How to play Pipe Mania
Pipe Mania is a race against a slow red liquid called the flooz. It waits in the source while you lay pipe on a 10 × 7 board, then sets off along whatever you have built.
Each level asks for a length of pipe. Get the flooz through that many sections before it spills out of an open end and the level is yours; fall short and the game is over.
Rules
- Pieces come from the dispenser on the left, the next one at the bottom. Click or tap an empty cell to lay it there. There are two straights, four bends and a cross, and none of them can be turned.
- A timer runs round the source. When it runs out, the flooz moves one section at a time. Where the pipe ends, or meets the edge, a block or a piece that doesn’t connect, it spills and the level is over.
- Each section the flooz fills scores 50, and each one beyond the required length 100. A cross the flooz runs through both ways adds 250.
- Click a piece the flooz hasn’t reached to swap it for the next one. It costs 50 points and the dispenser jams for a moment.
- When the flow ends, each piece you laid that the flooz never reached costs 20, taken only from what that level earned.
- From level 2, fixed blocks take up cells. From level 3, reservoirs appear: slow tanks worth 300 extra. On level 4 and every even level after it, the pipe must also end in the drain, which adds 500.
- Each level starts the flooz sooner and runs it faster. Once your pipe is long enough, Fast flow starts it straight away and runs it quickly to the end.
Controls
- Click / tap a cell
- Lay the next piece (or swap a piece the flooz hasn’t reached)
- Arrows / WASD
- Move the keyboard cursor
- Space / Enter
- Lay the next piece at the cursor; start, resume or go on to the next level
- F / Fast flow
- Start the flooz now and run it fast
- P / Esc
- Pause (the game also pauses itself when you switch tabs)
Tips
- Build out from the source first. A lovely pipe on the far side is worth nothing if the first bend is missing when the timer runs out.
- Pieces you can’t use still have to go somewhere. Park them in a corner away from where the pipe is heading, so they don’t block it later.
- A cross is a straight that works both ways. Loop the pipe back through one and the flooz pays 250 on its second pass.
- Watch all five pieces in the dispenser and plan two or three ahead: knowing which bend comes next can decide which way to turn now.
Pipe Mania strategy
Time is pieces
Level 1 gives you 28 seconds before the flooz leaves and 3.2 seconds a section after that; by level 8 it is 17 seconds and 1.8 a section. Every piece costs one click, so time turns straight into pieces. Spend the countdown on the first five or six sections from the source. Once the flooz is moving, each section you lay ahead of it buys you a few more seconds.
Where the junk goes
At any open end only about half the shapes continue the pipe, so roughly every other piece is one you can’t use yet, and you have to lay it to see the next. Keep one corner or edge as a dump, well away from where the pipe will run. Each piece the flooz never reaches costs 20 when the level ends, but never more than that level earned.
Extras and crosses
Past the required length each section is worth 100 instead of 50, so four sections too many earn as much as the first eight. A cross the flooz runs through both ways adds 250 on top of both sections. Plan a loop: lay the cross, carry on, and bring the pipe back round through its other side.
Reservoirs and drains
A reservoir takes three times as long to fill as a pipe, which buys time when the flooz is catching up, and it pays 300. On drain levels (4, 6, 8 and every even level after) the pipe must end in the drain with at least the required length behind it; arrive too early and the level is lost. Wind the pipe out first and head for the drain in the last few sections.
Swapping a piece
A swap costs 50 points and jams the dispenser for 0.6 seconds, so it is for fixing a dead end, not for tidying up. It is still cheap next to the alternative: a level lost one section short ends the game.
About Pipe Mania
Pipe Mania was made by The Assembly Line and came out in 1989 for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC. Lucasfilm Games brought it to North America as Pipe Dream, and within a year it had been ported to many home computers and consoles, as well as an arcade machine.
This version keeps the dispenser of pieces that can’t be turned, the flooz, the cross bonus, the cost of swapping a piece, and the blocks, reservoirs and end pieces of later levels. The levels, scoring and look are its own.
Questions
Is this the original Pipe Mania?
No. It’s our own free browser version of the 1989 puzzle game, also known as Pipe Dream, with its dispenser, flooz and cross bonus.
How is the score calculated in Pipe Mania?
50 points per section the flooz fills, 100 per section beyond the level’s required length, 250 for a cross run through both ways, 300 per reservoir and 500 for reaching a drain. Swapping a piece costs 50 and each unused piece 20. Our targets are 2,500 for Expert and 10,000 for Pro.
Can I rotate the pieces?
No. As in the original, you lay pieces exactly as the dispenser hands them out. You can swap one by clicking it before the flooz gets there.
What does Fast flow do?
It starts the flooz at once if it’s still waiting, and runs it through the rest of your pipe at high speed. Use it when you’ve built enough: it saves waiting, but leaves no time to add more.
