Knightmare.com

I know this is old hat, but I am just saying that I am inclined to agree with Alan Boyd (the team captain) and what he said on the Teams page of Series 8. (Although it says in the History of Knightmare that the levels were self-contained. ASIDE: From what point does this hold true? Because in series 3, one of the 'step' clues was earned in level 1 and used in level 2). But if the 'factual' statements in Alan Boyd's e-mail (or whatever) are correct (about getting a harder level 3 going via the shortcut to compensate), then I personally agree with him. If this occurred when there was plenty of time left in the series, the chance of winning would probably be about the same whether or not the team chose to take the shortcut. But the shortcut gave more chance of a finished quest (as opposed to a quest that ends because the time in the series runs out), and would therefore give more chance of a winning quest. However, I think that the chances of winnning would be about the same as any other team (from what I have said above).

Sounds fair enough to me. I might remember this wrongly, but didn't one of the earlier teams find a 'short cut' as well?

No, it was the team after - the last one of the series who had all of 8 minutes!

Also, Barry's team in series 7 had a shortcut - though they were already on level 3, it skipped a chunk of level 3, I presume.

That's right. They got the Corridor of Blades instead (quite a rapid one too).

While we're on the subject of floor puzzles, was the one shown at the very end of series 5 ever used?

It looked hideously complex - alternately black and white tiles with numbers on them, which reversed occasionally (i.e. 72 becomes 27, etc.), and five doors at the end.

Yee! That looked scary I know!

While we're on the subject of floor puzzles, was the one shown at the very end of series 5 ever used?

No, it was never encountered by a dungeoneer.

Just as well, really.