Toward a "Cartoony" Spatial Paradigm? pt. 2 (Maze Games)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This post continues my exploration toward evaluating a spatial paradigm of "cartoony" digital games, which evolved through the 1980s. Part one analyzed two important early titles, namely Cutie Q and Pac-Man.

In the Wake of Pac-Man

Illustration for "The Real Threat of Pac-Man" by Steven M. Fink, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 20, 1982

Pac-Man's simple and charming aesthetic helped the game appeal to players of all ages and genders. The yellow circle with an ever-hungry mouth became the first video game avatar (long before that term was coined) with personality and character. That character soon became merchandised, appearing on trading cards, bed sheets, Saturday morning cartoons, toy figurines, board games, canned pasta, and much more. Pac-Man also became video gaming's first mascot, with his round form being used to represent video games, video game addiction, the video game industry, fears of technology, and so on. Take a look at Cat DeSpira's "Mall Rats, Vidiots, and Addicts" (2019) article for a small sample of how Pac-Man appeared in the press via political cartoons and how the video game industry was represented through the 1980s.

The game was popular in Japan, but the USA became swept up in Pac-Mania by the summer of 1981. As often happens, numerous imitators were published that tried to duplicate a fraction of Pac-Man's success.

Lady Bug and Mouse Trap

Lady Bug screen shot

Mouse Trap screen shot

The arcades saw two new cartoony maze games hit the arcades in 1981 that stick close to the basic Pac-Man formula. Lady Bug (Universal Co. Ltd., 1981) and Mouse Trap (Exidy, 1981) do feature gates that empower the player to modify the maze as they play, but don't do much to innovate otherwise. The Japanese-designed Lady Bug features a few cute enemy insect designs with big eyes (see above), not unlike those of the monster enemies in Pac-Man. The American-designed Mouse Trap "cute" characters (like the blue mouse, above) have much smaller eyes.

Visuo-Spatial Analysis: The spatial constructions of these two games are almost identical to Pac-Man, except they are missing the screen-wrap side tunnels that gives Pac-Man a cylindrical topology. Also, Lady Bug agents are projected in plan view (from overhead) rather than front or side elevation view.

Frogger

Frogger screen shot

Frogger (Sega/Gremlin, 1981) does not have obvious influence from Pac-Man, but shares some similarities. In Pac-Man, the goal is to navigate across all points in the maze to clear a level. Frogger's goal is to navigate from the bottom of the screen to the frog homes at the top of the screen five times to clear each level. So, the amount of player movement required before a level is complete is similar between the two games. Second, Frogger's environment is also a maze: a dynamic, ever-shifting, navigable maze of different obstacles. The busy freeway is clogged with traffic and the treacherous river may only be crossed by hopping onto logs, crocodiles, and untrustworthy diving turtles (it isn't clear why our amphibian hero can't simply swim across).

Frogger features a spatial innovation not seen in the earlier titles written about here. Each previous game has the game agents traveling on a single, two-dimensional plane. There is no "background" imagery at all, with nothing but black outside of the agents and environments. The player avatar always collides with another game object, either eating it or getting killed by it. The enemy characters ignore and pass "through" pellets and power ups, but don't really seem to move "over" them. Conversely, Frogger is an example of layered space, where game agents may move over several 2-D planes. As the level starts, the player frog stands atop a ground layer (shown as purple dirt in the image above). At the river, the player frog (and lady frog) may be atop the diving turtles, logs, and crocodiles, all of which are understood as floating above the surface of the water. The diving turtles may also dive under that water layer, thus being behind the base "floor" layer of the water's surface. There is also a sense of gravity into the z-space of the screen, as the player frog may make a misstep and find themself drowned below the water layer.

Frogger Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Most Frogger agents are projected to the screen in an orthographic, plan (overhead) view, which matches the environment's projection. Crocodiles are shown in a side elevation view, which better shows their details (like open, toothy jaws) and prevents them from being confused with logs. The logs are illustrated in horizontal oblique projection, which allows their cylindrical forms to be easily understood. It is a layered, continuous, 2-D game space with a fixed frame and gravity in the z-axis.

To be continued...