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Customise your own maze game for a budget price

Not another 3D maze game! 'Fraid so. This does have two saving graces though: It's cheap, and it has a built in maze designer.

Molecule man is trapped in a maze containing 256 screens of deadly radiation with only his wits separating life from death. Time can be bought but the price is high and the Banks are closed.

Our globular hero soon finds that the pathways may not be paved with gold but they are sprinkled sparingly with small change. As you guide Molecule Man through the lethal landscape he finds the occasional discarded pound coin which can be used to buy anti-radiation pills or bombs.

The pills are essential to Molecule Man's life support system because they dispel the effects of the radiation which is gradually sapping his strength. His energy level falls at such an alarming rate that the search for coins is a constant concern. The pills are dispensed by cuboid machines which are not always positioned at convenient places. Like the pills, bombs are dispensed from special cubes and also cost a pound each.

Now the Damoclean nature of the game becomes apparent, you must decide whether to buy a pill or risk buying a bomb. Make the wrong decision and you will die from radiation sickness and have to start again.

Why has Molecule Man chosen to come to such an inhospitable land? He's no fool, he didn't choose his fate and is looking for the way out. He knows that this is done by using the teleporter but first he must find the sixteen circuit boards which will make it work. This he must do against all odds and with time ticking away speed is essential.

In this maze you must plot your way on paper. All you know is that the maze is designed on a grid which is sixteen screens wide by sixteen screens deep. After collecting all of the circuit boards, Molecule Man must find his way to the teleport pad to make his escape.

When you decide you've had enough, or eventually complete the maze, you can move on to the designer program.

The designer is a separate program on the tape but mazes created here can be loaded into the main game at the beginning of the session to replace the original puzzle.

Each screen is created individually on a composing grid but, by moving the cursor off the edge of the displayed screen, you can scroll to any of the other screens around its borders to see how one pathway relates to the next screen. In this way, continuous paths or deliberate barriers can be created.

A menu is displayed on the left side of the screen to allow you to choose the type of obstructions required. Initially this shows 14 different objects but there are two further menus, giving a total choice of 42 characters. The only two factors to be taken into consideration are the number of circuits and the starting position of Molecule Man.

If sixteen circuit boards have not been collected, the teleporter will not work in the real game. So planning is essential. This is helped by the ability to print out an overview of the maze. This is a horrifying prospect because it makes you realise the complexity of Molecule Man's task but it does solve the problem of mapping it all out yourself.

There is only one Molecule Man and he can be placed anywhere on the grid as a starting position. All that remains is to save the map to tape and reload the main game.

The Designer only shows the game in a 2D representation. Only when your own game is fully loaded can you appreciate your creation to the full. If there are any point which need to be changed, then the whole map can be reloaded into the Designer and changed until you create your own ultimate challenge.

At the end of Mastertronic's tape is a map which can be used as a starting point for your own design projects. If you've played the set version it may look familiar. By chipping away here and there, you can alter a stage or two to customise the game to suit your own needs if a full blown remodelling session does not appeal.

In Molecule Man, you have a very difficult challenge combined with a game creator at a price which makes unbelievable value.