MadMaze-II Now Hosted on Vintagecomputing.com
February 19th, 2013 by Benj Edwards
In 2006, I wrote about a version of the classic Prodigy game MadMaze that had been adapted for the web by Russell D. Brown, an electronics engineer based in Rome, New York.
Just today, a commenter on that original post (thanks Joshua) let me know that Russell Brown passed away last year on July 1st. That means his implementation of MadMaze-II is now offline.
(Please note that the original author of MadMaze, Greg Costikyan, is still alive and kicking as far as I know.)
Luckily for all of us, I asked Russel Brown back in 2011 to share his MadMaze-II code with me in case his version of the game ever went down. He complied, and I have just now set up a fresh copy of his adaptation on this web server at the following address: https://www.vintagecomputing.com/madmaze/.
The game still requires Internet Explorer 5 or up, and it seems to work in IE 9 for me. Brown programmed the game in such a way that obfuscated its function to prevent cheating (he even incorporated a copy protection scheme), so at the moment I have no idea how to successfully modify it if players find any bugs. But if you encounter any problems, please feel free to let me know, and I’ll have a look.
Have fun in the maze. And may Russell Brown rest in peace.
[ Update – 01/18/2017: Thanks to the work of Brandt Horrocks, MadMaze-II now works in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. Read more about it here. ]
February 19th, 2013 at 8:04 pm
Sad news about Russ if true, but great work on the hosting. I’m happy to report that saving past the Twisted Temple on Level Two is now possible, so whatever save issues occurred with the game previously may have been host-related (and, sadly, understandably so).
A bit of advice for those making their own maps: There’s a typo in the game at the Hermit’s Cave in Level Two. It says you’re continuing to the north, but you’ll actually go east. This appears to be intended, since the directions you can get from the hermit match leaving his cave to the east (and the map doesn’t look right if you draw it assuming you’ve gone north).
Good luck to all and a big thanks to Benj for hosting!
February 21st, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Don’t work on IE 10
March 28th, 2013 at 8:06 am
not working with Chrome 🙁
Sad news about Russ as well…
July 22nd, 2013 at 1:19 pm
Trying to figure out how to make this work on my MacBook. Any advice? I’ve got IE 5.2 up and running (which is a blast from the past in and of itself) and all I get’s a blank blue square where the game should be. Do I have to get a PC to revisit this time in my life?
November 3rd, 2013 at 12:39 am
Not working on IE 10 for me either. I’d really like to give this childhood favorite another go if anyone has found a way to make it work. I’m fairly certain this is the only copy in existence anywhere.
February 23rd, 2014 at 3:32 pm
The latest rendition of MadMaze indeed does not work on Windows 7 versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or the latest Internet Explorer. A few years before he apparently passed away, I was in contact with Russell after I had succeeded with mapping all three levels of the maze game. Those Excel files I still have, and as I promised him I have not disseminated them to anyone for cheating purposes.
Russell had me e-mail him those files, for what reasons I do not know. But for my work he rewarded me by adding Esq. in subscript (Esquire) by my character name VolfsBayne, in blue, something to distinguish it from all the others.
In wanting to play the game through again or to offer my maps to the current game moderator, please contact me by the e-mail address I provided in the Mail Field. I do believe I still have Russell’s e-mail, which I just confirmed that I do. I contacted him on June 20, 2009. ^_^
And please find a way to make the MadMaze game compatible with current web browsers. Also, as I tried to convince Russell of, in my humble opinion this game needs to see the light of day with a massive revamping using current graphics and updating the style. I believe if done right and done well, it could be as great of an online RPG as it used to be.
I will stand behind that, if anyone wants to get on board.
VolfsBayne, Esq.
May 3rd, 2014 at 1:31 pm
I am unable to play the game on Win 7 with IE11. Any answers as to how to connect will bd.e appreciate
March 22nd, 2015 at 5:59 pm
I have Windows 8, and it looks like right now I have no way of playing this either. I was very young when I first played MadMaze, and I always wanted to go back to it when I was older and could understand how to play it. If there’s any way you can get this to be compatible with newer systems, that would be great, and I’m sure it’d make a lot of people very happy.
April 29th, 2016 at 4:13 pm
I know it may be years late for some, but current versions of IE can play the game by using compatibility mode for the game. Although to be honest I’d prefer a downloadable version that can be played locally.
September 13th, 2016 at 12:09 am
Would love to have a downloadable file so I could play with out an online connection
I’m so excited to play mad maze again!
November 1st, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Found this and was wondering if it was ever going to be fixed?
I haven’t played Mad Maze since the early 1990s. It would be really cool to give it a serious go.
Thank you for your time.
November 2nd, 2024 at 4:42 am
Hello, I got it working. In the EDGE browser, when the popup window comes after attempting to start a new game, before it disappears you have to click the top right corner of the screen for the ALLOW POPUPS option to appear and allow all popups for this site. VOILA!!!
P.S. the save system doesn’t seem to work. Keep your camera phone or pen and paper close so you can record the spell that will take you back to the spot when the game offers it to you. A couple puzzles into the story and the first one was offered to me.