • Roger L. Jackson - The Big Face
  • Terry McGovern - Chicken Man, The Great CrypTile Thief
  • Jon Olsen - Eco

Activities[]

Math[]

  • Shark Crossing
    • Gameplay: Create a bridge using coral pieces to cross over shark-infested waters.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Arithmetic
  • Sulfur River
    • Gameplay: Create a bridge by using rocks to cross over boiling sulfur.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Geometry
  • Faces Within the Face
    • Gameplay: Transform CrypTiles and use them to fill up all of the empty slots of the correct numbers.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Math functions
    • Items Required: Silver and Gold CrypTiles
  • Tube Cavern
    • Gameplay: Rearrange the tube segments so that there are three equal to the length of the leftmost one.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Fractions
    • Items Earned: Jade CrypTiles

Language Arts[]

  • Spelling Catwalks
    • Gameplay: Use the letter tiles and fill in the empty spots on the bridge to complete the given word.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Spelling
  • CrypTile Stories
    • Gameplay: Organize the CrypTiles to create a coherent story.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Reading comprehension
    • Items Earned: Silver CrypTiles
  • Fish Within the Fish
    • Gameplay: Transform CrypTiles and use them to fill up all of the empty slots of the correct words.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Word transformations
    • Items Required: Turquoise and Jade CrypTiles

Geography[]

  • Poison Garden
    • Gameplay: Use the map to locate hidden CrypTiles safely while following the warning above the map.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Map reading
    • Items Earned: Gold CrypTiles

Science[]

  • In the Minisub
    • Gameplay: Build eletrical circuits to repair the minisub.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Electrical circuits
    • Items Earned: Turquoise CrypTiles
  • Biosphere Chamber
    • Gameplay: Create predator-prey simulations to free specimens.
    • Skill(s) Taught: Ecology

Trivia[]

  • Many of the animations for Joni and Santiago in this game were reused from The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: Mystery of Mathra, especially during gameplay.
  • For the first time, the cutscenes have a different but slightly more realistic animation style than in The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures and The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures.
  • The two CrypTiles lost at the end of the game are revealed to be floating across the sea, and are also the options to "Play Again" or "Quit".
  • The video phone that previously appeared in its debut in The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures was redesigned for the first time and has kept that design in all later games it appeared in.
  • The the game's cover artwork, Owen is shown wearing a scuba suit along with Joni and Santiago. However, in the game he never did due to him and Leslie being trapped inside the Island.
  • In the cover artwork, the secondary color for Joni's and Santiago's black scuba suits (as well as Owen who never actually wore it in the game) is yellow. In the game, it's red for Joni and blue for Santiago.
  • During the cutscene where Joni and Santiago are inside the Living Island and in the final chamber that's green, Santiago's video phone has the original plainer design from The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures despite being redesigned.
  • The beach's surface from the cutscenes appears to be sandy, but during gameplay it appears to be solid and rocky.
  • On the map screen, some of the locations are out of place and do not correspond to the directions that Joni, Santiago, and LapTrap travel to.
  • This is also the first game where Joni is seen without her glasses, and it happens just after the ClueFinders cross the sulfur bridge.
  • This is the first game used by the 1999 updated ClueFinders logo, and not the 1997 to 1998 logo.
  • This is the first game was used by A.D.A.P.T. Learning Technology.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Other[]

Advertisement