| In Math-A-Maze, you must find your way through a maze of numbers and
mathematical operators, starting in the left-hand column and finishing in the
right-hand column. How do you know what the correct path is? Well, you are given
the final sums of anywhere from 1-8 equations on the right-hand side of the
playing field. The path through the maze will carve-out the required number of
equations whose totals will be the same as the totals required and displayed on
the right. Consider the example below...
The picture above is an example of a successfully completed maze. On the
right are displayed the equations that are needed to find your way through the
maze. In this example, 3 equations are needed to get through, the sum of the
first equation must equal 8, the second equation must equal 6 and the third
equation must equal 11. The first equation always begins in the left-hand column
and the last equation always ends in the right-hand column. You will notice in
the example that the prescribed path through the maze forms the three equations.
The first equation is 1 x 8 (meeting the required total of 8 for the first
equation), the second equation along the path is 8 ÷ 8 +
5 (which meets the required total of 6 for the second equation), and the third
equation is 2 + 9 (which meets the required total of 11 for the last equation).
At the start of a new maze, the blue arrow will be located at the top
left-hand corner of the maze. Use the up and down arrows to position the arrow
at the point you want to enter the maze of numbers. After that, simply use all 4
arrow keys to navigate your way through the maze, trying to form equations whose
sums match the required sums listed on the right-hand side of the board. Your
current sum (formed by your pathway) will always be displayed beside the
required sum for the equation you are working on. Once in a while you will hit a
dead end, indicated by a number or operator turning red. The reason for the
dead-end will be displayed at the bottom of the maze. For example, perhaps you
are trying to divide by zero, or perhaps you have two operators in a row, or
perhaps your equation sums up to a negative number (this is never allowed in the
game and will always result in a dead-end). At any time you can back-up by using
the arrow keys or the back-space key.
Mazes are randomly generated for infinite variety and there are board sizes
from 4x4 up to 8x8 for all skill levels. Want to learn more? Download the game;
it's freeware and it's only 198 kb.
Finally, anyone becoming a member of the Reasonable Games
website (via a one-time payment of $12) can receive a special activation code
to "Turbo-charge" their copy of Math-A-Maze. What does that mean? It
means, you will be able to access board sizes up to 10x10 and create more
complex and challenging mazes that use double-digit numbers instead of just
single-digits.
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| To keep the download file as small as possible, the Visual Basic 6.0 Runtime
needed to run the game were not included (since many people already have these
files on their computers). For more information, or to download these files, click
here.
Notes on Version 1.7 - Previous versions of Math-A-Maze gave
"type-mismatch" errors for users who had their computer's regional
settings set to something other than English. Version 1.7 fixes this problem and
the game should now work regardless of the regional settings of your computer.
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