Once your intrepid adventurer rises to the challenge, the showman doffs his top hat and announces that the ‘sands of time pass over…’ the author here disguises the tedious procedural maze construction, ingeniously utilising the delay to further build tension and atmosphere. Playing to a medium’s restrictions as much as to its strengths is a hallmark of the creative genius Evans’ Monster Maze neatly illustrates the concept of limitations driving art, even on the microcomputer. Perhaps the showman is a projection of the author himself, pulling strings, setting the scene, and issuing a warning which serves in part as goading challenge to entice the punters, and in part as Health and Safety notice (justified, Evans felt, given his own startled reaction to his creation). A mysterious, sparkly-suited carnival barker promises ‘entertainment and exhilaration’ in the form of Rex, ‘King of the dinosaurs… Perfectly preserved in silicon since prehistoric times’. The player is engaged from the outset via an alluring and informative (semi) animated introduction.
Allied to the intellectual challenge of besting the labyrinth is the engagement of the player’s primal fight-or-flight instinct stranded and weaponless, for this is no first person shooter, fleeing is the hapless adventurer’s only option. The genius of the game lays in a sublime, immersive combination of engrossing gameplay and pervasive atmosphere. Upping the ante is the presence of the titular monster, a beast who is not about to let his human ready-meal escape. The earlier title, however, is a stripped-back affair lacking in many features so integral to its more famous counterpart, not least of which is the critical addition of a bloodthirsty opponent: the inimitable Tyrannosaurus Rex.ģD Monster Maze’s concept is deceptively simple, tasking the player with locating the exit of a randomly generated labyrinth, the view of which is convincingly presented in first-person perspective.
A full third of a century after release, Malcolm Evans’ undisputed masterpiece remains genuinely, thrillingly playable, without recourse whatsoever to rose-tinted eyewear.Ĭontrary to popular conception, Monster Maze is not the earliest three-dimensional maze game released on Sinclair’s diminutive micro that accolade goes to Axis software’s 1981 3D Labyrinth. There are many classic retro games, but only a select few are truly system-defining 3D Monster Maze, by far my favourite ZX81 indulgence, is one such title. A machine from the dawn of microcomputing Ī man pioneering the concept of survival horror.