Mind Walker
Mind Walker is a video game written by Bill Williams and published by Commodore in 1986 as one of the first games for the new Amiga 1000 computer. The player is immersed inside a human brain and must cure a psychosis that is threatening the patient's well-being. Many aspects of the game play on this psychological theme. The four player avatars, for instance, are the human bodybuilder, the water nymph, the mysterious wizard, and the alien spriggan.
Only one version of Mind Walker was released for the Amiga. This single version continued to run without problem across four generations of operating system, three generations of CPU, and at least three generations of platform hardware, spanning over six years.
Gameplay
The first stage of the game requires the player to build a path from a crystal to a special square located somewhere in the brain. Various types of platforms rest between the player's starting point and the destination —each type corresponds to one of the avatars. For example, water can only be connected by the nymph, towers by the wizard, and so on. The destination point is often surrounded by "tubes" which often block the players path as a path cannot be created on a square with a tube. Floating enemies assail the player, who can destroy them with a lightning bolt. However, the player must remain stationary while attacking enemies. The density of enemies increases as the player approaches the destination. Once the destination point is reached the surrounding tubes lower, allowing the player to venture into the next stage. Stages vary depending on which tube is chosen.The next stage takes place in a 3D first-person perspective. The player must maneuver so that he falls into one of the green zones and is taken into a deeper region of the brain.
In the next stage, the player must guide the avatar through a maze of neurons that pulse with electricity. Touching any of these neurons while electrified instantly kills the player, and various colored enemies also float around the stage. The player must travel through the maze trying to find a pyramid object. Once the pyramid is obtained the player must backtrack to their starting point, and exit the level.
The last stage, a reference to psychoanalysis, asks players to put together a strange, color-cycling puzzle. At the expense of their accumulated points, players can tap Sigmund Freud's pipe and be shown where a piece must be placed, or they can place the pieces in the puzzle themselves. The puzzle consists 42 spaces, and seven pieces are gained with the completion of each of the six levels.