Computing History of Mazes
From Maze
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[[Category:Mazes]] | [[Category:Mazes]] | ||
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==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
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==Procedural Mazes== | ==Procedural Mazes== | ||
| − | Procedural mazes are mazes in which the entire structure of the maze does not coherently exist in physical or visual space. The maze resides in code. Or rather, the potential of the maze resides in code. Only a portion of the maze is ever available to be traversed at any given time; the rest remains to be generated by algorithms. There are two types of procedural mazes to consider: textual and visual. | + | Procedural mazes are mazes in which the entire structure of the maze does not coherently exist in physical or visual space. The maze resides in code. There are two types of procedural mazes to consider: textual and visual. |
===Textual Procedural Mazes=== | ===Textual Procedural Mazes=== | ||
| − | But even before they hit the mainstream in ''Pac-Man'', mazes | + | One interesting consequence of textual procedural mazes is that the players solving them often generated secondary, visual mazes. |
| − | were a staple of computer culture in its more marginalized forms. Most | ||
| − | significantly, mazes were a central feature of early text-based | ||
| − | adventure games, now known as interactive fiction. Mazes in these games | ||
| − | were not symmetrical spaces to navigate so much as puzzles to solve, | ||
| − | non-Euclidean space represented textually. The genre began with the | ||
| − | groundbreaking Will Crowther's ''Adventure'', written for the | ||
| − | PDP-10 mainframe in 1977 and expanded by Don Woods into a full-fledged | ||
| − | underground adventure. Basing the game in part on his own caving | ||
| − | experience in the Mammoth Cave system, Crowther included in Adventure a | ||
| − | ten-room "MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE." Woods would go on | ||
| − | to add a second maze, this time "TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT" | ||
| − | (Jerz 2007, 23). | ||
| − | Adventure was enormously influential upon a | ||
| − | generation of programmers and videogame players, but most immediately, | ||
| − | the text adventure game inspired the even better known ''Zork.''''Zork'' | ||
| − | too included a troublesome maze. | ||
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| − | One interesting consequence of textual procedural mazes is that the players solving them often generated secondary, visual mazes. Only then the complexities of the procedural mazes become fully evident, as in this detailed map apparently drawn by a gamer named | ||
| − | Steven Jones, which was originally published in DEC Professional in | ||
| − | November 1982: | ||
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| − | [[Image:http://weizenbaum.mit.edu/mediawiki/Steven_Roy_Zork_Map_for_DEC_Professional.jpg%7C400px]] | ||
===Visual Procedural Mazes=== | ===Visual Procedural Mazes=== | ||
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One is tempted to pin the advent of maze craze to the release of ''Pac-Man'' in the U.S. in October 1980, followed by ''Ms. Pac-Man'' in 1981, and the popular (though problematic) subsequent ports of those games to the Atari VCS in early 1982 (''Pac-Man'') and late 1982 (''Ms. Pac-Man''). ''Pac-Man'' appeared on the Commodore 64 itself in 1983. Early descriptions of ''Pac-Man'' often described the playing field of the game as a "maze." For example, in 1981, the ''New York Times'' characterized Pac-Man as "a circle with a big mouth that eats up dots in a maze while other big mouths try to eat it up" (Latham 1981), while ''Newsweek'' mentioned the "maddening ''Pac-Man'' maze" the same year (Langway 1981). | One is tempted to pin the advent of maze craze to the release of ''Pac-Man'' in the U.S. in October 1980, followed by ''Ms. Pac-Man'' in 1981, and the popular (though problematic) subsequent ports of those games to the Atari VCS in early 1982 (''Pac-Man'') and late 1982 (''Ms. Pac-Man''). ''Pac-Man'' appeared on the Commodore 64 itself in 1983. Early descriptions of ''Pac-Man'' often described the playing field of the game as a "maze." For example, in 1981, the ''New York Times'' characterized Pac-Man as "a circle with a big mouth that eats up dots in a maze while other big mouths try to eat it up" (Latham 1981), while ''Newsweek'' mentioned the "maddening ''Pac-Man'' maze" the same year (Langway 1981). | ||
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==The Appearance of 10 Print== | ==The Appearance of 10 Print== | ||
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This chapter argues that the use of the word "maze" to describe what by many definitions is not a maze is rooted in the cultural history of the word in the 1970s and early 1980s, when "maze" conjured up specific images that resonated with home computer users. | This chapter argues that the use of the word "maze" to describe what by many definitions is not a maze is rooted in the cultural history of the word in the 1970s and early 1980s, when "maze" conjured up specific images that resonated with home computer users. | ||
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Two years later the pattern was once again described as a maze in the Commodore 64 hobbyist magazine ''Run''. A section of ''Run'' called "Magic" featured C64 tricks mailed in by users, and in the July 1984 issue, the editor Louis F. Sander announced an | Two years later the pattern was once again described as a maze in the Commodore 64 hobbyist magazine ''Run''. A section of ''Run'' called "Magic" featured C64 tricks mailed in by users, and in the July 1984 issue, the editor Louis F. Sander announced an | ||
| − | <blockquote> | + | <blockquote>Amazing one liner--Here is one of the best one-liners I’ve ever seen. It works on the VIC and C-64, drawing a continuous maze that is very interesting. (13)</blockquote> |
| − | Amazing one liner--Here is one of the best one-liners I’ve ever seen. It works on the VIC and C-64, drawing a continuous maze that is very interesting. (13) | + | |
| − | </blockquote> | ||
The one-liner was submitted by Dan A. Krueger from Cary, Illinois, and it looked like this: | The one-liner was submitted by Dan A. Krueger from Cary, Illinois, and it looked like this: | ||
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Twice, then, in the span of two years this design was described in print as a maze. Why? Why describe the output as a maze and not the more general terms design or pattern? The reason likely depends upon the position that mazes held in computer culture in the 1970s and 1980s. Quite simply, this was the era of the maze craze. | Twice, then, in the span of two years this design was described in print as a maze. Why? Why describe the output as a maze and not the more general terms design or pattern? The reason likely depends upon the position that mazes held in computer culture in the 1970s and 1980s. Quite simply, this was the era of the maze craze. | ||
| + | But even before they hit the mainstream in ''Pac-Man'', mazes were a staple of computer culture in its more marginalized forms. Most significantly, mazes were a central feature of early text-based adventure games, now known as interactive fiction. Mazes in these games were not symmetrical spaces to navigate so much as puzzles to solve, non-Euclidean space represented textually. The genre began with the groundbreaking Will Crowther's ''Adventure'', written for the PDP-10 mainframe in 1977 and expanded by Don Woods into a full-fledged underground adventure. Basing the game in part on his own caving experience in the Mammoth Cave system, Crowther included in Adventure a ten-room "MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE." Woods would go on to add a second maze, this time "TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT" (Jerz 2007, 23). | ||
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| + | Adventure was enormously influential upon a generation of programmers and videogame players, but most immediately, the text adventure game inspired the even better known ''Zork.'' ''Zork'' too included a troublesome maze, its complexities most evident when fully mapped, as in this detailed map apparently drawn by a gamer named Steven Jones, which was originally published in DEC Professional in November 1982: | ||
| + | |||
| + | [[Image:Steven_Roy_Zork_Map_for_DEC_Professional.jpg|400px]] | ||
In addition to ''Pac-Man'', ''Adventure'', and ''Zork'', other mazes abound [http://weizenbaum.mit.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Talk:Maze_walking%2C_solvability%2C_generate-and-test] in the early days of video arcades and home computers, but these are the most prominent examples. It would simply be impossible to use the word "maze" within the semiotic domain of computers and not create some association with these games. Therefore, there's some cultural capital at work whenever 10 Print's design was called a maze in the early eighties. It is reasonable to conclude that the various sources from the early eighties that called the 10 Print design a "maze" were explicitly (though perhaps not consciously) tapping into a cultural history of mazes that home programmers and game players would be aware of. | In addition to ''Pac-Man'', ''Adventure'', and ''Zork'', other mazes abound [http://weizenbaum.mit.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Talk:Maze_walking%2C_solvability%2C_generate-and-test] in the early days of video arcades and home computers, but these are the most prominent examples. It would simply be impossible to use the word "maze" within the semiotic domain of computers and not create some association with these games. Therefore, there's some cultural capital at work whenever 10 Print's design was called a maze in the early eighties. It is reasonable to conclude that the various sources from the early eighties that called the 10 Print design a "maze" were explicitly (though perhaps not consciously) tapping into a cultural history of mazes that home programmers and game players would be aware of. | ||
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== Bibliography == | == Bibliography == | ||
| − | ''Commodore 64 User's Guide''. Wayne PA; Indianapolis, IN: Commodore Business Machines; Distributed by Howard W. Sams & Co., 1982. . | + | ''Commodore 64 User's Guide''. Wayne PA; Indianapolis, IN: Commodore Business Machines; Distributed by Howard W. Sams & Co., 1982. <http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide.htm>. |
| − | Jerz, Dennis. "Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original 'Adventure' in Code and in Kentucky." ''DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly'' 1.2 (2007). . | + | Jerz, Dennis. "Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original 'Adventure' in Code and in Kentucky." ''DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly'' 1.2 (2007). <http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/001/2/000009/000009.html>. |
| − | Krueger, Dan A., and Louis F. Sander. "Magic $93." ''Run'' Jul 1984. 13-14. | + | Krueger, Dan A., and Louis F. Sander. "Magic $93." ''Run'' Jul 1984. 13-14. <http://www.old-computer-mags.com/magazine/magazine_viewer_eng.php?idx=Run.htm&base=Run&num=007&page=13>. |
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| − | =Run.htm&base= | ||
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| − | Run&num | ||
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| − | =007&page= | ||
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| − | 13>. | ||
Langway, Lynn. "Invasion of the Video Creatures." ''Newsweek'' 16 Nov 1981: 90+. | Langway, Lynn. "Invasion of the Video Creatures." ''Newsweek'' 16 Nov 1981: 90+. | ||
