This MSX conversion of Don Priestley‘s classic Spectrum game, Maziacs, was released by DK’Tronics in 1985. It captures the essence of the original perfectly.

The aim of the game is: to locate the hidden treasure, while at the same time avoiding being killed by the titular Maziacs – weird, two-legged monsters that patrol the maze.

When you begin you have no weapon, so finding one is a priority. If you encounter a Maziac with no weapon in your hand, your chances of beating it are relatively low. Bump into one with a sword in your hand and the probability goes up.

Your character’s energy is represented by a vertical bar on the right of the screen. Food can be found to keep this topped-up. You’ll also find chained prisoners who you can interact with and they will tell you the route to the treasure for a limited amount of time (shown as a yellow path on the maze).

Mazaics has four difficulty levels and each maze is randomly-generated based on a set of rules, so the game does have some longevity. And appeal. Maziacs remains an appealing and playable game to this day.

More: Maziacs on Wikipedia