Maze Master DX

In 1983, Michael Cranford wrote Maze Master for the Commodore 64: three adventurers, an underground maze five floors deep, and at the very bottom, the Balrog. Maze Master DX remakes it: a turn-based, first-person, grid-based dungeon crawler. The maps, monsters, spells, and rules come from the original cartridge. What's changed is what you see. It plays fully with a gamepad on Android handhelds, such as those from Anbernic and Retroid, or by touch on your phone. It can be played in English and French. THE DUNGEON • Five floors in 3D, each a 20-by-20 grid, explored square by square, just as in 1983. • A torch in hand, its light grazing the walls; braziers glowing in the distance. • Each floor has its own stonework, objects, music, and sounds: the fortress, the prison, the necropolis… and deeper still. • Forty creatures, redrawn for the remake. • Doors that open only one way, a pit, and a riddle to solve before you can reach the Balrog. THE PARTY • Create your heroes at camp, equip them at the shop, and replace those who fall. • Turn-based combat: one command per hero, either a weapon attack or one of eight combat spells. • Back at camp, the expedition's tally: what the survivors gained, and what struck down the rest. FOUR WAYS TO SEE THE DUNGEON Modern, or in the style of the Commodore 64 on a CRT TV, the Game Boy, or the Game Boy Color: switch styles in the settings at any time, even mid-fight. ON YOUR DEVICE • No ads, no account; the game plays entirely offline. • Four graphics presets, from power saving to maximum quality. • Requires Android 13 or later, with OpenGL ES 3.0. SUPPORT THE GAME The whole game is free. Two optional purchases support it and change only how it looks, never the rules: Companion, a riveted interface frame and an Apple II rendering style; Benefactor, all of that plus an illustrated bestiary of the creatures you've met. Only the purchase itself goes online. The game is in English and French. Your feedback is welcome at the contact email on this page. Maze Master DX is an unofficial fan remake of Maze Master by Michael Cranford (HesWare, 1983), with no affiliation to the author or to HesWare. The data was read off the cartridge, value by value, and combat was checked against the original, roll for roll, down to the last hit point. Commodore 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Apple II are trademarks of their respective owners, with which this game is not affiliated.

Maze Master DX is out of early access. The game is the same as the last beta, from the camp to the Balrog, played for hours on phones and handhelds before this release. Thanks to everyone who tried the beta and wrote in. Your feedback is still welcome.