Toward a "Cartoony" Spatial Paradigm? pt. 5 (Maze Tunnelers)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This post continues my exploration toward evaluating a spatial paradigm of "cartoony" digital games, which evolved through the early 1980s. Part one analyzed two important early titles, namely Cutie Q and Pac-Man. Part two looked at some Pac-Man clones and Frogger. Part three analyzed some "maze shooters" and "maze looters." Part four explores how maze games evolved into platform games.

In the change from maze games to platformers, the view of the game environment changed from a plan view (bird's eye view, like a map) to an elevation view (side or front view). A new type of "maze tunneler" game developed that used a platformer-style elevation view that added an important aspect of gravity to the gameplay. Although characters don't fall, certain obstacles can fall toward the bottom of the screen and crush characters in their paths.

These games share some affinity with Frogger, in that they are maze games with dynamic environments. The major difference here is that the player has the power to create the shape of the maze.

The Adventures of Robby Roto! (a.k.a. Roto)

The Adventures of Robby Roto! arcade (1981)

Bally Midway released The Adventures of Robby Roto! (1981), a creation of Jamie Fenton (Datsun 280 ZZZAP, Gorf) and Dave Nutting (Gun Fight, Wizard of Wor).

See some raw footage of Robby Roto exhibited at the 1982 Chicago CES, including "Ron Robot" (a.k.a. Defender and Robotron 2084 designer Eugene Jarvis) trying the game and admitting, "I think it's beyond me."

Robby is a happy red Pac-Man-oid character with a mining helmet and tiny legs. His quest is to find the trapped miners (yellow unhappy faces) and rescue them (turning into happy faces) and lead them to the mine exit. Bally Midway seems to be staying close to cute aesthetic of Pac-Man, which they had license to arcade game for in the USA.

Robby can dig new tunnels in the game environment, but his power is more limited than later examples of this type of game. Robby can only carve out the "soft dirt" blocking the main shape of the maze - the player cannot dig outside of this maze into the "hard rock." Another difference is that there seems to be no sense of gravity in the game. However, this does appear to be the first of the "maze tunneler" type of games. Bally Midway marketing VP Stanley Jarocki described it as "an underground maze game."

The rights to Roto eventually reverted to Jamie Fenton, who has given permission for the game's ROM to be shared and played for non-commercial purposes using a tool like MAME.

Roto Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Just like Pac-Man, except the environment image plane is rendered in an elevation orthographic view.

Dig Dug

Dig Dug arcade game (1982)

Namco launched Dig Dug in Japanese arcades in March 1982 (Agaki, pg. 52) and Namco and Atari brought it to the USA one month later in April (Agaki, pg. 126). Atari boasted it as "a new and exciting type of maze game" where the player avatar (the titular Dig Dug) can tunnel their own mazes anywhere in the earthen strata of the level environment. Two types of enemies must be defeated: the cute, goggle-eyed "Pooka" and the fire-breathing "Fygar." The player can shoot a limited-range pump weapon in order to inflate and destroy enemies or may trap them under falling rocks before they can reach the surface and escape. Enemies prefer to follow the player-dug tunnels but may also freely "phase" through the untunneled earth.

Dig Dug is one of the first games where the player has agency to design the layout of the environment by tunneling. Lady Bug (Universal Co. Ltd., 1981) is an earlier maze game where the player may move gates to change the environment, which I wrote about previously.

Dig Dug Visuo-Spatial Analysis: The game has similar visuo-spatial structure to that of the early platformer game Space Panic. One difference is that Dig Dug has minor background image plane (the flowers at the ground level) using an elevation orthographic projection.

The Pit

The Pit arcade (1982?)

Centuri released The Pit to arcades in the USA in April 1982 (Agaki, pg. 113) after licensing the game from UK company Zilec Electronics. The Stamper Brothers (who I've written about before) were tasked with rewriting the game code to work with the hardware that would be used in USA manufacturing. I am unsure of the UK release date, but it may have predated the Japanese release of Dig Dug.

The player avatar lands on an alien planet in a flying saucer at the top of the screen. They are tasked with retrieving at least one large diamond in the pit at the bottom of the screen and returning to their ship before aggressors can destroy it with their "zonker" tank.

The Pit Visuo-Spatial Analysis: While other games described on this page feature a continuous spatiality, this game is a simple grid of discrete spaces. The characters and falling rocks move one tile at a time. Otherwise, the spatial structure is much like Space Panic.

Mr. Do!

Mr. Do! arcade (1982)

Universal Co. Ltd. released Mr. Do! in Japan in October 1982 (Agaki, pg. 15) and in the USA in February 1983 (Agaki, pg. 139). Depending on your point of view, Mr. Do! may be seen as a crass copy of Dig Dug or as a refined evolution on the Dig Dug formula.

Mr. Do! was designed by Lady Bug designer Kazutoshi Ueda. The player clears a level by collecting all of the cherries on the screen. Huge apples replace Dig Dug's boulders and Mr. Do has the power to push them. Mr. Do can dig tunnels like Dig Dug and is armed with a bouncy super ball that can kill an enemy instantly.

I previously wrote about the sequel, Mr. Do's Castle (1983), an early platformer that has very different gameplay from this game.

Mr. Do! Visuo-Spatial Analysis: This game is very similar to Dig Dug, although the method of projection for the environment is somewhat ambiguous. Some game literature describes Mr. Do as a farmer collecting the cherry harvest from his orchard, implying a plan view of the orchard environment. However, the digging action and gravity towards the bottom of the screen must show the environment in an elevation view.

Boulder Dash

Boulder Dash for Atari 8-bit computers (1984)

Peter Liepa's Boulder Dash (First Star Software, 1984) was first published for Atari's series of 8-bit computers. Exidy bought the rights to create an arcade version in that same year.

Liepa may have been indirectly inspired by The Pit. Liepa was helping fellow computer game programmer Chris Gray refine and develop the physics for Gray's game, which played a lot like The Pit. Liepa instead developed his own game concept of digging for diamonds underground through a series of large, puzzle-like, challenging stages.

1984 is a bit late for the era of games that I've been looking at for this series, but this game has had a long-running impact with countless ports, sequels, and its own clones (I'm looking at you, Crystal Mines). Later maze-tunneler games tend to be influenced by Boulder Dash and tend to be action-puzzle games rather than pure action games.

Boulder Dash Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Boulder Dash uses the same grid-of-discrete spaces, checkerboard of tiles type of world as The Pit, but with huge game levels. The levels can't fit all on one screen, so it uses a smooth-scrolling frame mobility.