Rats of the Maze
The year is 2048.
Thirty years ago we outsourced the very runnings of our lives to Machines. Machines that learn. The Machines learnt too well.
Today, all computing resource on the planet has been consolidated in a vast Maze hewn out of solid rock.
No humans have access to The Maze, but the warm glow of it's reactors make it an ideal home for millions of flesh eating Rats.
Your mission is to enter The Maze, sabotage the power source of The Machines and free the human race from it's self-inflicted, automated prison.
You are our last best hope, but until today, no human has survived The Maze Of The Rats.
TRANSMISSION END
Rats of the Maze is an arcade simulation that explores html5 canvas, maze generation and pathfinding algorithms.
You can enjoy Rats of the Maze here:
Rats of the Maze is inspired by a game found on the venerable Burroughs B20 CTOS computer, circa 1982. Many hours were spent enjoying this finely crafted arcade gem hiding in the depths of a very businesslike system.
Additional inspiration is drawn from the artistic masterworks Major Havoc and Robotron 2084.
Very little information or emulation of the original game can be found, and only a few screenshots remain. If you have any information, please contact me, I'd love to know more.
Conference Talks
Rats of the Maze has been presented as a conference talk at Web Directions Code in Australia, and JSConf.asia in Singapore. Each talk follows a different tangent in describing the simulation and back-story.
- JSConf.nz 2016, Wellington, New Zealand
- JSConf.asia 2016, Singapore
- Web Directions Code 2016, Melbourne, Australia
Other talks cover implementation and different applications of the coldwar.io simulation engine Rats of the Maze uses.
Hacking
You'll need Node.js 5 or above.
git clone git@github.com:simonswain/ratsofthemaze.git
cd ratsofthemaze
npm install
npm start
open http://localhost:6002Controls
Many controls are available for editing settings and manipulating the viewport:
tabtoggle optionsescback to indexenterrestart scene?help.\diagnostics.dragpan+-0zoommousewheelzoom.