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"Merlin's Walls" maps


Propane13

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Hello folks,

 

Recently, a fellow Atari Age member reached out to me and asked if I still had the maps that I had created for Merlin Walls.  Funny enough, the last time I referenced them was in this thread from 2005: 

 

After a bit of digging, I found an old notebook in an old container.  And, there they were.  I can't comment on the age of these maps-- all I know is that the copyright of Merlin's Walls is 1999, and I have the "Standard Edition" which must have been released later than that, so I must have done these maps between 1999 and 2005 when I posted.

 

I dug up the instruction manual, and it's kind of interesting that they included a map of level 1.  For those who don't know how to play, you have to lay on your side / crink your neck / flip your TV since the game is on its side.  You have 80 seconds to beat each level, and when you get to level 17, you are in an inescapable "final room" until time counts down and you win.

 

In each level:

 * If you see white walls in the early levels, they are meant to help you orient yourself.  They serve no function other than that.

 * If you see a transparent-ish wall, that's the exit.

 * If you see a yellow wall, you can use it to increase your time remaining

 * If you see a red wall, it's an explosive.  Click one to grab it, click once again to set it for explosion

 * Level 13+ have "Special walls"

 

The ebivision.com website used to have this note on its "You have one" page:  "In Merlin's Walls, don't move while getting energy walls, or you won't get all the energy of the wall"

 

The instruction manuals doesn't specifically talk about a contest, but back in the day, if you were the first person to finish the game, you would win a "special prize" (which was a copy of Ebivision Pac Man).  I believe I was first to finish the game, but by then Ebivision was packing up, so I never got my copy, but I remain content to just be in the small few who have finished the game.  If anyone can help dig up info about the contest, feel free please post it here.  I couldn't find anything about it anymore, but it certainly did happen.

 

Without further ado, here are the 17 maps:

 

Merlins_Walls_Map1.thumb.jpg.6c948b166e7e159052c13587ab2136de.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map2.thumb.jpg.ae09160ae00ebf760e5455b539392d1e.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map3.thumb.jpg.ea5acaee83419508d2e5959774fbbd69.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map4.thumb.jpg.4846a7e3d53fa79c0b77866fd60537ba.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map5.thumb.jpg.1c65008f3d2345c8fa2960246e240be5.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map6.thumb.jpg.70ab0d4a536049d92b7bc3e62b9d94bc.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map7.thumb.jpg.884d5d86a87d14b6ab781b346e1804c0.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map8.thumb.jpg.77938597325ba059a969f8be4eef969d.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map9.thumb.jpg.76da0096a12a086858ed300b6c71fc96.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map10.thumb.jpg.3fbcaa1f1ee85725caff77e2be3200d6.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map11.thumb.jpg.810f00748753be882591b6e264ce889f.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map12.thumb.jpg.d5ad2bf9e584995c482f73046f725ca5.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map13.thumb.jpg.816316c3e106b6914918807bfd7919f2.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map14.thumb.jpg.b39c45ddd94b49a8cfdb06c25ba0bddb.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map15.thumb.jpg.72ab9f5462e6cefb909afc1da6a17b67.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map16.thumb.jpg.dd1c699c4341d068c8e4b305faf7bb8d.jpg

 

Merlins_Walls_Map17.thumb.jpg.97b628eccf22f954a1922d7a8ad3ede9.jpg

 

I give these away freely if anyone wants to make these into a better format.

 

Also, it would be awesome if somebody updated the description on the Atari Age page some day: https://atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=863.  I realize that nobody seems to care much about Merlin's Walls, but at the time, it was pretty innovative.  

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It was an impressive tech demo at the time. I recall Igor(?) telling me at the conference (CGE? I beleive... yeah, I'm old timer) that it was an attempt to do real-time scrolling through a maze like wolfenstein and such. Funny part, is that that you had to turn your monitor 180 deg to play it properly. I miss EbiVsion, loved their games. This one, though, is a bit weird and an acquired taste for sure. But very interesting experiment.

 

Thanks for posting the maps. I believe I only got through the first couple of mazes. I should go back and try this again now.

 

Anything interesting happen once completed? 

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21 hours ago, GrizzLee said:

Anything interesting happen once completed? 

Sadly, no.  When you get to the last maze (17) it's unbeatable and you can just run around until time runs out.  But, for a 4K game, I'm guessing there wasn't much space left for anything exciting.  What you were supposed to do was note the color of the level 17 being different-- that was your reward.  But, you can still run around.

 

Looks like somebody did make/post better maps than I have here (with a few more spoilers, too), if you were serious about giving it a go:

http://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/maps/vcs/merlins_walls.html

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