So far, I think the following puzzles in GK1 were very unreasonable:
- The letter inside the clock. I read an walkthrough. Is there any in-game way to learn the logic behind this puzzle? It isn't even clear that there is something inside the clock, much less something important.
- Entering Mosley's office after he is forced to take a vacation. You have about 0,001 seconds to perform the action, assuming that you are even aware of what to do. (The walkthrough I read said this is most likely a timing bug)
- The coffin/tracking device/wall writing puzzle and its prerequisites. If you solved this problem by yourself, I congratulate you. This is probably the hardest puzzle of any adventure game I have ever played.

That's a cpu speed issue. Due to the speed of modern CPUs the sleep/wake cycle happens much faster than originally intended. There are programs available online that limit CPU performance. Very usefull for old games. I agree that both the wall writing and clock puzzles are extremely difficult.

I have a patch for that on my site. http://sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updates/Patches-Updates-Games/GabrielKnightSeriesUpdates.html#GK1_NRS
Also, set your core to normal and cycles to 10000 in the config file for DOSBox.

Well, back when it came out, most of us didnt have internet access, and HAD to solve it by ourselves, and did just fine :)
Clock puzzle:
Easy. If you go to the St. Georges Book Shop, and take a look at the books, you will find a german dictionary with the hints you need. You can also find a poetry by gabriels grandfather talking more about drei drachen....or look at his fathers sketchbook, or the painting in the bookshop, all hinting at three snakes/dragons.
Drei means three
Drachen means dragons.
Moselys office is a timing bug, you need to play with the dosbox settings for that...i had major issues later on due to other timing bugs years back when i last played it.
Im not to the part of the coffin yet, so cant recall the solution, but i did solve it several times (played the game like 5 times), get the tracker in moselys office, put it in the coffin in voodoo museum, might be a prerequisite or two before it, cant remember, but nothing that was bad back then :).

I just finished GK1. I have been trying to get my hands on this game for a long time. Thanks, GOG!
Anyway, I have to agree with the clock puzzle. I too the weak man's route, and checked a walkthrough. I looked at the german dictionary and the poem. I guess the dri drachen (or however it is spelled) was a hint, but seriously, it would have been a guess. I remember doing that during adventure games a lot. You know, trying everything you can think of! lol
As for the "timing issue" with getting passed Fricks. At first, I thought I was screwed. He would leave the Police Station, and turn right around and walk back in. I was frustrated, but I noticed that Fricks kept dozing off. I was able to sneak to the office while he was snoozing. I am not sure how the original game was meant to be played, but this option worked for me.
I thought sticking the tracking device into the coffin was probably the hardest puzzle. Seriously, this one took a bit of thought and random clicking! LOL

Thanks for the tip about trying to get through while he was dozing off. I was wondering if there was some other way to solve the puzzle, since there wasn't enough time & I didn't realize sneaking by was an option. It worked though!

Yep! Right there with you on both of those. So tough for me, since i still consider myself a novice adventure game player, especially with these early ones I missed.

It's true that Gabriel Knight was one of the harder adventures I played - even though there are (for a Sierra game) relatively few spots where you can die.
But I finished it for the first time a month or so after it was orginally released without any help and always found the puzzle solutions logical.
I remeber that one of the magazines also mentioned the illogical clock-puzzle but I found it to be rather easy. Perhaps it helped that I understand German and immediately realized what "Drei Drachen" means.

Let's see, I did feel the clock puzzle was a tad unfair. I got the three part simply by experimentation, there wasn't really anything to connect the various mentions of three (poem, snakes in the painting) with the clock. As for the dragon part, well maybe my screen is small but I could barely make out what the symbols on the clock were. I identified sun and moon and was trying to mess with those based the father's sketches. So even if you know it is dragon how do you know that goes in the 12 position? So there were too many variables to get it by random trial and error imo.
About what you write on the wall I feel it was simply a game design mistake. The clues were there, but you weren't allowed to do the coffin part until the day after you wrote on the wall. If you could do the tracking coffin part before you write on the wall you would have a better idea of what to write. I had figured out the dj part, but I was trying to write dj summon conclave.

I understand you, Trilless, but I still disagree.
See, when you look at the clock, the narrator actually describes what these little pictures are in the right order. Also, when talking to Grace, she mentiones that the images of dragons are based on snakes and there is no snake on the clock.
Also, there are all these hints about the three snakes (poem, painting, notebook and even in the dream).
I fully agree that I tried a few settings to fullfill the three snakes/dragons thing on the clock but I think it was my thrid or fourth try when I got it right and this actually makes a good puzzle in my oppinion.
I also felt that the part with the coffin was well done. You have a tracker, you want to know where the ceremony will be and by then you are fairly certain that Doctor John is one of the bad guys (snake scale). You cannot make his snake eat the tracker (my first idea) but you could hide it somewhere in the museum - you just have to make sure, Dr. John takes that item with him.
You were in the university and attended the lecture and the professor told about the Sekey Madoule (the small coffin) and how it is often used with ceremonies.
AND then there is the dream, where Gabriel dreams about the coffin and how he has to hide in there.
I really think there are no other hints necessary. You just have to make sure that "DJ" brings the Sekey Madoule. Great puzzle in my oppinion.

I quite disagree with all this, I played Sins of the Fathers when it was released, I was 12 years old and solved all the game without hints or walkthroughs... :S All puzzles make perfect sense, they might not be the easiest but neither the hardest. People are just not used to old school adventure games anymore, nowaday ones are just too easy, the are all kind of "use key on keyhole" plus the lack of dying or forgetting something behind and having to start all over again... like KQ5 and all those....

Anyone, feel free to explain what in the world they were thinking with the third panel in the shattenjager initiation ceremony. Let's see, we know that each panel describes a step in the ceremony. The third panel depicts a chalice in front of a sea. Now, let's note that the game's description of these panels is pretty specific. So you look for water in the castle, maybe a depiction of a sea will suffice, maybe the stain-glass window can somehow be changed to look like a sea, ad infinitum.
Eventually, you give up and look on the internet for the solution. It turns out that what you need to do is to use the salt shaker.
What.
The.
Hell.
There is literally nothing in the game that a smart player can reason through with this. If the game's description of the salt shaker had said 'sea salt' than it would be typical adventure game illogic, but that would still be better than nothing. The game description of the salt shaker just describes it as having uninteresting, regular old salt. Or did I just miss something? I can't see how this possibly worked without "trying random permutations of using objects on other objects."

Well, actually - without getting to much into religious things - salt is a very common thing in many religions and often symbolizes purity (and because of that is used for exorcisms).
Keep in mind that the Schattenj�gers are a Christian organisation. And salt is also used as the third object when Christians consecration a church - which is basically what Gabriel is trying to do to himself to become a Schattenj�ger.
Also keep in mind that this ritual is probably less magical than Gabriel hoped. Whenever Gabriel visits the chapel, Gerde watches him closely. In my opinion, Gerde just looks if Gabriel is actually devoted enough to go through with it and so I think, the shole ritual is nothing more than a simple ceremony that could be altered in soem ways.
Salt is usually symbolized as the sea - even though it actually represents the earth.
But I confess that - as I played the game many years ago without internet or walkthroughs - my first idea was filling the bowl with tears (which led to unsuccessfully trying to get either Gabriel or Gerde to cry). But, honestly, it took me maybe 10 Minutes or something and mostly because I hadn't spotted the salt shaker at first but then it was clear to me.
I really had a lot of fun with the whole ritual puzzle and found it beautifully crafted. It also really changes Gabriel and he truly embraces the metaphysical world.

I guess I'll have to give you the benefit of the doubt that salt often has religious significance. However, I still think it's pretty obtuse, because that means the image of the sea isn't actually important, as the look icon's description implies. It almost seems specifically crafted to mislead the player, or, more charitably, just not thought out very well.