Mazogs is a Maze Game developed by Don Priestley and published by Bug-Byte for the ZX81 released in 1982. The game involves you exploring a randomly generated maze to find treasure, then get back to the starting point, but the mazogs roam the halls and won't hesitate to kill you if you get too close. You can pick up a sword to defend yourself, but you can't carry both the sword and the treasure at the same time. You can also free prisoners and they'll show you where to go with "THIS WAY" signs for ten seconds.
The game received a sequel called Maziacs on the ZX Spectrum and several other platforms in 1983.
This game provides examples of:
- Antagonist Title: Mazogs are the hostile creatures in the maze.
- Breakable Weapons: Exaggerated. Every sword you pick up can only be used once before you find another one.
- Have a Nice Death: Die to a monster and it says "death to treasure seekers".
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The difficulty levels are the following - 1. Try it Out, 2. Face a Challenge, 3. Maniac Mobile Mazogs.
- Level-Map Display: Pressing V brings up a map of the level part you're in, with you marked as 1, visited spots having dots, enemies being Xs, etc. at the cost of 10 energy.
- Randomly Generated Levels: The placement of walls in the maze is randomly generated.
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: You have an energy counter. The game subtracts 1 from it every time you make a step and 10 every time you open a map. When you run out of it, you starve to death when you try to take another step, though there is no food in the maze.
