From architectural and horticultural flourish to mythological and literary symbol, the ubiquity of the labyrinth as both an aesthetic and a conceptual motif has persisted for millennia.
While the labyrinth’s earliest documented appearance actually described a convoluted underground structure in Twelfth Dynasty Egypt c. 1800 BC, later manifestations bore a closer resemblance to the gamified structure with which we now associate the term—one incarnation being that of the printed maze.
Dating back to Renaissance sculptor Francesco Segala’s early pictorial mazes, the printed labyrinth has remained a mainstay pastime for centuries. And as the second half of the twentieth century ushered in the video game era, the labyrinthine maze board saw a bevy of electronic translations—but none were as successful as Pac-Man.
Pac-Man was a global phenomenon upon its 1980 arcade release. Gamers from Japan to the US were entranced by the yellow pill-popper as they led him through snaking strings of pixelated pearls. The title spawned a new genre of interactive entertainment called “‘dot-eat’ games (ドットイート)” in Japan and “maze chase games” in the United States1, which spurred both distant derivatives and carbon copies alike—though some may have been more altruistically minded than others.
