| Maziacs | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Don Priestley, Andy French |
| Publisher(s) | dk'tronics |
| Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, MSX |
| Release date | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Action adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
| Rating(s) | N/A |
Maziacs is an action adventure maze video game published by dk'tronics in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum,[1] Commodore 64[2] and MSX. A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video Don Priestley (born 1940 was a video Game programmer who wrote for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum between 1982 and 1989. dk'tronics were a software and hardware company during the 1980s In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd MSX was the name of a standardized Home computer architecture in the 1980s Events A major shakeout of the video game industry begins By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$ 3200 million to US$100 million See also [[Game classification]] Video games are categorized into Genres based on their Gameplay interaction In video gaming, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session A video game content rating system is a system used for the classification of Video games into suitability-related groups A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. dk'tronics were a software and hardware company during the 1980s Events A major shakeout of the video game industry begins By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$ 3200 million to US$100 million The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd MSX was the name of a standardized Home computer architecture in the 1980s [3]
Contents |
History
Maziacs, written by Don Priestley, was based on his earlier ZX81 game Mazogs[4] which was published by Bug Byte in 1982[5]. Don Priestley (born 1940 was a video Game programmer who wrote for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum between 1982 and 1989. The Sinclair ZX81 Home computer, released by Sinclair Research in 1981, was the follow up to the company's ZX80. Bug-Byte Software Ltd was a company founded in 1980 by Tony Baden and Tony Milner two Oxford chemistry graduates and was one of the first to develop a range of 8-bit Events December 27 - Starcade, a Video game Television Game show, debuts on TBS in the United States Mazogs was one of the most successful ZX81 games[4] so Don Priestley adapted it for the higher-resolution, colour-screen ZX Spectrum and MSX. The Commodore 64 port was written by Andy French. In 1988, Dietrich Raisin developed a version of Maziacs for the Atari ST in Omikron BASIC and released it as Public Domain software. The gameplay of this port was identical to the original version, but the graphics were newly designed.
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 the spider-like 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.
A maziac can only be killed effectively with a sword, 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. [6]
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.
Moving through the maze and fighting maziacs decreases the player's energy, which can be replenished by finding food.
Maziacs also supported the Currah MicroSpeech peripheral. Currah is a British Computer Peripheral manufacturer famous mainly for the Speech synthesis cartridges it designed for the ZX
Critical reaction
When Maziacs was published, critical reception was good. CRASH magazine awarded 82%, highlighting the appealing graphics and animation. Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum Home computer. [6] 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. [7]
Maziacs was ranked at number 99 in the Your Sinclair official top 100 ZX Spectrum games of all time, due to the game's claustrophobic atmosphere, choreographed animation and general character. [4]
See also
External links
References
- ^ Maziacs at World of Spectrum
- ^ Maziacs at Lemon64
- ^ Maziacs at Generation-MSX
- ^ a b c "The YS Official Top 100 Part 1" at The Your Sinclair Rock 'n' Roll Years
- ^ Mazogs at ZX81stuff. Maze game was a Computer game genre description used by computer journalists during the 1980s to describe any game in which the entire playing field was a Maze MobyGames is a Website devoted to cataloging computer and video games, both past and present org
- ^ a b Maziacs review, CRASH issue 1, Februrary 1984
- ^ "Crashback" from CRASH issue 7
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic