Midi Maze No Smileys

Illustration of a traditional yellow smiley face design with the "no" or "prohibited" red cross mark over the top on a white background

The classic yellow smiley face is comprised of a yellow circle, two black dots for eyes, and a black arc ending in serifs for a mouth. It was designed in 1963 by commercial artist, Harvey Ross Ball. Ball was commissioned by The State Mutual Life Insurance Company to create a happy face to raise the morale of their employees. His version was created in 10 minutes. The design was printed onto more than 50 million buttons. Neither Ball nor the company copyrighted this smiley, so it was continually used by other businesses in their promotions.
The design and concept is quite simple and was definitely used before Ball’s 1963 version. However, his has become the most iconic. Variations have been used for advertising campaigns and in popular culture ever since.

The prohibited sign means “no” and is a red circle with a backslash.

The game MIDI Maze is a first person shooter, which first appeared on Atari in 1987. The game was then made for other gaming consoles until 1993. The game is in first person and features a maze with smiley avatars. Up to 16 computers can be networked together to play in the original game.