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A developer has shared Entombed in a Raycaster, a raycasting side project built around the unusual maze-generation logic from the 1983 Atari 2600 game Entombed. The remake widens the maze, removes its original symmetry and keeps generated rows instead of discarding them; the developer also added wall-breaking for the player and enemies.
A developer has shared Entombed in a Raycaster, a side project that recreates the maze-generation logic of the 1983 Atari 2600 game Entombed inside a Wolfenstein-style raycasting game. The project brings an unusual, memory-conscious algorithm into a wider maze that stays stored as the player advances, rather than reproducing the original game’s scrolling, mirrored layout.
In a report dated September 25, 2026, the developer described adapting the algorithm after studying raycasting tutorials and research on the original game. Entombed’s maze is generated one row at a time: a new cell is determined from five neighboring cells, two already generated in the same row and three in the row above. Their five bits form an index into a 32-entry lookup table, which returns a wall, a passage or a random result.
The developer says the implementation represents each row as a 32-bit unsigned integer, with each bit marking a wall or open space. The raycaster’s playfield is 30 cells wide, and, unlike the Atari original, it does not mirror half the maze to create the other half. It also keeps rows after generating them, because the project does not face the Atari 2600’s severe memory constraints.
The remake adds another gameplay feature: the player and enemies can break walls in front of them. The developer says this can theoretically affect maze generation, but does not in practice, because new rows are generated far enough ahead that the generator has already moved past the broken sections. The report also describes fixes for cases in which the player or enemy characters could get stuck.
A Classic Algorithm in a New Renderer
The project’s interest lies in how it puts a little-known piece of game-development history to work in a different format. Raycasters turn a two-dimensional map into a first-person view by projecting walls onto the screen. Here, the map itself is generated using rules designed for a game that could not afford to keep a complete maze in memory.
That makes the project more than a visual recreation of an old maze. Its central constraint is part of the design: the algorithm needs only a small set of nearby cells to decide what comes next. The developer’s changes show how the same approach can be adapted when memory is plentiful and the goal is to build a persistent, wider playfield rather than reproduce the original hardware behavior.
For readers interested in game programming, it offers a concrete example of an older technical solution being reused for experimentation. It also illustrates a difference between making a maze that looks convincing and making one that is guaranteed to be solvable: Entombed’s method does not provide that guarantee.
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How Entombed Builds Each Row
The Atari 2600 had 128 bytes of RAM, according to the developer’s account. Entombed’s maze scrolled as the player moved, so storing the whole map was impractical. The game instead generated the maze one row at a time and discarded rows as they scrolled away.
The row-generation process uses a lookup table to turn local information into the next cell. The developer describes the table as the source of long-running interest in the algorithm: researchers and game historians have examined how it works, while the procedure does not fit neatly into familiar categories. In the research quoted in the report, authors caution that calling it a cellular automaton is not straightforward because its cells are generated sequentially rather than in parallel.
The process also does not search the full maze or guarantee a route through it. The report says the original algorithm uses two correction passes after a row is completed. These look for patterns such as repetition or sections being cut off, and may clear all or part of the row. The project’s developer based the C implementation on code from 3DSage’s raycasting tutorial and says they corrected corner cases that could leave characters stuck.
“The algorithm defies easy categorisation, and may be unique.”
— Paul Allen Newell, John Aycock and Katie M. Biittner, as quoted in the developer’s report
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Project Scope and Maze Guarantees
The report describes the implementation and its differences from the Atari game, but does not specify where the project can be played, whether it is publicly downloadable, or which systems it supports. It also does not provide performance figures, a release schedule or details about plans for further development.
The maze-generation method does not guarantee a solvable route, according to the developer’s explanation. The correction passes address some unwanted patterns, but they are not described as a proof that every generated maze can be completed. The report also says wall-breaking does not feed back into future maze generation in practice; it does not give measurements or examples testing that behavior across different runs.
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Publication Details Still Pending
The immediate next step for readers interested in trying the game is finding out whether the developer has published a playable build or source code. The report does not give a release date or name a distribution platform, so the project’s availability and any planned follow-up remain unconfirmed in the supplied material.
The developer says the project was revisited after a reminder from watching the Backrooms movie, with minor issues addressed and the presentation given a Backrooms-inspired style. No further milestones are listed. Any updates about a download, supported platforms or additional changes would clarify whether the experiment is intended to remain a personal programming project or become a release for players.
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Key Questions
What is Entombed in a Raycaster?
It is a raycasting side project that uses the maze-generation logic from the Atari 2600 game Entombed in a first-person-style renderer.
How does the maze algorithm decide what to generate?
It uses five nearby cells as a five-bit lookup-table index. The table determines whether the next cell is a wall, passage or random result.
How does the project differ from the original Atari game?
The remake uses a 30-cell-wide playfield, does not mirror one half of the maze and retains generated rows instead of discarding them. The player and enemies can also break walls.
Is the game available to download?
The supplied report does not state whether a playable build or source code is available, or list a download link or supported platforms.
Source: hn
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