''Ray's Maze'' is a
graphic adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
, released in 1990.
''Ray's Maze'' was created with the
World Builder
World Builder is a game creation system for point-and-click adventure games. It was released in 1986 by Silicon Beach Software and had already been used for creating Enchanted Scepters in 1984. On August 7, 1995, developer William C. Appleton ...
game creation system by Ray Dunakin.
With no formal training, Ray started making World Builder games on the family computer with his son in 1989.
After creating several simple games together, Ray started developing a complex puzzle game.
This ended up becoming Ray's Maze and was released as
shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
.
The player takes on the role of "Fearless" Frank Farley exploring an interdimensional maze through teleportation devices known as "jump doors."
Their goal is to both escape the maze and collect enough valuables to cover the cost of the journey, $1,000.
Starting in a store where the player can purchase items to take with them, they then must travel through hundreds of scenes across several different worlds, all while fighting monsters and evading traps.
Legacy
Three more games were released following the success of Ray's Maze.
Two were direct sequels and one was a spiritual successor in the style of the Ray's Maze series.
All of the games were created with World Builder, and all were released as shareware.
In exchange for registration, players would receive documents with tips and maps.
Ray's games had a huge impact on the Mac community, inspiring others to create games as well.
Another Fine Mess
Released in 1992, this is the first sequel to Ray's Maze.
The player again takes on the role of Frank exploring another interdimensional maze and solving puzzles.
A Mess O'Trouble
The third and final game in the Ray's Maze series was released in 1994.
It is the largest of the three and allows the player play as the female character "Daredevil" Dawn.
An updated version was also released for Mac OS X in 2015
Twisted!
Twisted! was a successor to the Ray's Maze series, released in 1997. The player takes on the role of a storm chaser who is transported to a strange world and must solve puzzles to find their way home.
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://www.raydunakin.com
The Ray's Maze PageRay's Maze on the Internet Archive
Adventure games
Macintosh games