What if I told you someone made a 3D first-person perspective-based game for the Atari? You'd think I'd gone stark raving mad, right? Yet it was true. CBS Electronics must be full of crazy people, because much larger computers at the time struggled to do what this game accomplishes. I suppose it must be the relatively small scope of the project that made it successful. Well, that and the custom-designed 12kb memory chip installed in the cartridge.

The gameplay is very simple and very easy to get a handle on. At the beginning of each level, you get a little animation of the level being generated. At any point during the game, you can press the button to see a map of the maze, sometimes including the position of monsters. Note that performing actions like changing directions (i.e. walking backward), turning, and looking at the map can only be performed at specific points on the grid, kind of like how some versions of Pac Man don't let you turn until you reach a corner.

Free Tip: The longer you continue on your path without stopping, the faster you'll walk. Use this to your advantage by making your movements as smooth as possible so as to outrun monsters.

As with most maze games of this type in this time period, there are monsters to be avoided. While monsters won't always be visible in the maze due to your limited perspective, you can tell they're nearby when you hear music. This is a very clever and popular method for allowing players to tell when they're about to walk face-first into a trap, and it shows off the technical achievement that is this game.

Obviously your objective is to get out of the maze without being mauled by the ghoulies. This turns out to be a really easy task when you use the map. I found myself regularly getting the mazes right within seconds by taking advantage of the map. It does get harder later on as the map stops telling you where the monsters are, but you can still hear them coming, so I wouldn't say that adds too much difficulty. The game gets really hard later on when it stops revealing the map to you in full at the beginning; you have to map it out yourself. However, you also can't always use that trick where you hug the wall, because the game regularly generates mazes with pillars that will lead you in circles if you try that.

Fun challenge: Try to beat the maze without the map or by making your own map.

One of the key traps in this game is false exit doors. You can't tell which door is the real door until you get the key, which reveals the true exit on your map. This is critical because some doors will teleport you to a random location in the maze, making you lose progress and creating an especially difficult situation if you're not using the map to your advantage.

All in all, the gameplay is fantastically entertaining, but not very challenging. This game's main claim to fame is the graphic and sound gimmicks. How do those hold up?

Well, as I said, the game's 3D first-person perspective is unique and incredibly ground-breaking for its time. I've never seen anything like this for the Atari in my life. Is it beautiful? No. The most detailed sprites are for the enemy monsters, the colors can get a bit ugly at times, and the game tends to overuse the Atari's trademark flashing colors effect. However, the game does look pretty darn good, and for the technical achievement alone I'd say the game deserves a 10.

The sound isn't too groundbreaking either. As I said before, you can tell when a monster is nearby by the sound of music playing, and the music gets louder as monsters approach. I think this is very impressive for the Atari, and it's very effectively used. Other than the monsters, you hear a footstep sound when you move which is surprisingly unintrusive and doesn't annoy the **** out of me. Even if the sound isn't technically impressive, it's very well-designed. My only complaint is the sounds the game plays between levels as it's generating, which are loud and annoying and could have used a little bit more restraint.

The combination of graphics and sound come together very well when a monster is approaching you. Imagine being a kid in 1983 and playing this game for the first time in a darkened room wrapped up in a blanket. You're just about to solve the maze when you hear the sound of a disembodied goblin-dog head coming toward you. You panic and whir around, trying to find out where it's coming from. Then it occurs to you to check your map. Oh my god, it's right behind you! You turn around just in time to see it take the last few steps before gnawing your face off. Game over.

That's why I think this game deserves a 10 out of 10.

Summary

Graphics: 10/10

An important technical achievement at the time, even if it's a little bit too indulgent.

Sound: 9/10

Very effective use of sound without being too annoying, with the important exception of the map generator section between levels.

Addictiveness: 6/10

How addictive this game is depends on what kind of person you are, but I wouldn't count on this game aging well over time.

Depth: 10/10

Randomly generated maze levels? Yes please!

Difficulty: 5/10

Too easy if you take advantage of the in-game map. Gets harder later on when you have to explore the map yourself.

Story: 5/10

It's a maze game on the freaking Atari.

Arbitrary final score:

10/10 Spectacular!

Another good review I really like that you make reviews for this old games since they don't have reviews already I have never heard of this games but it looks like I will love it I will be playing this.Thank you and keep up the good work.