Getting your game ready…
Tap a cell to lay the piece shown under Next; the smaller pieces beside it are the ones coming after, so you can plan a few moves ahead. With a keyboard, move with the arrow keys and press Space. Pipes go on open ground only, not on rocks, the spring or the pond, and grey stone channels are already fixed in place. Tapping a dry pipe of yours swaps it for the next piece, at a cost of 10 points.
Your first pipe starts the countdown on the spring. When it runs out, water flows along your route one pipe at a time. Lead it into the pond to clear the level. If it reaches an open end, a rock, the board edge or a pipe facing the wrong way, it leaks and the level ends. Press Rush (or F) to send the water straight away: it races along, and every pipe it fills while rushing scores double.
The water only needs the next pipe in time, so build outwards from the spring first. The dashed outline shows the cell your route needs next, and a red cross warns that an end points at a rock or the edge. Park awkward pieces in a corner you will not use rather than across your own path.
Each filled pipe scores 10, a mango on the route adds 50, sending the water through a cross both ways adds a 50 loop bonus, and reaching the pond adds 50. Three stars usually means a detour through a mango or a loop, finished early enough to Rush the whole route for double points.
Pipe Mania was developed by The Assembly Line and released for the Amiga in 1989; Lucasfilm Games published it in North America as Pipe Dream. It made a classic of laying random pieces ahead of a slowly advancing flow. Pipe Rush keeps that tension and adds a pond to reach, fixed stone channels, mango bonuses and a Rush that doubles your points, across 24 levels that speed up as you go.