June Weekend Stage 7: Laby – The Maze

Stage description

You have to navigate your way around an orienteering course in a maze, as quickly as possible.

Recommended device

Desktop computer or laptop.

Background info

Laby was created by Jarkko Ryyppö, who also created the original Routegadget.

This game was originally created in the 1990s so we class this as a classic! It’s the closest you can get to orienteering on a computer without using Catching Features or Virtual-O.

That said, it takes some getting used to – even the beginner version is challenging.

Tips (important!)

You don’t need to register, but we definitely recommend that you play some warm-up games before playing the actual stage.

The instructions are on the right-hand side of the screen, and continue to be displayed while you play the game.
The red arrow on the floor is always visible and points “north” (towards the top of the map).
If you want to make the map larger, you need to use the zoom feature in your browser. In Google Chrome, you can zoom in by holding down ctrl and pressing +, and zoom out by holding down ctrl and pressing –.
Whatever you do, stay in contact with the map – it is very, very difficult to relocate!

We’ve planned some simple courses to get you started:

Start and finish only. Just press the ‘up’ arrow to move forward and find the control. Try here.
One control. Ma k e a turn!
Fewer walls, so it’s harder to make a turn.
More turns, so to help, we’ve coloured the walls.
Short course with coloured walls. Once you’ve done this, you’re ready for the warm-up for Course C!

You can make any course easier by adding &color=1 to the end of the web address – but you must not do this for Course A or Course B in the actual stage!

For example, to add coloured walls, you would change
https://routegadget.net/laby/?maze=591343485&course=1
to
https://routegadget.net/laby/?maze=591343485&course=1&color=1

Scoring

There is a choice of three courses:

Course A – Hardest difficulty: a long custom course in Laby, with no colours.
Course B – Medium difficult: a short custom course in Laby, with no colours.
Course C – Easiest difficulty: a very short course in Laby, with colours.

You’ll be ranked by:

firstly, which course you complete – everyone who completes Course A will be ranked above those who complete Course B, and they’ll all be ranked above those who complete Course C
then, the total time you take to complete the course

Warm-up

You can play some warm-up games before moving on to the real thing:

Warm-up for Course A – VERY hard!
Warm-up for Course B – medium
Warm-up for Course C – easy
a random course (a different one each time you click the link)

Ready to Play?

Fair play:

You can restart the course if you get lost. However, to make it a fair competition, you MUST note down the times from ALL your attempts, and then add these together to get your total time.
If you’re doing Course A or Course B, you must only have Laby open in a single browser window, so that you’re only able to see EITHER the map OR the maze – not both at the same time!

Go to Course A, Course B or Course C.
If you get lost and need to restart, press Q to end your current attempt. Note down your time for that attempt, and then press R to restart.
If you complete the course in a single attempt (without restarting), take a screenshot or photo as proof of your time – we may ask to see it.
Submit your time for the hardest course that you complete via our results website.

You MUST complete this stage AND submit your time by 17:00 BST on Sunday 7th June.

If you have any issues, please contact us.