Labyrinth FAQ/Strategy Guide
Author: Wlokos
Email: WlokosFAQ@hotmail.com
AIM: Wlokos7
Last updated: August 12th, 2006.

If you want to upload this guide on your site, go right ahead. All you have to
do is credit me as the author and not charge money.

Table Of Contents:

1. Introduction [AAA]  <- Is a search code. To jump to any of the sections,
2. Basics [BBB]           rather than have to scroll down and try to find it,
3. Strategy [CCC]         hit ctrl-f and type in the letters next to the
4. Two Player [DDD]       section name (complete with brackets) and hit enter.
5. Credits/Legal Stuff[XYZ]

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Introduction [AAA]

Welcome to the FAQ/Strategy guide for Labyrinth, on the Atari 2600. It's a
pretty simple game (get through the various mazes), but that can sometimes
prove to be a tricky task to accomplish. This is a guide of general strategies
for getting through any maze, but not for the specific path to take for each
one. If you need that, you should go back to the FAQ listing and click on my
maze maps image for this game. If you're reading this immediately after it is
posted, the image might not be up yet; it will be within a day or two.

Anyway, if you notice any majorly incorrect info within the guide, or anything
about it seems particularly annoying, please let me know via email/AIM so I can
try to fix it up. Also, if you're reading this guide and it isn't credited to
either Matt Sokol or Wlokos (or if you paid money for it), it's been stolen.
Please let me know if that happens so that I can take care of it.

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Basics [BBB]

This game is nothing more than a series of mazes for you to try to complete.
While simple, it's always good for killing some time if you're bored. The first
maze is always the same; once that's completed, they're randomly given to you.
The only controls are: Up, Down, Left, and Right will move you in those
respective directions, and fire will move you to the next maze once you
complete the current one.

This game can be played as two player. The second player has the same controls
as the first. It's as if you've both got a piece of paper with the same maze,
and you're racing to the end. You can't actually interact with the other
person's guy.

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Strategy [CCC]

Here we are. The important part of the guide. The most important thing to
remember while trying to complete these mazes is: They're just mazes. Sure,
they're on a video game, but you can treat them like any maze you might find in
a puzzle book. There's no special difference that makes them any harder. In
fact, due to the mazes' sizes, they're pretty easy.

The first thing you should do when looking at a maze is see if there's any
obvious solution. Some of the mazes are just a matter of going up and right a
couple of times until you're done. If that's not the case, start looking at
what paths are open to you at the moment. See if any of them are obvious dead
ends. One common dead end you'll see is this:

--------------------
--------  ----_--- |
     _  | |__| | | |
    | | |______| | |
    | |__________| |
    |______________|

That's just a few branched off paths that all wrap around each other and
quickly end. Learning to avoid the shorter dead-ends will save you a lot of
time and frusteration as you start playing some of the more difficult mazes.

If you can eliminate all the paths but one, take the one that's left. If not
(which is common), pick one as your best guess and try it out. Worst case,
you'll have to backtrack a bit. Keep moving until the next time the path
splits, and look again for any obvious dead ends. A lot of the path splits are
just:

------------
------  ----
      | |
      | |
      |_|

Which is very easy to avoid. Beyond that, look for the dead ends that I already
mentioned, and just backtrack when neccesary. You should get to be pretty good
at solving the mazes after just a few minutes of practice. However, if you ever
get to a maze that you just can't figure out, there is one last strategy you
can use.

Look at the very end of the maze. There's only one path that will lead you to
an exit. Find that exit, and start moving backwards through the maze. By
getting a different perspective on the maze, you can usually find your way
through some traps that would've tricked you before. Once you get to where you
guy is, start following the path you just took, but moving in the opposite
direction. If you forget where to go next, start back at the end until you
remember what to do.

That's pretty much all the strategy you'll need. If you still can't do it, you
may just need to stop trying for a few minutes and let your head clear before
resuming play. Frusteration (or fatigue) can really mess with your ability to
solve the mazes.

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Two Player Mode [DDD]

Two player is basically the same thing as one player. You don't even have to
choose one/two player mode on the main screen - it automatically has both
players active, you just leave the 2nd player alone if you want to play by
yourself. The only difference in two player mode is that you're racing against
the other player, rather than being able to take your time. You can walk right
through the other guy, so you don't have to worry about him/her blocking your
path.

While that may sound like you'd want to use the same stategy that you use
normally, since not much changes, that's not neccesarily true. There are a few
tricks you can use to gain the advantage, now that you're forced to go as fast
as you can. If you haven't gotten used to all of the basic one player strategy,
though, you should learn that first. This section will build on what we already
worked on, not just work by itself.

The first thing to keep in mind while playing with another person is to be
mindful of where they've already gone. Let's use an example.

There are three paths you can take from the beginning: A, B, and C. You decide,
after some quick thinking, that A is the best path to take. You go along it,
and quickly realize that it's the wrong path. You head back to the beginning,
and choose C this time. However, yet again, you find that you're at a dead end.
You go back and pick B, but before you get a chance to go much further, your
friend has reached the end of the maze. If only you'd had some secret trick to
figure out which path to take..

*rewind*

There are three paths you can take from the beginning: A, B, and C. You decide,
after some quick thinking, that A is the best path to take. You go along it,
and note to yourself that your friend has taken path C. A turns out to be a
dead end, so you run back to the start. As you look at B and C, you realize
that your friend has hit his own dead end. Armed with the knowledge that C
isn't correct, you head for the B path. Soon, you've reached the end of the
level, leaving your friend in the dust.

See? If you keep your opponent's position in the back of your mind, you can
avoid making the mistakes they've already made. If they aren't watching you and
you're watching them, you'll be able to finish the mazes much faster than they
can.

Another tactic is to not always move right away into a path, if you aren't sure
that it's safe. Rather than take a gamble, look and see if you can find the
path to the finish before moving. That way, you'll only move directly along the
correct path, and not waste any time with backtracking. You can sometimes lose
with this technique, if your opponent gets lucky and guesses the right path on
his first try. However, chances are that you'll be winning much more often than
they will.

Beyond that, just don't let yourself get distracted mid-maze, and you should be
able to win consistantly and without too many near-losses. Of course, in
addition to strategy, practice is a big help.

Good luck!

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Credits/Legal Stuff [XYZ]

-Thanks to me for writing this thing.
-Thanks to HFB for being cool.

This guide was written by Matt Sokol (Wlokos). You can use this however you
want as long as I get credit and as long as no money exchanges hands.

The End! [4]