Note, June 3, 2011:  Recently I spent an afternoon playing these mazes. I hadn’t looked at them in over ten years, so I had forgotten most of the solutions. One of the perks of getting old and forgetful is you can enjoy solving certain puzzles, even puzzles you had solved in the past.

I had a pleasant time solving mazes 1 through 9, but then I got to maze 10 and really got stuck. It took me about an hour and a half to solve. I realized that it’s not a good idea to have a maze of this difficulty in an introductory set of mazes; so I thought I should give the solution here.

By the way, I looked up in my old notes and saw that the layout for maze 10 was created by Toby Nelson. I found that to be a relief. If I had created maze 10 and couldn’t solve it, then that would be worse than just being old and forgetful. It would mean I was ready for “The Home.”
 

Here then is the solution: up 1, right 5, down 4, left 1, down 2, right 1, delay. The Minotaur is now trapped in a semi-cup near the right side of the board.

Next we go: left 2, up 1, left 2, up 1, left 2, up 1, down 1, right 1, down 3, left 1, delay. The Minotaur is now in a semi-cup on the left edge of the board.

Next we go back to that semi-cup near the right side of the board: right 3, up 2, right 2, down 1, right 2, up 2, down 2, delay, up 1.

The board will now look like the diagram at the right.

All we have to do now, is move left 1, the Minotaur will also move left 1 and will become trapped under the bar.

Those last several moves, which took us from the left side of the board to the right side, were very tricky. The route was tricky, and the timing of what happened, was also tricky. You’ll notice there was one delay in the middle of the action. That delay was crucial. I could never explain what went on here, and I don’t even fully understand it.

I hope you go on to solve more of these Theseus layouts, and if you do, you’ll probably run into more problems like this. You’ll see a place where you could trap the Minotaur, but you can’t seem to get him there at the right time. If you keep trying different routes, you might come up with something that works. And remember, you can use delay at various points.

Just to finish the solution: We have Theseus in that semi-cup and the Minotaur is under the cup. Theseus goes up 5 and right 1. He then delays 2 times, goes left 6, down 1, left 1, up 1, left 1, and he is out.

Back to the Theseus page