Stay Tuned for Danger was first released by Her Interactive in 1999. Its more than a quarter of a century old and yet it still (mostly) holds up. I wouldn’t say its anyone’s favorite Nancy Drew mystery game, but it is a classic and is a must-play if you want to play all Nancy Drew games in order. Its loosely based on the book Nancy Drew Case Files #17.

In this game, we’re taken to New York to visit an actress called Mattie Jenson who’s staying at Aunt Eloise’s apartment. Remember Aunt Eloise from the first game, Secrets Can Kill? Well she must have a rich husband because I can’t imagine her affording another residence on her high school librarian salary. But I digress.

Full Walkthrough for Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger

First go talk to Mattie. Once done, read or look at everything in the apartment. Grab the TV remote from the box. Read everything on the desk. There are two hidden vertical drawers with love letters in them. We can’t open the locked drawer yet. Now to go the foyer and see the note about Ned, then call Ned using the phone on the table.

Next let’s go to the studio by exiting the apartment and clicking “Worldwide Broadcasting” on the map. Inside the seating area, there are two different magazines with letters cut out of them. Go to the security desk and sign in.

Enter the hallway and note that the “ON AIR” sign is on so you can’t enter yet. Go down the hallway to the left to find Mattie’s dressing room and talk to her. Snoop around and look at everything you can. There’s a jewelry box with a bunch of ripped up paper – our first puzzle!

The trick to solving this puzzle is to first solve the two edges. Turn every piece so they’re right-side-up and put the edges in place, then figure out which pieces match up using the cut off words.

Leave Mattie’s room and go to the set, swiping your keycard to enter. A light almost falls on Rick! Search around the set. Look at the broken clock and the teleprompter. Find a screwdriver on the work bench.

Now let’s go talk to Rick in his dressing room, which is to the right of Mattie’s dressing room. Once he leaves, snoop through Rick’s dressing room. See all the threatening notes. Do you notice anything weird about the notes that are typed out? Looks like all the Y’s are dropped. Open his vanity drawer and grab the 3D glasses.

Exit and go to the prop room, which is down the other hallway. Millie will tell you to get permission from Lillian Weiss. Talk to Lillian and she takes away your keycard. What a gem!

Talk to Mattie in her dressing room and she’s freaked out and leaves the studio. Time to go back the the apartment and go to sleep by clicking on the stairs and making it “Day”. Go to the living room and talk to Mattie. She’ll hook you up with her agent, Dwayne Powers.

Dwayne’s address should be added to your map now. Go there and push button 101 for Powers Talent. Push the button a second time and go talk to Dwayne. Leave and go to Worldwide Broadcasting and talk to the security guard to get your new keycard and sign in. You can go talk to Lillian again to rub it in.

Go down the hall to the Prop Room and talk to Millie. She’ll give you some riddles to solve. These differ between Junior, Senior, and Master detective modes, but I’ll give all the solution below

• When you look at my face it is easy to see, you’re looking at you when you’re looking at me.
  • Mirror
• I run all day and never walk, I tell you somehting, but I do not talk.
  • Clock or watch
• Soft as a petal that falls from a tree, the more I dry the wetter I’ll be.
  • Sponge or towel
• Give it air and it will live. Give it water and it will die.
  • Fire
• What has a head and a tail but no body?
  • Coin
• What has teeth but can’t eat?
  • Comb
• The more you make the more you leave behind. What am i?
  • Friends, tracks, or footprints
• What is full of holes but holds water?
  • Sponge
• What has four fingers and one thumb but is not alive?
  • Glove

Millie will leave and you can snoop through the prop room. In a chest you’ll find a puzzle with rings. Move the rings to the right side to solve the puzzle and get a clock hand. Grab a door knob from the box of door knobs.

Look at all the shelves. There’s a shelve in the back with an oilcan that you can grab. Look at the sheet of music on the piano. Some of the notes are blue. Go around to the back of Millie’s desk and look at the typewriter. Look at the black book and read everything in it. If you lift up the top right corner there’s something written there: Millie WWB1958. Make sure to grab the wire cutters underneath the map!

Go talk to Mattie, Lillian, and Millie. Then go to the apartment and make it night time if its not already. Sometimes changing the time of day can help progress the story if you’re stuck. Call George and Bess and Ned and exhaust all dialogue options.

Go to the studio and talk to Lillian and Mattie. Go to the set and place the clock arm on the 11 to get a key.

Go to the apartment and check the chair in the foyer for a package with a VHS tape. Watch it on the TV in the living room.

After watching the video, go to Rick’s dressing room and knock on the door. It should open slightly. SAVE YOUR GAME HERE.

Go to the mirror area and play the recording. Click on the recorder again and use your screwdriver to remove the cover. Its a bomb! You’ll need to use your wire cutters to snip the wires in the correct order. The order is Yellow, Red, Orange, and Blue.

You’ll automatically be at the apartment and talk to Ned and William Pappas, the producer. Ask him all available questions. Read the note next to the phone and call George for an important clue about finding a memo to Mattie to figure out the code to the Talent Entrance. There’s a new letter on the desk with the code for it. Make sure you’re caught up with everything else in the game before trying the code: 3689. Go to the studio at night and click the side of the front doors to go around to the Talent Entrance. When inside the studio at night, don’t lollygag through the hallway and don’t make a wrong turn or the security guard can catch you. Save your game frequently too to avoid having to re-do stuff!

Go to Lillian’s office and use your keycard on the door. Look at everything in the room. Above the fax machine there’s a shelf with books. One of them has a floppy disk in it. Grab that and put it in the computer. Log in with Millie’s credentials. Username: Millie, Password: wwb1958. Look at everything on the computer and print out the security report. Note the list of codes for things throughout the studio.

There’s a notepad with nothing written on it but if you look closely there are indentions. Use the pencil to shade over it and see that Lillian had the chocolatier’s number that sent those poisoned chocolates to Rick.

Look in all the drawers to find rubber cement and castor oil. Look in the trash below the fax machine and at the note in the fax machine. If you read down the columns of italicized words it reads, “A bitter hoax tainted with hate is a secret revenge from a previous date.”

Underneath the TV there is a clipboard. Its trick to get to but there’s a red note underneath the script on the clipboard. Click on it and use the 3D glasses on it.

Using this and the list of codes from the computer, we can enter the control room at the top of the spiral staircase in the stage. Go inside the stage area with your keycard and turn left to go up the spiral stairs. The image blow should help you figure out the correct symbols to spell out “Actor”.

Go to the voltage panel and unlock it with the key you found in the clock on set. If you haven’t gotten this key yet, you must take the clock arm from the puzzle in the prop room and set it at 11 on the grandfather clock.

You should have a white audio cassette tape in your inventory. Go to the sound board and put the white cassette tape in it. Adjust the sound levels until you can hear the background noise. This isn’t strictly necessary to progress the game. Make sure to grab the security tape from the shelf and then leave the control room and exit the building via the talent exit next to the dressing rooms.

Go to the apartment and play the security tape on the TV. Go back to the studio via the talent entrance and turn left when you enter the stage area. Look for the locked panel in next to a seating area and unlock it with the key from the grandfather clock. Click the levers to resemble the instructions on the wall. See the image below for help.

Now the trap door on the set is available. Its located on the floor in front of the clock. Climb aboard and pull the lever to end up in a tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel is another hydraulic lift, go up and find yourself in the restricted area of the prop room. Look close at the shirt in the corner and find an employee ID card for Owen Spayder with the ID number 318-67-2001. Now we can snoop on this person using Lillian’s computer. Use “Millie” and “wwb1958” to access the computer, click on the file cabinet icon, and input that ID number to find out this “Owen Spayder” guy was on set every time something happened to Rick!

Let’s go snoop around Dwayne Powers’ office. If you ring the bell for Hess Grumbly he’ll let you in thinking you’re his pizza delivery. Enter Dwayne’s office using your keycard.

Please note! If you don’t view all the necessary stuff in this room you won’t be able to progress the game. I’ll list everything below.

• Get the wallet out of his coat pocket and look at the business card with 4377-6630 on it.
• Use that combination to open the briefcase.
• Look at everything in the briefcase. This includes three pieces of paper and a check. You’ll grab the key.
• Use the key from the briefcase on the file cabinet.
• Look closely at Owen Spayder’s personal file, as well as Mattie’s and Rick’s.
• Read the book on the bookshelf about French.
• Look at the piece of paper in the right drawer of the desk. View the diagram of the bomb.
• Look at the useful phone numbers for the WWB employees.
• Look in the middle drawer to find glue.
• Look at the ticket underneath the chess board.

When you go back to the apartment, you should have gotten a package on the chair, hear a ticking noise, and the phone rings. If this event isn’t triggered then you’ve missed something.

Answer the phone and its Lillian saying to meet her at the studio. Look at the package. Its a threatening note and an alarm clock. Time for the final scene where we can name the culprit!

Go to the studio and enter via the side door (code 3689). Go to the stage area and talk to Lillian. Name who you think is the culprit (hint: it rhymes with Wayne). The villain will try to murder you and you need to go pull the fire alarm. The door is still blocked so there’s one last puzzle. Its a simple memory puzzle where you need to figure out the right sequence.

Congrats, you’ve completed Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger!