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Maze Of Madness is a text adventure created by Lurkio of The Oregon Trail (1978) fame. This game however is more of a challenge than a game. I have combed the internet and found only one person claiming to have solved the puzzle. Apparently there is some sort of trick to solving this maze but for the life of me I really don't know what it is! I managed to find one person who had managed to figure it out and he assured me that the solution is "Cruel!"

Upon loading the game you are greeted with some mysterious music which sets the tone for the game. You are then introduced to the dungeon master who greets you as follows: "I'm the most fiendish Dungeon Master the Cursed Lands have ever known, and yet you just march into my lair and try to ransack it?! I suppose you thought it would be an 'Adventure'. What arrogance! What folly.

"The only reason you aren't already dead is that I thought it might be amusing to watch you desperately try to escape my protean maze before your strength gives out. Oh, and I'm going to get my minions to beat the hell out of you first. "There! The dungeon just rebuilt itself, especially for you. My minions will throw you in now... "You look around and find yourself in a maze of twisty passages, all alike. You see exits in all directions..."

You are given 20 moves to solve the maze with the usual text adventure directions of N,E,S,W, Get, Drop etc. I'm a hardened text adventure enthusiast and I have completed dozens of text adventures over the years such as the Zork games, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Planetfall etc. but this one really had me scratching my head.

There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the path to follow and each time you find the same item which you cannot use and see the same two characters who you cannot interact with or follow. To say I'm baffled is an understatement. I've spent hours trying every possibility and can't figure it out.

The game is quite witty and I enjoy the premise. Every time you die you are given a solution of what the maze actually was but then it regenerates like the World War 2 Enigma Code from. Perhaps I'll need to emulate Alan Turing and build a super computer to solve it as my brain is clearly not up to the task.

The premise of the game is intriguing and makes you want to solve it. The limited moves keep you wanting just one more shot at solving it.

There is really nothing else to the game. There are not multiple room to explore or items to experiment with.

Maze Of Madness is an aptly named game as I can feel my sanity slipping away while playing it! Perhaps it should be referred to as more of a cruel torture device than a game. Mocking you throughout as you fail over and over again. I'm sure there is a very clever and witty way to solve it which gives the gamer a great sense of achievement but is it worth the immense levels of frustration along the way? For me I'm afraid it does not and I have no plans on attempting it again.