Knot in 3D

Knot in 3D was written in 1983 by Malcolm Evans, the author of the famous ZX81 game 3D Monster Maze — and once again he attempted something that had no business running on an 8-bit Spectrum. This time it is a three-dimensional take on the light cycles from Tron: you fly through space leaving a solid trail behind you, and you must not hit any line, including your own.

The action takes place inside a 16 × 16 × 16 grid seen from a first-person perspective. Forward motion is constant; all you do is turn — left, right, up or down. Computer-controlled chasers weave their own coloured trails through the same cube, so the space gradually fills with obstacles and the room to manoeuvre keeps shrinking. Whoever threads the needle longest wins, and the resulting tangle of lines is what gives the game its name.

That is also where the difficulty lies: you have to think in three dimensions, and quickly. The screen shows only what is directly ahead, the map exists solely in your head, and early attempts usually end in a confused crash into your own trail. The contemporary press praised the remarkably fast 3D graphics while admitting the game took a while to understand. A later retrospective put it perfectly: a landmark title undone by most players’ inability to think in 3D fast enough.

Today Knot in 3D is a fascinating artefact — a 1983 game that attempted a genre the hardware was not ready for, and still moves briskly. It takes a while before you learn to read it, but then you get an experience you will not find anywhere else.

You can try it on oldgame.cz directly in your browser, with no installation.