Ken's Labyrinth

aka: LAB3D/SDL, Walken
Moby ID: 388
DOS Specs

Description official descriptions

Ken's Labyrinth is a first-person 3D shooter. The protagonist has to escape from an underground labyrinth populated by monsters while trying to rescue his dog Sparky. The game plays similarly to Wolfenstein 3D and involves the protagonist traversing colorful maze-like areas, shooting monsters on the way with exotic weapons such as a bubble-gum gun. The game's stand-out feature are interactive elements: there are vending and slot machines in the stages which the player can interact with, as well as breakable walls.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

10 People (4 developers, 6 thanks)

Design
Programming
Level / Scenario Design
Board Maps
Sound Effects
Graphics / Artwork
Music
Special Thanks to
  • Alan
  • Mahesh
  • Joe
  • Cliff
  • Tim
  • Mark
Acting / Voiceovers

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 53% (based on 5 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.5 out of 5 (based on 40 ratings with 8 reviews)

The first Wolfenstein 3D clone!

The Good
It’s always cool seeing how geniuses got their start, whether it’s Francis Ford Coppola’s early film reels or Picasso’s first scribbles on canvas. Ken’s Labyrinth is the first game by the guy who would go on to write the famous Build engine, and despite being a shameless rip-off it isn’t bad at all.

The story goes that Ken Silverman was watching his brother Alan play Wolfenstein 3D and thought "I could write a better game than that!" He created the engine from scratch, jointly did the artwork, recorded all the sounds and sequenced the music, and his parents wrote to several software companies to see if they would take it on board. It published by the company owned by Ken's brother, and later by Epic, when Ken was still in high school

Despite what you may think Ken's Labyrinth isn't the crappiest game in the world, and is quite playable and enjoyable in a retro-car sort of way. It's basically the same as Wolfenstein 3D (which is to say, a first-person shooter set in a maze), except you're a disgruntled homeowner who is out to rescue his dog Sparky from the aliens who are holding him captive.

"Cute" is the operational word in Ken's labyrinth, as instead of Nazis you must fight bees, spiders, mummies, witches, and -- at the end of the game -- computer hackers. You have three weapons, bubble-gum, bouncy sunflower things, and target-seeking rockets. Health and weapon pickups can be found on the ground or purchased at vending machines scattered throughout the game (you also collect money for this purpose).

As one of the first FPS games Ken's Labyrinth contains some innovative aspects, like see-through walls (chain links, etc), and the ability raise and lower your viewpoint. Arguably the most ground-breaking part of the game was the high levels of interactivity found in the game. You can interact with certain wall textures, such as vending machine textures and lockers that can be opened to find goodies. Ken's Labyrinth is also the first FPS to feature destructible environments.

The enemy AI is exceptionally advanced. Enemies will chase you along very complex mazes without getting trapped and can avoid hazards like pitfalls and fan-blades on their own. In the second episode, after you have rescued your dog, he will follow you around wherever you, and bark angrily if you try to shoot him. It's quite clever.

The game's calling card is its long and complex mazes. Not even Wolfenstein 3D was as maze-happy as this. Even though I detest mazes, Ken's Labyrinth is actually kind of interesting and does the "zillions of hallways and rooms" thing better than most. You have a compass; so exploring mazes is no longer an issue of wandering around aimlessly until you find the way out. The game spices things up with a few action-oriented levels every now and then, and not to mention some cracking boss fights (in the ultimate example of self-insertion, the final boss is Ken Silverman himself).

Although the game itself gets old pretty quickly it was well supported by its creator, and received what Wolfenstein 3D sorely lacks: an OpenGL update.

The Bad
Ken's Labyrinth often gets pilloried for its amateurish design, and at times the game does feel more like a homework project thrown together by a teenager than an actual game. The game's strong points are entirely technological, and since Wolfenstein 3D was out for several months it is merely reinventing the wheel for the most part.

Ken's homemade art is crappy (there's almost no animation, enemies slide instead of walk), there's about five sound effects total, the music sucks, the whole game has a thrown-together-in-a-bedroom quality that places it below other shareware games at the time. And if you're expecting anything remotely creative insofar as gameplay is concerned, you'd have better chances with one of id Software's own games! Ken's Labyrinth is a Wolfenstein 3D clone from start to finish, and while this might have been the creator's intention it hardly empowers the inferior Ken's Labyrinth now that both games have become obsolete.

The Bottom Line
A game mostly played for historical and nostalgia value, Ken's Labyrinth is far from being a classic but it is nevertheless solid. Ken writing and publishing a game at his age is really cool, especially since there were no ready-made libraries or anything back in 1993 and id Software wouldn't release the game's source for years. Check this game out, it's a clone you might be willing to tolerate.

DOS · by Maw (832) · 2007

This is a GAME?? I thought it was a homework project from BASIC 101!!

The Good
The simple fact that Ken Silverman at least TRIED. He tried and he tried, but try as he may, he didn't try hard enough. At least the game had a couple of cool features, like the vending machines and the ability to raise and lower your height.

The Bad
EVERYTHING! The game's like a big complete joke, except it isn't too funny and is actually quite sad.

The gameplay stinks! Nothing actually ATTACKS you, instead just opting to touch you and kill you that way. The weapons are no different from one another, and the game's FAR TOO EASY! The graphics stink; they look like a little 5 year old drew them!! And the sound and music? Here's what I think of it: turn off the speakers. FAST.

The Bottom Line
If it weren't for the "This is Shareware" messages and the order form, I would've almost thought Ken Silverman just took an old homework assignment, zipped it up, and tossed it out onto some BBS, hoping some poor sod would mistake it for a real shareware game.

Alas, this IS a real shareware game. The horror...the HORROR...

DOS · by Satoshi Kunsai (2020) · 2001

Amazingly bad.

The Good
Nothing! It sucks!

The Bad
Well, lets begin with the engine. It's fast, sure, but it's HORRIBLE! It looks even worse than Catacomb Abyss. No lighting, I can't even recall floor or ceiling texture... and it's by far the stupidest game I've ever seen!

What's Pixel / FC doing here?!

The Bottom Line
You gotta see this, just to see how bad a PC game can truly be.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Competition

From Ken Silverman's page for the game:

Now here's something any true fan would appreciate. Epic Megagames shipped a small black hint manual with the full version of Ken's Labyrinth. In November 1999, I released the full version as freeware (see top of this page). As a bonus, I thought it would be cool to include the text of the hint manual. Andy Cotter wrote the original hint manual. Epic then edited it and spiced it up. On my website, I released the ORIGINAL unedited text written by Andy Cotter. In his original description to Episode 3, Level 8, there were a few extra lines:

"By the way, if you find a globe, save the game in front of it and ship the saved game off to us to win a prize (don't bother to if you used any cheat keys, we have ways of finding that out).'

I"'m glad Epic removed this since I never had any prize planned. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it. I'm sure if this made it into Epic's hint manual, I would have remembered! Instead, it quietly slipped out in 1999. For the curious, the globe is still there on Episode 3, Level 8 (Map 28).

"You could imagine my surprise when a fan by the name of Travis Rezka sent me his saved game on April 12, 2003 to claim his prize. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about - afterall, this was 10 years later! Because Travis was the first person to find the globe and point it out to me, he gets to have his name forever listed here on the official Ken's Labyrinth page. Yes folks, that's his prize. :) Nice job, Travis!"

Development

The following is from Silverman's page:

Note: Since all keyboards are different, some keyboard combinations may not work. I apologize in advance for this. Also, when I originally programmed Ken's Labyrinth (way back in 1992-1993), computers were a lot slower. I never bothered to check for the condition that a key could be held down too long. Good luck pecking at those keys!

Freeware release

On November 16, 1999, Ken Silverman, with permission from Epic MegaGames, decided to release the full version of Ken's Labyrinth for free. As of that date, Epic was no longer selling it, and some of their other old games as well. On March 17th 2004, a software development kit for Ken's Labyrinth was released and can be found on Ken Silverman's website

Future Group

Future Crew is credited for doing some artwork for the game. Sceners may recall the they're also responsible for creating the first major demo for the 386, Second Reality.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the dog Sparky came from a wooden dog Ken had in his house.

Legacy

Silverman went on to create the Build engine, which was used in Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and other titles. Ken's Labrynth, however, doesn't look anything at all like Build engine games--it was his first game and first engine.

Title

It's development title, WALKEN, was created as a concatenation of walk and Ken (Silverman that is).

Version differences

Believe it or not, there are actually three different Ken games. The first was called Walken. It's a precursor to Ken's Labyrinth. The second was called Ken's Labyrinth, and had nothing to do with Epic Megagames". It was actually released by Ken Silverman and his friend Andrew Cotter under the name of Advanced Systems. The third and final was a redone version of the Advanced Systems Ken released by Epic MegaGames.

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Andy Voss, Maw and Mullet of Death

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Related Sites +

  • Download Ken's Labyrinth
    Free, legal download of Ken's Labyrinth -- look for $KEN.ZIP
  • Ken's "Ken's Labyrinth" Page
    Ken Silverman has a section on his personal site devoted to this game. Besides downloading the full registered version, you can also download BUILD versions of the levels, early versions of the program, and source code, including an early version written for QuickBasic 4.5.
  • LAB3D/SDL
    LAB3D/SDL is a port of Ken's Labyrinth (using OpenGL and the SDL library) which runs on Windows, Linux and most other modern systems.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 388
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

Windows, Linux added by Alsy.

Additional contributors: Adam Baratz, rey_, Pseudo_Intellectual, vedder, Patrick Bregger, Alsy.

Game added November 6, 1999. Last modified August 14, 2023.