Electron User
1st June 1986
Published in Electron User 3.09
The idea in Starmaze 2 is very simple - you are lost in a maze and your task is to escape. Regular watchers of BBC TV's Adventure Game will know the idea, but in this version there are no puzzles or passwords. The only problem is finding the exit.
You travel around the maze by moving forwards. When you want to change direction you may turn through 90 degrees left or right. You don't see yourself - just a view of passages and junctions. These are neatly drawn and give a real impression of three dimensions.
The bottom of the screen is devoted to a status display which shows how long you've been stuck in the maze, how much energy remains, your position and how far you are from the exit.
Maze sizes - your choice - can vary between a small 5 x 5 up to a large 12 x 12 matrix. Large mazes are quite difficult to solve, but if you get really stuck, the computer can draw a map of the whole maze.
This program suffers from a number of drawbacks. The first is that it is very slow. It takes some 10 seconds for the computer to work out what you are looking at and then draw it. Secondly, the mazes lack interest. Certainly they are random and different each time, but they tend to consist of long straight passages with very few junctions.
Finally, the game's ending is very weak. A congratulatory message just says "You've done it" while a dull five note tune repeats itself. If you haven't got a maze game you could consider this.
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