Paint Mazes by Pyro

[Pyrotex]

I promised to post some mazes that I created in the Paint Application which comes with the MS operating system as an Accessory.

I can promise you that every maze has exactly ONE solution. They are easier to play with if you print them out first.

The raw Paint files are just a little over the width and height limits so I cannot upload them. However, I can embed them in a Word document, and voila!!, they are well within size limits. We shall now see if they can be opened from Hypography! Keeping my fingers crossed....

Pyro

YES! It worked. Now, this first maze is what I call a Letter-Jump maze. If you encounter any letter while tooling through the maze, you MAY jump instantly to the other IDENTICAL letter and continue on. You do NOT have to JUMP if you don't want to. The solution path MAY involve one, none or more letter jumps! Have fun!

[ronthepon]

Wow, that's pretty cool. How can you be sure that it has just one solution?

[Pyrotex]

Here is a second one. I call this variety a Rabbit-Tunnel maze. As you tool through the corridors, you may encounter a black dot connected to a second black dot via a dotted line. The dots are "holes" and the dotted line is a "tunnel" that connects the two holes.

If you encounter a dotted line in a corridor, ignore it and go on right through. You have no access to a tunnel via the dotted line; only via the black dots.

Good luck

[Pyrotex]

Here is a maze that I am particularly proud of. It's an Elevator Maze.
The maze consists of 2, 3, 4 or more unconnected rectangles, called "floors". In each floor, there are one or more black squares that represent elevators. You must visualize each floor as stacked over the others (in any order--it doesn't matter). You may enter an elevator on one floor and exit on any other floor having that same elevator in the same relative location.

Just like in reality, you cannot enter an elevator in one "shaft" and exit from an elevator in a different "shaft".

Keep pushing the buttons!

[Pyrotex]

Here is another Elevator Maze, but it has an additional trick. Each floor is actually a Toroid Klein Bottle!!! If you attempt to leave the floor by stepping out a window on the East, you just step back into a window on the West of the same floor! Same for going West to East, North to South and South to North. A maze based on that trick alone would be a Toroid Maze. What we have here is an Elevator Toroid Maze.

I won't even wish you good luck.

[Pyrotex]

Here is a very difficult maze. Well, difficult to build, that is. I call it a Ribbon Maze. You must imagine that the corridors of the maze are built on ribbons that can go over or under other ribbons. Think of it as a maze with underpasses and overpasses. Think of it as a maze that will break your brain.

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by ronthepon

Wow, that's pretty cool. How can you be sure that it has just one solution?

Because of the process of making the maze, which is MY secret, patent pending, copyrighted, and which I shall take to the grave with me!

My mazes start with a basic element that contains walls but no doors. I duplicate this element many times and "tile" the available space with it. Saves a lot of time and makes the maze more attractive.

I hand-build the START and FINISH areas. Then, beginning with either one, I use the eraser to erase segments of walls, creating my solution path. I fill in the solution path with Yellow as I go, so I always know where the solution path is and am assured I will never accidently break back into it later. I continue until I have made a single path to the other end.

Then, I build the cul-de-sac paths all along the solution path, filling them in as I go with other colors. When the whole shebang is colored, then the maze is complete, except for one last step. I duplicate the file, always keeping a copy of the filled-in (colored) version. In the duplicate, I replace all the colors with white. This is the version I print out or upload to you.

And if you breathe a word of this to any soul, I will shoot you!

[ughaibu]

Great! Thanks for posting those.

[Jay-qu]

Pyro these mazes are insane! I havent tried to do one now, I have class to get to, but I can see these are going to take a very long time to solve!

Have you ever submitted them to a puzzle publisher or something?

[Lancaster]

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

Pyro these mazes are insane! I havent tried to do one now, I have class to get to, but I can see these are going to take a very long time to solve!

Have you ever submitted them to a puzzle publisher or something?

Seriously! These are incredible! I guess I can kiss that AP European History homework goodbye... I have something else to do.