Welcome to Walter's Maze Mansion! :-)

The computer can make creating and solving Mazes much easier. In addition to hand made Mazes, I've created many with the assistance of the computer. A few are quite large, and some have been published in various sources.

• Ripley's Believe it or Not: I wasn't on the TV show, but I and one of my Mazes were featured in their cartoon! This image is scanned from a June 11, 1988 newspaper.
• News article: This is an article from a local paper about the same Maze featured in the Ripley's cartoon. Yes, I did name the Maze after the actress. Hey, I was 15 at the time. :-)
• Even larger Maze: This is a picture of my room from 1988. The stack of paper on my bed is one long, thin Maze. It's a continuous stream of paper over a half mile long, where the 3031 pages had to be spliced together with tape in a few places when reams ran out. The printout above and to the right is a Maze the same size as The Maze of Theseus below. The Maze above and to the left is one twice the size; it's called the Maze of Perseverance, and I created it the weekend before I saw the movie Labyrinth for the first time. The Maze on the ceiling is called the Maze of Eternity, and is over five times the size of the Perseverance Maze. Note also the Escher type room in the corner and the Labyrinth movie poster over the window.
• The minotaur quest: Starting in 1991 I played on the MUD Darker Realms, became a wizard, and put online an area and quest based on the Greek myth of the Minotaur, in which you get to deal with King Minos, solve the Labyrinth, and face the Minotaur yourself. (One other MUD I made wizard on was Kerovnia, where my quest there was to find the secret of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.)
• Maze club: There is a techno music club in San Francisco called "Maze". I gave them permission to use my Tangent Maze in this ad card of theirs.

Maze Graphics

Here is a gallery of Maze graphics. Unless otherwise specified, all of these were created circa 1990 on a old TRS-80 Color Computer. They're either designed by hand on the computer, 100% computer generated using one of several Maze generation programs I've written, or in most cases a mixture of the two. Some of these images were originally shared on the Usenet group alt.binaries.pictures.misc.

• Sarah Maze: You start outside the Maze, and your goal is to reach the castle at its center. I manually drew the boundary, the solution through, and the main blind alleys, then had the computer randomly fill in the rest. It has 1074 dead ends in it.
• Tangent Maze: You start outside the Maze at the bottom, and your goal is to reach the center. This Maze has no dead ends in it, and is called a purely multiply connected or "braid" Maze, where all passages are connected with each other in ways designed to run you around in circles instead of block your way. It's probably harder than it looks, where the traditional method of following a wall to solve a Maze will not help here, as you'll just go around in a circle around the center and find yourself back at the start again! This Maze is 100% hand made, where I planned it out on paper first, and then drew the finished result on the computer.
• Maze of Theseus: You start outside this huge Maze, and your goal is to reach the castle in the open area at the center. There are three main and obvious entrances, at the south (bottom), west, and east sides, but if you look closely, there are a number of smaller entrances around the perimeter as well. I created it in July, 1992. The boundaries, the solution through, and the main blind alleys, I drew manually, then had the computer fill in the rest. It has 4296 dead ends in it, and a number of closed circuits too. This Maze is very hard, and not just because of its size! It's four times the area of the Sarah and other Mazes here. If it were life sized (5' passages) it would cover over 1 million square feet, or 20 football fields, and have over 30 miles of passages. Another challenge you can do once you've reached the center, is to enter through the south entrance, and try to find a way to the east entrance.
• Lunar Maze: You start outside the Maze, and your goal is to reach the crescent Moon shaped room at the center. Note the small "bite" out of the center Moon next to and to the right of the crescent is not the solution; it's just a dead end, although you can try to find a way to it too for fun. I created the Maze not long after the Sarah Maze. The boundary, the solution through, and the main blind alleys, I drew manually, then had the computer randomly fill in the rest. It has 904 dead ends in it, and at least half a dozen closed circuits so you can go around in circles some in addition to bumping into blocks.
• Crack Maze: You start at the entrance on the left hand side of the Maze, and your goal is to work your way to the exit at the right hand side. Unlike most Mazes that have right angle passages arranged on a grid, this "crack" style Maze has walls everywhere at random angles, with irregular passages between them. It looks much like the surface of a leaf, and as the smaller and smaller wall segments are only limited in number by the bitmap resolution, this can be considered a fractal Maze style too. It's 100% computer generated by one of my programs.
• Unicursal Maze: You start outside at the upper left corner, and your goal is to reach the exit at the lower right. This Maze is of a simple and special type called a unicursal Maze, meaning it has no junctions in it (and no dead ends either). It's just one long snake like passage running throughout every section of the Maze. It's 100% computer generated by one of my programs.
• Akimbo Maze: You start in the open space at the very middle, and your goal is to reach one of the other four open spaces surrounding it. (Ignore the two remaining open spaces, at the upper left and at the lower right, they're just for decoration.) The boundary, the solution through, and the main blind alleys, I drew manually, then had the computer fill in the rest randomly. This Maze has a long and involved solution, and there's a minor trick to it too (it is solvable, where the title of the graphic is a clue). It has 1024 dead ends in it, and one or two closed circuits in addition to some isolated unreachable sections.
• British Maze: This Maze is mostly hand made, where the computer filled in the few remaining areas. Just follow the instructions, in which I actually consider it a challenging Maze for its size. This graphic is featured in Cliff Pickover's book "Mazes for the Mind", page 5. It has 549 dead ends in it.
• Secret pattern: One of the purposes of a Maze is to cause the ordinary person to get lost, but allow the initiated to get through it easily. Hence Mazes can have a secret pattern, where if you know it, you can go through it without error, even if life sized. This is an ordinary Maze, where you try to reach the center. Its solution has a pattern, where whenever you have a choice, go left, then right, then right again, and repeat the pattern until done. I designed the solution, and all nearby passages to force the pattern, and let the computer fill in the rest. It has 461 dead ends in it.
• Easter Maze: Help the Easter Bunny pick up each of the 6 eggs, then place them in the Easter basket. This is another Maze where I did the solution and the main dead ends by hand, and let the computer fill in the rest. It has 222 dead ends in it.
• Hallmark Maze: You start in the room in the lower left corner, and your goal is to reach the room at the upper right corner. This is the only Maze in this section I did not design myself. The plan is from an old Hallmark puzzle, where I manually created this bitmap based on the puzzle's picture. It is another "braid" Maze with no dead ends in it.
• David Bowie Maze: You start at the top and finish at the bottom. This is a small Maze, measuring only 29 by 21 passages, but I have it here because it's the picture I included for my entry when signing the David Bowie 50th birthday card.
• Seattle Robotics Society Maze: The Seattle Robotics Society has had contests where member built robots would run through a small wood Maze, seeing who could make it through in the shortest time. One year I designed the plan for their Mazes using their available boards, and rendered the plan in a 3D picture for their newsletter for good measure. Also in that newsletter I wrote a small article titled What is a Maze. A 3D Maze picture from another of their contests can be found here.
• Astrolog: This is the Maze that appears at the top of the Astrolog homepage. I created the outline of it myself, along with the route through and a couple of the dead ends, and had the computer fill in the rest. Then I manually colorized it and added it to the Web site.
• Torus Maze: This is a Maze that used to be the background image for this page. It's a Maze on the surface of a torus, without a specific start or finish, in which the left and right edges meet and the top and bottom wrap too. The result is a nice mosaic appearing to be one large Maze without bounds.
• Tilt Maze: This is the design that appears as the background for the main Think Labyrinth page. It's not really a Maze, but just random diagonal lines. It does however make an interesting pattern of unicursal loop passages.
• Largest Maze on the internet! This as far as I can tell is the largest, most complicated single file Maze graphic on the internet today. It measures 16383 by 16383 passages on a 32767 by 32767 bitmap, and has 27213436 dead ends. You start in the upper left and end in the lower right. The file itself is a 77 megabyte .zip file which unpacks to a 127 megabyte Windows bitmap.
• Larger Maze on the internet: This is the second largest Maze bitmap on this site, and was formerly the "largest Maze on the internet". It measures 5000 by 5000 passages on a 10001 by 10001 bitmap, and has 2534438 dead ends. You start in the upper left and end in the lower right. The file itself is a 7.5 megabyte .zip file which unpacks to a 12.5 megabyte Windows bitmap.
• Large Maze on the internet: This is the third largest Maze bitmap on this site, and was another former "largest Maze on the internet". It measures 2884 by 2884 passages, and has 842900 dead ends. Note that even this smaller file is so large (3.3 megabyte .gif) your browser may not have enough memory to display it, in which case you may need to download the file and display it in some other graphics program. :-)

Links - Maze Program Downloads

Links to downloadable Maze creation programs or algorithm files.

• Maze Creator Software: Features the Maze Creator shareware program by Greg Peatfield.
• Maze Maker: Download a program to create and solve Mazes in various ways, including a first person view, by Larry Blake.
• MazeFest: Maze generation shareware program featuring 3D Mazes and first person views.
• 3D Virtual Maze: Maze generation free trial featuring creation, solving, and color first person views, by Ataspec Software.
• One Gram Mazes: A selection of Maze generation shareware programs by One Gram Software, featuring hexagonal, circular, over and under, symmetric, and amorphous Mazes.
• WedgeSoft Maze: Create and solve Mazes, including views that only show explored or nearby passages.
• MazeWorks: Race the computer through Mazes, and automatically create Maze levels for the old game DOOM too.
• Threshold: Create and try to navigate Mazes in up to seven dimensions in this shareware program.
• 4D Maze home page: Create and try to navigate Mazes in up to four dimensions in this freeware program.
• 4D Maze Game: Four dimensional Mazes rendered as perspective stereograms, by John McIntosh.
• Mazecast: Create and solve Mazes, including a texture mapped first person view, with C source code available. Older versions of Maze programming are here.
• TorqMaze: A Maze making and solving program written in the C# language, with source code available, by Wiktor Zychla.
• Maize Quest: Free program where you try to solve a Maze with the highest scoring path. Upload your scores to compare with others. Part of the larger corn Maze site here.
• Dungeon Generator: Create random dungeon Mazes online or offline, with source code available, by Jamis Buck.
• Maze Builder: Download a Windows executable to draw and move through Mazes of definable sizes, by David Fotland.
• Daedalus: Last but not least, Daedalus is an extensive Windows program I wrote to create, solve, analyze, view, and walk through Mazes.

Links - Other Maze Downloads

Links to other Maze related downloads such as game levels or algorithm files.

• Maze generation FAQ: A pkzip archive of a text file giving computer algorithms on how to create Mazes. A local copy of the file may be downloaded here, and an already unzipped version may be read here.
• Maze displays: Analyze Maze passages and walls in brilliant rainbow colorings and tilesets, by Jan Thor.
• Obfuscated Mazes: About an implementation of Eller's Algorithm in a very compact and obfuscated form, by John Tromp.
• Algorithms at edepot: An implementation of "tilt" mazes and a shortest path algorithm, by Po-Han Lin.
• Maze Quake level: The Hampton Court hedge Maze as a level for the game Quake.
• Maze DOOM level: A .WAD file for the old game DOOM with a Maze theme. Its description may be read here.
• Escher room level: Escher staircase room like from the movie Labyrinth as a level for the game Serious Sam.
• Meca Software's Maze: Review of a Windows CD-ROM program about Labyrinths and Mazes.
• Betamaze alphabet: A description of an alphabet formed of Maze cells where text can form a Maze, by Terrana Cliff.
• Shortest Path: Research paper about creating and simultaneously solving Mazes created with recursive division, by Ciprian Habuc.
• ExcelMaze: Maze creation, solving, and a first person view in an Excel document I wrote, as hosted on Excel Games.

Links - Maze Creation

Links to sites allowing dynamic creation of random Mazes, where often you can interactively solve them too.

• Paul Falstad's Maze: Java first person view Maze solver with smooth animation, color, internal rooms, and automap.
• 3D Mazes in Java: Create and solve rectangular and hexagonal Mazes from a perspective overview, by Jimmy Dean. Also see his Maze on Mars, a wallpaper graphic image for Windows 95/NT.
• Maze applet: A Java Maze applet that generates random Mazes and allows you to arrow your way through them, by Eric Harshbarger.
• Maze Maker Home Page: Create and display random Mazes in three different shapes, by John Lauro.
• Create a Maze: Create random Mazes with five different outlines and different textures.
• Java Mazes: A Java Maze displayer and a Maze screen saver, by J.B. Gill.
• Magic Eye Maze: Solve random Mazes composed of random dot stereograms. Includes a high score list for best times.
• Mazo-rama: Java and Javascript Mazes, including circular, triangular, and hexagonal shapes, by Jim Bumgardner.
• Another Maze applet: A Java Maze applet that generates random Mazes and can display their solution, by Mike Nelis. An earlier version of the applet may be seen here.
• The Maze Generator: Create orthogonal Mazes of various sizes and pre-selected shapes, by Bill's Games. Can also interactively go through Mazes here.
• MazeGen: A Java Maze applet that allows watching Mazes get generated in three different algorithms, and get solved too.
• TheBigZoo Maze Builder: Create Mazes in various shapes, including any word you type in.
• Russell's Java Applets: Java applet to make Mazes and navigate them with your mouse, by Russell Glasser.
• Overlapping Maze: Java applet to make weave Mazes via recursive backtracking, by Darel Finley. See also his circular Maze here.
• From Borg to Borges: Java applet making 3D renderings of 3D Mazes which you can manipulate, by Ken Perlin.
• 3D Maze Survival: Try to exit a Maze as seen from a first person perspective, where you shoot pumpkins before they drain your energy.
• Custom Maze Generator: Create Mazes of different sizes, colors, and difficulties.
• Maze Generator: Create Mazes in your browser of various sizes, with source code, by DJ Delorie.
• Instant Maze Maker: Create Mazes for role playing games in four different sizes, by Peter Sorotokin.
• Brain Maze: Create nested fractal Mazes, with source code, by Noah Spurrier.
• Robots and Maze: Create random Mazes and solve them with several different robot algorithms, by Louigi Verona.
• MazeMaker program: Last but not least, MazeMaker is a Java applet I wrote allowing you to create Mazes and try to solve them.

Links - Maze Solving

Links to sites containing static Mazes, in which you can interactively solve them online in your browser.

• TreasureMaze: Solve a large Maze from a first person view, winning a prize if you're the first to find the treasure, by GALAK Software.
• Logic Mazes: By Robert Abbott. Includes Java applets for a Theseus and the Minotaur puzzle and a Sliding Door Maze, along with reviews of his Maze books.
• Clickmazes: Many Java applets for Mazes with rules, along with a gallery of Maze pictures, by Andrea Gilbert.
• SuperMaze: Java applets that allow you to explore various Mazes, including 3D Mazes and first person views, by Don O'Brien.
• Best Mazes: Java applets for Mazes with tunnels and switches that can open and close them, including first person views, by Jorge Best.
• Multidimensional Mazes: Solve a set of Mazes in up to 11 Dimensions with orthographic overviews where you can see the nearest blocks, by Igor Galochkin. See also his 2.5D Mazes with bridges.
• Maze Box: A selection of JavaScript Maze games, Mazes where you try to solve them from a top down view, and static Maze bitmaps. The site can be viewed in Japanese or English.
• Maple Tree Learning Center Mazes: An ActiveX Mazes where the path gets revealed as you explore, designed by a teacher. Similar Mazes programs are here and here, and some static Maze pictures are here and here.
• MegaMazes: Has free and paid subscriptions, and an interactive applet where you can solve a set of existing Mazes or draw your own.
• BlackDog's Maze-O-Rama: Maze solving Java applets, and several themed Maze galleries.
• Micronet Maze: A Maze where you look down on a 3x3 area.

Links - Maze Picture Galleries

Links to sites containing static Maze pictures.

• Meditative Mazes: A gallery of brilliantly colored hand made Mazes by Terry McGuire.
• Andrew Bernhardt's Mazes: A gallery of very large hand drawn Mazes with bridges and one way paths.
• Morrison Maze: A gallery of very large very detailed hand made Mazes by Christopher Morrison.
• Amazeing Art: A gallery and publications of Mazes based on ancient wonders, by Christopher Berg.
• Maze Dojo: A gallery of brilliantly colored hand drawn artistic Mazes.
• Knotted Lines: A gallery of artistic Celtic knotwork appearing weave Mazes by John Whiting.
• Maze Zing: A gallery and published book of Mazes formed out of different everyday objects, by Jeff Montanye.
• Maze America: Mazes in the shape of the 50 United States and other American themes, by Timo Jacob.
• Castorian mazes: Mazes in pictures along with some logic Mazes, by Daniel Castor.
• Nacelle's Maze pages: Has Maze bitmaps created with MS Paint.
• Mazed Things: A gallery of hand drawn Mazes based on pictures of various themes, by Isaac M. Thayer.
• Name Mazes: A gallery of colored Mazes spelling out many names and words, by Mark Michell.
• Bob's Mazes: A small gallery of high quality Mazes.
• Mazemaster International: Weave Mazes and books of them, often with a spiritual theme such as this chakra Maze, by David Anson Russo.
• Freemazes: Page of links to free online Mazes and Maze generation programs, including children's Mazes and teacher's aids, with summaries of each.
• Mazoons: Very funny cartoon Mazes by Jody Hall.
• Once Upon a Toon: Themed for children yet still very large hand made Mazes, by Joe Wos.
• Segovia Mazes: Pretty hand made Mazes with underpasses and teleports, by Rebekah Fletcher.
• A-maze-ing Games: Purchase copies of brightly colored hand made Mazes of many different subjects, by John Capers.
• Heart to Heart Mazes: Purchase hand made Mazes where you find the path between the hearts, by Steven J. Natanson.
• Organic Labyrinths and Mazes: Unicursal Mazes evolved from lines and pictures, by Karan Singh and Hans Pedersen.
• Fractal Maze: An infinitely recursive fractal Maze containing copies of itself, (c) 2003 by Mark J. P. Wolf, as featured on Mathpuzzle.com. A smaller yet harder recursive Maze can be seen here, from the forthcoming book "100 Enigmatic Puzzles".
• Yahoo's interactive Web Maze section: More links to online browser Mazes.
• Spiralstorm Gallery: Last but not least, The Spiralstorm Maze Gallery is a selection of my own hand made Mazes.

Links - Dead Ends

Links that no longer work. These sites are still listed for history and in the hope they will someday work again.

• Mindhammer Maze Software: Features examples from and downloads of an advanced freeware Maze generation program by Duncan Ross. Program is still available on the Yahoo Mazes group.
• Erwin Hans' homepage: Download Windows and DOS versions of his Maze generation program.
• Don's Incredible Maze Server: Create various types of quality Mazes inside your browser.
• Doughboy's Maze: Another first person view Java applet Maze.
• Garry's JavaScript Mazes: Solve Mazes from either an overhead or a 3D view.
• MazeBuilder.com: Site allowing creation of online Mazes including Mazes in the shape of any word you type in.
• The Maze Game: Written entirely in JavaScript, you're timed while trying to avoid hitting walls.
• QuestLabyrinth: An online multiplayer game where you create Mazes and try to solve other people's Mazes before they solve yours. Includes a ladder ranking of the top players. The site can be viewed in French or English.
• Maze treasure: Try to find the treasure in this first person view Maze, by Al Ochsner.
• Dungeon Maze: Another first person view Maze, with high quality graphics.
• AMZ Maze: Small 3D hedge Maze with drawings from inside the passages.
• Snow Maze: First person view Maze rendered as passages made of snow, where you move by clicking on image maps.
• The House of the Dafodil: Creative Maze composed of hand drawn scans, where you move by clicking on image maps.
• WebMaze: Try to solve graphical Mazes from a top down view, by Cunic Systems.
• The Virtual Labyrinth: Graphics on a hand made Maze indicate where you are.
• Labyrinth 10th anniversary: Text only, but very cool, where you follow the movie's storyline!
• Maze adventure: Text only Maze, but with landmarks and actions making it like an adventure game, by Elijah.
• Robocop Maze: Another text only Maze.
• Olclay's Labyrinth: Large unfinished text Maze. Watch out for the dragon!
• Random Maze: Really random Maze not aligned to any grid, by Douglas Offszanka.
• Great Mazes: A large archive of free Mazes, some of which were created using Daedalus. Site also located here and here.
• Maximum Mazes: One can purchase copies of published Mazes here.
• Roller skate Maze: This Maze bitmap by Eric Smith has sections based on my Sarah Maze.
• 3D Maze list: Page of links to 3D online browser Mazes in Japan, France, and the US.

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