Mazes

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Another feature shared by all these games (both arcade and for home video game consoles) is their treatment of the screen display as a single complete visual unit, like the board of a board game. The continuously scrolling maze of 10 PRINT at least suggests a maze that is larger than the screen, even if one cannot navigate around to see what is off-screen. An interesting contrast to the single-screen maze is a close-up design that puts the player in a larger-scale maze, seen in the Atari VCS game ''Adventure'' (1979). Adventure was loosely based on the interactive fiction work of the same name, and featured a hero with a sword collecting treasures despite the efforts of four dragons. Unlike ''Pac-Man'', in which the player can guide Pac-Man out a warp gate on one side of the screen and see him enter on the other side, ''Adventure'' contains numerous topologically impossible warps that are always hidden from view, and can only be deduced. Instead of an overview map of the total maze, each screen is a claustrophobic close-up of simple paths, often emphasizing discontinuous fragments of other paths that can't easily be reached. This kind of claustrophobic, discontinuous maze-space was later further explored on the Atari VCS in ''Haunted House'' (1981), particularly in the use of darkness and the addition of keys in some modes to restrict and sequence room access.

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=== Context of Expectations: Computer Graphics and Games ===

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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 even before the advent of home computer graphics.

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Gotcha (1973 arcade) a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of partitions

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The Amazing Maze Game (1976 arcade) -- a classic maze

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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 computer games, one common feature of the many different 2D maze video games from the period is orientation: all are rectilinear and aligned to the Cartesian axes, rather than being diagonal. This similarity, it turns out, constitutes the category -- in fact, it is even more important than the degree to which given games are maze-like, or what impact their maze-ness has on gameplay. Different games have different maze aesthetics. The arcade game ''Gotcha'' (1973) stages a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of disconnected partitions which served as an obstacle course. Conversely, the arcade game ''The Amazing Maze Game'' (1976) implements 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) provides a playable random maze generator as the field for a very a large number of games, including races and tag, and includes modes with invisible walls where the maze must be interactively felt out and remembered.

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Pac-Man (1982 Atari VCS)

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''Pac-Man'' (1980) is perhaps the most famous classic maze-like arcade game, although, like Gotcha, it is less a maze than a free-form obstacle course, using the free-floating wall partitions to complicate the game of tag rather than obfuscating any path to escape. When ''Pac-Man'' was reimplemented for the Atari VCS in 1982, the vertical field was redesigned in horizontal format and for a lower resolution display; the essential topology of the game (partitions, looped corners, and warp gates connecting one side to the other) remained the same.

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Another feature shared by all these games (both arcade and for home video game consoles) is their treatment of the screen display as a single complete visual unit, like the board of a board game. An interesting contrast to this aesthetic is a close-up design that puts the player in the maze, the Atari VCS game ''Adventure'' (1979) implements a maze as a series of many close-up screens. Adventure was extremely loosely based on the interactive fiction work of the same name, and featured a hero with a sword collecting treasures despite the efforts of four dragons. Unlike ''Pac-Man'', in which the player can guide Pac-Man out a warp gate on one side of the screen and see him enter on the other side, ''Adventure'' contains numerous topologically impossible warps that are always hidden from view, and can only be deduced. Instead of an overview map of the total maze, each screen is a claustrophobic close-up of simple paths, often emphasizing discontinuous fragments of other paths that can't easily be reached. This kind of claustrophobic, discontinuous maze-space was later further explored in ''Haunted House'' (1981), particularly in the use of darkness and the addition of keys in some modes to restrict and sequence room access.

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==== Isometric Games ====

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@@ Line 163: / Line 163: @@
 Another feature shared by all these games (both arcade and for home video game consoles) is their treatment of the screen display as a single complete visual unit, like the board of a board game. The continuously scrolling maze of 10 PRINT at least suggests a maze that is larger than the screen, even if one cannot navigate around to see what is off-screen. An interesting contrast to the single-screen maze is a close-up design that puts the player in a larger-scale maze, seen in the Atari VCS game ''Adventure'' (1979). Adventure was loosely based on the interactive fiction work of the same name, and featured a hero with a sword collecting treasures despite the efforts of four dragons. Unlike ''Pac-Man'', in which the player can guide Pac-Man out a warp gate on one side of the screen and see him enter on the other side, ''Adventure'' contains numerous topologically impossible warps that are always hidden from view, and can only be deduced. Instead of an overview map of the total maze, each screen is a claustrophobic close-up of simple paths, often emphasizing discontinuous fragments of other paths that can't easily be reached. This kind of claustrophobic, discontinuous maze-space was later further explored on the Atari VCS in ''Haunted House'' (1981), particularly in the use of darkness and the addition of keys in some modes to restrict and sequence room access.
-=== Context of Expectations: Computer Graphics and Games ===
-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 even before the advent of home computer graphics.
-Gotcha (1973 arcade) a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of partitions
-The Amazing Maze Game (1976 arcade) -- a classic maze
-Maze Craze (1978 Atari VCS) -- a large set of games -- complete, race-to-complete, tag, etc. -- all played within classic mazes.
-In graphical computer games, one common feature of the many different 2D maze video games from the period is orientation: all are rectilinear and aligned to the Cartesian axes, rather than being diagonal. This similarity, it turns out, constitutes the category -- in fact, it is even more important than the degree to which given games are maze-like, or what impact their maze-ness has on gameplay. Different games have different maze aesthetics. The arcade game ''Gotcha'' (1973) stages a game of tag between two players in a maze-like field of disconnected partitions which served as an obstacle course. Conversely, the arcade game ''The Amazing Maze Game'' (1976) implements 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) provides a playable random maze generator as the field for a very a large number of games, including races and tag, and includes modes with invisible walls where the maze must be interactively felt out and remembered.
-Pac-Man (1982 Atari VCS)
-''Pac-Man'' (1980) is perhaps the most famous classic maze-like arcade game, although, like Gotcha, it is less a maze than a free-form obstacle course, using the free-floating wall partitions to complicate the game of tag rather than obfuscating any path to escape. When ''Pac-Man'' was reimplemented for the Atari VCS in 1982, the vertical field was redesigned in horizontal format and for a lower resolution display; the essential topology of the game (partitions, looped corners, and warp gates connecting one side to the other) remained the same.
-Another feature shared by all these games (both arcade and for home video game consoles) is their treatment of the screen display as a single complete visual unit, like the board of a board game. An interesting contrast to this aesthetic is a close-up design that puts the player in the maze, the Atari VCS game ''Adventure'' (1979) implements a maze as a series of many close-up screens. Adventure was extremely loosely based on the interactive fiction work of the same name, and featured a hero with a sword collecting treasures despite the efforts of four dragons. Unlike ''Pac-Man'', in which the player can guide Pac-Man out a warp gate on one side of the screen and see him enter on the other side, ''Adventure'' contains numerous topologically impossible warps that are always hidden from view, and can only be deduced. Instead of an overview map of the total maze, each screen is a claustrophobic close-up of simple paths, often emphasizing discontinuous fragments of other paths that can't easily be reached. This kind of claustrophobic, discontinuous maze-space was later further explored in ''Haunted House'' (1981), particularly in the use of darkness and the addition of keys in some modes to restrict and sequence room access.
 ==== Isometric Games ====