                     Maze Way 

 Maze Way is a Maze creator. Its features are:

   1. Runs in all 3 ST resolutions.
   2. Size of maze and 'wall thickness' adjustable.
   3. Can save mazes to disk as degas files ( and/or .IMG in high rez)
   4. You can find your way through the maze using joystick or keyboard.
   5. You can watch the computer try to find its way through.
   6. Each maze is unique.
   7. Can save the maze to disk as 'printer friendly' ASCII characters.

 Maze Way is controlled through 2 GEM dialogs. 

 Main Dialog

 1. Colour

    The colour of the Walls and Background may be set by selecting the 
pushbutton. A pick menu of colours will be offered in Low and Medium 
resolution. Note that selecting  white walls does not work, I cannot seem to 
get white pixel plotting to work from GFA Basic. If you really want an 
'inverse' maze for keeps then save it, and reverse it in any paint package eg. 
Degas/Canvas etc.

 2. Size

     Mazes are limited to the size of the screen. The size of the pixel block 
plotted to make up the maze is adjustable from 2 to 32. Thus if you set the 
pixel block to 4 then each part of the maze wall will be 4 pixels thick. The 
Auto Max Size button calculates the largest size maze possible for the given 
pixel block.

 3. Output

     Maze output can be to the screen or to a file. If 'To File' is selected 
then the maze will be plotted first to the screen and then a fileselector will 
appear asking for a filename. The file extension will be .PI1/.PI2/.PI3 
depending on the resolution. In high resolution the option of a Degas or .IMG 
(GEM) format is given. For pixel blocks of 4 and below the .IMG format is 
ineffecient in terms of compression ( The size of the file will be larger than 
the number of bytes making up the screen) and thus only the Degas option 
exists.

 4. Interaction

     You may view the maze given ( Just Look ) or find a way through it ( 
Explore ). If the 'To File' option is selected you can only look at the maze.


 5. Exit and Do Maze

     Exit takes you back to the desktop. Do Maze will plot the maze if the 
Just Look option was selected. If the Explore option is selected then the 
'Find Your Way Dialog'  will appear.


 Find Your Way Dialog

 1. Joystick or Keyboard

     You may find your way through the maze using a joystick ( in Port 1 ) or 
using the keyboard cursor keys. The start of the maze is at the top of the 
screen and the finish at the bottom.

 2. Autofind

     If this is on, then you can sit back and watch the computer find its way 
through the maze. The 'Block Find' option shows the computer as a block moving 
from start to finish. The 'Leave A Trace' option shows the trail through the 
maze. The 'Speed' option adjusts the speed that the computer finds it's way 
through the maze, 0 is slowest and 9 is fastest. The Autofind option is not 
allowed for Odd pixel blocks, white walls or pixel blocks of size 2 and 3.

Don't expect miracles in maze finding, it does it through sheer trial and 
error.

 3. OK and Cancel

     OK goes on to plot the maze. Cancel takes you back to the main dialog.


Once the maze is plotted or you have found your way through it, press any key 
to return to the main menu. Pressing any key during maze interaction will 
return you back to the main dialog.

Hidden Feature:

As bitmap plots take up lots of printer ink, the mazes can be saved as 
characters ___ and | . Once the maze is plotted in 'Justlook' mode press the 
'p' key and you will be able to save the maze to disk  as a text file.
Note that the lines may be quite long, so remember to turn off word wrapping 
in your wordprocessor when loading them. The character maze is in fact 3 times 
wider and twice as high as the figures selected when plotting.

Here is one I prepared earlier, which was a 15 X 10 block maze on the screen.

_____________________________________  ______.
|     |        |                 |  |        |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |--|--|--|  |  |  |  |  |--|
|  |     |  |     |  |        |        |     |
|  |--|--|--|--|--|  |  |--|--|--|--|--|  |  |
|  |        |     |  |  |        |        |  |
|  |  |--|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |--|--|  |
|     |     |  |  |  |     |  |  |        |  |
|--|--|  |--|  |  |  |--|--|--|  |--|--|  |  |
|     |        |  |     |        |        |  |
|  |--|  |--|--|--|  |  |  |--|--|--|--|  |--|
|     |  |           |     |     |     |     |
|--|  |  |  |--|--|--|--|--|  |  |  |  |--|  |
|     |  |           |     |  |     |     |  |
|  |--|  |--|--|--|  |  |  |  |--|--|--|  |  |
|        |  |     |  |  |     |  |     |  |  |
|--|--|--|  |  |  |  |  |  |--|  |  |  |  |  |
|     |  |     |        |     |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |--|--|--|--|--|  |  |  |  |--|  |--|
|  |                       |  |              |
|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|  |

That's about it, Have fun

CAVEATS

The program is freeware, just try to keep this file with it. The program has 
been tested on a 4Mb STFM on TOS 1.09 and 2.06 and compiled under GFA Basic 
3.6 which should make it STE and TT compatible.
Some help from the Digital Research Resource Construction V2 was used in 
colouring the low resolution dialogs.

Any comments,contributions to

  Paul Chapelhow
  19 Lawn Road
   Eastleigh
     Hants
   S050 4GT
      UK
