Remarks: Processing Mazes

From Maze

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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. The concision of 10 PRINT originates from its clever exploitation of the C64, as explained in section ??. For example, the code need not instruct the lines to wrap to the next line when they reach the edge of the screen because it's built into the system; lines don't need explicit x- and y-coordinates because characters 205 and 206 define them. When 10 PRINT is ported to other platform, as demonstrated in section ??, these features of the C64 need to be defined within the new platform. The primary constrains of 10 PRINT are C64 default blue on blue color palette and the ?? x ?? character screen.

When the C64 was launched in 1982, it was a powerful home computer for creating computers graphics. In the thirty years since the introduction, computers have changed substantially and contemporary hardware is an exciting place to re-imagine the 10 PRINT algorithm. For this exploration, we used Processing, a programming system first designed in 2001. It's built on top of Java, one of the dominant programming languages, but Processing is specialized for making graphics and simplifies some of the native Java syntax.