Remarks: Processing Mazes

From Maze

[This section is about porting the 10 Print program to a current programming software/hardware environment. What does it mean to take the algorithm out of the C64 and to generalize it for a modern processor and display? This section will be heavily illustrated. Feedback is of course very welcome. -- Casey]

The algorithm that defines the 10 PRINT maze exists independently from the Commodore 64 (C64) platform. In fact, the algorithm can be simply executed with a sheet of graph paper, a pen, and a coin to toss. The act of running the algorithm on a number of different platforms reveals what is essential to the algorithm from the specific constraints and affordances of the C64.

[I like this idea of separating the algorithm from the platform. Very similar to your Processing version of 10 PRINT, I think this thought/practical experiment can help us figure out what's unique about the C64 version, versus, say, a manual coin-toss version or a processing version. I think I ran through some of these differences in an email last summer: the speed and color of the maze stood out as two defining aesthetic features of the C64 version. I just put some of those notes on the Discussion Page -- Mark S.]

In the thirty years since the introduction of the C64, computers have changed substantially and contemporary hardware is an exciting place to re-imagine the 10 PRINT algorithm.