058 – Old Maze Video Games — 1/3

058 – Old Maze video games — 1/3 Maze is a complicated system of paths or passages — from an entrance to a goal — that people try to find their way through for entertainment. Maze video game is any game in which the playing field is a maze. Quick player action is required to escape monsters, outrace an opponent, or navigate the maze within a time limit — the player doing it by himself or using a token which represents a character. Various types of maze video games were created. Below, is an overview of such a games developed until the year 2000. Top down maze games In a top down maze game, the player can see more of the maze than can the characters who are in it. In rare cases, the maze is vertically-oriented and viewed from the side rather than the top. ● Mouse in the Maze – 1959 A primitive maze video game created for TX-0 mainframe. Following the 1947 invention of the cathode-ray tube amusement device — the earliest known interactive electronic platform game as well as the first to use an electronic display — the first true video games were created in the early 1950s. Initially created as technology demonstrations, video games also became the purview of academic research. During 1957–61, various computer games continued to be created — most of them, by students — in the context of academic computer and programming research, particularly as computer technology improved to include smaller, transistor-based computers on which programs could be created and run in real time, rather than operations run in batches. Among these early games, it was Mouse in the Maze. Mouse in the Maze allowed users to use a light pen to set up a maze of walls on the monitor and spots that represented bits of cheese or glasses of martini. A virtual mouse was then released and would traverse the maze to find the objects. Old Maze video games — 1/3 ● Page 1 of 25 ● Gotcha – 1973 A coin-op game developed for arcade. Gotcha is a two-player maze game in which one player attempts to catch the other. The maze is composed of a repeating pattern of elements set in multiple columns on the screen. The "Pursuer" is represented by a square, while the "Pursued" is identified by a plus sign. As the Pursuer gets closer to the Pursued, an electronic beeping sound plays at an increasing rate until the Pursuer reaches the Pursued. Whenever the Pursued is caught, the Pursuer scores a point, the maze disappears for a brief moment, and the Pursuer is moved to a random position on the right side of the screen. There is no score for the Pursued, so determining who won is left to the players. The game was not commercially successful. It was termed as "arousing little more than controversy". ● Blockade – 1976 A monochrome arcade video game developed from arcade. It was the first of what would become known as "snake games". Using four directional buttons, each player moves their character around leaving a solid line behind them, turning at 90 degree angles. To win, a player must last longer than the opponent before hitting something, with the first person to hit something losing. The game ends after one player gains six wins. Several Blockade-style games appeared soon after its release such as : Checkmate, Worm, Nibbler, Snake Byte. Though Blockade did not reference snakes or worms, many variants were themed as such. ● The Amazing Maze Game – 1976 A monochrome arcade video game developed from arcade. The object of the game is for the player – who controls a little geometric shape - to find his way out of a challenging maze before the opponent. Each player starts at opposite sides of the maze. The object is to get to the point where the other player started, before he gets to where you started. Users can play as single player and compete against the Old Maze video games — 1/3 ● Page 2 of 25 computer or play against a friend in two player mode. The game is time based, and the player scores a point for each maze beat faster than the opponent. ● Commotion – 1997 An arcade game released for Intel 8080 microprocessor. The basic rules from the older game Blockade remain unchanged - all four players must make lines around the screen to trap their opponents and leave them unable to move. In a two-player game, the third and fourth players will get filled in for by the CPU. Each time you trap one of your opponents and leave them unable to move, you will receive a point. The amount of points that a player needs to win this game again depends on what the arcade operator has set it to (not displayed on the monitor). Once one of the players has the required amount of points, the screen will flash to announce the winner. ● Maze Craze: A Game of Cops and Robbers – 1978 A 4K cartridge for the Atari Video Computer System (Atari 2600). In Maze Craze, two players compete to be the first to escape a randomly generated, top-down maze. Some game variations make play more interesting. Though primarily a two player game, any of the variations that don't involve interaction with the second player can be played solo. ● Slot Racers – 1978 A video game for the Atari VCS (Atari 2600). Slot Racers is a joystick-controlled game with a nine-game variations programmed within the cartridge. The object of the game is to pilot your car through a maze, while attempting to fire missiles at your opponent's car, as well as evading the missiles your opponent fires at your car. Each time one of the respective cars is struck by a missile, the player controlling the other car receives one point. Victory is achieved through the scoring of twenty- five points. The game itself has four different mazes and options concerning missile speed and other factors, within the context of its nine variants, selectable via the Game Select switch. The difficulty switches control the rate of fire. Old Maze video games — 1/3 ● Page 3 of 25 ● Head On – 1979 An arcade game released for Arcade, Commodore 64 and VIC-20. Cars continuously drive forward through rectangular channels in a simple maze. At the four cardinal directions are gaps where a car can change lanes. The goal is to collect dots in the maze while avoiding collisions with the computer-controlled car that is also collecting dots. It's the first maze game where the goal is to run over dots. Head On is considered a precursor to Namco's 1980 hit Pac-Man. Apart sequels, there were numerous unofficial versions for home systems (clones). ● Berzerk – 1980 A multidirectional shooter arcade game, released for Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and Vectrex. The player controls a green stick man. Using a joystick and a firing button that activates a laser-style weapon, he navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the player character. Player can be killed by being shot, by running into a robot or an exploding robot, getting electrocuted by the electrified walls of the maze itself, or by being touched by the player's nemesis, Evil Otto. The function of Evil Otto, represented by a bouncing smiley face, is to quicken the pace of the game. Otto can go through walls with impunity and hunts the player character. If robots remain in the maze Otto moves slowly, about half as fast as the humanoid, but he speeds up to match the humanoid's speed once all the robots are killed. Evil Otto moves at exactly the same speed as the player going left and right but he can move faster than the player going up and down; thus, no matter how close Otto is, the player can escape as long as they can avoid moving straight up or down. The player advances by escaping from the maze through an opening in the far wall. Each robot destroyed is worth 50 points. If all the robots in the current maze have been destroyed before the player escapes, the player gains ten points per robot. The game has 65,536 rooms (256×256 grid), but due to limitations of the random number generation there are fewer than 1,024 maze layouts (876 of which are unique). It has only one controller, but two- Old Maze video games — 1/3 ● Page 4 of 25 player games can be accomplished by alternating at the joystick. As a player's score increases, the colors of the enemy robots change, and the robots can have more bullets on the screen at the same time. Once they reach the limit of simultaneous on-screen bullets, they cannot fire again until one or more of their bullets detonates; the limit applies to the robots as a group, not as individuals. A free life can be awarded at 5,000 or 10,000 points, set by internal DIP switches, with no extra lives thereafter. The game's voice synthesizer generates speech for the robots during certain in-game events. ● Spectar – 1980 A maze video game released for Arcade. Spectar is similar to Targ, but with enhancements. Whereas Targ took place on a completely regular 9x9 grid, Spectar adds blockades to the Crystal City that is the backdrop to the game. In Spectar, the grid is not completely regular. In addition, the center of the grid has a number of twinkling stars that the player can pick up. Clearly inspired by Pac-Man, this introduces a new mechanic to the game : in addition to finishing a level by destroying all enemies, the player can also finish the round by picking up all the dots.

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