Rama Math Help

These pages are to help people having problems with the alien number machines in the Sierra game Rama.

This page does not have the answers to the problems, it is to help you solve them. If you are using windows 95 there are instructions on how to use the calculator to do the math at the bottom of this page. Rama is to good a game to give up on because of the counting and math machines, that's why I made these pages.

If you have never used base 8 or 16 math before please read this entire page from top to bottom, don't skip the normal math section. Most people add and subtract from memory, without thinking about the rules for doing each. To do math in the other number systems you have to remember the rules you learned when you first started adding numbers with more than one digit in them. That is what the base 10 math section is for.

Think of the different number systems like they are different languages, not all languages use 26 letters like English, some have more, some (like Chinese) use symbols to represent whole words or phrases. Unlike languages, different number systems all use the same math rules. I've included examples of normal base 10 counting and math below so you can compare them to the examples in the base 8 and base 16 sections.

Without realizing it, most people know how to count in base 60. When ever you count seconds, minutes, and hours you are using base 60. If you've ever figured out how many seconds are in an hour you have converted a base 60 number to a base 10 number.

If you're still looking for what the symbols and colors on the machines mean, examine all 3 displays on the other side of each room. You may have to adjust your monitor to tell the last few colors apart in the octospider area.

First let's review how our normal (base 10) number system works:

Now let's look at base 8, the number system used by the Octospiders.

Now for base 16, the number system used by the avians.

How to use the Windows 95 calculator to solve the Rama math problems:


If you are still stuck here are the answers that Leslie put togeter.

If you spot an error or have a suggestion please Email me.

Marty Schultz (schultz@science.widener.edu)
My home page is here.

Widener Science Division Home Page.

Disclaimer

This page has been accessed times since November 30, 96.


Last update, April 17, 1997