3D Maze Game

by Colin Cassidy

Maze is a superb graphic game for Christmas. Falsely imprisoned by the evil Druid, your only hope of escape is to navigate
the deadly labyrinth of the castle's dungeons. Confronted by a steep drop on
each side of the narrow pathway, one false move would mean certain death. To
make matters worse, your lamp is growing dim and you will soon be plunged
into complete darkness.

The Druid has anticipated your attempt to escape and has left traps scattered
around the maze to hinder your progress. These traps will magically transport
you to another place but are completely unpredictable. In addition to these
he has laid a large stone slab in a crucial part of the labyrinth, making
escape impossible.

What the Druid does not know, however, is that somewhere in the maze lies a
key crafted by a previous prisoner. If you are able to find this key then the
stone slab will sink into the ground, letting you pass.

Also scattered around the maze are power crystals which will restore the power to your lamp.

The game can be run from the RISC User menu system, or by double-clicking on its icon in a directory viewer. An icon is installed on the icon bar, and the main window opens, showing a 3D maze stretching in front of you. You start on the yellow square, and must find your way to the blue square on the opposite side of the maze. There is only one correct route.

You can guide your way through the maze by clicking on the arrows at the top right of the window, or by
using the cursor keys on the keyboard. Pressing 'M' will show the map, and
'L' will toggle the lamp between low and high power. Using the high power setting
enables you to see further, but gets through power crystals at an alarming rate.

Clicking Menu over the main window opens a menu with five entries. Above the dotted line are three options to start a new game, with a small, medium or large maze respectively. Below the dotted line is an option to Show map, and an entry called Options which leads to a submenu. This allows you to set various parameters which will affect the way the game is played. The submenu items labelled Transporters, Safety net and Obstructions turn these options off or on. With the safety net turned off, attempting to walk off the edge of a path will return you to the start of the maze.

The Lamp power option enables you to cheat if your lamp goes out. If this option is switched off, the lamp does not dim. If the Restricted map option is on, when you look at the map only those parts of the maze you have already visited will be shown. The final option, Show obstacles, can be turned off for a really hard game as it will make all obstacles in the game invisible.

The score given to you at the end is based on how long you took to
complete the maze, and how many power crystals you had left.

If you are running this game on a Risc PC, you will need to use a screen mode with 16 colours if you want to see the direction arrows and compass displayed correctly.

Copyright  RISC User 1994
