Trapped

Trapped
Developer	Garry Grierson
Publisher	Freeware
Release date	2015
Genre	Puzzle
Mode	Single player only
Media	ROM file

Background

Escape from the room is a sub-genre of the puzzle video game genre where the player is stuck in a series of rooms and/or areas and must figure their way out by finding and collecting objects and solving puzzles.

In Trapped, the player finds themselves stuck in a large house and must find their way out by gathering objects, locating the exit and then performing certain actions in order to escape.

Story

"You are defenceless and lost, trapped in a large empty house, with no windows and no obvious way out. All you know is that you came into this place from the door to your North.

"The house is old, dark and infested with swarms of vicious flying, biting insects. The layout of the house doesn't always seem to make sense. Some doors appear to be one way only, disappearing once you step through, while others lead to seemingly impossible locations. There are also many locked doors that appear to take different types of keys.

"Maybe you should try to retrace your steps..."

Gameplay

The player starts a game in a room with three doors that are facing in the north, west and east directions. A time bar is located at the bottom of the screen which starts dwindling away; once the bar is totally depleted the game ends. The player must find and pick up four objects, find the exit and perform certain actions there in order to escape the house and beat the game.

Along with objects are many doors designated by having three “colors” (see Trivia section below) and rooms in the house (which there are 92). Not all doors can be passed through unless the player has the correct key with them. Other doors can only be entered one way.

Along with gathering objects, there are also swarms of insects in the house that appear at random times. The moment the player enters a room with them they will swarm the player, although the fish object in the house can be used to attract the insects when dropped. If the insects make contact with the player then the time bar will run down quicker. The insects also swarm around any other object, although when the player leaves a room and reenters it then they will usually be gone.

Controls

• Start game–any button
• Move character/collect object–joystick or D-pad
• Drop object–button 2 (/any button on earlier version)

Trivia

• As of 2016, Trapped is the only escape from the room game ever released for the Vectrex.
• The game has no sound when played on a Vectrex and only a few faint sounds while played on an emulator. An older version had sounds while played on game author Garry Grierson's Vectrex but that was an intermittent bug.
• All doors and objects appear when played on an emulator, although the brightness needs to be turned up on a Vectrex in order to view all objects and certain doors while playing on a physical machine. The "colors" of the doors are marked by their number of archways.
• As it was stated on the Vector gaming forums thread by Grierson, Trapped has “92 visitable locations in this (short) version of the game”, suggesting the possibility of a sequel.

Links

• Download game
• Click on the tabber below for a walkthrough/solution.

• tab1
• Walkthrough/solution

Walkthrough/solution

Basic tips

• If being played on a Vectrex, the brightness needs to be turned up (if it isn’t already) in order to see certain doors and all objects. The brightness should be turned up to the point where the dot on the screen is at least faintly visible in the middle and there’s a faint door overhead in the first room. If the north door is visible then the brightness has been turned up high enough.
• Move quickly! Your health is constantly going down as it is, and even more so when swarmed by insects.
• When you enter a room where there’s an object and insects are swarmed on it, then just go back out the door and reenter it and they’ll be gone, although you might have to do this twice before they’re gone completely.

Walkthrough/solution

In the first room, walk through two west (left) doors, then go up three north doors and pick up the fish.

After the fish is collected, go down one south door, then one west door, one north door, a west door, five south doors, one east door, one south door, one west door, two south doors, two east doors, one north door and then one east door to pick up a key.

Next, you will need to go back out the west door, then through four north doors, four east doors, one north door, one east door, two north doors, and two east doors in order to pick up a coffin.

Final key and exit--to be added

(solution by Darrylb500)