Index
AMAZEING  5.11

Copying Agreement/License/Disclaimer

How to Play

Options

Mucus Options

Colour Menu

Solve Menu


Copying Agreement/License/Disclaimer

Amazeing is provided "AS IS", without warranty of any kind, either express or implied.  This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.  Also, Stuart Swain assumes no liability for direct, indirect, special or consequential damages to hardware or software (including but not limited to loss and/or corruption of data) arising from the use of this program or its failure to operate in a way so desired by its user.  The entire risk as to the quality and performance of Amazeing is with the user.

Under no circumstances will Stuart Swain be liable for any monetary or material damages, including lost profits or savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising from the user's ability or inability to use Amazeing, or for any claim made by any other party.

NOTE:  The title "Amazeing" is used above in reference to the entire Amazeing package.  The use of "Amazeing" therefore includes the use of any of its individual program files.

The shareware (unregistered) version of Amazeing may be freely copied and distributed providing the below conditions are adhered to. The registered version may not be distributed.

•	No charge may be made for the distribution of the software other than the cost of the transmitting medium.  (No charge other than the cost of the disk.)

•	All files from the original archive, if not the archive itself, must be distributed together, in a way such that the software can be installed. (That is, all together in one single directory on the disk or in the archive.)

•	The program, nor any of its files, may be modified in ANY way. This includes modification of resources, documentation, or the actual executable program itself.


How to Play

Playing the Game

Mouse Movement

Game Keys

Place/Remove Marker

Message File

High Scores

Algorithm

Playing as an Icon


Playing the Game

To start a game, choose One Level Game or Multi Level Game from the Game menu.  A dialog box will appear and you can select the level of play. Level 1 (10x10 or 5x5x5) is easy, whereas level 5 (50x50 or 25x25x25) is almost impossible without cheating (see Show Distance).  The algorithm used to create the maze is selectable with Algorithm from the Game menu.

You can enter the random transportation factor from the Options menu before or during play (see Transportation).

The purpose of the game is to move through the maze in the least number of moves.  The exit is signified by a checked box on the wall.  When you reach the exit, you've won!  If you get a high score you will be asked to enter your name for the score table.

(Note this big hint!  -  the exit is always in the opposite corner to where you start.  On the mud map, you start in the top left corner - the exit is in the bottom right corner.  In multi level mazes the exit is on the top floor.)

If you are playing a Mucus Game you will be stalked through the maze by a glob of mucus, so the game becomes even more interesting!

Note: When using the normal Viewpoint, to turn a corner, you must move onto the square that has the opening to the left or right before turning.  For example, to turn left in the maze pictured, you would have to move forward another space first.  (The same rule applies for up/down movement in multi level mazes.)

See Game Keys for movement keys, and Mouse Movement for how to use the mouse.


Mouse Movement

The mouse cursor will change to one of seven arrows (including the normal pointer) depending on its position on the screen.  Click the left mouse button to move or turn.  The arrows that appear on the floor result in movement, whereas arrows at screen edges turn you around.

Mouse movement is not available when Playing as an Icon.

The up and down arrows move you forward to the space on which they appear.

The up and down turn arrows turn you around to face the other direction.  They appear when the cursor is at the very top or bottom of the screen.  To look up or down in multi level mazes (like with the Home and End keys), you must either use the right mouse button, or hold down shift as you click the left mouse button.  To look up, use this click with the up turn arrow at the top of the screen.  To look down, use the down turn arrow at the bottom of the screen.  When looking up or down, the right button or the shift-click combination is used to look back horizontally again.

The arrows labeled "up" and "down" move you up or down through a manhole to a different  level (multi level mazes only).  When looking up or down, these arrows move you up or down one level, in contrast to the up and down arrows above which can move you multiple spaces horizontally.

The left and right arrows move you forward to the space on which they appear, and then turn you to face the new direction.  They do not move you into the new corridor.

The left and right turn arrows turn you around, like the left and right cursor keys do.  They appear when the cursor is at the side edges of the screen, and on a wall, not the floor.


Game Keys

Game movement keys are listed below.  See Mud Map for mud map movement.

Key	Resulting movement

Up arrow	Move forward one space

Down arrow	Move backward one space

Numeric keypad 5	Turn around (face opposite direction)

Left arrow	Turn to the left 90 degrees

Right arrow	Turn to the right 90 degrees

Alt+Left arrow	Move left one space

Alt+Right arrow	Move right one space

Space	Place or remove marker

Multi level only:

Home	Look up (rotate backwards 90 degrees)

End	Look down (rotate forwards 90 degrees)

Page Up	Move up one floor

Page Down	Move down one floor

Note: pressing Home/End will cause you to look up/down.  Pressing it again will cause you to look in the opposite direction to your original direction.  (For example, when facing north, you would end up facing south after pressing Home/End twice.)

Pressing End when looking up or Home when looking down will cause you to look in your original direction again.

See Place/Remove Marker for information on markers.


Place/Remove Marker

Whilst playing the game, you can place or remove markers in the maze.  These appear as a black spot on the walls.  The space bar places and removes markers, or you can use Place Marker or Remove Marker from the Game menu.

Markers can be used sparingly as individual landmarks, or everywhere to show where you have been (stopping you from going around in circles!).

Markers cannot be seen at four way intersections.


Message File

With this option, you can select the file to be used for wall messages.  The file must be a standard text file.  Up to 4000 lines of text can be loaded for use on the walls. Wall messages appear when using either the withdrawn view or the normal view. (See Viewpoint).

Each new message must begin with a tilde (~) character.  Lines after one beginning with a tilde count as additional lines for that message.  Any leading spaces are removed, either those between each tilde and the beginning of the message or those at the beginning of each line.  Blank lines are omitted. To show a blank line, start a line with an exclamation mark (!).

Semicolons can be used at the beginning of a line for comments.


High Scores

Amazeing keeps track of up to 20 high scores for each level of play (maze size).  When you choose Show High Scores from the Game menu, the high scores dialog box will be displayed.  The meaning of each field displayed is below.

Efficiency	The efficiency of your moves. (How many moves it took you to complete the maze divided by the required moves, times 100.) Note that if you used any cheat features or happened to be transported close to the exit resulting in an extremely high efficiency, the value is set to 9999.9%

Adjusted Efficiency	The efficiency adjusted according to how many times you used the hint feature.

Difficulty Rating	A rough guide to the difficulty of the game you just played.  This takes into account the maze size, the algorithm used to create it, the number of moves required to complete the maze, the transportation factor, whether it was a mucus game (and then, the mucus intelligence, Mucus Moves On Turns, and Step Past Mucus options), and whether you used the Mud Map and Show Distance features.

A 10x10 maze with the shortest solution path length (18), created with the Standard algorithm, played with no mucus and no Mud Map or Show Distance features would have a difficulty rating of 1.  Note that the difficulty rating may not necessarily be linear.  (That is a game rated 2 may not necessarily have been twice as hard.)

Note: For simplicity, all options that can be changed during the game are assumed to have been constant throughout the game.

Score	The adjusted efficiency multiplied by the difficulty rating.


Algorithm

With Algorithm from the Game menu, you can select either the Standard or Recursive algorithm for creating mazes.  The former is the algorithm used in versions of Amazeing prior to 4.02.  The recursive algorithm produces much longer, more curvy mazes that may take longer to create, but, they are actually easier to solve.


Playing as an Icon

When Amazeing is minimized, you can still play the game, and the maze will be drawn in the icon on the desktop.  To do so, Amazeing must be selected (highlighted) on the desktop.

When playing as an icon, wall messages, "cheat" options (see Options Menu) and Mouse Movement are disabled.  You will be unable to see the Mud Map window if it was being shown.

You are unable to play the game as an icon if you are playing a Mucus Game, or if your Viewpoint is set to the "Back Of Square" view.  In this case the icon is a miniture picture of the girl maze character used in "Back Of Square" view.

Also, if animation (see Animate Solution) is taking place, it will continue in the icon, providing Amazeing is selected on the desktop.

(Due to the differences between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, Amazeing cannot be played as an icon under Windows 95.)


Options

Show Coordinates	Mud Map
Show Distance
Show Compass	Pure Colours
Show Labels
	Colour Cycling
Wall Messages
Better Lines	Transportation
Instant Draw
Coloured Walls	Sound
Realistic Colouring
Extended Corridors	Reload Settings
Viewpoint	Save Settings on Exit


Show Coordinates

This option allows you to display the (X,Y,Z) coordinates of the current maze position at the bottom of the screen.  Coordinates can be helpful if you get lost and need to find your way back to the beginning of the maze.


Show Distance

This option shows the distance you are from the exit at the bottom of the screen.  This allows you to cheat very easily and quickly accomplish any maze.


Show Compass

This option displays a handy compass at the bottom of the screen.  Don't be confused by the East and West directions appearing to be the wrong way around - they are the way they should be to be like a real compass.  (Imagine holding one with the "N" pointing away from you - when you are facing east, the needle points north, which is to your LEFT.)

If the compass animation appears jerky, it is probably due to your processor being too slow.  Changing the various maze drawing options may help, otherwise do not move too quickly through the maze, or pause to allow the compass needle to settle before you check it to find out your direction.


Mud Map

Turning on the Mud Map option displays a map of the maze in a child window that is updated as you move through the maze.  For multi level mazes, squares with manholes are displayed as gray squares in the map.  Your position in the maze is shown with an ellipse.

You can use the cursor keys for movement in the mud map window by activating it instead of the main game window.  Note that the cursor keys are used differently here!  The cursor keys move the position indicator in the direction you want.  So the up arrow moves it up, left arrow left, and so on.  Page up, page down, home and end are also active in the normal way for multi level mazes.

See also:

Draw on ...


Draw on ...

The Mud Map can either be drawn according to how far you can see down the corridor (Draw on Corridor), or according to your maze position (Draw on Position).  The former can help if you get confused with Mouse Movement.


Show Labels

This option sets whether or not a label is shown for the Show Coordinates or Show Distance options.  Turn labels off if you wish to shrink the game window (otherwise the labels overlap each other, hiding the information).


Wall Messages

This option sets whether messages appear when you are facing a blank wall in the maze. Wall messages appear when using either the withdrawn view or the normal view. (See Viewpoint).


Better Lines

This option allows you to remove the unnecessary lines in drawing the maze, providing a more realistic view.


Instant Draw

This mode does not actually speed up drawing substantially, but provides the illusion of the screen being redrawn instantly.  When this option is turned on, the maze corridor is drawn in memory, and then the picture in memory copied directly to the screen when ready.

Note that on many computers, it will look like animation is faster with this option turned off, but on faster computers this option may be better.  (If you notice the corridor being drawn and then the Mucus being placed there, turning this option on will result in the mucus appearing instantly.)


Coloured Walls

This option sets whether the walls in the maze are coloured (solid) or not.  If you are using a monochrome monitor, mazes cannot be coloured and hence this menu item appears grayed.

See also:

Pure Colours


Realistic Colouring

With the Colour Menu you are able to select different colours for north & south versus east and west walls.  If N/S walls were of one colour and Et/W of another, walls running parallel to your vision would be one colour and ones that you look at directly (those walls leading off to the left or right) would be a different colour.

In Amazeing, you can set whether they really are different colours or not with the Realistic Colouring option.  When this option is turned off, the colour of the walls is dependent on your direction, meaning the colour only changes according to the direction in which you are facing.  When it is turned on, you will notice that the walls are coloured realistically.


Extended Corridors

Normally Amazeing shows a very limited and inaccurate representation of the maze corridor. Selecting this option makes the view more realistic, as you can see down corridors that continue slightly to the left or right of where the one you are in finishes.

Note that the extended corridors are still very restricted and aren't true 3D.  Whilst there are some slight inaccuracies left however, this option does enable you to see further than normal, assisting you with what lies ahead.  (Also note that what you can see in the extended corridor doesn't get displayed on the Mud Map - the mud map works according to the corridor you are actually in.)


Viewpoint

In versions of Amazeing prior to version 5, it was easy to become confused when up against a blank wall, or about when you are able to turn to go down a corridor.  Now you can choose which viewpoint you prefer - either the original (normal) view, the slightly withdrawn view which displays a little of the current square you are on, or the back of square view which shows you standing in the maze on the current square.

(Note that viewpoint has no effect when looking up or down in multi level mazes.)


Pure Colours

This option sets whether the shading of the walls uses pure colours instead of the Windows dithered ones.  Note that you must run Windows in a mode with at least 256 colours to use this option.

See also:

Smooth Shading

Low Quality "Quick Draw"

Instant Draw

Maze Lines


Smooth Shading

This option uses Pure Colours to increase the smoothness of the wall shading.  Smooth shading increases the time taken to redraw the maze at each step, so a fast computer and good graphics card are strongly recommended.

See also:

Low Quality "Quick Draw"

Instant Draw


Low Quality "Quick Draw"

This mode decreases the quality of the drawing in Smooth Shading mode by approximating everything to rectangles (very fast).

See also:

Pure Colours

Instant Draw


Maze Lines

This option sets whether the thin lines to outline wall edges in the maze are shown or not.  This only applies to the Pure Colours mode.

See also:

Better Lines


Colour Cycling

Colour cycling (palette animation) adds a whole new experience to Amazeing.  If you are playing Amazeing on a 256 colour palette based device, then you can colour cycle the walls and/or the floor/ceiling.  You can also select the direction - either forwards, or backwards.

Please note that this option is only available in the registered version of Amazeing. For details on registering, see Register NOW! from the Help menu of the main game window.


Transportation

This option allows you to enter the percentage probability of random transportation.  Every time you move, a number between 1 and 100 is chosen.  If the number is less than or equal to the transportation factor, you will be transported to a random location in the maze.  (This can be useful for big mazes - you can get lucky and end up next to the exit!)  For moves of more than one space (see Mouse Movement), this is done for every step along the way, to keep the transportation factor constant.


Sound Setup

The sound setup dialog box allows you to customize the sound effects for various game "events".  Each sound file must be a standard Wave (*.wav) or MIDI (*.mid) format.  The test button allows you to hear each sound so that you don't have to play a whole game to find out if it's the right one!  You can also hear the sound by double clicking the mouse on a file name, or by pressing enter after highlighting the file.  Selecting <none> means no sound is played for that event.

With the Stop currently playing sound checkbox, you can choose to interrupt currently playing sound effects so that if a sound effect is already playing, it will be stopped to let the new one play.  Clear this check box if you do not want the sound effects to stop current sound output.  (You can easily test exactly what this does by holding down the enter key after highlighting a file in the Files list box.  If the check box is cleared, the entire file will play over and over. Otherwise, only a short section will be repeated.)

Note that only sounds of the same type are stopped.  So a wave file will not interrupt a currently playing MIDI file.  This allows music to be played during the game without stopping sound effects.

Use the Loop start sound checkbox to loop either a wave file or MIDI file throughout the whole game.  If you use this option, remember you cannot have any other sound events using the same file type (wave or MIDI) or they will either stop the start sound, or not be heard.

The two checkboxes Pause MIDI on losing focus and Stop when game ends are designed to be used in conjunction with the looping option.  The former pauses any current MIDI sound or the game start wave, so that you are able to still use other multimedia applications.  The second allows you to stop any MIDI sound or the game start wave when you finish a game, so that music is only playing during the actual game play.

The Mute checkbox allows you to turn off the sound effects without having to set each event to <none>.  Note that muting the sound does not turn off sound from other sources, only the effects during the game.  (So the test button will work even when mute is checked.)


Reload Settings

Select this to reload the saved settings from AMAZEING.INI.  This is useful for when you are experimenting with new colour schemes and wish to start again.


Save Settings on Exit

This option sets whether the settings in the Options and  Colour menus are saved in the initialization file, AMAZEING.INI.  This file is checked for settings when Amazeing is started.

Please note that this option is only available in the registered version of Amazeing. For details on registering, see Register NOW! from the Help menu of the main game window.


Mucus Options

Mucus Game

Intelligence

Mucus Radar

Random Start Position

Mucus Moves On Turns

Step Past Mucus


Mucus Game

By starting a mucus game, you bring a big green glob of mucus into the maze, either at the exit point, or at some Random Start Position.  Every move you make, the mucus also makes a move, in a direction dependent on its Intelligence.  This includes turns (left, right, up, down and 180° direction change) as well as movement, if the Mucus Moves On Turns option is on.  For moves of multiple spaces when using the mouse, the mucus is moved the corresponding number of times.  Hence moves of this type are risky.

When you are in the same corridor as the mucus, it can see you, and will head straight towards you.  If you go around a corner, it is too stupid too follow, so you can "lose" it in that way.  Note that you can't see the mucus if looking up or down.

When you are caught by the mucus, the kill sound will be heard, and a dialog box shown.

In order to play the mucus game, you must have the Coloured Walls option turned on.


Intelligence

There are three different intelligence level settings for the Mucus Game.

Stupid mucus makes totally random moves and will generally not stray very far from its initial position, unless you make many moves during a long game.  Thus, if the mucus is near the exit, you may find getting to it a little difficult!

Mucus of Moderate intelligence will only move onto a square where it has already been if there are no surrounding positions left where it has not been.  This type of mucus can easily get confused.  For example, in a T-junction situation it may move backwards and forwards over places it has already been, and take a while to get back out to a new position, as in the diagram below.

Smart mucus overcomes this problem by cleverly backtracking until it finds a place it has not been.  When it has been through the whole maze and there is nowhere left to go, it starts over again.  If the mucus of Moderate intelligence manages to cover all of the maze space, it becomes the same as the Stupid mucus.

Please note that a choice of intelligence levels is only available in the registered version of Amazeing. (In the unregistered version, the mucus is always stupid.) For details on registering, see Register NOW! from the Help menu of the main game window.


Mucus Radar

To assist you in avoiding the mucus during a Mucus Game, you can use the handy mucus radar.  This option displays a radar window from which you can work out the bearing of the mucus from yourself, and roughly how far away it is.  The radar is sensitive to a radius of 5 squares, and the angle at which the mucus appears is dependent upon the direction in which you are facing.  It is possible therefore, for the radar to miss the mucus, if you have turned at just the right moment.  Due to this it is sometimes wise to stop and wait for a complete sweep of the radar to see if the mucus is near you.

Note also that in multi-level mazes, the mucus radar only works for the current level, so you cannot tell from it if the mucus is near you if it is on a different level.

If the radar animation appears jerky, it is probably due to your processor being too slow.  Changing the various maze drawing options may help.

Please note that this option is only available in the registered version of Amazeing. For details on registering, see Register NOW! from the Help menu of the main game window.


Random Start Position

When you start a Mucus Game, the mucus is placed at the exit position in the maze, unless this option is turned on.  Note that turning this option on during a mucus game does not change the current position of the mucus.


Mucus Moves On Turns

Normally, in a Mucus Game, the mucus moves one space per space you move (forwards, backwards, up, or down). If you turn this option on, it will also move one space everytime you turn left, right, up, down, or around to face the opposite direction, and whenever you place or remove a marker.  Obviously, this means the mucus will move more spaces during the game than you, and so your chances of getting caught are much higher.


Step Past Mucus

In a Mucus Game, if the mucus is right next to you (adjacent square to you), and you move towards it, you will get caught (and slobbered on), unless this option is turned on.  This option allows you to cleverly step past the mucus.  However, you can only use it when you move forwards or sideways.  If you move backwards you will still be caught (you step into the waiting mucus and are engulfed!).


Colour Menu

This menu allows you to select the colours for the walls, ceiling, floors, messages and manholes in the maze.

For Pure Colours mode, you can create colours with the user defined colour setup dialog.  This lets you select RGB values for the walls, floor/ceiling and manholes at the beginning, middle, and end of the corridor.  The Use middle checkbox allows you to ignore the colour setting for the middle of the corridor for each maze element (walls, floor/ceiling or manholes), and hence give the corridor constant shading between only two colours.  The Different coloured walls checkbox allows you to ignore the E/W walls colour setting.  This option is not given for the normal colour setup, as it is easy enough to select the same colour for N/S and E/W walls.

For more information on different coloured walls, please see Realistic Colouring.


Solve Menu

Animate Solution

Return to Game

Hint


Animate Solution

If you're really having a hard time with the maze, you can select Animate Solution from the Solve menu.  This takes you through the maze from wherever you are.  You can select an animation speed from 1 to 10, where 10 is the fastest speed.  (A speed of 1 delays for 1 second between every move, whereas a speed of 10 delays for only 100 milliseconds.)

Use a high speed if you feel like just watching, but if you want to learn how to solve the maze from your current position, a speed of 4 or 5 is recommended.

During the animation, the coordinates, exit distance and compass are shown.  (See Show Coordinates, Show Distance and Show Compass.) You will need to watch the compass closely to see when a corner is turned, as this can be confusing otherwise.

When the animation ends, all options and your position are reset to the values prior to the animation.

Animation is paused when you switch to other applications, minimize Amazeing or use the help facility.  See Playing as an Icon for information on animation when minimized.


Return to Game

During animation of the maze solution, select Return to Game from the Solve menu to stop the animation and return to the game.  (All options and your position are reset to the values prior to the animation.)


Hint

Select this to display a message box giving you a hint.  If used exclusively, hints can take you right through to the exit from anywhere in the maze.

Please note that this option is only available in the registered version of Amazeing. For details on registering, see Register NOW! from the Help menu of the main game window.