Mongoose on Mazes

Mazes seem to come in four kinds, hard, very hard, impossible and
Grue ridden.  This is of course not true, but we have all been
caught in a maze at some time during our adventuring and
resorted to, in order of hardness:

1. Throwing the computer at next-door's cat.

2. Killing the wife with the soggy remains of said cat. (If any
lady adventuresses feel left out, please feel free to kill their
husbands with said soggy remains.)

3. Ripping out your own hair and jumping off the roof of a high
building.  (Probably to squish an innocent passerby.)

4. In this type of maze, the cat remains, your spouse's body and
the squished passerby will give you exactly three moves before
your already damaged body will be ripped to pieces by a hungry
grue.

I will now try to give some help to new adventurers at solving
mazes.  When you come to a maze, don't panic, and always remember
it was put there for a purpose, to really wind you up and make
the game harder.

In early adventures the mazes were on one level and fairly
straight forward. The way to negotiate these was to go around the
maze, marking on your map each step you take, as if you were
keeping your left hand on the wall on your left, When you have
returned to your starting point, your map will show the outer
limits of the maze, it is then fairly easy to fill in the middle,
by taking a right turn, then stay left until back at the outer
limit. Continue to do this and the maze will soon be completed,
don't forget to show items of interest on the map, then if you
ever replay the game it will be easy to find objects hidden in
the maze.

ALWAYS READ DISCRIPTIONS OF THE LOCATION CAREFULLY, IN SOME MAZES
IT IS POSSIBLE TO STAY IN THE SAME PLACE AND NOT MOVE AT ALL. TO
MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO MOVE DROP AN OBJECT, MAKE YOUR MOVE AND SEE
IF THE OBJECT IS STILL THERE.

Unfortunatly maze designers found that if you add a few level
changes it made things harder, but if you use the above system for
each level, remembering passages sloping up or down constitute a
change in level, then it is still fairly easy to make a map. Mark
the level changes as you go and map one level at a time. Checking
level changes on your map should be possible, e.g. if on level one
you have two downward passages, then when you map level 2, these
two passages will show up in corresponding places.

Now we have to deal with transporters, turnaround spots and
moving walls. Map as before, then every five steps drop an object,
marking on your map which item was dropped where. Every three
items, return to the start, if all items are still in the correct
place, pick them up, return to your last item and start again.
If one or all of the items are missing, continue mapping,
dropping objects as before, you should then slowly build up a
frame-work of the maze, and if you come upon one of the missing
items, check back with your map and the pieces will slowly fall
into place.

Then maze designers decided to add fog that steals items, fairies
with light fingers, and grues that eat everything, add to these
chutes that drop down one or more levels, with no warning, and
teleporters that can even transport you to a completely different
maze, and there you are, or rather I am. If anyone can help with
mazes please write to Sue. Just one thing how does the postman
deliver my copy of Syntax without getting lost?

                                   Mongoose

@~Yes, if anyone else has comments on mapping mazes, please write
@~in. I know we all have our own favourite methods.