Variations on a maze

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(→Context: Computer Graphics and Games)
(→Context: Computer Graphics and Games)
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== Context: Computer Graphics and Games ==
== Context: Computer Graphics and Games ==
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[[Image:Game-Gotcha-arcade-(1973).jpg|thumb|200px|''Gotcha'' (1973 arcade) a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of partitions]]
 
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[[Image:Game-Amazing_Maze-arcade-(1976).png|thumb|200px|''The Amazing Maze Game'' (1976 arcade) -- a classic maze]]
 
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[[Image:Game-Maze_Craze-Atari2600-(1978).png|thumb|200px|''Maze Craze'' (1978 Atari VCS) -- a large set of games -- complete, race-to-complete, tag, etc. -- all played within classic mazes.]]
 
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[[Image:Game-Pac-Man-arcade-(1980).png|thumb|200px|''Pac-Man'' (1980 arcade) -- a maze-like field of partitions must be run while being chased by ghosts]]
 
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[[Image:Game-Pac-Man-Atari2600-(1982).gif|thumb|200px|''Pac-Man'' (1982 Atari VCS)]]
 
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[[Image:Game-Ant_Attack-ZX_Spectrum-(1983).gif|thumb|200px|''Ant Attack'' (1983 ZX Spectrum)]]
 
The representation of mazes in computer graphics was already a staple during the period that finds the ''10 Print'' BASIC one-liner appearing in C64 manuals and journals -- in fact, the use of computers to represent mazes conceptually was common before computer graphics.
The representation of mazes in computer graphics was already a staple during the period that finds the ''10 Print'' BASIC one-liner appearing in C64 manuals and journals -- in fact, the use of computers to represent mazes conceptually was common before computer graphics.
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(Sidebar? Summary IF and the tradition of box diagram maps, the importance of mazes in Adventure / Zork / Acheton, and the contextual relationship to home computing and dominance of early PC video game industry)
(Sidebar? Summary IF and the tradition of box diagram maps, the importance of mazes in Adventure / Zork / Acheton, and the contextual relationship to home computing and dominance of early PC video game industry)
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In graphical games,
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[[Image:Game-Gotcha-arcade-(1973).jpg|thumb|100px|''Gotcha'' (1973 arcade) a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of partitions]]
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One common feature of the many different maze games from the period is orientation: all were rectilinear and aligned to the Cartesian axes. Different examples have their own aesthetics -- Pac Man partitions the screen space into an open field of indirect routes, Maze Craze creates a traditional full-screen overview with a single solution, while Adventure produces a claustrophobic view in which only part of the impossibly wrapping maze topology is visible at any time -- usually nearby but inaccessible paths. What all have in common is that they are constructed of horizontal/vertical walls that are orthogonal to the edges of the screen and the scan line of the display.
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[[Image:Game-Amazing_Maze-arcade-(1976).png|thumb|100px|''The Amazing Maze Game'' (1976 arcade) -- a classic maze]]
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[[Image:Game-Maze_Craze-Atari2600-(1978).png|thumb|100px|''Maze Craze'' (1978 Atari VCS) -- a large set of games -- complete, race-to-complete, tag, etc. -- all played within classic mazes.]]
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In graphical games, one common feature of the many different 2D maze games from the period is orientation: all are rectilinear and aligned to the Cartesian axes. This similarity, it turns out, is even more important than the extent to which given games were maze-like, and different games have different maze aesthetics. The arcade game ''Gotcha'' (1973) staged a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of disconnected partitions which served as an obstacle course. Conversly, the arcade game ''The Amazing Maze Game'' (1976) implemented a race (two-player or against a computer) to solve a classic continuous closed maze. A similar implementation on the home Atari VCS, ''Maze Craze'' (1978) added to a two-player playable random maze generator a large number of games, including racing, tag, and a mode with invisible walls.
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[[Image:Game-Pac-Man-arcade-(1980).png|thumb|100px|''Pac-Man'' (1980 arcade) -- a maze-like field of partitions must be run while being chased by ghosts]]
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[[Image:Game-Pac-Man-Atari2600-(1982).gif|thumb|100px|''Pac-Man'' (1982 Atari VCS)]]
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''Pac-Man'' (1980) is perhaps the classic maze-like arcade game, although, like ''Gotcha'', it uses partitioning walls as a free-form obstacle course rather than a way of obfuscating the path to escape. When it was reimplemented for the Atari VCS in
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vertical field was redesigned in horizontal format for a
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-- Pac Man partitions the screen space into an open field of indirect routes, Maze Craze creates a traditional full-screen overview with a single solution, while Adventure produces a claustrophobic view in which only part of the impossibly wrapping maze topology is visible at any time -- usually nearby but inaccessible paths. What all have in common is that they are constructed of horizontal/vertical walls that are orthogonal to the edges of the screen and the scan line of the display.
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Diagonal orientation did have its place in the early maze-like games, but not in simple 2D -- the emergence of isometric games like Ant Attack, Marble Madness.
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To what extent
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([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_maze_video_games|List of maze video games])
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''Pac-Man'' (1980 arcade) -- a maze-like field of partitions must be run while being chased by ghosts
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''Pac-Man'' (1982 Atari VCS)
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[[Image:Game-Ant_Attack-ZX_Spectrum-(1983).gif|thumb|100px|''Ant Attack'' (1983 ZX Spectrum)]]
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(presence of the diagonal line at all -- isometric projection itself not unheard of, but far from the norm -- Marble Madness not until 1984)
(presence of the diagonal line at all -- isometric projection itself not unheard of, but far from the norm -- Marble Madness not until 1984)

Revision as of 18:28, 29 July 2010

View this revision of Variations on a maze.

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