Video Game / Maze Runner

Maze Runner AKA Rogue Runner utilizes ASCII graphics to depict a maze from an overhead third-person perspective. Gameplay is similar to Apogee's Kroz series; the objective in each level of the maze is to maneuver the player character in real-time through a series of corridors and evade enemies to find the entrance to the next level. Scattered throughout each level are pickaxes which may be used to kill attacking opponents, teleport scrolls capable of instantly transporting the player character to a random point within that level's maze, and maps which reveal the maze to the player in greater detail. The game ends when the player retrieves the Heart of Courage from the deepest level of the dungeon or is killed by contact with an enemy. Designed by Scott Miller, the game was also published under the name Maze Runner in Softdisk's Big Blue Disk #26 released in December 1988.

Nothing to do with the James Dashner novel and its film adaptation.

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This Video Game contains examples of:

• Breakable Weapons: The pickaxes to fight and dig through walls with can only be used once.
• Limited-Use Magical Device: The teleport scrolls to teleport with can only be used once.
• MacGuffin: The Heart of Courage, which recovery is your quest goal for reasons not elaborated on.
• The Maze: The Ezam dungeons are giant mazes so poorly lit that you can't see most of the walls but for a brief flash upon entrance. Navigating a maze you can't see is hard, though walls proven to be there by touch are memorized visually and getting the map makes the entire maze visible.
• Nintendo Hard: It's like Pac-Man, only you can't see the maze, the ghosts all target you, and they can break through the walls without limit. Prepare yourself for a lot of pain.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Touch an enemy once and your player character is dead.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The enemies are the lost souls of those adventurers that preceded the player character in trying to find the Heart of Courage.
• Powerful Pick: There are several pickaxes scattered about that have been left behind by previous adventurers gunning for the Heart of Courage. They're the only means to get through walls and to fend off the ghosts.
• Sdrawkcab Name: The setting of the game are the Ezam dungeons. "Ezam" is the ananym of "maze".
• Teleportation: Few teleport scrolls can be found around the maze. When used, they teleport the player character to a random location elsewhere in the maze.

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