Loadstar 245/245.d81/t.minotaur

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 4KB | 140 lines

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      M I N O T A U R   M A Z E
             For the C-64
      by Cleveland M. Blakemore


    Almost everybody is familiar with
the mythological creature called the
Minotaur, who inhabited a complex maze
on an island in Crete in ancient
Greece.

    Less well known is the Minotaur's
name, Dexter; and the fact that Dexter
had a half-brother named Elrod who
helped him comb the maze when he
wasn't busy with odd jobs at the Greek
rodeo.

    Of course, their father, Smiling
Jack Taurus, was the one who ended up
as triple ground chuck roast when
Perseus took the long way home after
killing the Gorgon.

    Anyway, the game is a simple,
graphically interesting maze game of
the classic variety. Two Minotaurs
wander the maze, following the "left
turn" rule. Under this programming
logic, they will always take a left
turn when confronted with a choice of
more than one path. The player uses
this knowledge to find suitable hiding
places when the Minotaurs pass. Under
this logic, the Minotaurs will
eventually explore every possible inch
of the maze.

    With a joystick in Port 2, your
player, a gray figure in the upper
left corner, can move in four
directions. The object of the game is
to grab the precious gems scattered
throughout the maze. The Minotaurs
also collect them up as they journey
through the maze. You get 50 points
for every gem you grab.

    When the maze is devoid of gems,
return to your starting position at
the far upper left corner, and a new
maze will appear, filled with gems.
You receive a bonus of ten times the
number of gems you captured each time
you move to the next level.

    There are eight mazes in all, each
one completely different, each one a
different color. Number eight is the
"Night Search" maze. It is totally
dark, except for the torch you carry
with you that illuminates every
adjacent block around you. This level
is very difficult to survive, but if
you do, the maze starts again at
number one, with the Minotaur's speed
picking up a little.

    Each time you complete eight
levels, the Minotaurs get a little
faster. After 16 mazes, they really
start booking, so you will need
awesome reflexes to get the higher
scores. After you complete eight
mazes, the next maze will be white -
the victory maze. Then the maze colors
repeat over again. The higher level
mazes have more gems.

    You may be able to slip by a
Minotaur without getting caught
sometimes, but very rarely. You can
try this if you get cornered.

    Pulsing music beats in the
background while you play, interrupt-
driven.

    You have four men per game. When
all four men are captured, the game
goes into demo mode until you press f1
to start a new game.

    My highest score yet is 12360, and
I am particularly adept at maze games,
so you will need some practice to get
this high or higher. The hardest part
about the game is predicting which
path the Minotaur is going to take as
it approaches. Once you get this down,
you have a good start.

    You will notice this game is very
short, although it is near commercial
quality. Using redefined character
graphics instead of sprites saves an
enormous amount of memory, leaving
more room for program logic instead of
simply binary files of sprite data.
Although a good sprite game needs at
least 10 shapes (640 bytes), a game
using character graphics requires only
80 bytes for 10 shapes.

    Although character graphics are
not suitable for many applications,
and sprites are more versatile,
characters are very appropriate for
games like this, and much easier to
program with. Getting the collisions
worked out in a sprite game is the
worst part of the program task, but
with character graphics it is simple,
because a character has a POKE code
that is unchanging and constant.

    In this game I have used character
shapes for the stone walls, the
Minotaurs, your player, and the gems,
with enough room to spare to use
custom characters for the lettering in
the title.

    Enjoy Minotaur Maze, and watch out
for Elrod and Dexter!

 CMB