It's a very simple game, requiring little in the way of fancy hardware and even less in the way of programming skills, and for that reason it's a popular choice for people who are just starting out writing games, or for platforms which have limited functionality—PDAs, mobiles, web browsers, etc. There must have been a hundred versions since the original came out, some with cool new features of their own, some just straight copies. It's nice to see something done so long ago having such a great afterlife, and since it made a ridiculous amount of money for me, it seems churlish to begrudge other people their crack at it too.—John Dale

Like Chip's Challenge, Pipe Mania is a game that was available for many platforms, but is now mostly remembered as part of the Windows Entertainment Package.

Developed by The Assembly Line, creators of the completely different Interphase (an early 3D game), Pipe Mania was distributed in the US under the better known title Pipe Dream, which would become the sole name of the Windows and Macintosh versions.

Note: Even though the title screens of most versions say ©1989, the game was actually released in spring 1990.

Table of Contents

• DOS
• Windows
• Macintosh
• NES
• Sinclair ZX Spectrum
• Acorn Electron and BBC
• Arcade Machines
• Other Platforms
• Level Codes
• Clones and Variants

DOS

The PC conversion is better done than most ports from the Amiga at the time. Graphics display well in EGA, the game has mouse support (though I found the square cursor, which can only jump one field at a time, hard to control with a mouse and preferred to play it with the keyboard), and even the music sounds well! Pipe Mania gets the trophy for the best music over the PC speaker, ever. If you didn't know it's impossible, you could swear there are two voices.

Pipe Mania does support Hercules, but as so often, somewhat lackluster. The graphics are more or less the same as used for the Macintosh, and are therefore rather distorted on the Hercules display.

Windows

The Windows 3.1 version, 1991, from the Windows Entertainment Pack, is actually a new game with identical gameplay. The graphics are simpler, but elegant, the square cursor was replaced with a wrench-shaped cursor that behaves just like you are used to. Unfortunately, the music was left out completely, but as far as gameplay is concerned, this version is the most enjoyable.

Of course, it did not remain the last implementation of the Pipe Mania concept on the Windows platform. What is less known is that it was not the first one either. Scott Thomson's Pipe Dream, which is more faithful to the original in graphics and layout, precedes it. Later Windows games often implemented the source-drain gameplay introduced by the arcade machine.

Pipe Mania for Windows 3.1
Pipe Dream WOWSpill Pipeline EmPipe

Macintosh

The Macintosh version is very nice to play on an old compact Mac, but not on anything else. I played it first on my Performa 630, and it was not a pretty sight. The essentially black & white graphics have some crude splashes of color, the window sticks to the top left corner of the screen making the menu difficult to access. I tried to set the desktop to black & white, but that just resulted in the game window going all black, so that it wasn't playable at all. Le Grenier du Mac, however, claims it runs on systems up to 9.

Then when I got my Mac SE and played it on that, I was charmed. Obviously this game does not run well on systems newer than 6. There are a few oddities, you can quit the game only with command-Q, there is no button for that, there is still the annoying square cursor, you can play the game with the keyboard, but I have no idea which keys move the cursor then. A nice touch is the ominous music as soon as the fluids (which are red here, if you have color) start creeping along the pipes.

There have been numerous implementations of the Pipe Mania concept for the Mac, currently the only one I have an article about is MacPipes, which is based not on Pipe Mania, but on the original Amiga Pipeline.

NES

The NES version—like most of the other ports it was done in the US by Lucas Arts—is nice. The music hardly sounds better than on the PC speaker (which, in this case, isn't so bad), but the graphics are crisp and clear. For RPGs or side scrollers NES graphics always looked a bit poor, for puzzle games they were perfect.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

The ZX version—at the time a British game simply had to be ported to the ZX—used the Lucas Arts graphics for gameplay. The choice of colors wasn't exactly a very happy one, Jonathan Davies was enthusiastic nevertheless.

Acorn Electron and BBC

I don't think that Pipe Mania was overly popular in the Acorn world. The BBC version is usually listed as an also ran, you can download it at places but I never found a screenshot anywhere. For the Electron version, I found this screenshot on the ElectrEm website.

Arcade Machines

In 1990, Video Systems Ltd. (who also created the Welltris coin-op a year later) manufactured an official Pipe Dream arcade machine. Apart from (unsurprisingly) having more opulent graphics than any of the home platform versions, it also changed gameplay by players to connect a source and drain piece within the alotted time, something the original game had featured only on the last few levels.

This source-drain gameplay proved to be quite popular with freeware and shareware programmers. Especially on the Mac it seems that the games based on it outnumber those based on the original concept. An especially well done Windows implementation is Pipeline.

Apart from the official Video Systems arcade machine, there was an unofficial one by the Korean company Daehyun electronics, also called Pipeline (or actually, according to the title screen, Pipe Line). Unlike the official one it is an exact clone in both gameplay and screen layout.

Other Platforms

Apart from the abovementioned, Pipe Mania has been released for at least the following platforms:

• Atari ST (1989)
• Apple ][ and AppleIIGS, sold together (1990)
• Commodore 64 (1990)
• BBC
• Acorn Archimedes
• Amstrad CPC (1990)
• Gameboy (1990)
• Sam Coupé

On a 1990 poster, Pipe Mania is listed as available for MSX as well. This seems to have been a planned but never released version, at least I could find no evidence for its existence.

Level Codes

There are lots of level codes floating around the Internet, most of them incorrect. First of all, there are passwords only for every fourth level, which is when the graphics change and a new difficulty level begins. There are two different sets:

Set1	Set2

GRIP	HAHA	 5
TICK	GRIN	 9
DUCK	REAP	13
OOZE	SEED	17
BLOB	GROW	21
BALL	TALL	25
WILD	YALI	29

I have tested the second set with the DOS and Atari ST versions. A big difference is that the DOS version gives a bonus for using the password (1000 points per skipped level), while the ST version does not.

I found the first set at Hall of Light, where they give it for Pipe Mania. Since they had the second set (for Pipe Dream) correct, I assume this one is correct as well. I found however that Pipe Mania for DOS uses the second set as well.

Clones and Variants

Like so many successful puzzle games, Pipe Mania became a sort of genre with clones, variants, and spin-offs. Unlike the commercial original, nearly all of them are shareware or freeware and can be downloaded here.

Original Gameplay

• Pipeline was the original game, before Pipe Mania, for the Amiga only.
• Pipe Dreams for Windows by Scott Thomson was probably the first clone of them all. It sticks closer to the Amiga/DOS original than the LucasFilm Windows conversion does.
• MacPipes was, according to Federico Filipponi, based not on Pipe Mania but on the original Pipeline.
• Oilcap is a Pipe Mania clone by William Soleau developed for several years.

Source-Drain

From level 31 on, the gameplay of Pipe Mania changes a bit. Your job is no longer simply to build a pipe of a given length, but to connect a source and a drain. Probably started by the Japanese Pipe Dream arcade machine, there is a branch of Pipe Mania clones who apply this gameplay right from the start.

• EmPipe and
• WOWSpill are Windows implementations of this concept.
• Pornpipe combines standard and source-drain gameplay. And, yeah, it's exactly what the title suggests.
• Pipeline for Windows is another source-drain variant, but with some additional changes in gameplay. You can let any inconvenient pieces pass by, but there are many T and X pieces, and you must not leave any open ends.
• Pipeful Sunday is directly inspired by the Pipe Dream arcade machine, in both gameplay and graphics.

Pipe Dream–Tetris Crossovers

• Pipetris is a cross between Tetris and Pipe Mania. From the falling pieces, you have to build a pipe from right to left. The farther up it ends, the more points you will get.
• Conduit is similar to Pipetris, but with simpler gameplay: You have to arrange randomely falling pieces of pipe so that they will connect the two sides of the well, then all interconnected pieces will vanish.

Just Pipes

Fianlly there have been several games that simply used the arrangement of pipes as a gameplay element. They have usually been closer to Tetris than to Pipe Mania, but it is a fair guess that they would not have been without the latter one.

• Loopz was a multi-platform commercial game from 1990. Randomly appearing pieces of pipe have to be arranged in loops, complete loops will vanish.
• Loopz Windows is a freeware Windows conversion of this game.
• Trubis is similar to Loopz, but closer to Tetris. The pieces float down from the top, you do not have to build loops, instead any arrangements without open ends will vanish.
• Xtris is basically a Columns clone; under the Wege option the blocks are made out of pieces of pipe, and any pipeline of four or more pieces will vanish.