Monster Maze

Moby ID: 54428
Atari 8-bit Specs
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Description official description

Monster Maze is a Pac-Man variant played from a first person perspective. The player has been trapped in a chamber of horrors where he is being chased by mutated monsters who want nothing more than to put their teeth into human flesh. Throughout the corridors of the maze the player will find gold bars lying around that he can collect. He can also find vitamins which allows him to kill the monsters. When charged by the vitamin the monsters will automatically be killed when the player moves into the same square as them. If the player would not be charged he would instead lose one of his nine lives. The maze consists of multiple levels. When the player is done with one he can move to the next by jumping into a hole which will take him deeper into the maze. As the player progresses the difficulty will increase with him.

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Average score: 62% (based on 1 ratings)

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Average score: 2.5 out of 5 (based on 2 ratings with 1 reviews)

An interesting, but flawed, take on the Pac-Man concept

The Good
If you were a child of the Eighties, then you have probably heard of Pac-Man. The object is to go around a maze collecting dots and avoiding ghosts that pursue you non-stop. It was widely popular, and several game companies tried to improve on the gameplay. One of these was Epyx (formerly known as Automated Simulations) with its version called Monster Maze. Here, the maze is delivered through a first-person perspective, meaning you cannot see where you are headed.

The maze is littered with gold bars that need to be picked up. When there is none left in the maze, you are transported to the next, more difficult one. This is not simple, however. Monsters roam about, and the game warns you if there is one nearby. You can get vitamins to charge yourself up (for a limited time) and can then kill any monsters that you come across. Added to the mix are teleporters that warp you to a different part of the maze, and holes that take you down to another maze.

In case you get lost, you can bring up a map by pressing the P key to get an idea of where in the maze you are. Your current position is represented by the green X, gold bars by black dots, and monsters by solid red circles. Vitamin pills are shown as yellow plus signs, while black zeroes indicate teleporters. You cannot move while you are looking at the map. Other controls are < and > to turn left and right, and Space to go forward.

The walls of the maze look good, and I quite liked the appearance of the monsters; they actually look like demons, judging by their sinister look. The walls are well designed. Sound-wise, the effects are very basic and there is no background music, but Monster Maze was released when all this was the norm. Apparently back then, game companies had a thing for programming their own rendition of the Funeral March when you lose a life or when the game ends.

The Bad
Monster Maze is poorly programmed. The distances in which you travel through the maze are inconsistent; one move can take you one meter to the left, while another move in the same direction can be five meters away. As a result, passages you need to go down are bypassed, no matter what route you take to get to the same one. I noticed some other problems in the game. I could not pick up some gold bars or vitamin pills no matter which direction I was facing, and the monsters didn’t seem to move; they stayed in the same spot.

The Bottom Line
Although Monster Maze is an interesting take on the Pac-Man concept, where the game is presented in a first-person perspective and you cannot really see what is ahead of you, I found several problems in the game such as not being able to collect certain items or access some passages, and the monsters stayed in the same spot. Thank God you are able to select the starting level before the game starts. The game was only released for the Atari 400/800 and the VIC-20, but the author wasn't interested in porting the game over to other machines, meaning that if you want to try this game out for yourself, you need to get a hold of either of these two.

VIC-20 · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2022

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Game added by Kabushi.

Game added January 22, 2012. Last modified October 9, 2023.