This was put together by Jason Fieldman, who did the programming. He also has a good artistic sense and was able to draw symbols that made the mazes look good on the small screen. You might take a look at this page on Jasons web site. He has more information about the program and pointers to reviews. This link will take you to a page on the iTunes App store where you can buy Theseus and the Minotaur (for $3.99). The link may be a little slow because it takes you through a lot of Apples software. If you go directly to the iTunes app store, you can search for the game. Its title is Theseus. And this link will take you to the page where you can download Theseus Lite, the free version with a sampling of levels from the full version. By the way, I noticed that Bob Hearns Subway Shuffle collection of puzzles is on the iPhone, and I heard of other projects to put puzzle games on the iPhone. This might be a trend. In general, puzzle games may be moving from computer screens to small hand-held devices. And the preferred devices seem be the iPhone and iPod. I would welcome this trend, because puzzle games work well on a small screen. The usual dumb shoot-em-ups do not work on a small screen. To read more about this trend, see Puzzling iPhone.

History: I wanted to present a history of this maze, which is now almost twenty years old. However, before I wrote anything, I discovered (while idly Googling on Theseus and the Minotaur) that there is a column by Tony Delgado which already gives the complete history. Not only that, but he has insights I dont have, since he knows more about puzzles on the Internet. And finally, his writing is better than mine (I hate to admit that). So, instead of me writing the history, I thought I would send you to Delgados column. It was posted back in February of 2007, so when you return here, you can read the later updates on the maze. Here, then, is Tony Delgados column on the Theseus maze. Delgado wrote about mazes 14 and 15 in Toby Nelsons applet. These are no longer in the applet. Maze 14 is my original maze, which first appeared in my book Mad Mazes. A print version is here and it is the second-to-last maze in the Kristanix or iPhone version. Maze 15, the dread maze 15, is Tobys most complex maze. A print version is here and it is the last maze in the new versions. In October, 2008, there were 87 layouts to the maze. Of these, 61 were created by Toby Nelsons program, 13 were created by a program written by Claude-Guy Quimper, and 13 were created by me, the only human creating layouts. Since then I have created one new layout, which we inserted as Level 33 1/2. The fraction was used so we wouldnt have to revise the numbering of the other levels. Jason Fieldman is also adding user-created levels to the end, so the number of levels continues to grow. This site has two other sections about the Theseus mazes. The first is further notes, which was posted in 2000. It has the early history of the mazes, and it has a discussion with Toby Nelson about the workings of his program that generated his layouts. The other section gives a long mythology that explains how Theseus got into a maze with a mechanical Minotaur. The publisher of Mad Mazes thought it was too long and boring, so he didnt include it in the book. Most people agreed with that assessment, but some thought it was great, so I was able to get the mythology published in a British magazine. I also included it here. And by the way, Theseus and the Minotaur now have their own entry on Wikipedia. I have no idea who wrote this.

Creating new layouts: If you enjoy solving the Theseus mazes, would you like to create a layout yourself? Probably not, but if you do, you can use the Editor section of the Kristanix program to put it together. If you dont have the Kristanix program, you can use the Theseus solver on Yoah Bar-Davids site. If your layout works well, send us a screen shot of it. The best place to send it is to Jason Fieldmans Discussion Forum about the game. If we like your maze, well try to include it in a future release of the Kristanix or iPhone programs. This will bring you fame (but no fortune). Both of the programs give the name of the designer of each level.