How to play Maze Craze online
- Player 1 cop: arrow keys, button = Space
- Player 2 cop: T/F/G/H (up/left/down/right), button = A
- Choose game number, speed and visibility: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start the race: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Cop speed: F4 and F9 set the Player 1 and Player 2 difficulty switches
- Save and load: Ctrl + 0–9 saves, Alt + 0–9 loads
Gameplay
Each player is a small coloured square, one red and one blue, starting on the left side of the maze. You move in four directions along the streets and try to find the way out on the far right before your opponent does. There are also single-player variations, where the race is against the maze itself.
In many games, robbers wait in the maze. Depending on the game there are two, three or five of them, and they lurk around corners. In the basic robber games, one touch knocks you out and you lose. Other games change the rules: in some you must capture three robbers before you are allowed to win, in others a robber only paralyses you for a while, and in the Blockade games you can press the button to put up fake dead ends that fool the other player.
Speed, visibility and switches
The cartridge has 16 games, and each one can be combined with four speeds and four visibility levels. The number in the top left of the screen is the speed: 1 is medium, 2 fast, 3 slow and 4 “calculatingly slow”. The number in the top right is how much of the maze you can see, from 1 (all of it) to 4 (none of it). In the invisible games, some variations briefly reveal the maze from time to time, and others give your cop a scout that runs ahead.
The difficulty switches work as a handicap. In position A your cop moves at the same speed as the robbers; in position B your cop is faster. Giving the stronger player position A is a simple way to even out a match.
Tips
- Look before you move. On visibility level 1 the whole maze is on screen. Trace a route back from the exit before you rush off.
- Treat corners as danger. Robbers wait out of sight around bends, so slow down before turning in the robber games.
- Remember what you saw. In the invisible games, use each glimpse of the maze to memorise the next few turns.
- Start easy. Speed 1 with visibility 1 and no robbers is the best way to learn the controls.
The story behind Maze Craze
In 1978 Rick Maurer was working on a Space Invaders-style game for the Atari VCS, but Atari’s consumer division stopped that project. He turned to Maze Craze instead, partly to sharpen his programming skills on the console. Besides the Atari and Sears editions, the game was also released in Brazil by Polyvox. Decades later it was included in collections such as Atari Anthology (2004) and Atari 50, and it came built into the Atari 2600+ console in 2023.
