Pipemania is "a classic puzzle arcade game that is so addictive, it should come with a Government Health Warning!"

- C & VG Feb 1990

Pipemania is a game of great ingenuity, simple in concept and fiendishly challenging to play. You'll need to act instinctively, but think strategically! One wrong move, one brief hesitation or mis-placed pipe section, and you'll drown in a sea of slime!

Forget Shoot-'em-ups and Beat-'em-ups, once you play this you'll know why. Buy it now!

Pipemania starts on a playing grid that is empty except for the starting piece. The object is to score as many points as possible by constructing a continuous pipeline from the starting piece.

As you play, pipe sections appear in a dispenser to the left of the grid. You can place a pipe section anywhere you like, whether or not it connects with other pipe sections. In fact, you'll learn to place pieces in a pattern that anticipates connections five or ten moves in advance.

You can "bomb" any previously placed pipe section by placing a new section on top of it. The old pipe will spin and the new pipe appear in its place. There is a short delay for replacing pipes and a 50 point penalty.

Once a pipe piece fills with flooz, you can no longer replace it. At the start of higher levels, advanced pipe sections and obstacles will appear randomly on the grid. These pieces cannot be replaced by other pieces.

With each level you have a set amount of time in which to connect as many pipe sections as possible before the flooz starts to flow. This time decreases as you progress up through the levels. When the flooz reaches the end of your pipeline the round is over.

Once you've placed all the pipe pieces you can (or want to) press CTRL and COPY and the flooz will speed up and end the round quickly. You will score double points for each additional pipe section the flooz passes through.

In order to advance to the next level, the flooz must flow through a certain number of pipes. A counter in the upper right corner of the screen indicates the minimum number of sections that must be connected within that level. The countdown starts the moment the flooz starts flowing through the pipeline allowing you to keep track of how many sections still need to be connected. When the counter reaches zero, you qualify.

On higher levels, things change:-

• The flooz flows at a faster rate.
• Obstacles appear on the grid which you can't "bomb".
• Bonus pieces : Earn you extra points if the flooz goes through them.
• One-way pieces : Through which the flooz can only flow in one direction.
• End pieces : In addition to achieving the required pipeline length, the flooz must terminate in an end piece in order to advance to the next level.
• Reservoir pieces : Slow down the flooz giving you valuable extra time.
• There are sections of the grid that allow the flooz to exit one side of the screen and reappear on the opposite side.

Pipemania has three playing modes: basic one-player, expert one-player and competitive two-player. There is also a training mode that allows you to play any of these modes at a slower rate of flow. In training mode it is not possible to enter your score onto the high score table.

You'll encounter a variety of pipe sections, obstacles and speciality pieces as you progress through the levels of Pipe Mania.

Basic Game Scoring

• 50 points for each section the flooz flows through until the minimum is reached.
• 100 points for each extra section the flooz flows through.
• 500 points for each time the flooz crosses itself in a pipe section.
• 500 points for each bonus or reservoir section the flooz flows through.
• 1000 points for using the end piece.
• 100 point penalty at the end of each round for each unused piece left.
• 50 point penalty for each replacement made.
• After pressing the "Fast Flooz" keys, every pipe the flooz flows through earns you double the usual point value.

The basic scoring as above, plus:

• 100 bonus points are given away every time the flooz flows through pipe pieces selected from alternating (top and bottom) dispensers.

The basic scoring as above, plus:

• Points from the flooz flow, includng the 500 bonus point for crossovers, are scored only by the player who placed that section.
• The 100 point penalty is taken only from the player who placed the pipe.
• The bonus piece points go to the player who placed the previous piece and connected it to the bonus piece.

• Use the training mode to become a good Pipemania strategist. Learn how to visualise the completed pipeline and place pieces accordingly.
• If you want a big score, don't be too eager to advance quickly to the next level. Earn as many points as you can on each level.
• Think ahead. If you don't need a piece right away, put it where you can connect it later. Blowing up pipes wastes time and valuable points.
• Use cross pipes wisely. You only get a limited number of them, and each one can earn you bonus points. Make sure you place them where there's room to loop back through.
• Even if you're way ahead of the flow, work fast. That way, you'll have time to figure out how to fill as much of the grid as possible; alternatively, you can press the CTRL and COPY keys to score bonus points.

Joystick control can be selected for player 1 for the BBC Micro/Master and Master Compact versions. To select joystick for the BBC Micro/Master press the 1 and f6 keys simultaneously. To select joystick for the Master Compact, press the 1 and f7 keys simultaneously. To return to keyboard control, press the 1 and f5 keys simultaneously. If joystick is used in the One Player Expert Mode, Fire and Forwards is used to select the lower pipe and Fire and Backwards is used to select the upper pipe. If joystick is used in the Two Player Mode, player 2 uses the One Player Basic keys.