Amazeing is a Konfabulator 1.5 widget that has no useful purpose beyond being a slight diversion. What's Konfabulator, you may ask? Well, it's a nifty javascript runtime engine that runs on OS X. Lets you run little "widgets" which are XML and javascript combinations to do simple little tasks. PC users are outta luck.
Okay, Sherman, set the way back machine for 5 1/2 years ago. When I was in college, I managed to talk a professor into letting me do an independent study on game design, and I wrote an RPG. Originally it was going to be C++, but I ended up switching it to javascript, since I knew it much better at the time. Somehow, despite the delays, screw-ups, etc., I managed to write a fairly functional game and got an A for the thing. Not bad. Especially since at the time I was (obviously) a very junior programmer that really didn't have a clue how to design something of that size, and it showed.
So the game itself was acceptable, but not great. Lots of stuff was hardwired, you couldn't save your progress, and it used the Netscape 4.x DOM. *shudder* But, it got me interested in writing video games in JavaScript, so I whipped up a few of them. Considering what they were, they weren't too shabby. Hell, I even ported Arkanoid to JavaScript (complete with mouse control). A year later, I got fed up with JavaScript when my efforts to port Pacman proved difficult. And it was a language limitation, not a programmer one.
One of the little games I wrote used code out of my RPG project. The thing in that game that was rather acceptable and robust was the movement code to zip your guy around the map. So I swiped it and tucked it into the original Amazeing and made up the story about Robby the Robot trying to find his battery. That original maze is still available, it's now "Original 3" in the widget download.
So I played Amazeing for a while, showed it off to people, and so on. And as Netscape 4 faded away, I archived it on CD and left it alone. BONUS - I just dusted off the code and seem to have it up and running under IE or Safari on OS X (couldn't get it working on Mozilla, oddly enough). Check it out here
Fast forward a few years and Konfabulator comes out for OS X. Let's you design widgets with XML and JavaScript and is basically a neat little diversionary development thing. So I poke around at it a bit and finally decide that I should go ahead and write something for it, so I decide to port Amazeing. The port was pretty easy, I think I had it up and running in less than a day. And that was with improved graphics, better control, more options, high scores, and more mazes. Not bad.
But since then, I just got more and more greedy, so I loaded the thing up with more and more features, bringing us to the present 1.3. 1.3 has support for multiple terrain types as well as the ability to import custom mazes. The Widget includes maze developer documentation, so if you want to write your own mazes, you're welcome to. But, if you do, how about you submit them to me so I can stick them up here and let more people download them. Not as much fun when it's just your maze for yourself.
So, without any further ado, here are the maze archives:
| Mazes | |
| Right click (or control-click) on the maze and choose "download link to disk" for best results | |
In space, no one can find your batteries |
By Jim Thomason 7/29/03
A smaller maze set in outer space. |
Lost in the woods |
By Jim Thomason 7/29/03 A very small maze in the woods |
How I learned to stop worrying and love the ocean |
By Jim Thomason 7/29/03 A small maze set at the beach |
A Midsize maze |
By Jim Thomason 7/29/03 A simple, straightforward, mid-sized maze. |
The '88 |
By Jim Thomason 7/29/03 A large, involved maze with lots of varying terrain. |