Title: Design Document: Labyrinth
Author: David Fox
Issuing Body: Lucasfilm Ltd., Games Division
Date: January 15, 1986
Format: Typescript document, 5 pages, single-sided
Classification (original): Lucasfilm Ltd. Proprietary Information — Games Division CONFIDENTIAL
Document Type: Internal game design specification
Related Document: Supplement to Brenda Laurel's Labyrinth Game Scenario and Design Issues (precedence noted in favor of the Fox document where the two conflict)
Subject Platforms: Commodore 64; Apple II
Source Media: Single diskette, dual-sided (~260K Apple / ~320K Commodore 64)
Scope and Content
Internal design specification prepared by David Fox for the Lucasfilm Games adaptation of Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986). The document defines the game's structural, technical, and interface architecture roughly six months prior to commercial release. Contents are organized under the following section headings: Introduction; Overview; Layout; The Three Goals; The Screen; Clipping; Characters; Scrolling Corridors; Wall of Hands; Nexus Scenes; Oubliette; Alf and Ralph; Wiseman Garden; Bog of Eternal Stench; Goblin Village; Castle and Humongous; Escher Room; User Interface; Disk Routines.
The document specifies a concentric-corridor maze structure with one-way connecting passages, a three-goal "metagame" framework (riches, love, glory/power), and a region-based disk layout designed to eliminate mid-game disk flipping. Technical sections address sprite limitations (two four-sprite-wide characters per scanline on the C64), the use of Charlie Kellner's scaling animation driver previously deployed in The Eidolon, multi-colored character set mode for corridor scrolling, and per-scene clipping tables for character occlusion. Interface specifications describe a cursor-driven joystick/keyboard hybrid system with toggleable direct control, an icon-based verb and inventory strip, and context-sensitive SPEAK dialogue selection — design patterns that prefigure the SCUMM engine introduced in Maniac Mansion (1987).
Set-piece sections sketch gameplay intentions for locations drawn from the source film, including the Wall of Hands elevator, Oubliette puzzle rooms, the Wiseman riddle garden, the Bog of Eternal Stench bridge crossing (with weight/time balance mechanics, possibly rendered as a first-person subgame), the Goblin Village (noted as unresolved: "Ideas are welcome!"), the Castle/Humongous encounter, and the Escher Room as a wraparound multi-level corridor.
Persons Named
David Fox (author); Brenda Laurel (referenced co-designer); Charlie Kellner (scaling animation driver); Kevin [Furry] (interrupt-driven sprite positioning and disk routines); Jareth, Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, Humongous, Alf, Ralph (in-game characters).
Works Referenced
Labyrinth (Henson, 1986, film); The Eidolon (Lucasfilm Games, 1985); Labyrinth Game Scenario and Design Issues (Laurel, internal Lucasfilm document, undated).
Significance
Primary-source documentation of mid-1980s 8-bit adventure game development at Lucasfilm Games during the formative period between The Eidolon (1985) and Maniac Mansion (1987). The document records engineering constraints specific to the Commodore 64 platform — sprite-per-scanline limits, character-mode tile economy, dual-side disk partitioning, interrupt-driven I/O — and shows how those constraints shaped narrative and interface design decisions. The cursor-and-icon verb interface described here represents an intermediate step between text parsers and the point-and-click conventions formalized in SCUMM the following year. Of particular interest to historians of the Commodore platform and of LucasArts/Lucasfilm Games.
Condition
Photocopy or scanned reproduction; original typewritten or word-processed document with proportional serif typography. Light foxing and edge wear visible on page margins; final page (Disk Routines) substantially blank below the section heading.
Subject Headings
Lucasfilm Ltd. Games Division — Computer adventure games — Design documents | Commodore 64 — Software development — 1986 | Apple II — Software development — 1986 | Labyrinth (Computer game : 1986) | Fox, David (game designer) | Henson, Jim — Adaptations | Animation drivers — 8-bit computers | Sprite graphics — Commodore 64 | Game design — History — 20th century
Author: David Fox
Issuing Body: Lucasfilm Ltd., Games Division
Date: January 15, 1986
Format: Typescript document, 5 pages, single-sided
Classification (original): Lucasfilm Ltd. Proprietary Information — Games Division CONFIDENTIAL
Document Type: Internal game design specification
Related Document: Supplement to Brenda Laurel's Labyrinth Game Scenario and Design Issues (precedence noted in favor of the Fox document where the two conflict)
Subject Platforms: Commodore 64; Apple II
Source Media: Single diskette, dual-sided (~260K Apple / ~320K Commodore 64)
Scope and Content
Internal design specification prepared by David Fox for the Lucasfilm Games adaptation of Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986). The document defines the game's structural, technical, and interface architecture roughly six months prior to commercial release. Contents are organized under the following section headings: Introduction; Overview; Layout; The Three Goals; The Screen; Clipping; Characters; Scrolling Corridors; Wall of Hands; Nexus Scenes; Oubliette; Alf and Ralph; Wiseman Garden; Bog of Eternal Stench; Goblin Village; Castle and Humongous; Escher Room; User Interface; Disk Routines.
The document specifies a concentric-corridor maze structure with one-way connecting passages, a three-goal "metagame" framework (riches, love, glory/power), and a region-based disk layout designed to eliminate mid-game disk flipping. Technical sections address sprite limitations (two four-sprite-wide characters per scanline on the C64), the use of Charlie Kellner's scaling animation driver previously deployed in The Eidolon, multi-colored character set mode for corridor scrolling, and per-scene clipping tables for character occlusion. Interface specifications describe a cursor-driven joystick/keyboard hybrid system with toggleable direct control, an icon-based verb and inventory strip, and context-sensitive SPEAK dialogue selection — design patterns that prefigure the SCUMM engine introduced in Maniac Mansion (1987).
Set-piece sections sketch gameplay intentions for locations drawn from the source film, including the Wall of Hands elevator, Oubliette puzzle rooms, the Wiseman riddle garden, the Bog of Eternal Stench bridge crossing (with weight/time balance mechanics, possibly rendered as a first-person subgame), the Goblin Village (noted as unresolved: "Ideas are welcome!"), the Castle/Humongous encounter, and the Escher Room as a wraparound multi-level corridor.
Persons Named
David Fox (author); Brenda Laurel (referenced co-designer); Charlie Kellner (scaling animation driver); Kevin [Furry] (interrupt-driven sprite positioning and disk routines); Jareth, Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, Humongous, Alf, Ralph (in-game characters).
Works Referenced
Labyrinth (Henson, 1986, film); The Eidolon (Lucasfilm Games, 1985); Labyrinth Game Scenario and Design Issues (Laurel, internal Lucasfilm document, undated).
Significance
Primary-source documentation of mid-1980s 8-bit adventure game development at Lucasfilm Games during the formative period between The Eidolon (1985) and Maniac Mansion (1987). The document records engineering constraints specific to the Commodore 64 platform — sprite-per-scanline limits, character-mode tile economy, dual-side disk partitioning, interrupt-driven I/O — and shows how those constraints shaped narrative and interface design decisions. The cursor-and-icon verb interface described here represents an intermediate step between text parsers and the point-and-click conventions formalized in SCUMM the following year. Of particular interest to historians of the Commodore platform and of LucasArts/Lucasfilm Games.
Condition
Photocopy or scanned reproduction; original typewritten or word-processed document with proportional serif typography. Light foxing and edge wear visible on page margins; final page (Disk Routines) substantially blank below the section heading.
Subject Headings
Lucasfilm Ltd. Games Division — Computer adventure games — Design documents | Commodore 64 — Software development — 1986 | Apple II — Software development — 1986 | Labyrinth (Computer game : 1986) | Fox, David (game designer) | Henson, Jim — Adaptations | Animation drivers — 8-bit computers | Sprite graphics — Commodore 64 | Game design — History — 20th century