Alice and Rabbit have lost themselves in a bewildering hedge maze. The day is coming to an end, and they are anxious to get home before it is too dark to find the way.

One switch, one player

Alice Amazed is a one switch game, which means that it is controlled with a single button or switch. This makes the game more accessible to people with certain disabilities, but it is nevertheless a fun game for everyone.

The objective is to guide Alice through the maze, and attain points on the way through various minigames and challenges.

Two switches, two players

But the fun doesn't stop there, as two people can play the game together! Start the full game or a minigame with enter (or return) and Rabbit is no longer controlled by the computer, but by another human player.

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Contents

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Controls

First player: use space to control Alice and to select options in the menus.
Second player: in two-player mode, use enter (or return) to control Rabbit.

To pause a running game, press escape.
To quit the game, press escape again while the game is paused.

Like the game, the title screen menu is designed to work with one-switch controls. The menu options are highlighted in sequence. Press space when an option is lit to either cycle through its alternatives, enter its sub-menu, or - if it is the full game option or one of the minigames - start a game. If you start a game with enter (or return) Rabbit is controlled with this key instead of by the computer.

You can also navigate the menu using the arrow keys. This will temporarily disable the automatic option cycling and leave control with you.

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It begins...

At the title screen, you are presented with the following options:

Full Game

Select this to start the full game, with Alice and Rabbit entering the maze.

Minigames

This brings up a menu presenting the five minigames available:

Settings

Here is where you change the active game settings:

• Controls
  • High Scores: toggles whether entering high scores is enabled or not.
    
  • Menu Speed: sets the speed with which the menu item highlights are cycled.
    

• Difficulty
  Switches between the five levels of game difficulty.
  These affect the minigames as well as the main game.

• Graphics
  • Full Screen: changes between full screen and windowed mode.
  • Stabilize graphics: switch on to avoid issues with tearing graphics, but leave it off if it affects the frame rate and game speed negatively.

• Sound
  • SFX Volume: sets sound effect volume, or turns the sound off.
  • Music Volume: sets music volume, or turns the music off.

Exit

Exits the game entirely.

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Amazed

Alice and Rabbit have lost themselves in a bewildering hedge maze. The day is coming to an end, and they are anxious to get home before it is too dark to find the way.

Alice has to cross the river at the right hand side of the maze in order to get home, but the bridge has been dismantled and stuffed into a chest hidden within the maze. She has to find the magic timber for the bridge before she can cross it. But she can't get to the magic timber unless she clears enough obstacles in the maze and acquires enough points for the chest to open. So off she goes to do her best to get home, and she has to hurry before she runs out of time.

Rabbit has to cross the river at the left hand side of the maze in order to get home to his wife and baby bunnies. In a one-player game, Rabbit is controlled by the computer, with skills based on the game difficulty settings. In a two-player game, the second player controls Rabbit and the game difficulty setting only affects the rules of the minigames.

First one home wins.

Controls

When entering the full game, both Alice and Rabbit are snoozing. Each player has to press a button to ensure that both are ready.

The maze is navigated using control bricks that come floating down the rivers. Alice's bricks are located on the left hand side, while Rabbit has his control bricks on the right hand side. The bricks come in groups of five, and will be highlighted sequentially. Use your button to select the brick you wish to use from the current group.

With the game on difficulty very easy, you move after each brick you pick. On the higher difficulty levels, you have to plan a number of moves ahead.

Bricks

Alice is controlled by the green bricks while Rabbit is controlled by the beige bricks. Grey bricks affect both players. The following is a presentation of the available bricks:

Encounters in the maze

There are things that you will stumble upon in the maze, that will either help or hinder you. There are five minigames, your primary method of racking up the points:

The magic timber chest contains the building blocks for each bridge. Each player needs a certain number of points to open the correct chest.

Oh, and someone let some unpleasant cats into the maze. The kind you can't be really sure if they exist or not. Don't let them catch you or you will find yourself much less mobile.

Variations

With increasing difficulty: brick selection speed increases, more steps have to be planned in advance, new bonus bricks become available, and the maze becomes more complex, filled with nastier items. On medium difficulty, one Unpleasant Cat starts hunting you. On higher difficulty settings, two Unpleasant Cats stalk the maze. The score required to open your magic timber chest rises with the difficulty as well.

Common to all minigames is the lowest levels of difficulty being noticably slowed and, when appropriate, allowed more time for completion.

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Shooting Stars

Alice and Rabbit are equipped with bow and star arrows, and try to shoot each other down.

Objective

Break your opponent's shield by destroying all his energy balloons and shoot him before he does the same to you.

A better score will be given for popping a balloon than for sending it flying. Extra points are awarded for taking out several balloons with one shot and for popping a balloon in flight.

Flying objects

Special objects sometimes fly by in the sky. Hit these for extra bonuses:

Controls

You will continuously change the aim of your weapon from straight up to straight ahead and back. Press your button once to freeze your aim. A power bar will appear, indicating the draw length. Press your button again to release your shot.

Reloading is automatic. Once reloaded, your aim will be frozen in its last position for a brief moment before starting to move again, allowing you to fire several arrows rapidly in the same direction.

Variations

Increasing difficulty brings wilder landscapes and stronger winds. The higher levels are faster, and have less restrictions on balloon starting locations. The highest levels also require you to shoot additional moving targets to drop your opponent's shield. The lowest levels grant targeting aid in the form of a tracer beam during draw.

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Climbing the Wells

Ooops, Alice and Rabbit fell into a deep, dank well. How will they get out?

Objective

Climb the well before it is flooded with water, stopping only to accumulate score by picking up any rare mushrooms you come across on the way.

Balloons, used wisely, will speed your ascent. Grab one and you'll soar to the nearest platform above.

Electric dodos on the other hand; vicious, explosive creatures with the brains of thick porridge. Should one come in contact with you, the resulting shock will throw you off your platform and send you falling down.

Another obstacle on your way to safety is the state of the platforms themselves. Some are worn with age and will start to crumble once stepped on. Hurry onto more solid stone lest you want to fall.

Win by ascending all thirty floors and seeking shelter in the bucket. If you are submerged in water, you lose.

Controls

This minigame is presented in split screen. The left side of the screen will follow the ascent of Alice, and the right side will follow Rabbit.

Press your button to jump. Once you take the crouching landing position you are ready for another jump.

Variations

With a higher difficulty setting more items fall into the well, the dodos cause you to fall further, fewer stones are available to walk on and more of those are fragile.

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Pelican Hoops

Alice and Rabbit stumbles upon a couple of hungry pelicans by some docks, hidden deep inside the maze. They say there's plenty of fish in the sea, but is there enough for two?

Objective

Feed your pelican the fish that keeps jumping out from the sea (there is such a thing as a free lunch) and try to stop your opponent from stealing your fish. Gold fish are extra nutritional and count the same as three regular.

Controls

Press your button to grab the fish when it is within reach. If it is too far in front of you, you will jump towards it. When the fish is behind you, press the button to turn around and run towards the fish.

When the fish is in your hands, press the button to either jump and throw it towards your pelican, or to turn towards your bird if you are facing the other way.

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Snail Pace Race

Alice and Rabbit must cross the desert as quickly as possible, and since there is only a single snail carriage, one of them must run! But whoever said snails are fast?

Objective

Rider: Avoid the stones (which slow you down) and collect as much lettuce as possible (mostly to stop your opponent from getting it).

Runner: Pick up any lettuce you come across and use it to lure the snail towards you and off track. The more lettuce you have, the stronger your influence over the snail's movement. You can carry up to five heads.

Controls

Rider: You will automatically swing your carrot stick back and forth. Press your button to move the carrot in the direction your stick is pointing. This will in turn lure the snail in the chosen direction as he keeps hunting the carrot. Each time the snail has to turn, he slows down a bit, though left alone he will soon be back at top speed again. The attainable speed varies with the snail's direction. A sharper turn means a lower maximum speed to reach.

Runner: You will automatically run along the track to the best of your ability (and boy are those snails tough to outpace). Press your button to cross the road or change direction mid-road.

Variations

With increasing difficulty comes narrower tracks and more desirable lettuce.

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Ace Invaders

Now where did Rabbit get hold of that deck of Cardians? Alice must break through the onslaught to cross the corridor and continue her quest. A handy set of ancient defense towers will help her survive.

Objective

Cardians: Throw swords at your target. If you feel the towers are in the way, throw swords at them too, repeatedly until they break down. But whatever you do, avoid the active (lit) towers or prepare to feel the wrath of ancient defense technology.

The attacked: Hide behind the towers to avoid the thrown swords. Destroy all Cardians by throwing bowling balls at them. Hit the red cards for a better score and more massive destruction; hitting the Two of Hearts will destroy all adjacent cards, the Ace of Hearts will destroy all cards in a horizontal and a vertical line.

Controls

Cardians: Press your button to make your Ace of Hearts throw a sword and return to be a normal Cardian. The Two of Hearts will now become the new Ace of Hearts, the Three of Hearts will become the Two of Hearts, and a random card will turn into the Three of Hearts.

The attacked: When you are out in the open, press your button to stop briefly and launch a ball towards the Cardians. When behind a tower, press your button to change directions.

Variations

The higher the difficulty, the more unpredictable the towers become. At the two highest difficulty levels an extra challenge is introduced. Somebody has left pots with cactuses in the corridor and you must avoid breaking those at any cost because killing cactuses makes you evil. At hard, if all three pots are crushed, the game is over. At very hard it is enough to break one pot to lose.

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High Scores

If you manage to get on the high score list, you are asked to enter your alias.

The high score name screen has a spinning alphabet wheel. As your desired character enters the marked area, press the button once to stop the alphabet wheel spinning. Wait for your character to light up then hit the button again to enter that character into the name field.

For a short while after entering a character an arrow is shown on the screen. Pressing the button during this time reverses the direction of the wheel.

Briefly after, the wheel start spinning again and you can enter a new character.

Select END when you are done.

Special characters

SPC: blank space

CASE: toggles between upper and lower case characters. Though the wheel will automatically change to lower case after you enter your first character, CASE allows for more unorthodox capitalization schemes.

DEL: deletes the last entered character. By repeatedly pressing the button with DEL selected you can delete several characters in a row.

END: ends the character input and saves the name on the high score list.