The game was created in the first days of ZX81, but there is no information about the year and the author. According to some sources, the publisher was Artic computing ltd. (see: romskingdom.com/en/download-roms/sinclair-zk81/1k-games-10-maze) At that time, it was common for developers to show their creativity by storing programs in a memory capacity of only 1 kb. Like most other achievements of that time, the 1k maze takes up only 633 bytes of memory.

So, the 1k maze is as simple as it can be with objective memory limitation. The goal of the game is to move through the maze as long as possible without hitting the wall. The position of the player, marked with "*", is at the top of the screen. After moving up or down, a new row of walls and empty spaces appears under the player. You are free to move left or right to catch free space for down or up. If you hit a wall, the game is over. For each new row you run you get one point. Keys: 5-left, 6-down, 7-up, 8-right.

We played 1k Maze using JtyOne Online ZX81 Emulator

P. Penski

Video file by: Retro Games Blog