It is Saturday midnight, and a late summer storm is brewing outside.
You have been studying late, trying in vain to avert a thesis crisis - in last month's issue of the Rat Runner's Journal (a publication devoted to your fellow investigators of learning processes), an academic rival of yours has just published the results you have spent the last four years of graduate study striving to complete.
You begin to drift off into a fitful doze, dreaming of rats caught in mazes, when suddenly the telephone startles you fully awake.
With your heart pounding, you pick up the receiver and hear the agitated voice of Dr. La Brynthe, the noted psychologist and your thesis advisor, on the other end, "I'm at my laboratory, and I think I've found a way you can use the results from your maze studies to complete your thesis and receive your degree. Now listen carefully and I'll give you the... Who's there??... What's going on... Help! Help!"
Suddenly, the line goes dead...
You wrestle with your conscience for a minute or two, but concern for your mentor's welfare, combined with a chance to salvage your studies, quickly crystallizes in your mind an inescapable conclusion - you must find out what happened! You dial the professor's number, but to no avail. After a few more anguished moments you grab your raincoat and head out into the wrath of the storm.
You drive for what seems like hours, and as you near the laboratory, you think back over the years you have spent with the professor. As a teacher, he is excellent, always urging his students to think a problem through to reach their own solution. A hard taskmaster, but extremely polite at all times. Your mind drifts and wanders to his odd quirks and the whispered rumours that circulate in the halls of the university when shadows are long. A strange man...
Always in his cellar, peering over his thick spectacles, perusing his collections of old wine and antique cars, playing his ancient violin for relaxation.
... Classified research, but the government grants were not renewed...
Of course, he experimented on animals, that is his profession! And those hints that humans were involved could not be true, could they?
The laboratory building, silhouetted against a flash of lightning, takes on a sinister appearance, like a lurking monster awaiting its victim... You tell yourself that your imagination has got out of control; you muster up every shred of courage you can, and leave the dry warmth of your car to begin the long walk past the rusted fence to the darkened, rain-washed porch.
Apprehensive and unsure, you lean into the rain as you climb the steps, walk toward the front door, step on the welcome mat, and...
Before playing The Maze the game should be reset, otherwise the type of actions taken in previous plays of the game will affect the final score. See the first part of the Hints or Solution for details.
The title screen gives 1981, but the game may have been released in a later year.
The Maze is written in BASIC with assembler routines to speed up parts of the game.
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