Clue: Master Detective

Question suspects, search rooms, and deduce who committed the crime in this expanded computer version of the classic whodunit. Clue: Master Detective online asks for nothing — no download, no setup, no registration — and the computer deals the cards, hides the solution and keeps the rival detectives honest on your behalf. The Master Detective edition widens the mansion with extra rooms, suspects and weapons, which lengthens the chain of deductions considerably. It runs on mobile, but you'll be steering a token to one particular room and reading a grid of small tick-boxes on the notes screen, and both go more smoothly under a mouse pointer.

How to Play Clue: Master Detective Online

Getting into the mystery takes seconds:

1. Select Play and Clue: Master Detective appears — it's a small DOS title, so it's ready almost immediately.
2. Let the title screen and the mansion board finish drawing before you do anything else.
3. Click inside the game frame so the cursor you use to pick rooms and cards belongs to the game rather than the page.
4. Start a new game and choose your detective and the number of opponents.
5. Move around the mansion, make suggestions, and work out the culprit, weapon, and room.

Clue is a game of deduction — track every clue carefully and use the process of elimination to solve the crime.

Controls

Clue: Master Detective is played with the mouse, using the on-screen board:

The heart of the game is your detective notebook — record which cards opponents reveal so you can eliminate possibilities and zero in on the solution.

What Is Clue: Master Detective?

Clue: Master Detective is a computer adaptation of the classic murder-mystery deduction board game, an expanded version of the traditional Clue (known as Cluedo outside North America). Featuring a larger mansion, more rooms, additional suspects and weapons, it tasks you with solving a murder by determining three things: who committed it, with what weapon, and in which room. You compete against computer-controlled detectives to be the first to deduce the correct combination.

The game faithfully recreates the deduction gameplay that made Clue a timeless favorite. You move around the board, enter rooms to make suggestions, and gather information by seeing which cards your opponents can disprove. Through careful note-taking and logical elimination, you narrow down the possibilities until you're confident enough to make an accusation. The "Master Detective" edition's expanded board and extra elements make for a meatier mystery, offering a satisfying digital take on a classic that's all about reasoning, observation, and a bit of luck.

How the Game Works / Gameplay Basics

The goal is to identify the secret combination of culprit, weapon, and room that's been set aside at the start of the game. On your turn you roll and move your detective token around the mansion, aiming to reach rooms where you can make suggestions — naming a suspect, a weapon, and the room you're in. Other players (or the computer) must then privately show you one matching card from their hand if they can, giving you a clue about what is not part of the solution.

Success comes entirely from deduction. By keeping careful notes of which cards have been revealed and by whom, you eliminate suspects, weapons, and rooms one by one until only one of each remains — the solution. When you're confident, you make a single accusation; if you're right, you win, but if you're wrong, you're out. The expanded Master Detective board adds more rooms and possibilities to track, deepening the logical challenge. It's a thoughtful, methodical game of reasoning where attention to detail beats luck.

Beginner Tips

• Take careful notes. Track every card you see to eliminate possibilities.
• Make smart suggestions. Use suggestions to test your theories and gather information.
• Watch your opponents. Note what they suggest and what gets disproved.
• Eliminate methodically. Cross off suspects, weapons, and rooms as you rule them out.
• Don't accuse too early. A wrong accusation ends your game, so be sure first.
• Reach rooms efficiently. Use shortcuts and movement to reach the rooms you need.

Why Play Clue: Master Detective Online?

The great advantage of a computer Clue is that it works perfectly well alone. The board game needs at least three people and someone trustworthy to hold the envelope; here the computer detectives fill the table, so a case is available whenever you feel like one.

Loading it from a page strips away what friction is left. No box to dig out, no board to unfold, no hunt for the little pencils — the mansion is laid out and the murder already committed by the time the screen finishes drawing.

Troubleshooting

• Game won't start? Give the title screen and the mansion board time to finish drawing; a click on a room before the board is complete does nothing, which can pass for a hang.
• Mouse or keyboard not responding? Click once inside the game frame; the board and the detective notebook both respond only when the frame has focus.
• Board hard to see? Use fullscreen mode — the mansion layout and the small card icons on your notebook sheet are much easier to read enlarged.
• Running slowly? Clue is turn-based, so slowness shows up as sluggish token movement; closing other tabs and heavy applications clears it.
• No sound? There isn't much to hear beyond dice rolls and short stings, so rule out a muted tab and a muted system before deciding anything is broken.
• Losing track of clues? Use the in-game notes screen to record what you've learned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Clue: Master Detective free to play online? Yes. A full case — culprit, weapon and room, with rival detectives racing you to the answer — costs nothing here, and no part of the page asks you for payment.

Do I need the original floppies or a DOS setup? No. The DOS version runs inside an emulator on this page, so there are no disks to track down, nothing to install, and no account to create.

Can I play Clue: Master Detective on mobile? You can, but two things fight a touchscreen: steering your token along a route to one specific room, and reading the notebook, which is a dense grid of small marks. A mouse handles both without squinting.

What kind of game is Clue: Master Detective? A murder-mystery deduction game adapted from the Clue board game, played on the enlarged Master Detective board with its extra rooms, suspects and weapons.

How do you win Clue? You win by correctly deducing the culprit, weapon, and room, then making an accurate accusation before your rivals.

Can I save my progress? The game is played in self-contained mystery sessions, so you solve a case per game rather than saving a long campaign.

A mansion, a murder, and a set of suspects await. Load it up and start deducing.