I found this very old game in a 5¼-inch floppy disk. The case where I found it had written on it the name  "Mazes and Demons", but in-game it is called something else. I think it is from 1978.

With some help, I was able to  extract it and translate it from its original Japanese to English, but I am unable to beat it because it is very difficult and has to be finished before the 5 minute timer runs out (I tried following the left wall trick, but it teleports you at some point and I ended up in an infinite loop before my time ran out).

Please provide any hints or information about the origin of this game if you happen to beat it!

How to play

It requires a physical keyboard to play.

These are the in-game help command instructions. [T.N.: You don't have to type the full command, just the fist letter is recognized, too]:

Commands:

• help: Shows valid commands (this text!)
• north: Goes up one step
• south: Goes down one step
• west: Goes right one step
• east: Goes left one step
• describe: Describes the current location
• take <item>: Adds item to inventory, if available
• use <item>: Uses item from inventory, if available
• inventory: List items available in your inventory
• restart: Restarts & resets the timer to try again

Copyright (c) Iota Urn-Wait 1978

Credits

• Design and programming: Jynus (solo developer). Done in 12 hours for the narrative "The Shorter, The Better" Game Jam 2026 with the Godot Engine. Project code available on GitHub under the Afero GNU Public license 3.0.
• Music: Free Sound community
• Other SFXs and images: Self created with https://www.bfxr.net/ or other public domain sources
• Godot shader: https://godotshaders.com/shader/vhs-and-crt-monitor-effect-2/
• Font: Classic Console Neue