LET YOUR ELECTRON AMAZE YOU
Merlin, our intrepid wizard, returns to offer further advice on tackling adventures
It seems from the mail I've received that there are quite a lot of you adventurers out there. I'd like to thank you all for writing in. Keep up the good work!
The two things most of your letters concerned were on the lines of: "Help! I'm stuck in a Maze" and "Until we get more adventures for the Electron, how can I convert some of the BBC Micro adventures?''
I can't really tell you how to convert programs without the permission of the software houses that publish them. They wouldn't appreciate it.
I would like, though, to take this opportunity to say that if any software houses would like to send me the details I would be extremely happy to include them in a future article.
However, I can help with the first problem. So now for a quick run-down on mazes and how to tackle them.
Most of the problems you have encountered seem to lie in not knowing how to approach them. Let's examine the most common types of mazes.
While I shan't be giving specific answers to your letters, you should be able to solve your problems - and be able to tackle more difficult mazes - by the time you have read this article.
Barring some rather epic adventures, whose names I shan't mention, all mazes have one thing in common - there's a way out.
My purpose in stating the obvious is to make sure you realise that whoever has programmed the maze has done it in such a way that it is neither too easy or too hard to get out of.
So if you get stuck instead of moving about randomly think about the nature of the maze and that will usually give you a clue as to how to beat it.
Remember the programmer will have written it logically, and it is up to you to solve it logically!
Let's look at some of the mazes that can be encountered in various commercial adventures which illustrate the various types you are likely to come across. By far the most common are those that present this kind of room description:
You are at a junction with exits north, south, east, west.
Generally to tackle these DROP an object, make a move and LOOK. If you can still see the object you have dropped then you obviously haven't moved!
So get a piece of paper, the larger the better, draw a circle and write inside it what object you have dropped.
If the move you just tried was NORTH, then put a cross at the top of the circle to show that you cannot move in that direction. Then try a different direction.
If the object is still there then put another cross. If it isn't there then draw another circle. DROP another object and then try another direction.
Keep on doing this and eventually, by trial and error, you will be able to map out the whole maze.
But if you are underground or in an unlit room then don't drop the lamp.
Incidentally, you don't have to make your map the way I've suggested. I make my maps this way because it is the way I feel happiest with. The best way to make a map is the way you feel happiest with.
The next most common types of maze are those where, for every location you move to, the room description seems to be the same.
Look closely at the following example and see if you can work out how many moves have been made. The location you are in is described thus:
You are in a tangled, gloomy jungle with exits in all directions.
NORTH
You are in a tangled, gloomy, jungle with exits in all directions.
WEST
You,are in a tangled gloomy jungle with exits in all directions.
WEST
You,are in a tangled, gloomy jungle with exits in all directions.
Yes! You're right, two moves have actually been made! Look closely and you'll see that there are three different descriptions (check the commas).
You have the description for your original location, then there is a change when you move NORTH and another when you first move WEST.
The fourth description is the same as the third. You haven't moved.
Clever stuff isn't it! Quite often with this type of maze any attempt to map it by dropping objects will result in this type of message:
Your OBJECT disappears into the undergrowth and is irretrievably lost!
The secret of solving this type of maze is to make a map based on whether the room descriptions do, or do not, change.
So keep going in one direction until the description remains the same. Then try another direction until that remains the same. Then another direction ... and so on.
Eventually you will have found a way out, or mapped out the whole maze, or both.
Quite often you can come across a description that is totally unlike any of the others. Usually this means that there is an object of value or an exit nearby.
Here it often pays to stop mapping and try single moves in each direction just to see if there is anything nearby.
Another fairly common type of maze, that can literally have you at your witt's end, is the kind that for every move you try to make you end up in the place you have just started from. Typically you get this type of comment:
You have become completely disorientated in the warren of tunnels surrounding you and are back where you started from. There are exits north, south, east and west.
Mazes like these look very difficult, as indeed they are, but they can be solved with a little patience. The programmer knows that adventurers like their problems to be hard, but not impossible.
So you should be able to get out reasonably easily and one of two methods should work for you.
Either a reasonable number of set moves is needed for you to get out, say six, or you only need make one move in the right direction.
Often in the latter type the move is subject to a random response.
Think of it as the Electron saying to itself: "Well, they've picked the right direction, now I'll toss a coin to see if I'll let them out".
If you are not aware that this kind of maze exists you can spend a lot of time wandering around trying to get out. I once spent weeks in one before I realised what was going on.
So try making about 10 moves in each direction. If this doesn't work then try likely combinations of moves such as NORTH, WEST, SOUTH, EAST, and so on.
Remember to use the save game facility. Make sure you have a game saved at the point at which you enter the maze then you will know when you finally make any progress.
The bad news is that you have an awful lot of keying to do. The good news is that you will, eventually, get out. I promise.
Most other types of maze require you to think carefully about where you've been, what you've got and what you can see.
Two mazes in one particular adventure require you to do things with some of the objects you have found or should have found. If you haven't got them you will not get very far.
In the first you need to have found a lamp and lit it before you can even enter the maze. If you try to enter without the lamp you don't live very long.
Once in, however, you have to turn the lamp off, LOOK and then turn the lamp back on.
Why? The directions you need to have to get to the next location successfully, and therefore get through the maze, are written on the wall of each room in phosphorescent paint.
So you have to turn the lamp off to see the direction you need to make next and then you have to turn it back on to avoid being
Eaten in the dark by a huge spider!
After getting through this maze you manage to collect several objects, one of which, when WAVEd emits
A cloud of dense white smoke.
You discover this because it is good practice in any fantasy adventure to RUB and WAVE everything. Later you find yourself in:
A featureless black room.
You find that you cannot return the way you came, so you set off bravely to explore this new maze. After wandering around aimlessly for a while you remember the rod.
In desperation you WAVE it again, This time you get:
A cloud of dense green smoke.
After wandering through various locations, waving the rod as you go, you discover that the rod emits seven different colours - blue, green, red, orange, violet, indigo and yellow.
That looks familiar you think, so you arrange it thus: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
And what have you got? You've guessed it! The colours of the, dare I say it, spectrum.
Now all you have to do is make a map based on these colours. So you return to your waving and make a map of each of the colours in each of the locations.
When you've finished you go back to the starting point and move in the order of the colours. That is red, then orange, then yellow, then green and so on.
When you get to the maze exit you find that it is a small cylindrical room whose only exit is back the way you came. In other words, back into the maze.
What's needed here is a password. Since there is always a clue to any password somewhere, you think of the spectrum and eventually arrive at the password - "Rainbow" and you're out. Obviously, if you hadn't solved the maze you wouldn't have been able to get out.
The last type of maze I'll look at is the type that gives you clues - if you can find them. Often they have been given previously somewhere, perhaps as a reward for solving a puzzle. But they can even be given in the maze itself.
The extract below is from a superb adventure that is due to be released shortly.
Here you have almost completed the adventure. You are in the final room which, wouldn't you know it, just happens to be a maze.
The way out is given. Look closely and see if you can find it.
You are in an octagonal room with exits in each wall, a plaque reads WARNING: Keep moving or you'll regret it!
Another sign reads:
The guardian waits forever here, eight ways to choose, one way is right, no time to loose, here ends your light, so walk where one can't see or hear.
The clues are all on the second plaque. There are "Eight ways to choose", that is eight directions you can take, BUT it also means that eight moves will get you out. Look at the last line:
So walk ……. WHERE ONE CAN'T SEE OR HEAR.
The last part of the line is the most important part:
WhErEoNE caN't SE-E or hEar.
Remember those eight moves?
W E E NE N SE E E
Clever these programmers, aren't they?
Obviously, I can't cover every type of maze you are likely to come across. The ones I have mentioned should help those of you who have written in.
In case you're wondering where you can get these adventures, the answer is you can't, at least, not yet.
I decided not to use Electron adventures in case I spoilt it for anyone, though I understand that some of these adventures are to be released for the Electron.
Finally, you are more than welcome to write in with any problems - and tips as well. I need them too you know!
But please, if you want a quick answer then enclose a stamped addressed envelope. I will reply to it, even if my reply is that I don't know either!
Or if you want any information
about adventures generally, write to me at Electron User and,
who knows, perhaps we'll base an article on it.
This article appeared in the January 1985 edition of the "Electron User", published by Database Publications.
Scanned in by dllm@usa.net
http://www.stairwaytohell.com