Robert Abbott's Alice Mazes

Robert Abbott has done some great work for us at Games. Although he has created a number of card and board games, he's probably best known the inventor of the "logic maze." This is the basic "maze with rules" that's a popular feature at the magazine. It adds a depth and complexity not found in standard mazes.

Some of Abbott's best work is found in the Alice Mazes, shown in an example above. You start at the red square, and follow the arrows to reach the goal. These start out deceptively simple, but can get incredibly complex. Some have 60 or more moves, any one of which can send you down the wrong path.

Abbott designed and programmed a set of 20 of these mazes in Java (included the one shown above), and they're playable at his web site.