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Maze Strategy

Some useful pointers to make maze games more relaxing and fun, and to get your score over a million... • Understand the nature of the maze before you begin play. Discover where it begins and ends, check for dead ends or corners where you can get trapped, note position of any bonus areas.

September 2, 1982

The CREEM Archive presents the magazine as originally created. Digital text has been scanned from its original print format and may contain formatting quirks and inconsistencies.

Maze Strategy

Some useful pointers to make maze games more relaxing and fun, and to get your score over a million...

• Understand the nature of the maze before you begin play. Discover where it begins and ends, check for dead ends or corners where you can get trapped, note position of any bonus areas.

• Always remember that the safest patch between two maze points may not be a straight line.

• Begin plan. Note all pitfalls and dangers that are encountered while running the maze. If you are eliminated by the enemy, try to think back to the maze path from the start of play until the point of annihilation, and figure out just how much of the maze was safe.

• Focus on the whole game board. Don’t get caught staring myopically at only one point on the board, you never know what may be creeping up behind you. You must keep the enemy and any dangers in site at all times.

• Make all reactions quickly. Slowing down when the enemy is in pursuit is a dangerous moment in a maze game.

• Try not to tense up. Often your body will get very tense as you concentrate on the game. This will eventually lead to jittery player control action and mistakes.

• One way to keep relaxed is to keep your hands on the controllers very lightly. Whenever you feel yourself gripping the controller too strongly, ease up on the grip, and ease up on your body tensions as well.

• Ignore any distractions around you. If someone is talking too loudly or otherwise bothering you, don’t pay any attention, and don’t even try to tell them to stop, just concentrate on your play and maybe they’ll go away.

• Don’t get suckered by the machine into thinking that just because it started easy it’s going to stay easy. High scores come from understanding the shifting patterns of the game program as the game continues.

• When you’re first playing a new game, try to spend as much time on it as you can. Playing a new game only once or twice won’t really teach you the subtleties of play.

• Beware of high score excitement. You’ve made it through the maze, gotten the cherries, and you feel like you’re really flying. In the midst of all the excitement you’re suddenly zapped by the enemy and the game ends. What happened? Simple, you let your guard down during the moment when you hit a high score.

• While you shouldn’t discuss strategy with other players during play, there’s nothing wrong with talking play between games. Some players want to keep their strategies to themselves, but others are willing to discuss their views of the finer points of play.

• Don’t play one machine to death. PI® can be very addictive, and if you hang onti one machine long enough you’ll begin ti get stale. Even if you’re devoted to oni game, give it an occasional rest and plai something else. You’ll come back to you favorite game with renewed energy.

• Don’t get aggravated with prograir tricks. Occasionally you’ll run into littk moves in the game program that are at bes cheap tricks and at worst blatant interven tion in the overall rules of the game. Jus take it philosophically, even though it mas completely throw your play.

. • Get a half hour of fresh air once evers three days.