History Main / PipeMaze

* Much of the first part of the second level of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures: Babs' Big Break'' is this.

* A minigame on CartoonNetwork.com, called Ed Edd n Eddy's Candy Machine, centers on building a huge jawbreaker delivery system in a grid. As you progress, the available parts get wackier, and using more crazy parts gets you higher points at the end of each level. There's a newer, "Deluxe" version with even more crazy parts.

This is especially common in {{videogames}} that use thick pipes for SpaceFillingPath[==]s, InsurmountableWaistHighFence[==]s, or just generic platforms in an AbsurdlySpaciousSewer or EternalEngine.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' for the Game Gear/Master System, has the oddly named Scrambled Egg zone, which is basically a mass of pipes, and you have to very quickly choose ways to go sometimes. Often, you'll get it wrong and get flung into spikes. Trial and error at it's purest. Used slightly in Sonic Chaos's Electric Egg, and less so still in Triple Trouble's Atomic Destroyer, both with less cheap penalties.
** Oh and Sonic Blast's Blue Marine zone, an icy underwater hell full of strong currents and pipes. You can breathe in the pipes, but that is almost the level's only saving grace. To say it is arduous doesn't even cover it.

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* Parodied in the retro design of Terry Gilliam's ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', which had exposed ductwork everywhere. It even lampshaded the fact by having somebody advertise ducts on TV.
* ''Film/TheThreeStooges''

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* TruthInTelevision: Visit a power plant sometime. The water/steam pipes really are arranged like this because all that stuff has to go somewhere.
** Refineries are basically made of 5 things: Metal beams, bright lights, tight catwalks, huge containers, all lined with and lots and ''lots'' of pipes.

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* Pictured above, the OpenGL Pipes screensaver introduced in Windows NT 4.0. Windows Vista removed it, but you can still copy the .SCR file from an older version for that retro feel. The more screens you have, the better the effect.

* ''[[Literature/TheBooksOfEmber The City of Ember]]'' has the Pipeworks workers, whose job is to patch up the incredibly intricate network of pipes that brings water to the citizens. Or rather, they patch up the patches over other patches that someone else, a long time ago, put on some more patches.

* ''Film/CityOfEmber'' has the Pipeworks workers, whose job is to patch up the incredibly intricate network of pipes that brings water to the citizens. Or rather, they patch up the patches over other patches that someone else, a long time ago, put on some more patches.

* ''CityOfEmber'' has the Pipeworks workers, whose job is to patch up the incredibly intricate network of pipes that brings water to the citizens. Or rather, they patch up the patches over other patches that someone else, a long time ago, put on some more patches.

* Parodied in the retro design of Terry Giliiam's ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', which had exposed ductwork everywhere. It even lampshaded the fact by having somebody advertise ducts on TV.

* {{Animusic}}'s "Pipe Dream" and "Pipe Dream 2" videos have, as their names suggest, pipes that run around all of the instruments and around the walls. Some of them even launch balls to strike the instruments like mallets.

* ''TheSeventhGuest'' has a puzzle like this, but based on an artery connected to a heart. And the things to work with are tilting gates between intersections.
--> '''Stauf''': "This plumbing could get you into hot water!

** '''Stauf''': "This plumbing could get you into hot water!

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' actually has a world called 'Pipe Land/Maze', which has quite a few levels which most probably come under this (aka, note the vast amount of pipes which don't do anything other than make temporary walls rather than actually taking anything anywhere) Although the background in the remake is even more completely insane in terms of pipe layout.
** World 7-9 has a particular pipe maze level, though you don't travel through the pipes. A more straight example is World 7-1.

*** World 8-4 is more of an actual maze, as you have to go down the pipes to progress through the level and reach Bowser, and going down the wrong pipe will send you back to the beginning of the level.
** World 6-1 of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' has levels 3-A and 7-A, and both even mimic the background layout of their [=SMB3=] counterparts, only with updated graphics.

* Pictured above, WindowsXP shipped with a Pipe Maze generating screensaver. Windows 7, at least, does not. The .scr file can be copied from Windows XP to Windows 7 for that retro feel. The more screens you have, the better the effect.

* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' you need to complete a PipeMaze screen to hack vending machines and security systems.

* Pictured above, WindowsXP shipped with a PipeMaze generating screensaver. Windows 7, at least, does not.
** Though the .scr file can be copied from Windows XP to Windows 7 for that retro feel. The more screens you have, the better the effect.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pipemaze.jpg

* ''TheThreeStooges''

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* [[http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k213/yuzure/tvtropes/screenshot_2009-02-20-17-03-25.jpg Found]] in ''CityOfVillains''.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', the third sphere of Phyrexia is described as an [[http://www.phyrexia.com/images/continuity/maps/Phyrexia.bmp "impenetrable tangle of metal pipes".]]

* ''PipeMania'' and its imitators - love 'em, love 'em so much. But if you're ScoringPoints, you end up trying to get as many pieces filled as humanly possible, so you end up distinctly avoiding the straight route and trying for as many twists, turns, and go-back-throughs as possible. Bonus if you get a big square of 'em made out of two-ways rimmed by U-turns, so the water goes through the whole square once and then goes through it all one more time just to ensure you've covered enough territory.

** ''NewSuperMarioBros'' has levels 3-A and 7-A, and both even mimic the background layout of their [=SMB3=] counterparts, only with updated graphics.
* ''RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'' has an (almost entirely optional) AbsurdlySpaciousSewer section that fits this bill precisely. There are 98 "Sewer Crystals" to be found in this maze. It's hell if you're a completionist, as there's a skill point for getting all of them.

* You'll see one of these in ''BaldursGate II'' if you explore the Shadow Thief guildhouse proper. It's apparently used for training purposes.
* ''{{Purple}}'' has you going through pipe systems on occasions, they are not mazes and are usually just there as a connection to DownTheDrain.

* One episode of ''{{Futurama}}'' had an alien abduction of Fry happen via a needlessly complex tube similar to the famous screen-saver.

* In BioShock you need to complete a PipeMaze screen to hack vending machines and security systems.