From the ancient past to the distant future. The web of history is the ultimate labyrinth.
The Labyrinth of Time was a 1993
Adventure Game made by Terra Nova Development.
You're an office worker living a dull, dreary life, but on the subway ride home one gray Friday the ghost of
Daedalus suddenly pulls you out of the normal world. He explains King Minos has enslaved him to build a Labyrinth even greater than the one he built in the ancient days of Crete. This one bridges time and space, and allows Minos to invade all eras and conquer them with his supernatural powers. Daedalus begs the player to find a way to the heart of the labyrinth and destroy it before Minos can finalize his conquest.
Unfortunately for Terra Nova they released the game at
about the same time as
Myst and
The Seventh Guest, leaving
Labyrinth of Time virtually ignored. To this day only hardcore adventure fans are likely to know it even exists.
Currently freely available for
Amiga
, and available for purchase on
all major computer platforms as well as
the iPhone.
The Labyrinth of Time provides examples of:
- Alien Geometries: The Surreal Maze maps roughly to the shape of a sphere despite nothing even remotely suggesting that shape.
- Individual rooms in the Surreal Maze, however, are symmetrical and highly geometric... just not by any geometry known to man.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Until Daedalus grabs you.
- Hell Hotel: A seemingly deserted, unnamed hotel near the beginning of the game that abruptly cuts off and drops into nothingness.
- The Ghost: You never actually encounter Minos; the most you hear about him is a note in an orbital library after he gives the world an ultimatum.
- Patchwork World: Parts of the past, present, and future have been jammed together in chaotic ways.
- Place Beyond Time: Destroying the labyrinth causes time and space to unravel, leaving you in an empty void outside of existence.
- The unmade sequel's title implies that this is actually Dream Land.
- Self Insert Fic: According to an article in a futuristic library, Terra Nova Development (the company that created the game) eventually became the space travel conglomerate New Worlds Development, which set up space stations and moon colonies and essentially controls the world. All in part because of the resounding success of Labyrinth.
- Turns into Death by Cameo. The library article later mentions the gruesome deaths of the Terra Nova Development team at the hands of an unruly car.
- Sinister Geometry: The Maze Center building is topped with a striking pyramid fractal. Sure enough, it's the site of the keystone that holds the Labyrinth together (and it's also the game's iOS icon).
- Shout Out: The makers apparently liked The Wizard of Oz, The Maltese Falcon and the Marx Brothers.
- Unwinnable by Design: Don't use your quarter in the fortunetelling game... make a phone call. Not as bad as it might be since it's so close to the beginning of the game.
- Towards the middle/end of the game, if you enter the Surreal Maze without taking a lantern hidden behind the open door that you entered a room through, you're stuck. This is especially cruel given that the confusing maze is a natural point to stop playing and resume later.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The ominous Maze Center, which can be seen throughout the game.
- World Of Chaos: The Surreal Maze which defies your map and goes on infinitely unless you can find the one way out.
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