Mad Professor Mariarti

Storyline

Chaos has ensued in Professor Mariarti's five laboratories, as various items of equipment and other inaminate objects have come to life as a result of experiments going wrong, and are now a hindrance to the Professor's work. Mariarti must shut down his laboratories in order to end the chaos, prove his sanity and avoid being put into a psychiatric hospital.

Gameplay

The five laboratories are:

The first four laboratories may be visited in any order; Central Power Control becomes accessible once the other four have been closed down. Once the Professor has entered a laboratory, he cannot escape except by closing it down.

The display combines horizontal scrolling with vertical flip-screen.

In each laboratory, Professor Mariarti must find and use a number of items in order to open up new areas and eventually to shut down the room. Examples of items and how they are used are:

A number of enemy characters are seen in the game, mostly themed around the laboratory in which they are situated (e.g. walking floppy disks and joysticks in the Computer Laboratory, round-bottom flasks and molecular models in the Chemical Research Dept, and mutant plants and animals in Biological Observations). These enemies generally move in regular patterns, and can take various amounts of damage. Some enemies can be destroyed (though they will eventually respawn), whereas others can merely be stunned for a few seconds.

Initially, Mariarti's weapon is an infinite supply of spanners. Other, more powerful weapons can bought from Tool Vendors using tokens that are scattered around the labs.

There are also static obstacles that either drain the Professor's health gradually (such as puddles of acid) or kill him instantly if touched (such as electric zappers of various designs). Most of these cannot be controlled in any way, but some can be disabled via a switch situated somewhere in the laboratory. In each laboratory, Mariarti must eventually reach a second switch in order to close down the room. (Spacerocket Development is an exception, in which the mechanism is to use a particular item in a particular place.) When a room is shut down, Mariarti is taken back to the lobby where he can choose another laboratory to visit next.