[05] Many Hours of Productivity Down the Drain

 Another game Troy had in his collection was Pipe Dream from LucasFilm Games.  A simple game, you needed to quickly lay down the pipe shapes you were given into the grid, so that the liquid (flooz) would flow far enough away from the starting point.  I found in research that a later re-release of the game from a later publisher added a goal of connecting the output to an appropriate exit -- something definitely missing from the original.

From a blurb in Computer Gaming World:

PIPE DREAM: This is a spatial strategy game that'll keep you on your toes. As a Plumber-in-Chief for a chemical company, you've got stay one step ahead of the flowing 'flooz' as you try to build the longest possible pipe system. The pipe segments appear at random and you've got to use quick thinking and forward planning in laying the pipe. As the rounds progress, you'll have to deal with obstacles, one way pipes, and faster flowing flooz. One or two players.

So in a way, a game that is reminiscent of Tetris -- here's a bunch of random pipes, quickly lay them, but try to plan ahead.

I wanted to do my replay in CGA, as I played it then, but I could not get the program working under DosBox for anything less than EGA.  So, enhanced graphics I didn't have at the time.

A title screen that accurately depicts the game to come

Once I toyed with the settings of my emulated machine, it was fun to replay this.  Some history: the game was originally released for the Amiga overseas as Pipe Mania, but then the distribution rights were obtained by LucasFilm Games, who promptly renamed it.

As you progress, there are barriers in the field, and some pipes flow only in one direction, but largely it's an easy game as long as you have fast reflexes.

I didn't spend much time with this title, however, as I'm rushing ahead to the next title I will be playing.   It's a game I haven't played in decades, and again, I'll be choosing to replay in CGA - which I haven't done since around 1989.  It's a title that, I suppose, belongs in a museum.