Empipe - Keeping Windows 3.1 Games Alive!
Empipe
The Empipe Welcome Screen
If you found this page via Google, then you know what Empipe is. If you navigated your way to this page by perusing my site and have no idea what Empipe is, then you're in for a treat.
Empipe is a game not unlike the somewhat popular — if unspectacular — game for the NES called "Pipe Dream." Other versions of this game might ring some bells for you: Wallpipe, Oilcap, MacPipes, Pipe Master, Pipeworks, DragonSnot, PipeNightDreams, and Fun2Link. For my money, however, Empipe is the best. Something about its smooth gameplay, clean graphics (not fancy, but clean), and lack of an annoying soundtrack put this game at the top of all other pipe/water games. It is not uncommon for me to spend an hour or two on this game once I sit down to it and get into a groove.
Empipe was a game — at least in this form — that was originally intended for play on a Windows 3.1 operating system. It came bundled on a CD with several other games called Shareware Breakthrough 2.0, and if I'm not mistaken one of the bundled games was Bang! Bang!
How classic is this?, another game on which I spent many of my 1990s life whilst wearing flannel and listing to Soundgarden.
My brother and I spent countless hours on this game back in the day, and slowly the game became obsolete — and quite simply, just not as fun — over the upcoming years; what with the SNES and N64 dominating the video game world. Windows games could not keep up at that time, to say the least. I'd say a good nine or 10 years passed between the time I last played it on our old-skool Windows system until I started playing again a few years ago after my brother had found it available for download online.
Fast-forward to present-day, and Empipe is now a feature on our site. With the option of having my own website for hosting stuff like this, it's only fair that we put together a tribute for one of the greatest games of all-time. We are the only website on the 'net featuring Empipe in all its splendor. What we've done is gathered the world's foremost experts on the game (me and my brother) and started a collection of Empipe how-to, tips, high scores, and screenshots.
The object of this game is quite simple: You are a plumber in charge of routing a line of water from a "start" spout to the "finish." The start and finish pieces are placed randomly. The challenge comes in the form of the water beginning its flow after about 10 seconds after the level has started. If the water hits the game plane (i.e. it leaks out of a pipe and floods the ground), then your game is over. You must connect start with finish using a random selection of pieces, each of which help (or hinder) your goal. If you so choose, you can scroll through the upcoming pieces until you find the one you need. The supply of pieces is unlimited, so this is a preferred technique. The longer your line, the more points you get for that level. Activate the "Accelerate" button, and you'll get double the points...but be careful — once the water is in acceleration mode, there is no going back, and the water moves quickly in this mode!
Additional challenges start right away in level 2 when a "pass" block is introduced into the game play. The name of that block speaks for itself: the water must pass through the "pass" block en route to the finish block. If you don't go through the pass, then you're done. Starting in level 3, a second line of water (the red line) is introduced. Soon thereafter, you have a double-pass (blue AND red) level. Not much after that comes the introduction of the THREE LINE (blue, red, green) level; shortly after which there is a three-pass sytem that must be completed in order to the — get this — FOUR LINE (blue, red, green, and yellow!). It has been confirmed that not all games are winnable due to the game's random piece-dropping. Sometimes pass blocks are placed adjacent to each other, effectively eliminating the possibility of creating a successful route of each water line through their respective pass-throughs.
The game has several levels, and each one has a different number of start, finish, and what we call "no-drop" blocks. Check out the table I've created by hovering over this.
Level Water Lines Start Blocks Finish Blocks No-drop Blocks Pass Blocks
1 One (blue) One One Two None
2 One (blue) One One Five One
3 Two (blue, red) Two Two Two None
4 Two (blue, red) Two Two Six One (blue)
5 Two (blue, red) Two Four Nine Two (blue, red)
6 Three (blue, red, green) Three Three One None
7 Three (blue, red, green) Three Three Three One (blue)
8 Three (blue, red, green) Three Three Four Two (blue, red)
9 Three (blue, red, green) Three Three Six Three (blue, red, green)
10 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four One None
11 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four Four None
12 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four Two One (blue)
13 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four Two Two (blue, red)
14 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four Two Three (blue, red, green)
15 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four Four Three (blue, red, green)
16 Four (blue, red, green, yellow) Four Four Four Four (blue, red, green, yellow)
The Levels of Empipe - Piece Drops, by Level
What does all that stuff mean? Well have a look at a screenshot of level 1 before any water has begun running by clicking on the screenshot
here
Stage 1 — Very Basic. As you can see, the game starts with a quite simple layout. Each of those pieces are randomly dropped, but due to the low number of pieces in this round and the spacious game plane, it's a pretty safe bet that you'd beat level 1 on your first try playing this game, as a route from start to finish is a pretty easily attained goal. When level 2 comes along, the game takes on a whole new life with the pass block. Level 3 and level 4 become quite challenging, especially for n00bs, and level 5 and beyond is where "real skill" and planning in your piece placement become imperative. Of course, you must keep in mind that the game's piece-placement of the original blocks to start the level is completely random, so (for example) level 4 might not be as hard today as the level 4 your played last time.
My brother and I have beaten the entire game many times over. What we've done now is created a secondary objective to the game: to see how many points you can score on the first level! The reason for this is that beating the game started to get pretty easy for us (remember, we're the greatest in the world), so we reached out for something new. As it turns out, this revolutionary spin on the game play has kept Empipe interesting and fun far longer than it may have been otherwise.
To enter the actual game play screenshots, please follow this link to the Empipe gallery — the only one of its kind in the history of the world! On this page you'll see the world's highest scores, various screenshots, and other miscellaneous potpourri related to Empipe. Remember, the images you're about to see are taken from the world's finest. Do not get discouraged if you can't match these scores. Use them as motivation to become one of the elite!
© circa 1993-2008 Brettallica Productions and iamjohnbeck Designs in conjunction with brettroby.com
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