Much celebration when a contestant managed to get across the Vortex grid, even though it meant Rangdo (the Aspidistra) got very angry indeed.
However, although all three contestants made it as far as the vortex game, only Virr made it across safely and was able to attend the Rangdo's birthday party - Edmonds and Britton were both evaporated.Įnjoy your 30 seconds of fame talking to Gnoard while it lasts, Keitel Key moments On one occasion, Ray Virr earned himself two rolls through getting the Rangdo his favourite sweets, Noel Edmonds got him something inappropriate, but was not evaporated at that point since it was the Rangdo's birthday and Fern Britton sang him a lullaby, which he did like, but she was only allowed one roll on the grounds that she had missed some words out. Contestants who got him gifts he liked would get the cheese rolls, but those who didn't would get evaporated there and then. By the way, in latter series, said cheese rolls could be obtained by means of getting the Rangdo a present that he liked - he had very specific tastes, such as liking sweets, but not chocolates and teddy bears only if they were Winnie The Pooh, not Rupert. Otherwise they had to walk home, and it's a long way from Arg to Earth. Only by logic, guesswork, and the occasional use of green cheese rolls (which could be used to identify where the vortex was) could the team get across safely to the waiting shuttle. Watching the episodes nowadays, it's striking how the show pretty much invented the "escape room" concept 20+ years ahead of time.Īlthough the challenges in each programme were all variations-on-a-theme throughout the series, the final round in later shows was always the superb Vortex game, where the contestants had to cross a hexagonal lattice. For a large part of each show, the players were just left alone with a bunch of puzzles and had to work out for themselves what they were expected to do.
#Crystal maze game board game series
Other games were wide and varied, but included stepping through a series of poles, guiding a mouse around a computer maze, interacting with the Argonds and their strange quirks, defeating the Red Salamander at the Drogna game, guiding a fellow player out of a pitch-black room, gentle physics problems, and solving codes. One of the sub-games involved the contestants finding Lesley Judd, who would turn out to be The Mole and attempt to sabotage subsequent challenges.
you can only move to a square with the same shape or colour). A particular logic applied to where you could or couldn't move (e.g. One of the initial challenges, the "drogna game", was a floor-tile puzzle that made use of these shapes. Set on the planet Arg, the inhabitants (sometimes human, sometimes dragon shape-changers called "the Argonds") put the contestants through their paces, including: The puzzles usually involved logical thinking with some lateral twists. Three rent-a-celeb types were guided around a series of mental and physical puzzles devised by Patrick Dowling. Little marvel that brightened up many a teatime, often thought of as the forerunner of The Crystal Maze. Rongad (Dagnor) ( Bill Homewood: series 3-4)īBC1, 24 May to 21 June 1980 (5 episodes in 1 series)īBC2, 2 November 1981 to 18 February 1986 (17 episodes in 3 series)
Gandor the Butler (Christopher Leaver: series 1-4) The Rangdo of Arg ("Uncle") ( Ian Messiter: series 1)