TIMEBOMB

The team reads out “Trivia” questions from the screen while the  layer “answers” them by treading on the correct stepping stones marked on the floor. A correct sequence of answers leads the player to a “timebomb” which must then be defused by remembering the sequence of stepping stones trodden. Higher difficulty levels give harder and more questions. As time ticks away, a throbbing heartbeat gets louder, increasing the tens ion. If the team fails, the timebomb “explodes” with special effects.

SENSOR CELL

The crystal button glows at the back of a blackened room full of coloured fluorescent poles. The player must squeeze between the poles to reach lit buttons on the far side and return to his team without knocking the poles and triggering the sensor each contains. The monitor has a clock to show the time remaining. This is a very popular game amongst players and is very attractive visually. On higher difficulty levels the penalty for knocking a pole gets tougher and the number of buttons the team must reach increases.

BEAM ME UP

While one player uses the tracker ball to try to match bodies, legs, heads etc. of spacecraft crew members tumbling down the screen, the team watches to check the time left, and to control the speed with which the pieces tumble down, using the Select button. Use of the Fire buttons slows down the tumbling pieces. On “Fiendish” difficulty level, the parts come down at random, mixed with bits of plant and furniture, forcing you to create a “rubbish” pile or two. It can only be won if there is good co-ordination between the player and his team mates controlling the speed of the falling bodies.

MOONLANDER

Inside a spacecraft one player uses the tracker ball to guide a lunar module onto its landing pad, while the team, at a second screen, advises on time left, and control the module’s anti-meteorite force field. On “Average” the craft starts off quite near its landing spot and you have plenty of fuel (time) in case of aborted attempts. On Fiendish the craft starts far away, there’s less time and more meteorites!

SYMBOLIC MATHS

In this game the a character on screen must be made to hop from square to square denoted by numbers which form an arithmetical progression. One for the mathematical egg-heads. It is made more taxing when played on higher difficulty levels. The game cannot be rushed. Each move must be made deliberately and the computer  given time to check it’s the right one. “Average” players are given  plenty of time. There are several different versions so that even regular teams will have to do different sums each time they play.

ORBIT

A tethered permanent magnet is used to pick up large steel balls and lift them to the top of the perspex dome in which they are contained. Dropped in exactly the right place, they will roll through a specific hole, thus “refuelling” a circling spacecraft on the screen and enabling it to escape from the vortex of a black hole. One player operates the magnet while the team watches the screen to advise on how much time there is left. The balls cannot be dropped directly into the hole. The best approach is to drop balls, several at a time, onto the saucer diametrically opposite the hole, in the hope that they will roll across into it. There is a fair amount of luck involved, and to get eight balls in (as required on Fiendish) is a tall order.

BAT CAVE

A screen is hidden beside a themed cave entrance. One brave player is required to climb into the cave and then place his/her hand into a series of twelve small “pigeon-holes”, shouting out to the team what he/she thinks the objects are, inside the holes. The team picks out the objects on the screen, and when six have been correctly identified, the game is won. The objects are fairly easy to identify, making this a fun but simple game. For special occasions more “interesting” objects may be placed in the holes like a hamburger (with tomato sauce!) or a “moving” rubber snake. On higher difficulty levels the game is made harder by using cryptic symbols to identify the bat holes.

BLOWPIPE SHOOT

In a themed Aztec burial chamber, one player in the team is invited to climb up to play the game “upstairs” while the team shouts directions from below. Using the tracker ball and buttons the player must collect ammunition, direct and fire a blowpipe at targets on screen. The team tells him which targets score highest, and keeps an eye on the time left. As well as giving them less time, “Fiendish” level players are given a blowpipe that is more difficult to control, like a very heavy rifle. The target tubes of sand are either full, half full or virtually empty. If all the full tubes are hit, the game is won. However
the full ones are chosen at random each time, so it is not possible to memorise them.

THE SNAKE PIT

The player must leap across a 1 metre gap onto a ledge, using a climbing rope. Once on the ledge, two buttons must be pushed simultaneously. This might require the help of a second team member. Sensors detect whether any cheating is going on and when the player has returned safely. Those falling into the pit – a 0.6m drop onto a soft mattress – are allowed to start again. On the “Fiendish” difficulty level, players have to climb a second rope to an even higher Crystal Button.

This is one of the most popular of all the games. The “Average” level is very simple, and gives players a chance to let off steam, swinging on a rope. The “Fiendish” level is hard for anyone not used to climbing ropes.

MAGIC SQUARES

At the foot of a Bamboo tower one player is asked to climb up the inside of the tower and play the game. Once there, encouraged by his team-mates below, he uses the tracker ball and buttons to move four “jig-saw” pieces from a square to a rectangle, a classic “trick” puzzle. The team also operates a button which turns the pieces, essential for a successful outcome. Another game requiring good coordination between the player and his team. On easier difficulty levels there is a clue given to players in the top left-hand corner of the screen but this disappears on Fiendish level.

THE HOLY WORD

A screen behind one of the windows of the Aztec temple invites one player to enter the temple and “rebuild the Holy Wall”. This he does by using the tracker ball and buttons to pick up jig-saw “bricks” and slot them into the wall on the screen. As he does so, a word is revealed. The sooner the word is guessed, the quicker the game can be completed (they are chosen at random from a long list). Meanwhile the team remains at the first window from where they watch the time and shout advice to their colleague.

SUN TEMPLE

The player has to complete a jig-saw of an Aztec sun temple on screen, while his colleagues watch a second monitor which has a water clock superimposed, enabling them to shout out the time remaining. On higher difficulty levels, a volcano erupts periodically, shaking out some pieces of the jig-saw. It can be stopped by the team pressing the “Select” button at the appropriate time.

TASTY TOADSTOOLS

This cell is occupied (on screen) by Sidney snake. In this simple game, a player is required to guide Sidney, using the tracker ball, towards the tasty blue mushrooms which keeps sprouting up at random on the screen. However if he touches a red toadstool he “spits it out” and points (shown by Sydney’s increasing length) are lost. When he gets to a certain length, dependent on the difficulty level, the game is won.

TAROT CARDS

Behind an iron dungeon grille the teams finds two screens. At one, the player uses the tracker ball and buttons to turn over tarot cards on the screen. When a matching pair is overturned it disappears, gradually revealing the face of a medieval fortune-teller. The team, watching the other screen, can see the time ticking away, and shout encouragement. If the Fire button is held down, the tracker ball can be spun to reveal all the cards in turn, quite quickly. This provides a good overall picture of where the cards lie, after which they can be picked off individually. Plenty of time is allowed for this in “Average”. In “Fiendish” there are many more different designs of cards, making it much harder.

DRAWBRIDGE

Having climbed a ladder into a tower, the player is directed back down into a dungeon, while the team stays upstairs. In the  “dungeon” the player attempts a “cog wheels” game. Cog wheels 
must be selected and placed on the correct axles to form a  continuous mechanism which then allows the player to wind up a 
rope, open the drawbridge and allow the crystal to escape. Meanwhile the team, watching a second monitor “upstairs” offer  advice and count down the time remaining. On higher difficulty levels the number of combinations of cogs which solves the puzzle is reduced.

SIEGE CATAPULTS

Directed into the doorway of a castle tower, the team is then 
told to send one player up a rustic ladder. Here he finds a second console and screen from which he must operate a seige catapult to destroy the enemy’s castle. However the team below must also use their console to co-ordinate the attack. A highly popular game combining skill, physical effort and teamwork. On Average level it takes four direct hits to destroy each tower, but on Fiendish it takes six. It is also harder to hit the towers in the right place on Fiendish, with more shots either falling short or sailing over the top.

SQUARES

A character bounces on the squares of a grid, which also carry simple four-letter words. The player has to guide the character around the grid, using the button and tracker ball, so that each time he goes “BOING” he jumps to a word that has only one letter different from the last. If the correct route is chosen he finally lands on a special square and the game is won. The team watches for the time and offers advice and encouragement to the player. Plenty of time is given to “Average” players but many teams quit on this one as it takes good word skills to work it out.

STEAM TRAIN

A “straight” mental game, and great fun. Using tracker ball and buttons, a steam engine must be manoeuvred to shunt trucks into their correct sidings. It seems fairly simple once the buttons for changing the points have been mastered – then an express train rushes through on the main line, crashing into your trucks, and you must start again! There are “tricks” which must be learnt before the game can be won, so this is a hard game for first-timers.

CONVEYOR BELT

Players are shown a number of objects on a conveyor belt and told to memorise them. Then they are shown pairs of objects and have to say which of the pair was on the conveyor belt.”Average” players are shown pairs of quite different objects, but on Fiendish level the pairs are very similar, making it much harder to choose the correct one. This is a classic memory game with a Cyberdrome twist

BAGATELLE MAZE

A pair of steel balls must be manoeuvred by the player(s) tilting a large horizontal maze. Once the balls have passed through certain “crystal” points on the maze, without passing through a “skull” point, the game is won. When a “skull” sensor is passed, time is lost (between five and fifteen seconds depending on the difficulty level). The whole screen forms the clock on this one. A very popular and effective physical game.

TARANTULA’S LAIR

The player is told to climb into a dark space which contains the spiders “web”. Once he is there, UV lights allow his team to see where he must climb to reach the crystal. If he disturbs the web (by moving the nets or poles which have sensors) he incurs a penalty. The team, meanwhile, must guide him and read him the instructions from the screen. Only some of the poles have sensors, and these are set off by moving them up or down. The player eventually finds himself in a small enclosed space “The Black Hole” from which he can poke his hand up into a window box containing the Tarantula (a painted fluorescent one) and the Crystal button.

SWING THE CAT

The team is asked to choose a “cool cat” to play this “swinging game”. A stuffed cat hangs above a pit, on a long rope just within reach of the player, who stands on a ledge behind a railing. The cat must be swung at a selection of “rats” stuck to the far wall of the cell. Each rat has a score painted by it, which is added to the team’s running total on screen (a “pile” of rats) when the rat is hit. Players may not swing on the rope or climb into the pit. Either action results in an immediate “game over” message and a screech from the cat!.

There are several differences according to difficulty level, making this game popular and cchallenging for first-timers and regular players alike.

MOLESCRUNCH

The player is sent onto the “common” – a bare cell – and is told he/she has to tread on escaping moles. The trouble is he can’t see any. On screen, however, the team sees the mole (which is generated by the computer) and the player (who is shown in his actual position by means of under-floor sensors). The team then directs the player towards the “mole” in order to prevent its escape. He must “last” one minute successfully treading on the virtual moles. On Average difficulty level, there is one mole underfoot at any one time. On Expert level there are two moles, and on Fiendish, three. Furthermore these moles give less warning of their escape, and choose paths further away from the player.

JOE’S GARAGE

This is a variant of the classic “Towers of Hanoi” game which has  fascinated mathematicians for centuries. In the game, rings of  different sizes must be moved from one tower to form another, with the largest ring at the bottom. A third tower may be used as an intermediate step. A larger ring may not be placed on a smaller one.

In this version the rings are car tyres in Joe’s Garage. “Joe” also has a number of other problems to sort out, especially on the higher difficulty levels, such as answering the phone, and backing trucks into his yard. All of this must be controlled by the players who operate Joe via the tracker ball and buttons.

BRICKHEAD

An entertaining mental game in which the team must rebuild a brick wall, using combinations of the trackerball and buttons to control “Brickhead” – the on-screen bricklayer. Depending upon the difficulty level, Brickhead may have to build a wall with a  complicated pattern of bricks, deal with a dog whch treads in his cement, and constantly hitch up his trousers as his belt isn’t tight enough.

WOTSIT

A trivia-type mental game of lists and categories. A magician  appears on-screen with two dustbins labelled, for example, “films” and “animals”. He then produces from his magic hat a series of captions. The player must quickly allocate each of these to one of the dustbins or to a waste pile if neither is correct.

Using a combination of buttons, teams can change the categories in order to dispose of a greater number of captions in the correct bins. Higher difficulty levels require fast thinking and well coordinated actions between the members of the team.

FINALE GAME THE CRYSTAL DOME

As the team waits to enter, they see how the previous team is  getting on both by watching them and seeing their score mount up  on the monitor. When they enter the dome, they see they must hit the flashing crystals, and that unlit crystals must be avoided.  Merlin’s (or in Japan, Togo’s) voice counts down to the start, and then tells them how much longer they have every ten seconds. After the excitement they see their score on the monitor, before being asked to collect their certificate.

The game is fairly straightforward on “Average” although it is hard to avoid unlit crystals. On higher difficulty levels three extra “hidden” buttons come in to play. At random intervals the game appears to stop, and the hidden buttons must be pressed (in varying combinations) in order to start it up. On Expert level, these “panic” button light up. On Fiendish level they don’t, and they have to be found while a siren screams away in the background!