A Maze Generator By any Other Name

From Maze

Arguably one of the most intriguing characteristics of 10-Print is the maze-like pattern it produces. Or is this output actually a maze? The history of mazes, particularly in Western culture, does not answer that question easily. Nor does the attempt to call this a maze as distinct from a labyrinth, though the latter term seems to be sedimenting with the meaning of elaborate and twisting unicursal passageway. Calling this pattern "maze-like" raises complexities: it cannot be traversed (though Michael Mateas' program traverses it), it has no ending (though stopping the program terminates the maze drawing), it was not designed as a puzzle (though mazes are not necessarily solvable).

Nonetheless, calling this program something other than a maze generator, for example, a random-line-pattern generator, quickly drains it of at least a portion of its mystique. So what does it mean for a home computer in the early 1980s to display a maze in the way the 10 PRINT program does? Computers could and did display many other things. What did the maze, specifically, signify and connote? This chapter examines the role the concept of "maze" plays in making this one line program so tantalizing.

The first part of the chapter will examine the conceptual permutations of the word "maze." From ancient Greece, the legendary labyrinth of Knossos establishes the maze as terrifying and life-threatening space. Even so architectural spaces called labyrinths appeared in descriptions and ruins in Ancient Egypt. The labyrinth found its way into the spiritual centers on the floors of cathedrals. However, mazes have also served as directions for dances. Hedge-row mazes bring the maze into the realm of public shared diversion. In puzzle-books, mazes became an even more common-place diversion, one in which the depiction and the structure were conflated. In psychology the maze becomes the tool of examining behavior. In role-playing games, the maze became the structural frame of the encounters. Finally, and growing out of all of these traditions, in computer games, the maze became one of the central organizing principals for game-board design.

The second part of the chapter explores the degree to which the program generates mazes and how permutations in the code can affect that status. How does, for instance, changing the thickness of the lines affect a viewer's perception of the maze?

The last considers the kinds of mazes produced by the program.