3D Monster Maze
3D Monster Maze is a computer game produced in J.K.Greye for the Sinclair ZX81 platform, published in 1981 by M.E.Evans.
Rendered using the low-resolution pseudo-graphics, it is one of the first 3D video computer games, and the first one on the Sinclair computer platform family. The graphical view, animated at around 6 frames per second, is composed of 8x8 pixel black-and-white characters, so the view is roughly square, taking a 25x24 area on the 32x24 text screen. Part of the screen is reserved for the score count, and a one-line status message is occasionally overlayed at the bottom of the graphical view. While some sources consider it the first in the first-person shooter game genre, this is probably an inexact classification because there is no actual shooting (or other means of the first person's interaction with the environment, except for navigation) involved.
The game 3D engine and the random maze creation code is written in Z80 machine code (probably produced with an assembler). This is augmented by several tens of BASIC lines for less critical tasks, such as the initial greetings and the game legend animation. No copy protection is embedded into the game, moreover, the magnetic tapes of the time being unreliable, there is an entry point in the BASIC code that allows saving another program copy to the tape once loaded (for archival purposes).
The player is placed into a 16 by 16 cells maze, which contains an exit (end of a cul-de-sac) and a hostile monster, the tyrannosaurus rex. The object of the game is to escape through the exit without being eaten. Initially the t. rex lies in wait. Once the player begins moving, the beast begins hunting. Thereafter, it may either calm down again (if the player goes into a part of the maze that is far enough), or vice versa, approach the player and, having obtained a direct view of its prey, run directly for it!
The current t. rex anxiety level is reported to the player in the status line as an indirect clue to their relative location. The initial REX LIES IN WAIT is followed by HE IS HUNTING FOR YOU, which can get elevated into FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING, REX HAS SEEN YOU, and a desperate RUN! HE IS BESIDE YOU (or RUN! HE IS BEHIND YOU).
Points are awarded for each step made by the player any time the dinosaur is on an active hunt, as well as upon successfully getting away through an exit. When the exit is reached, the player can either "appeal" or continue playing in the next (randomly generated) maze. If the appeal is attempted, it's accepted on the 50% probability basis, which effectively results in the computer self-reset via the BASIC NEW operator.
External links
- vb81 – a ZX81 emulator packaged with the 3D Monster Maze and other famous sample ZX81 games. Licensed under the GPL (but written in Visual Basic)
- Arcade Games – this article on Arcade games names Battlezone by Atari, Inc., 1980 as "the first truly interactive 3-D environment"