[Custom dungeon] 3DMaze [CSBWin] [Paul R. Stevens]

[Paul Stevens]

Version: 1.0
Platform: CSBWin
Author: Paul R. Stevens
Email address: prsteven@facstaff.wisc.edu
Date published: 2003, February 26
Date last updated: 2003, February 26

Story:
Forty-five years ago I built a 3-dimensional
maze out of balsa wood and plastic. You put
a BB in the top and by tilting it the right way you
could get it to the bottom.

Using CSBuild and the CSBwin runtime engine I
have made an electronic version of that maze.
It is only 7x7x7 but it is very difficult. No tricks or
shaking was needed....simply tilting it the correct
directions. (pressing forward/backward, left/right,
and up/down in the electronic version)

If you want to try it... 3Dmaze.rar at
webpages.charter.net/pstevens1

Aim:
Find the Gold Key and open the door. You will
receive no hints from me for at least a month.

Notes:
This was not intended to be a 'released' sort of dungeon. It was a kind of demonstration. But several people have liked it.
Screamers are there so that you could spend eternity in the dungeon without starving to death.
It is possible to reach the Rabbit's foot.

Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)

[Sphenx]

Amusing and insane, you never get the path you want to go to. Not easy to map though.
I'll try again to go further than Chicago.

[Paul Stevens]

Yes, indeed. In order to recreate it I had to map it
from the original wood and plastic puzzle. And I could
not see where the BB was inside and had to tell by
feeling it roll around. I could tell pretty much how big
an area it was in and I could feel it drop through the
floor. And I had some memory of the overall design, but
not the details.

Seeing it in a first-person perspective from the inside
is not very much help. That is one reason I put in quite
a few markers---like "Chicago"---to help you orient yourself.

[ChristopheF]

Nice DM "mod"!

It is very hard indeed...

[Gambit37]

Infuriating! But strangely compelling... I'll beat it....one day! :-)

[Sphenx]

Well, that's good for me, less than one day. Gary Indiana! This was tricky .. I won't say anything.. Ra bomb?

[sucinum]

wow. too bad im too impatient for such things :(
but the dungeon is amazing :)

[PicturesInTheDark]

This game definitely earns a review, so here we go:

Values ranking from Neophyte (1) to Archmaster (10).

Gameplay: no rating -> Would have been Neophyte for a normal dungeon but since monsters have no use in a pure maze, a rating makes no sense
Originality: Master -> I think this is the first "master" rating I gave so far. The idea (of the original as described by Paul) and the implementation are outstanding. Especially if you tried it yourself, you'll know what I mean - the concept is thoroughly thought through...
Difficulty: Adept -> Without drawing maps nearly impossible. I'm still wondering if anybody of Paul's friends ever could solve that puzzle in the "real" version when you cannot see inside...
Puzzles: no rating -> Would have been Novice normally, but since the puzzle in that case is the whole dungeon no point in rating that separately
Size: Master -> The second ;) In this case, smaller is clearly more. A real jewel in effective mazebuilding. Just imagining what a fully sized one would look like makes my head spin...
Replayabilty: Artisan -> Can be played again and again. Pauses between attempts seem likely, but if you basically like mazes, the fun will always be there. Beating this bugger was a lot of fun...
Craft: Expert -> Well done. Except for the "vanishing" Ra bomb" I could not find any problems, although I would have appreciated one or two more clothes - Airwing looked a bit stupid with the Casque 'n Coif and halters... but I agree this is beside the point here. Food was fine for me, although without maps there might be a problem. Others might tell. The wall inscriptions were a nice touch.
Game Ending: no rating -> Since no comparison to a normal dungeon, Paul made it minimalistic. I was a bit disappointed but knowing his approach by now (no unnecessary coding) I lived with it. At least a text passage would have been nice though, Paul ... ;)
Story: no rating -> No story (except how and why it came into being)
Atmosphere: no rating -> Still want to add here that I did not get away from the game until I really had seen all, so it was thrilling. But you probably have to like that kind of "dungeon" to like that kind of atmosphere. Just me and all those pits... ;)
Overall: Expert (actually close to Master) -> Along with Sophias "Reactor" certainly the most memorable experience so far apart from the original series. The main reason for this being so extraordinary is the way the whole playing process changes because of the mutations Paul did to give the same options as his "real" maze. I can't explain further without spoiling it, but if you play it you'll certainly find out and will have some hard brain work to do...

Best Parts: First realisation that something was different when I rolled forward to the character mirror - should've read the text more closely ...
Mapping the whole thing was a lot of fun - several wrong attempts before I got a solid foothold and could work from there... and of course: finding out how it works. The real fun is: you think you know - until you come to certain areas where you find out you don't know. And so you find out. But it happens again... and again - always something new to find ;) Great!

Worst Part: Actually - the end. No complaints whatsoever about the dungeon, but for all that effort I felt that at least some small coding effort would have been appropriate after a lot of hard work.

I can only recommend this unique dungeon to anyone who can live without monsters and is prepared to try his/her wits on a completely different kind of problem. It definitely requires some hard thought to beat this...

[Paul Stevens]

Heh! Thanks for all the kind words.

Henry Higgins pointed out that you cannot
reach the Rabbit's Foot. I agree that it seems
unreachable. But he also claims that he did
reach the Rabbit's Foot. So now we are confused.
We both agree it is impossible and he says it
has been done. You say you "Mapped the whole
thing". Do you know how to reach the Rabbit's
Foot???? A simple 'yes' or 'no'...Don't tell us how!

If the Rabbit's Foor cannot be reached I can fix it
by moving one wall.

This was not intended to be a 'released' sort of
dungeon. It was a kind of demonstration. But several
people have liked it. Maybe you could suggest something
we could do at the end....there is a lot of space on
level 0. Suggest some additional items to scatter about.
Did you kill any of the Screamers???? They were put there
so that you could spend eternity in the dungeon without
starving to death. We could work on enhancements via EMail
so as not to give away a couple of hints.
Then maybe Christophe would put it on his site.

let me know: prsteven@facstaff.wisc.edu

[Paul Stevens]

Oh my goodness. It is possible to reach
the Rabbit's foot. But it is an even better puzzle
than I had designed. Talk about serendipity!

[Jardice]

Nice Maze Paul. Very tough to finish(even more now since I think I wasn't suppose to pick up any items on the floor).

For the end: How about something like "Thanks for beating this Maze! You prize is...that you have to do it all over again!! Prepare to be once again agonized! Hahahah!! *player warps back to level 0 and everything resets*(don't do this..i'm not in a....um....normal state of mind right now :-D). To tell the truth I have no idea what to suggest for this map :-(

[DjArcas]

Now, what you want to do is build the CSB dungeon out of balsa wood... ;)