''Maziacs'' is an

action adventure Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

maze game A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

published by

DK'Tronics DK'Tronics Ltd (stylised as dk'tronics) was a British software and hardware company active during the 1980s. It primarily made peripherals for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC but also released video games for the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, ...

in 1983 for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and MSX.

History

''Maziacs'', written by

Don Priestley Don Priestley (born 1940) is a teacher and former video game programmer who wrote over 20 commercial games for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum home computers between 1982 and 1989. Despite successful releases for DK'Tronics, such as '' 3D Tanx'' and ''Mazi ...

, was based on his earlier

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cos ...

game ''

Mazogs ''Mazogs'' is a maze video game and developed by Softsync and published in 1982 for the Timex Sinclair 1000. Another version was programmed by Don Priestley and published for the ZX81 by Bug-Byte. Don Priestly followed up the game with ''Maziacs ...

''"The YS Official Top 100 Part 1"
at The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years which was published by Bug Byte in 1982. ''Mazogs'' was one of the most successful ZX81 games so Don Priestley adapted it for the higher-resolution, colour-screen ZX Spectrum and MSX. The Commodore 64 port was written by Andy French.

Gameplay

''Maziacs'' takes place in a randomly generated, scrolling, overhead-view maze, in which the player-controlled protagonist must find gold and exit the level. The gold is placed at least 200 moves from the start position, and the maze is patrolled by monsters called maziacs. Prisoners are sometimes found in the walls of the maze, who can highlight the path to the gold for a short period of time. Moving through the maze and fighting maziacs decreases the player's energy, which can be replenished by finding food. The main game screen shows one fiftieth of the maze, but a "view mode" expands the view to show one twelfth. Whilst this mode is useful for scouting purposes, the player cannot move whilst viewing it. Maziacs can only be killed effectively with swords, several of which are found in the maze but can only be used once. A sword cannot be carried at the same time as the gold. These last two factors lead to the tactic of avoiding groups of maziacs, but killing as many as possible before collecting the gold.''Maziacs'' review, CRASH issue 1, February 1984 ''Maziacs'' supported the Currah MicroSpeech peripheral.

Reception

When ''Maziacs'' was published, critical reception was good. ''

CRASH Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

'' magazine awarded 82%, highlighting the appealing graphics and animation. In a retrospective later in the year, ''CRASH'' criticized the slightly unresponsive keyboard controls and felt it was less addictive, but continued to praise the animation techniques."Crashback"
from CRASH issue 7 ''Maziacs'' was ranked at number 99 in the ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The ...

'' official top 100 ZX Spectrum games of all time, because of the game's claustrophobic atmosphere, choreographed animation, and general character.

References

External links

* *
Play several versions of Maziacs on the web browser
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. {{DK'Tronics 1983 video games Commodore 64 games MSX games ZX Spectrum games Action video games Maze games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Single-player video games