3D Monster Maze

3D Monster Maze
Publisher(s)J. K. Greye Software
Designer(s)Malcolm Evans
Platform(s)ZX81
Release
  • EU: December 1981
Genre(s)Survival horror
Mode(s)Single-player

3D Monster Maze is a 1981 survival horror game designed by Malcolm Evans and published by J. K. Greye Software for the ZX81. Rendered using low-resolution character block "graphics", it was one of the first 3D games for a home computer, and one of the first games incorporating typical elements of the genre that would later be termed survival horror.

3D Monster Maze puts the player in a maze with one exit and a hostile monster, the Tyrannosaurus rex. There, the player must traverse the maze, from the first-person perspective, and escape through the exit without being eaten.

New Generation Software went on to become a well-known software firm with the Sinclair platform and continued to pioneer the 3D gaming technology for ZX81 and the later model ZX Spectrum. The press immediately gave the game a title of a "firm favourite" of the ZX81 users. Decades later, it became popular with the retrogaming community, inspiring remakes and fuelling ZX81 emulation projects.