Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

Never have I felt more apprehension than reading this sentence

There are no hints or clues anywhere because there is no documentation that this game ever even existed.

about a game related to Deathmaze 5000.

— Matt W. in the comments of my first post about Madhouse

One of the disadvantages to a write-as-I-play style is that I don’t get to plunge into the hex machine code until I’m done (or at least I get really, really, stuck); Rob in the comments searched through and found a copyright notice which explains quite a bit and also makes the whole experience even more terrifying. Previously I theorized this could be a “hacked” game but special tools were needed that didn’t exist at this time to do the kind of work required here. It appears a madlad from Germany custom-made his own.

ADVLIB Copyright (c) 1982/83 Eberhard Mattes

Eberhard Mattes was a Video Genie enthusiast and has his name linked to some “monitor software” which tracks what’s going on in machine code and a bios to use CP/M on Video Genie. The copyright statement above implies he made his own fangame program to modify the machine code of the Frank Corr engine. Without any other name attached I’m going to guess this game is likely by Mattes himself. (It could even be the tool ADVLIB never got released, just the game made with it.) I’m not clear yet which game was the “base” but the verb FART is included and only showed up in the first two (Deathmaze 5000 and Labyrinth) and the screen layout is closer to those games; the inmate graphics and some other elements only show up starting in Asylum.

Mattes appears to be the same person who later went to the University of Stuttgart and worked on TeX libraries for OS/2.

Fangames often are harder and less fair than the originals of a game; the enthusiasts who have played through a game multiple times really want a challenge and/or to torment their friends. For example, the “troll levels” so now well-refined through the Super Mario Maker games are their own ecosystem far from the ethos of Nintendo-designed levels.

You might ask, how could a Deathmaze 5000 style game be less fair than the original? You’ll see.

Continuing from last time…

…I had traded some gun powder for a bottle and a firework rocket (the rocket indicates it has a cord if you LOOK at it). I also had in my inventory a green key (used everywhere I could manage), lighter fluid, and a golden lighter (which I had filled with the aforementioned fluid). On the obstacle side of things, there was an inmate who wanted five gold coins for a fuse, a “transporter” that seems to need aforementioned fuse, a guard that stops me on level 1, a place where steel “protective” doors fall on level 1, and (still unexplored as of my last post) I had a teleporter square to get through and a mine-laden level 3.

I’m going to do the teleporter first (which will be short), then the mine area (which will be frustrating), and finally the guard and the steel doors (which are connected).

After stepping into the teleporter and turning “south”.

I don’t have much to say about the teleporter area; it drops you in a region which “loops” the west to the east side and seems intended to just make you walk forever if you don’t notice what’s going on. I dropped items (which left behind boxes) to confirm the area is endless. Mind you, Deathmaze had something trigger with particular turn numbers in a static room, so there may be something to this area still, but I have no clues pointing here yet.

There is also the possibility there is something on one of the random walls (I have yet to face each and every one to check); there’s a wall with a special object on level 3 (the mined floor) as you’ll see next.

Arriving in the elevator to level 3 and turning “north”.

The level is mostly divided into a grid pattern, where the outermost circle is mine-free, but there are many dangerous squares that will blow you up if you step inside the grid.

The mines are hopefully self-explanatory (they’re invisible, I had to step on every single one to map them); some other points on the map above:

1. There are many doors marked “elevator”. Only the door you came in on is a real elevator; walking into any of the other “elevator” rooms lets you know the room is fake, and it drops you down into a 1 by 1 room with no apparent means of escape. This seems to be a softlock.

None of the Corr games had this kind of softlock; one reason why this one is more unfair.

2. In the upper right corner there’s a visible box, but it is blocked by glass walls to the west and south. I have been unable to break through the wall, even when using FART from all the way across the map, flying towards it, and ramming. (Before anyone asks, it doesn’t work to bypass mines either.) Animation below:

3. There are two squares marked “NOTHING”. Those are boxes, and when you open them, the game describes that you have found nothing. You are unable to take nothing. They are pure trolling. (Again, a few steps past anything Corr did, although he did have red herrings in Deathmaze.)

4. There’s one wall (the only place where the grid breaks) with a mirror. I haven’t been able to get anything useful to happen here but it does indicate looking at particular walls might be needed (meaning I need to comb over every area very carefully).

The map is no doubt incomplete since I haven’t made it to the inner area yet. My guess is I’ll bust past the glass wall (somehow) which will then give access, and I also guess that the box in the upper right corner has NOTHING just like the others. You might think the firework rocket would be helpful for the glass. Unfortunately, it’s a little too explosive; you can light the cord, drop it, and run away, but it always makes a big enough explosion to (presumably) smash the glass but also kill the player.

Now, the level with the guards. There’s not much to it at the start other than the guard telling you to go back to your cell…

…and the steel wall…

…but notice how it is protective. And we have a very powerful rocket. There’s enough time while the cord burns to drop the rocket next to the guard and make a beeline for the wall.

The wall that dropped has what looks like a button.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to press it! I might need to do some serious noun-hunting (again, this is a little more unfair than what Corr did). It could even be a “hole” rather than a button or some such nonsense. If there was a way to look at the wall that might help but the obvious candidates (LOOK WALL, LOOK STEEL WALL, LOOK AROUND) give no joy, and plain LOOK BUTTON says “I see no button.”

Enough events have happened this seemed like a good time to report in, at least. I don’t think this is going to go as long as the Asylum games but we’ll see.