Playable3DMaze

Background

Windows 9x included a set of new screensavers to showcase OpenGL - one of these screensavers was 3D Maze. This screensaver would automatically navigate the "player" through a randomly generated maze, continuing until it reached the endpoint.

As a child, I often thought Microsoft should have released a playable version of this game. This simple project brings that idea to reality!

Implementation

While others have developed similar projects by recreating the game using modern game engines with the original textures, I chose a different approach. I reverse-engineered the original screensaver binary and modified it to add user controls.

This wasn't particularly difficult as most of the core game logic already exists within the executable. Essentially, all that's needed is to patch out the computer-controlled logic and replace it with user-controlled keyboard input.

The main executable (Playable3DMazeLoader.exe) launches an instance of the original 3DMaze screensaver (ssmaze.scr), and injects a DLL (Playable3DMaze.dll) to extend its functionality. Anti-virus software may detect this as a false-positive.

The SHA-256 hash of the original screensaver binary (ssmaze.scr) from Microsoft is 78852d8d5404fdbdcf9d785c9c0393c85de64efed4bd66cca02050bbf3608eaf.

While other versions of ssmaze.scr exist, this project relies on hardcoded offsets, making this the only version compatible. For convenience, the correct binary is included within the project.

The original screensaver stored configuration options within an INI file, but this project hooks the built-in configuration functionality and hardcodes the correct values instead.

I also fixed a few minor bugs in the original executable, and added an option to toggle the overhead map view using the Tab key.

Usage

Simply execute Playable3DMazeLoader.exe, ensuring that Playable3DMaze.dll and ssmaze.scr exist within the same directory.

The maze can be navigated with the arrow keys, and the Tab key toggles the overheap map.