Amaze-Ing

Amaze-Ing

Release type: Shareware
Release date: May 27, 1993
Levels: 9
Author: Sherwood Forest
Registration bonus: Two free games + current catalog
Registration price: $15
Related games: none

Rob Sherwood and Dan Whalen are at their best when they take a step to the left and attempt something odd or unconventional. With Amaze-Ing, the pair let their minds wander and turned out one of the most original games in their catalog.

The premise is simple enough, indeed almost basic. The player selects a maze, then plays through until the end. Along the way are collectible items. The game is basically nonviolent, and there is no conclusion; at the end of a maze, the player returns to the menu to choose another level.

What makes the game interesting is its simplicity, and the extent to which Sherwood and Whalen capitalized on it. There are few distractions from the basic premise -- no monsters, no death, no inventory, no false or fleeting goals -- yet there is plenty of elaboration. They could easily have reused sprites, background tiles, or even overall maze layout (as in Air-Strike 42, Dino Hunt, Preggers, Robo Wars, Operation: Tiger...), either within the game or from elsewhere in their resource pool, but instead Amaze-Ing is a showcase for original level and character concepts as they apply to the core premise of a nonviolent maze.

Practical ideas like a train level, a roadway, a sewer, and a tomb sit with more abstract levels like a blueprint and a techno fortress. With a few exceptions, the levels are mostly all unique and all thematically consistent. Visually, they all very appealing and distinctive.

The train maze in Amaze-Ing

The problems with Amaze-Ing lie in the details of the moment-to-moment design. Each maze takes up an entire 100x100 block level, whether or not it warrants the space. The actual maze design often feels random, with a close-knit tangle of passages distinguished by few landmarks or concessions to help the player to navigate. Within minutes even the simpler mazes begin to feel like pure guesswork, and with few rewards beyond the long-term pride of completion there is little incentive to keep playing. Success feels less like a matter of skill than of happenstance, after what could be an hour of bumbling around identical scenery.

More deliberate mazes and perhaps a breadcrumb feature would make Amaze-Ing a classic. As it is, it's one of the stronger Sherwood Forest productions.

The available version of Amaze-Ing seems to be missing one level map.

Story

Amaze-Ing is a collection of eight mazes. We tried to come up with a good variety of mazes for this game. We have everything from trains, and cars, to robots, and invisible walls.

The mazes also range in difficulty from really easy to really hard. Enjoy them all!

Instructions

It is not hard to play this game, it is only hard to win at it. Control of your game character is as simple as pressing the appropriate key or pushing your joystick in the desired direction.

You have eight mazes to pick from, some are easy, some are hard, we hope you find all of them fun.

To select a maze simply put the flashing cursor on the flashing light below the box with the maze you want.

Some mazes have treasures and other things in them, some do not.

To escape from any maze you are having trouble with, just press the esc key and you'll be out of the game.

You gain 100 points for each maze finished.

Credits

Amaze-Ing is another fine product from Sherwood Forest Software. This fine company consists of Rob Sherwood (the guy the whole shooting match is named after). Dan Whalen, Rob's high school friend who can still stand him while both are in their thirties. And the other folks who hang around to test these games out.

Availability

Available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:

• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly: November 1993 (1993)
• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #2-01: Games (January 1994)
• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #2-05: Words, Graphics and Sounds (May 1994)
• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #2-07: Games (July 1994)
• Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #3-10: Education (August 1995),

Archive history

Adventures in Melgratta was added to the archive on September 29, 2010. It was located on The GIFfer's File Warehouse, an archive of a file-sharing BBS begun in 1988, during ongoing research for the Game-Maker Archive article series at DIYGamer.

Links

• Play Amaze-Ing online

Downloads

• Amaze-Ing (139.2 kB)
• Hub map (13.4 kB)
  • Tecnomaz map (106.6 kB)
  • Rails map (302.3 kB)
  • Pipes map (196.7 kB)
  • Blueprint map (81.9 kB)
  • Mystic map (? kB)
  • Route-1 map (243.4 kB)
  • Challenge map (71.3 kB)
  • Tut's Tomb map (157.1 kB)