3D MAZE

An A-mazing Game for Your Fun!

Welcome to the world of three dimensional mazes.

The following program, 3D MAZE, is designed to put you right in the
action, searching through a labyrinth for a way out.

Type in the program and run it. It will display a message and have
you wait a short time while it creates a maze. Every time you run 3D
MAZE, the maze will be re-drawn. It is never the same twice.

Next, you will have to choose between fast and slow screens. 3D MAZE
is written in BASIC, and while the paint command used for the slow
screens makes a more attractive display, it also slows down the
response time for moving from about one-half second to nearly three
seconds. Since the score-timer is always running, it makes the game
more difficult when the response is slow.

While it may not be as pretty, the fast screen has some advantages.
First, the quick moves are nice.

And, second, with the fast screen you have another choice -- whether
or not to use a "helper trail." The helper-trail causes the program
to leave a trail of "crumbs" behind you. This is very helpful to keep
you from exploring the same area twice and getting lost in a maze of
little twisty passages, all alike.

Once the screen comes up, you will see a view of the corridor in the
direction you are facing, or just a wall in front of you. If you are
facing a wall, just keep turning until you're facing down a hallway.

Now, you can move freely through the maze. The up-arrow key will move
you forward, the down-arrow will turn you completely around, and the
right- and left-arrows will turn you in that direction. This will be
an immediate turn, by the way.

Your're looking for a hole in the floor. Once you find it, move into
it and you will be out of the maze and the game will be over. The
program will then switch to the text screen and display an overhead
view of the maze, indicating areas you have explored and those you
haven't. It will also tell you how long it took you to find the hole
and where the hole was.

Occasionally you'll push a key, hear the register beep, and it will
seem nothing happened. Don’t worry. This is because the new area you
are looking at is just like the old one. One dead end looks like
another. This is particularly a problem with the slow screen, so
we’ve added a second, higher pitched, beep to tell you when your move
is completed on the slow screen.

Also, the limit of your forward vision is four squares. Sometimes
this will mean that the corridor you’re looking down goes farther than
you can see. The lesson here is that a dead end that is four squares
away may not be a dead end.

The hole is always on the northernmost wall, somewhere. But, since
you don’t know which direction you’re facing when you start, it could,
effectively, be on any wall.

The system used here to generate the maze is called "frontier cell."
If you’re interested in learning more about it, let the RAINBOW know.