Mazes
From Maze
(Difference between revisions)
(Some changes to the final section) | |||
| Line 117: | Line 117: | ||
Computers did not completely change the cultural idea of the maze, but they did provide new ways to represent, generate, solve, and play in mazes. And, as computers came into the home and became widely accessible, they helped to bring mazes into daily life once again. In part, this was done through the work of early computer scientists who wrote programs to generate mazes. But many popular mazes were not as computationally sophisticated. They were, however, integrated cleverly into enjoyable computer games that reached a mass audience. | Computers did not completely change the cultural idea of the maze, but they did provide new ways to represent, generate, solve, and play in mazes. And, as computers came into the home and became widely accessible, they helped to bring mazes into daily life once again. In part, this was done through the work of early computer scientists who wrote programs to generate mazes. But many popular mazes were not as computationally sophisticated. They were, however, integrated cleverly into enjoyable computer games that reached a mass audience. | ||
| − | Computer and video game mazes did not all operate according to the same principles. There are first-person mazes, partially represented on a screen, in which a subjective perspective is used an a wall or passageway directly in front of the maze walker is shown. There are also second-person mazes, textually represented, in which the maze walker is the “you” who is told the story of the traversal of the maze. And, there are third-person mazes, sometimes fully represented mazes, in which the maze walker maintains a large-scale or omniscient view. | + | The point of view that situates the player/traveler distinguishes these mazes. There are first-person mazes, partially represented on a screen, in which a subjective perspective is used an a wall or passageway directly in front of the maze walker is shown. There are also second-person mazes, textually represented, in which the maze walker is the “you” who is told the story of the traversal of the maze. And, there are third-person mazes, sometimes fully represented mazes, in which the maze walker maintains a large-scale or omniscient view. |
==== First Person Mazes ==== | ==== First Person Mazes ==== | ||
| − | A significant early maze program was the initially single-player, then multi-player, ''Maze.'' This presented a 3D view of a maze in which a player can see (and shoot) opponents. The program was created in 1973 at the NASA Ames Research Center by Steve Colley and Howard Palmer and made into a multi-player game thanks to Greg Thompson. It was brought to MIT in 1974 and elaborated; Dave Lebling write a server that provided text messaging and supported up to eight players or robots. This program was later ported to the Xerox Alto as ''Maze War.'' | + | A significant early maze program was the initially single-player, then multi-player, ''Maze.'' This presented a 3D view of a maze in which a player can see (and shoot) opponents. [1] In ''Maze,'' the environment was created for entertainment, but it was really a convoluted battlefield, not a space to be explored or solved and certainly not one, like the typical hedge maze, that would serve for non-violent diversion. The more terrifying maze environment became a staple of early home computer mazes. ''3D Monster Maze'' was an early example, developed in 1981 and released the following year on the Sinclair ZX81. The game uses character graphics and features a randomly generated 16x16 maze with a Tyrannosaurus Rex; the player can only flee from this opponent in attempting to exit the maze. ''Dungeons of Daggorath,'' programmed in 1980-1981 and also released in 1982, ran on the TRS-80 Color Computer, features a similar first-person perspective on a maze. While it does not generate different maze levels, it had various additional options for arming one's character and attacking enemies. |
| − | In ''Maze,'' the environment was created for entertainment, but it was really a convoluted battlefield, not a space to be explored or solved and certainly not one, like the typical hedge maze, that would serve for non-violent diversion. The more terrifying maze environment became a staple of early home computer mazes. ''3D Monster Maze'' was an early example, developed in 1981 and released the following year on the Sinclair ZX81. The game uses character graphics and features a randomly generated 16x16 maze with a Tyrannosaurus Rex; the player can only flee from this opponent in attempting to exit the maze. ''Dungeons of Daggorath,'' programmed in 1980-1981 and also released in 1982, ran on the TRS-80 Color Computer, features a similar first-person perspective on a maze. While it does not generate different maze levels, it had various additional options for arming one's character and attacking enemies. | + | Although 3D mazes with some more exploratory aspects were offered in the ''Ultima,'' ''Wizardry,'' and ''Bard's Tale'' series, the maze was more a frightening site for combat than a playful place of discovery in many first-person games. This could be seen as early as 1984 in the Commodore 64 game ''Skull,'' which allowed the player to search for treasure but sent threatening skulls into the maze as opponents. The later DOS games ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992) and ''Doom'' (1993) would make this perspective on a maze-like environment even more fearsome. First-person POV is a staple of horror films because it cuts off peripheral vision and so increases the opportunity for surprise. The first-person maze, in addition to connecting players to the perspective and to some extent the subjective experience of their maze-bound characters, was likely to inspire close and constant attention. The player needed to continually anticipate the position and movement of unseen opponents. Far from being abstract and mathematical, or contemplative, or amusing and playful, the maze in these games, not unlike the maze that Theseus faced, functioned as a challenging, dangerous arena. |
| − | |||
| − | Although 3D mazes with some more exploratory aspects were offered in the ''Ultima,'' ''Wizardry,'' and ''Bard's Tale'' series, the maze was more a frightening site for combat than a playful place of discovery in many first-person games. This could be seen as early as 1984 in the Commodore 64 game ''Skull,'' which allowed the player to search for treasure but sent threatening skulls into the maze as opponents. The later DOS games ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992) and ''Doom'' (1993) would make this perspective on a maze-like environment even more fearsome. The first-person maze, in addition to connecting players to the perspective and to some extent the subjective experience of their maze-bound characters, was likely to inspire close and constant attention. The player needed to continually anticipate the position and movement of unseen opponents. Far from being abstract and mathematical, or contemplative, or amusing and playful, the maze in these games, not unlike the maze that Theseus faced, functioned as a challenging, dangerous arena. | ||
====Second Person Mazes==== | ====Second Person Mazes==== | ||
| − | Many of the earliest computer-presented mazes were not seen head on or from above: They were presented in textual descriptions. Second-person mazes of a sort were found in early text-based games such as ''Hunt the Wumpus,'' a 1973 BASIC program by Gregory Yob. ''Hunt the Wumpus'' departed from the standard grid-based BASIC game by providing a playing field of a different topology, one that was a dodecahedron. The player stalked and was stalked by a wumpus opponent, much as the dinosaur would later pursue the player in ''3D Monster Maze.'' | + | Many of the earliest computer-presented mazes were not seen head -n or from above: They were presented in textual descriptions. Second-person mazes of a sort were found in early text-based games such as ''Hunt the Wumpus,'' a 1973 BASIC program by Gregory Yob. ''Hunt the Wumpus'' departed from the standard grid-based BASIC game by providing a playing field of a different topology, one that was a dodecahedron. The player stalked and was stalked by a wumpus opponent, much as the dinosaur would later pursue the player in ''3D Monster Maze.'' |
| − | Textually described mazes developed into their most complex and confusing configurations in text-based adventure games of the sort that are now called interactive fiction. The genre began with the groundbreaking ''Adventure'', written by Will Crowther for the PDP-10 in 1976 and later 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). The full sentence that presents the previous maze to the player of ''Adventure'' is: | + | Textually described mazes developed into their most complex and confusing configurations in text-based adventure games of the sort that are now called interactive fiction. The genre began with the groundbreaking ''Adventure'', written by Will Crowther for the PDP-10 in 1976 and later 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 the ten-room maze introduced with: |
| − | YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE. | + | YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE. |
| − | The "YOU" also works to connect the player to the character in the maze, although in a different way than first-person 3D games do. For one thing, that pronoun sometimes is explicitly used to address the operator of the program rather than to indicate the main character, as when Adventure outputs "IF YOU PREFER, SIMPLY TYPE W RATHER THAN WEST." | ||
| − | From ''Hunt the Wumpus'' through ''Adventure,'' another notable difference was that second-person mazes were typically turn-based rather than real-time. They also came to be embedded in a broader context of simulated spaces. Sometimes these were confusing ones that, even if they were not called mazes, required that players map them. But in any case, they usually invited different forms of systematic, high-level thinking that would allow the environment to be figured or puzzled out. The player's activity was thoughtful and was paced at the player's discretion rather than being based on twitch reflexes. The activity of completing a text adventure is called solving (as opposed to "beating a level"), the same term that is used for finding a path through a maze. | + | Woods would go on to add a second maze, this time "TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT" (Jerz 2007, 23). "YOU" works to connect the player to the character in the maze, although in a different way than first-person 3D games do. For one thing, that pronoun sometimes is explicitly used to address the operator of the program rather than to indicate the main character, as when Adventure outputs "IF YOU PREFER, SIMPLY TYPE W RATHER THAN WEST." |
| + | |||
| + | From ''Hunt the Wumpus'' through ''Adventure,'' another notable difference was that second-person mazes were typically turn-based rather than real-time. They also came to be embedded in a broader context of simulated spaces. Sometimes these were confusing ones that, even if they were not called mazes, required that players map them. But in any case, they usually invited different forms of systematic, high-level thinking that would allow the environment to be figured or puzzled out. The player's activity was thoughtful and was paced at the player's discretion rather than being based on twitch reflexes. The activity of completing a text adventure is called solving (as opposed to "beating a level"), the same term that is used for finding a path through a maze. | ||
====Third-Person Mazes==== | ====Third-Person Mazes==== | ||
| Line 153: | Line 152: | ||
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. | 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. | ||
| − | The third-person mazes mentioned so far, like the early first-person mazes, kept to the grid of the display despite the different perspective that was presented. Diagonal orientation of the sort produced by 10 PRINT did have a place in the design of early maze-like games. It emerged through isometric video games that introduced diagonal motion at the same time it challenged the picture plane through the pseudo-3D effect of isometric perspective. Two isometric games came to arcdaes in 1982:''Q*bert,'' an completion/avoidance platform on an isometric pyramid, and ''Zaxxon,'' an obstacle-racer emphasizing pseudo-3D elements. Neither was particularly maze-like. Later isometric games did incorporate maze-like obstacles. Both''Ant Attack'' (1983) and ''Marble Madness'' (1984) had convoluted obstacle course on a field that was larger than the screen, accessed through scrolling. | + | The third-person mazes mentioned so far, like the early first-person mazes, kept to the grid of the display despite the different perspective that was presented. Diagonal orientation of the sort produced by 10 PRINT did have a place in the design of early maze-like games. It emerged through isometric video games that introduced diagonal motion at the same time it challenged the picture plane through the pseudo-3D effect of isometric perspective. Two isometric games came to arcades in 1982:''Q*bert,'' an completion/avoidance platform on an isometric pyramid, and ''Zaxxon,'' an obstacle-racer emphasizing pseudo-3D elements. Neither was particularly maze-like. Later isometric games did incorporate maze-like obstacles. Both ''Ant Attack'' (1983) and ''Marble Madness'' (1984) had convoluted obstacle course on a field that was larger than the screen, accessed through scrolling. |
While 10 PRINT seems to be a non-interactive 2D third-person maze, its single line of code produces an unusual twist on this form of maze, shifting it to a different axis than is traditionally used. This is accomplished by the simple selection of two diagonal character graphics. It introduces another complexity: even though the maze is built from left to right and down the screen, the walls and paths do not have to follow this axis of construction. | While 10 PRINT seems to be a non-interactive 2D third-person maze, its single line of code produces an unusual twist on this form of maze, shifting it to a different axis than is traditionally used. This is accomplished by the simple selection of two diagonal character graphics. It introduces another complexity: even though the maze is built from left to right and down the screen, the walls and paths do not have to follow this axis of construction. | ||
| Line 159: | Line 158: | ||
=== Entering the Maze === | === Entering the Maze === | ||
| − | Without tracing through the maze's role in culture completely, it clearly is a resonant symbol, and structure, which has evoked a variety of feelings and suggested many different associations throughout the centuries. In the mid-1980s, it would be impossible for most users to consider a maze-generating computer program without thinking of the many computer games that take place in mazes. But for many the maze would also be associated with different types of terror, play, contemplation, and experimentation. This richness, we believe, was part of what made this program a provocative way to encounter computing. The many aspects of the maze were part of what encouraged new Commodore 64 programmers to "enter the maze" (by entering this program on their computer) and to work at solving it, so as to better understand how computing functioned and how it could produce meaningful output. | + | The novice programmer before the machine is the traveler before the maze, and early personal computers were covered in mazes. In the mid-1980s, it would be impossible for most users to consider a maze-generating computer program without thinking of the many computer games that take place in mazes. But for many the maze would also be associated with different types of terror, play, contemplation, and experimentation. Would they be Theseus or Daedalus? The scientist or the rat? Pacman or Zaxxon? And would programming be dancing, meditating, escaping, or solving? This richness, we believe, were part of what encouraged new Commodore 64 programmers to "enter the maze" (by entering this program on their computer) and to work at solving it, so as to better understand how computing functioned and how it could produce meaningful output. |
=== Works Cited === | === Works Cited === | ||
| Line 197: | Line 196: | ||
Saward, Jeff. 2009. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. August. http://www.labyrinthos.net/chartresfaq.html | Saward, Jeff. 2009. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. Chartres Labyrinth FAQs. August. http://www.labyrinthos.net/chartresfaq.html | ||
| − | Williams | + | [1] |
| + | The program was created in 1973 at the NASA Ames Research Center by Steve Colley and Howard Palmer and made into a multi-player game thanks to Greg Thompson. It was brought to MIT in 1974 and elaborated; Dave Lebling wrote a server that provided text messaging and supported up to eight players or robots. This program was later ported to the Xerox Alto as ''Maze War.'' | ||
