Computing History of Mazes
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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: | + | 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 [http://www.textfiles.com/adventure/maze.zk1 ASCII map]: |
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| + | NOTE: This maze is formatted for 80-columns! | ||
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| + | ZORK I - Maze Map | ||
| + | |||
| + | ______________________________________ | ||
| + | |v __________________________________ <| | ||
| + | |v| ______________________________ |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v __________________________ <| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v| ____________ _____ |^| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v| | #1 |___|TROLL||^| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v| | E___W ROOM||^| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v| |W ________ S| |_____||^| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v|__|v|__ __|v|__ |^| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |__/ N |__| S | |^| |^| | ||
| + | |v| | #3 /__D #2 | ____|^|_|^|__________________ | ||
| + | |v| |_ W __| |__ E __| |> __|^|_|^|________________ v| ________ | ||
| + | |v| __|v|________|v|__ |^| |^| |^| |v| | | | ||
| + | ___|v|___| N #4 W |__|^| |^| |^| ______ |v| | THIEF | | ||
| + | |> _|v|___|_____ U __________|____| |^| |^| ____| #10 |_|v| | DEN | | ||
| + | |^| |v| _____|v|_____ ___ |^| |^| |v __E U___| | #18| | ||
| + | |^| |v| |#5 N | | #6| ____|_|_|D|__|E| |__ W _| |__ D ___| | ||
| + | |^| |v| |SKELETON ROOM|_| |_| #9 |__ |v| _____ |^| | ||
| + | |^| |v| | SW_ U_N&W /< | |v| | #11 | __|U|___ | ||
| + | |^|_|~|__ |_______[[User:MarkSample|MarkSample]]___| |_ E| |________ S ____||^| |v| | || | | ||
| + | |__D #8 |________|^|___ |v| |^| | | |^| |v| |_NE _||CYCLOPS | | ||
| + | | SW_____SW D #7 | __|W|______|^| |E|_____|_|__|v| |v| | #17 | | ||
| + | |NE_NW| | || #12 D_| | #16 S_| |v| |_NW ____| | ||
| + | |v| |v| |E __ U _||E __ U __ S| |_ D ______W | ___|_| _|^|_ | ||
| + | __|v| |v| |v| |v| |^| |v|__|v|_____|^|___|_||^|__| #14 |__| SE | | ||
| + | | SW| |v| |v| |v| |^| |____|v|_____|^|______|^|__S W _ W #13| | ||
| + | |GRAT| |v| |v| |v|__|^|_______|v|_____|^|___|^||^| |______| |_ S _| | ||
| + | |#15 | |v| |v|__|____|_|_______|_|_____|^|_____||^| |v| |^| | ||
| + | |__ U| |v| |_____________________________| |____|^| |v| |^| | ||
| + | |v| |v|_______________|_|_______|_|______________|^| |v| |^| | ||
| + | __|~| |______________________________________________| |v| |^| | ||
| + | |OUT | |^| |v|_______________________|_|____|^| | ||
| + | |SIDE| |^| |__________________________________| | ||
| + | |____| |^|_________________________________|v| | ||
| + | |_____________________________________| | ||
| + | |||
| + | LEGEND: v's, ^'s, >'s and <'s are aids in following some of the paths. | ||
| + | ~'s and /'s denote one-way entrances. | ||
| + | |||
| + | NOTE: Hidden passages are not noted on this map. Want to leave some | ||
| + | element of surprise to the game! | ||
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| + | Downloaded From P-80 Systems 304-744-2253 | ||
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| + | Both of these maps utilize the standard ASCII character set---especially underscores and pipes---to "draw" the maze, and in this way they seem to be precursors to the 10 Print maze, which appears to use slashes and backslashes for its wall. Though this comparison is not strictly true, as the Commodore 64 maze relies on non-standard graphical characters that only resemble typographical characters, a topic that will be covered later in this volume. | ||
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| + | The use of ASCII to make these maps was necessary, since text files were more easily shared across platforms via BBSes than graphical files, as the graphical formats that are standard today were not yet prevalent. | ||
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| + | 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]] | [[Image:Steven_Roy_Zork_Map_for_DEC_Professional.jpg|400px]] | ||
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Latham, Aaron. "Video Games Star War." ''The New York Times'' 25 Oct 1981: 100+. | Latham, Aaron. "Video Games Star War." ''The New York Times'' 25 Oct 1981: 100+. | ||
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| + | Map of Twisty Little Passages All Alike Maze. TEXTFILES. <http://www.textfiles.com/adventure/mazmap.adv>. | ||
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| + | Zork 1 - Maze Map. TEXTFILES. <http://www.textfiles.com/adventure/maze.zk1>. | ||
