Why 1994’s Lair of Squid was the weirdest pack-in game of all time

Enlarge / Artist’s impression of a squid jumping forth from an HP 200LX. (credit: Aurich Lawson / HP)

In 1994, Hewlett-Packard released a miracle machine: the HP 200LX pocket-size PC. In the depths of the device, among the MS-DOS productivity apps built into its fixed memory, there lurked a first-person maze game called Lair of Squid. Intrigued by the game, we tracked down its author, Andy Gryc, and probed into the title’s mysterious undersea origins.

“If you ask my family, they’ll confirm that I’ve been obsessed with squid for a long time,” Gryc told Ars Technica in an exclusive interview. “It’s admittedly very goofy—and that’s my fault—although I was inspired by Doom, which had come out relatively recently.”

In Lair of Squid, you’re trapped in an underwater labyrinth, seeking a way out while avoiding squid roaming the corridors. A collision with any cephalopod results in death. To progress through each stage and ascend to the surface, you locate the exit and provide a hidden, scrambled code word. The password is initially displayed as asterisks, with letters revealed as you encounter them within the maze.