Colossal Cave Adventure Box Art

ORIGINAL Colossal Cave adventure download. Where in the world can I find a download of the ORIGINAL Colossal Cave adventure, not added to, and in a format that is easy to use, preferably not DOS? I really want the genuine original, no mods or anything. « Classic Adventures meet Fine Art. Colossal Cave Adventure running on a displayed on the minicomputers serial. Box art for Zork I, a computer text adventure game for the Atari ST by Infocom.

Contents.Misc I've resurrected this old game and brought it back to life with voice recognition and sound effects. It's free to play. Call 610-DEAR-BEN (610-332-7236), or skype sixtendearben.Also, Jason Scott's film Get Lamp is due to be released at the PAX East in Boston on March 26-28th 2010.

—Preceding comment added by 01:16, 20 March 2010 (UTC)I worked at DEC, in Hudson, MA. Building 2 was a complete homage to Adventure, right down to the names of the conference rooms, and the actual layout of the cubicles. Alas, the fire department made them change some of those, because they were a bunch of twisty little passages, some going nowhere. 07:21, 2 April 2009 (UTC)It's amazing how much trivial knowledge one accumulates over the years.Wasn't there also a maze of twisty little passages, all the same? -'all alike', yes. It's rather better known, as it comes early in the game.moved fromI spent a whole day one at the computer center (in 1974!!) creating a complete map of Collossal Cave. It took 4 sheets of line printer paper.Surely it was this level of attention to detail that made me what I am now:-)My brother was a computer programmer back in the days when they used stacks of cards.

He introduced me to the cave. He was utterly astounded when I solved his fissure problem with 'wave wand' - blimey, what else do you with a wand?HOWEVER, my reason for bursting into print here is that the top outside link - supposedly to an online version - is now the splash page for a car-body protectant, with this opening line:This site is designed for New Car Dealers and their representatives. Another tribute to the game, but disappointing to devotees!21:54, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)I believe many people called this genre 'Text Adventures.' So it might be worth mentioning somewhere?Yeah, Adventure doesn't really fall into the category of Interactive Fiction. True interactive fiction has a plot, characters, etc. Adventure's just fun and games and treasure.

And annoying little dwarves. 22:03, 31 January 2008 (UTC)Why is there a thing at the top saying there should be box art or an application icon?!

It was never sold, thus meaning it never had a box to put art on, and it was written before desktops, so no application icons either! 22:03, 31 January 2008 (UTC)Actually, many companies sold versions of Adventure back in the day, include Microsoft and Apple. —Preceding comment added by 20:55, 7 April 2010 (UTC) Dwarves in original version? The article describes Crowther's original version of Adventure as 'more or less realistic,' stating that later reviser Don Woods added fantasy elements like LOTR. This article states that Crowther's version of the game, however, 'featured. Fantasy elements such as axe throwing dwarves.'

Did the dwarves come in in Crowther's original version, or was that part of Woods' additions? 19:17, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)There were no dwarves in the original, it was a simulation of a real cave. 15:18, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)Mark, it's not correct that Crowther's original game was simply a simulation. In his capacity as a cartographer for the Cave Research Foundation, Crowther created a realistic hand-drawn map based on survey data and his own extensive knowledge of that area. He then stopped caving with CRF abruptly, and began creating the text game, which did follow the realistic topography of the map, AND included fantasy elements.

Don Woods certainly expanded the fantasy. 00:02, 29 January 2006 (UTC)-I came across a version of this game where if you type a swear word it replies 'careful, the dwarves have virgin ears'I have a version of the game that I think is either the original source code or something shortly thereafter, and all seven dwarves (and their giant mirror) are there. Oooo how I hated those annoying little dwarves! 22:05, 31 January 2008 (UTC)XYZZY redirects to this article Mark my words: I was sorely tempted to replace the redirect with the words 'nothing happens.' - 17:33, Aug 31, 2004 (UTC)Done.:) 03:49, 27 April 2007 (UTC) Watch and see: the humour police will be all over your ass like white on rice! 12:02, 27 April 2007 (UTC) Maze of twisty little passages In my version (Graham Nelson's one for ) there are only eleven variations, not twelve. The phrase 'little twisting maze of passages' is not present.

Perhaps this one was a later addition? 23:19, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)Dates There seems to be a bit of confusion about the dates that various early versions were created. The article originally stated that Crowther created his vector maps in 1972 but the game (which was completely separate) was available from 1975, with Woods releasing his version in 1976. The article (before it was removed in an unrelated edit) claimed that Crowther's version was in 1972 and that Woods discovered the game 4 years later (in 1976). Is there a reliable source of info for this, and also for the 'dwarf elements' that the article claims were added by Crowther (although it is more likely to be Woods)? - 00:01, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)You are right, there is much confusion regarding the dates.

I have corresponded with both Crowther and Woods by e-mail, and interviewed a half dozen people who remember playing Crowther's original version (including Crowther's daughters). I have two forthcoming articles on Adventure, in which I try to set the record straight, but I realize this article needs better citation than my personal word. For now, I can point to, where Woods says that xyzzy 'was in Crowther's version,' so that is some basic outside evidence that Crowther's original version was more than a rigid simulation - it contained the famous magic word. Neils Eric Wille published a good analysis of the conflicting information regarding the dates. Nick Montfort also addresses the chronology in Twisty Little Passages.

The thing that always troubled me was that part of the Adventure lore was that Crowther created the game after a sudden divorce, yet that the Crowthers were described as happily married in The Longest Cave, Brucker and Watson's classic book about the exploration of Mammoth Cave National Park (in which Will Crowther is a supporting character and his then-wife Patricia is a lead character). The Longest Cave was published in 1976, and does not mention the game. Further, the Crowther children (born in 1967 and 1970) recall being being eight and five/six (respectively) when they first played their father's game (again for now I can only cite my own personal telephone conversations with these sources).

That would put it at about 1975 or 76, which is also the range Crowther gave me when I asked him via e-mail (he said 1975, 'give or take a year,' and all parties have confirmed that the divorce happened in the middle of 1975). Don Woods has given a date of 1976 for his release of the collaborative version, but the earliest extant version of the program is dated 1977. 05:22, 22 May 2007 (UTC)For the record, my findings about the dates of Adventure have been published in. If the above note is part of this article has been flagged as having unsourced claims, that research has been published now. 05:58, 5 November 2007 (UTC)Anecdotal paragraphs in article - thoughts?

I have just removed The following text from the article page, as it is largely anecdotal in nature, however I think some of the information about the naming of rooms etc. Could be incorporated into the article if it can be verified. 04:09, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)According to caver Mel Park:'Bedquilt was Willie (Crowther)'s favorite part of the cave system.

I still have a copy of his map of it. Computer types who grew up exploring ADVENTURE don't realize how accurately the game represents passages in Bedquilt Cave.' Yes, there is a Hall of the Mountain King and a Two-Pit Room. The entrance is indeed a strong steel grate at the bottom of a twenty-foot depression.Mel describes how caver Bev Schwartz got her start:'On a survey trip to Bedquilt, a member of my party mentioned she would one day like to go on a trip to Colossal Cave, where she understood the game ADVENTURE was set.' No, I said, the game is based on Bedquilt Cave and we are going there now.

Throughout the cave, she kept up a constant narrative, based on her encyclopedic knowledge of the game. In the Complex Room (renamed Swiss Cheese Room in Advent) she scrambled off in a direction I had never been.' 'I just had to see Witt's End,' she said upon returning. 'It was exactly as I expected.'

'When we finished with our work, I let her lead out, which she did flawlessly, again because she had memorized every move in the game. Believe me, the cave is a real maze, and this was an impressive accomplishment for a first-time visitor.' The above quote is from an email I recieved from Mel Park, who also sent me a CRF newsletter recounting the same anecdote which, sadly, I seem to have lost. Not sure this helps. 02:50, 27 November 2007 (UTC)I think the cave anecdote belongs in the article. I've checked the story with Bev Schwartz via e-mail; she has a version on her website: The article has appeared in a few caver publications, according to this version: 03:51, 15 December 2007 (UTC)Other ports I recall playing this on a but I can't find any reference to this version: anyone else have a clue?

(FWIW I was spectacularly bad at it, but in my defence I was only 11 years old:-) - 10:35, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)Over 30 years later, I believe it's safe to come out of the closet. I believe that I was probably the first to port Advent to the CDC 6000/Cyber 70 series of machines running SCOPE 3.4 or NOS/BE 1.0 sometime early in 1976. I obtained a PDP-10 tape from a friend who at the time was a field engineer with DEC. I translated the tape into CDC Display code and modified the program to compile and run with FTN 4.0.I seriously thought that I would get fired, as the game spread like wildfire with many hours of CPU time getting wasted by employees at the Sunnyvale Systems Division. Naturally, copies made it to Arden Hills 02:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)ChuckWe used to play this under VM/CMS on an IBM mainframe.

I recently came across messages from Lynn Wheeler of garlic.com, that stated that he was looking for the code for this game. We did a search and found the code and executable. The executable has an internal date stamp that it was compiled on the 297th day of 1978. On the basis of that I have added text to the ports section stating that it was ported to VM/CMS in late 1978. —Preceding comment added by (. ) 16:23, 3 April 2008 (UTC)The H8 computer from HeathKit came with Advent on a floppy disk.

I believe it was the 350 point version.Also I'm surprised that this article does not mention the many derivatives such as Zork??? Adventure launched an entire industry of computer games. I think even Myst can be regarded as a grandchild of the original game.codeslingercompsalot.com 15:51, 11 December 2010 (UTC)What about the BASIC version? There was one published somewhere, and I laboriously entered it into a computer in the early 1980's.

I still have the computer (Ohio Scientific C2 OEM) and the program. I may have a printout of a FORTRAN version that I think was on a VAX.

I need to dig up my sources. 19:18, 17 October 2011 (UTC)In-line binary file It is clearly inappropriate to include a link to a binary file in-line with the text for an article (and yes, a gzipped file is a binary file, even if its contents are not). Anyone clicking on that link would be expecting further information about that particular version of the game, not a direct link to its source code. In fact I can't see why 98% of readers would be interested in a link to the source code at all!

As a compromise I have moved the link to the 'external links' section of the article, although I am firmly in favour of removal, or at least linking to a page that contains further links to all available ports. 18:29, 8 May 2005 (UTC)Plugh In the Plugh subsection, there is a one line paragraph that states:Some games recognize 'plugh' and will respond to it, usually by making a joke.Does this mean other games that are not versions of Adventure? Cf Zork's response to 'XYZZY'. Just looking for clarification.

23:19, 14 July 2005 (UTC)Not all games are simply variants of Colossal Caves adventure (ADVENT). Zork (DUNGEON) info can be found elsewhere on Wikipedia.BTW I'm somewhat disappointed with the lack of 'hgulp' references here.Well thanks, anonymous unsigned person, but perhaps my question was not clear. However, my point was that I don't think the quoted sentence from the article is clear.

The preceding paragraph in the 'Plugh' section was referring to various versions of Adventure, then we have this new sentence that just says 'some games'. As written, it could have meant 'some of the many variations on this particular game.' The subsequent section about 'XYZZY' specifically mentions ' Many other interactive fiction games contain responses to the command XYZZY as a tribute to Adventure,' which makes the reference explicit. In any event, the footnote that has been added in the year+ since I asked the question makes the situation much clearer. In fact, I might rewrite that offending sentence now. 21:18, 2 August 2006 (UTC) Yes, other games utterly unrelated to Adventure respond to plugh.

Zork does, and so do most text adventures. There's actually a webpage somewhere, it may be on Baf's Guide, that lists the responses to plugh and xyzzy for virtually every game in the Interactive Fiction Archive (which is a lot of games!). Most say something along the lines of 'A hollow voice says, 'Fool.' ', but some are quite innovative. 22:09, 31 January 2008 (UTC)I was reading the article on and recalled a character from the TSR game named 'Plugh' (though according to the article, it was spelled 'Pulgh.' It'd be interesting if whoever added the magic words were still around to verify if there was any link or not, or if it indeed was short for 'plughole' wouldn't it?

Kylu ( ) 06:59, 11 July 2007 (UTC)I removed a reference to 'plugh' being short for 'plughole,' in part because there was no citation for that reference, and in part because of the Occam's Razor principle. It's POSSIBLE that PLUGH is short for PLUGHOLE. Just as it's POSSIBLE that XYZZY is short for XYZZYBOOYAH, but unless someone comes up with a citation, I've moved that speculation to this page.

(The theory is that PLUGHOLE is consistent with the geological realism of the original game, and that due to the limitations of the five-character parser, PLUGH had to substitute for PLUGHOLE.) —Preceding was added at 02:07, 14 January 2008 (UTC)Someone recently added back the bit about PLUGH supposedly being short for 'plughole,' but I removed it again because it lacked a citation. 06:13, 17 March 2009 (UTC)'due to the limitations of the five-character parser, PLUGH had to substitute for PLUGHOLE' No, because of the five-character parser 'PLUGH' would be the minimum to type to say 'PLUGHOLE'. It's would not seem true, though, since the game itself uses the word 'PLUGH', where it would have said 'PLUGHOLE' if that was the intended word. 00:04, 24 May 2016 (UTC)Kingdom of Loathing We need a consensus on whether to include the information about the online game.

Either the word plugh or xyzzy is involved in this game, but some say that it is a secret and should not be published in Wikipedia. Others notice that the information is missing from the article, and immediately add it. The comment has popped in and out of the history twice, as it has been added and deleted. There is also a lack of clarity as to whether it is plugh or xyzzy that is involved.

I have seen the claim that it used to be plugh, and is now xyzzy, but at one point that was changed to the statement that it is plugh. 11:55, 26 October 2005 (UTC)Related to this, an anon just added the following: 'plugh is the new secret cheat in the strange leaflet for kingdom of loathing.' I am moving that here because it isn't verified. If it can be, I have no objection to having it added back, phrased in a way that gives it context.

02:39, 11 December 2005 (UTC). The code used to be xyzzy. Over a year ago (actually, nearly two now), it was changed to the other. It is considered an Easter egg by the admins of the game, and spoiling it is highly frowned upon.

Even notable spoiler sites like KoL Coldfront and the KoL Wiki are loathe to spoiler it. Yes, I can verify it. No, I don't think it belongs in the article. 01:27, 14 December 2005 (UTC)Elves?! Were there really elves in the game? Maybe in 550 rather than 350?

I just got done with 350 (again), and I swear: no elves nor mention of elves.At least one longer version had elves. 02:40, 11 December 2005 (UTC) I suspect you are thinking of the version by Level 9, which had an extended endgame where you have to free some elves from being imprisoned by dwarves. This was a commercial version which ran on a number of early 80's home computers (Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro etc) and is almost certainly the best-known version in the UK. 08:55, 1 February 2006 (UTC)It's part of a static message that signals a final win - 'A cheering band of friendly elves carry the conquering adventurer off into the sunset.'

- 00:08, 29 January 2006 (UTC)Which simply begs the question again, in what version? - 05:11, 12 March 2006 (UTC)The 350 version has 'friendly elves' when you win.

23:38, 27 April 2007 (UTC) The extended endgame from the Level 9 version, as I recall it, is what happens after you finish the normal endgame. The elves are in the normal endgame as the non-extended versions have it. 00:04, 24 May 2016 (UTC)Citation in lead To whoever (IP) left the note in the lead P about there being a source in the other article for that (citation needed) spot - I looked, and I added that in as a cite for the sentence above, but that wasn't actually what I'd meant needed one. I was referring directly to that 'it was so accurate that experienced cavers were able to find their way around.'

, which that source doesn't cover (well, it may in the book, but if so the other article doesn't mention that). So I'm still leaving the needed tag on there. 00:28, 3 July 2006 (UTC)I have been in Bedquilt, and while my own sense of direction isn't terribly well developed, knowing the game really does help one to navigate in the major sections of the cave.

I did not venture very deep into the Maze of Twisty Little Passages, All Different, so I can't vouch for whether every single room in Crowther's original really does map perfectly to the portion of the game he created, Crowther's game was very faithful to the real site - though I did publish an opposing view, in the form of a quote from Pat Crowther saying that the game simply re-used locations from the real cave. I find Mel Park's anecdote perfectly credible, though as an inexperienced caver I didn't find that my knowledge of the game helped me much - I was one distracted fanboy on my first experience in a 'wild' cave. See paragraphs 75-77 of 06:35, 5 November 2007 (UTC) —Preceding comment added by (. ) XYZZY Thought I had some info, I remembered a bot in Unreal Tournament 2004 having a similar name. Found that it was 'Syzygy' which is awfully close. 13:46, 28 July 2006 (UTC)In the popular IRC client, mIRC, typing /xyzzy will 'echo' the words 'Nothing happens.' This is one of its easter eggs or cookies.Image I don't believe there should be an image of a graphical version of Colossal Cave used in this article, as the game was initially released and is primarily known as a text adventure.

I recommend the image be therefore replaced by that of a sample text screen. 16:31, 27 August 2006 (UTC)Some time ago I did upload a screen shot of a modern version of Crowther's original game. That screenshot was later placed on the 'Screenshots of software with missing fair-use rationale,' but I have tried to explain that the software is freeware, which is all the fair-use rationale that should be required. 06:08, 5 November 2007 (UTC)I wrote this in Misc., but I realized it was the wrong place, so I'm rewriting it here:At the top, it says the article needs box art or an application icon. 1) The original ADVENT was never sold commercially, so there was no box to put art on. 2) It was written in the late 1970s when there weren't desktops, thus there is no application icon. The screenshot (which, I agree, is freeware, so no issues there) should be sufficient.

22:20, 31 January 2008 (UTC)I've removed the request for box art from the page. There is actually an image of the version of Adventure that Microsoft published. I don't really think the box art is notable enough to belong in this article, but if anyone else wants to post it, that's fine with me.

06:02, 17 March 2009 (UTC)Below are the raw opening text displays for Adventure running on the PDP-10. The text should be useful for authors or editors who wish to convert the output into png, svg, or another display format.Crowther/Woods' (1977) Adventure formatted all its game text for 70 columns. Program output is upper case. The game on the PDP-10 recognizes player input in lower case letters.run advenWELCOME TO ADVENTURE!!

WOULD YOU LIKE INSTRUCTIONS?yesSOMEWHERE NEARBY IS COLOSSAL CAVE, WHERE OTHERS HAVE FOUND FORTUNES INTREASURE AND GOLD, THOUGH IT IS RUMORED THAT SOME WHO ENTER ARE NEVERSEEN AGAIN. MAGIC IS SAID TO WORK IN THE CAVE. I WILL BE YOUR EYESAND HANDS. DIRECT ME WITH COMMANDS OF 1 OR 2 WORDS. I SHOULD WARNYOU THAT I LOOK AT ONLY THE FIRST FIVE LETTERS OF EACH WORD, SO YOU'LLHAVE TO ENTER 'NORTHEAST' AS 'NE' TO DISTINGUISH IT FROM 'NORTH'.(SHOULD YOU GET STUCK, TYPE 'HELP' FOR SOME GENERAL HINTS. FOR INFOR-MATION ON HOW TO END YOUR ADVENTURE, ETC., TYPE 'INFO'.)-THIS PROGRAM WAS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED BY WILLIE CROWTHER. MOST OF THEFEATURES OF THE CURRENT PROGRAM WERE ADDED BY DON WOODS (DON @ SU-AI).CONTACT DON IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, ETC.YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING.AROUND YOU IS A FOREST.

A SMALL STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING ANDDOWN A GULLY.eastYOU ARE INSIDE A BUILDING, A WELL HOUSE FOR A LARGE SPRING.THERE ARE SOME KEYS ON THE GROUND HERE.THERE IS A SHINY BRASS LAMP NEARBY.THERE IS FOOD HERE.Crowther's (1976) Adventure formatted its game text for 60 columns. This game running on the PDP-10 did not recognize lower case letters for player input.RUN ADV11WELCOME TO ADVENTURE!! WOULD YOU LIKE INSTRUCTIONS?YESSOMEWHERE NEARBY IS COLOSSAL CAVE, WHERE OTHERS HAVE FOUNDFORTUNES IN TREASURE AND GOLD, THOUGH IT IS RUMOREDTHAT SOME WHO ENTER ARE NEVER SEEN AGAIN. MAGIC IS SAIDTO WORK IN THE CAVE. I WILL BE YOUR EYES AND HANDS.

DIRECTME WITH COMMANDS OF 1 OR 2 WORDS.(ERRORS, SUGGESTIONS, COMPLAINTS TO CROWTHER)(IF STUCK TYPE HELP FOR SOME HINTS)YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICKBUILDING. AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALLSTREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOWN A GULLY.GO INYOU ARE INSIDE A BUILDING, A WELL HOUSE FOR A LARGE SPRING.THERE ARE SOME KEYS ON THE GROUND HERE.THERE IS A SHINY BRASS LAMP NEARBY.THERE IS FOOD HERE.THERE IS A BOTTLE OF WATER HERE. 16:41, 17 July 2016 (UTC)Bootif and other items in Adventure I played a version on the Georgia Tech Cyber 74 (big CDC time-sharing machine) in the late 1970's, perhaps the mentioned F77 version (FORTRAN appeared to be the most-used and best-supported high-level language on that computer) or a variation. At a certain location the game said 'There is a bootif here.'

So, what is a bootif and what can you do with it? If you ' bootif' it would respond with (perhaps not the exact words) 'So you have discovered that the Bootif is a beautiful bootiful? woman!' And not object to the use of the obscenity in this particular case.I'm not sure how or if this tidbit should be added to the article, as the only reference is my memory, though I knew others who played this version and could verify this if I knew how to contact them.I also remember many of the items that could be found: keys, coins, lantern, vending machine somewhere in the twisty passages (sells batteries when fed coins, to replace the lantern's batteries when its light goes dim), etc., and that you could only 'carry' a certain number of items (perhaps five or seven?) at one time.

These are very much an integral part of the game, and part of the goal was to figure out what you needed to carry where to get you through the whole game (which I never quite did). The entry mentions early 'Text adventures' but also does not mention such items or how they are involved in playing. I think this should be included in the main article (either here or perhaps better in the generic entry), as it will give a much better 'feel' of how the game is played for anyone who hasn't played such a game, showing how it involves logic, learning and deduction about the game's aspects, and that it's not just figuring out which way to go in an invisible maze. 03:32, 2 October 2006 (UTC)Swearing and 'Watch it!'

The game responds to a frustrated player's swearing with watch it!I remember in the Commodore 16 version the response was: WATCH IT! THE WIZARD IS WATCHING YOU!Can anyone confirm if this was the definitive response on other platforms?- 17:19, 19 December 2006 (UTC)On the original PDP-10 platform, the response for both the original Crowther's and Crowther's/Woods' versions was WATCH IT!- 15:42, 19 August 2009 (UTC)350 points From out of nowhere the article starts talking about the 'definitive 350 point version' and the '550 point version' and so forth. This doesn't make any sense because there's no context. I assume it refers to the greatest number of points you can amass, but it's not made clear. I think this has arisen because the people writing this article are too familiar with the subject. 17:46, 29 December 2006 (UTC)I seem to recall that you could amass 351 points (ie 1 bonus point) if you picked up, and then immediately dropped, the Spelunker magazine -User:John Woolford 14:14 24 September 2015 (AEST) — Preceding comment added by 04:14, 24 September 2015 (UTC)The original game had 350 points; later versions were expanded to 550 or even 750 points. —Preceding comment added by 23:48, 10 January 2008 (UTC)For the record, in the time since Ashely made her point, the article has been edited to introduce the 'points' issue more smoothly.

20:19, 29 January 2010 (UTC)Indeed, and there's at least one 1000 point version as well. (Don't recall a 750 points version; it may have been some other 700-ish score.) Still, the original had 351 points, one point higher than the next lower rank, though few people found how to get that last one point. (One version of the game apparently named the top rank 'Cheat' or similar, on the expectation that the player obtaining it would not have found the answer through normal game play.) I believe at least one of the 550 versions is also strictly speaking 551.

00:04, 24 May 2016 (UTC)The Crowther/Woods Adventure (1977) had 350 points. If you didn't find the last point, then your score would be 349.

Crowther/Woods Adventure (1977) running on a PDP-10andinitiallyRelease1976 (Crowther); 1977 (Crowther/Woods)Mode(s)Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) is a text, developed between 1975 and 1977, by for the mainframe. The game was expanded upon in 1977, with help from, and other programmers created variations on the game and ports to other systems in the following years.In the game, the player controls a character through simple text commands to explore a cave rumored to be filled with wealth. Players earn predetermined points for acquiring treasure and escaping the cave alive, with the goal to earn the maximum number of points offered. The concept bore out from Crowther's background as a enthusiast, with the game's cave structured loosely around the system in.Colossal Cave Adventure is the first known work of and, as the first text adventure game, is considered the precursor for the adventure game genre. Colossal Cave Adventure also contributed towards the and genres. Contents.Gameplay Adventure has the player's character explore a mysterious cave that is rumored to be filled with treasure and gold.

To explore the cave, the player types in one- or two-word commands to move their character through the cave, interact with objects in the cave, pick up items to put into their inventory, and other actions. The program acts as a narrator, describing to the player what each location in the cave has and the results of certain actions, or if it did not understand the player's commands, asking for the player to retype their actions. (The player's commands are shown here in lower case, and the program's replies are in all-capitals.)YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING.AROUND YOU IS A FOREST.

A SMALL STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING ANDDOWN A GULLY.go southYOU ARE IN A VALLEY IN THE FOREST BESIDE A STREAM TUMBLING ALONG AROCKY BED.The program's replies are typically in a humorous, conversational tone, much as a would use in leading players in a tabletop role-playing game. A notable example is when the player dies after falling into a pit.go westYOU FELL INTO A PIT AND BROKE EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY!NOW YOU'VE REALLY DONE IT! I'M OUT OF ORANGE SMOKE!

YOU DON'T EXPECTME TO DO A DECENT REINCARNATION WITHOUT ANY ORANGE SMOKE, DO YOU?yesOKAY, IF YOU'RE SO SMART, DO IT YOURSELF! I'M LEAVING!Certain actions may cause the death of the character (the player has three lives), requiring the player to start again. The game has a point system, whereby completing certain goals earns a number of predetermined points.

The ultimate goal is to earn the maximum number of points (350 points), which partially correlates to finding all the treasures in the game and safely leaving the cave.Development. Will Crowther (left) in 2012 and Don Woods in 2010was a at (BBN), and helped to develop the (a forerunner of the ). Crowther and his wife Pat were experienced, having previously helped to create vector map surveys of the in in the early 1970s for the.

In addition, Crowther enjoyed playing the tabletop role-playing game with a regular group which included and, one of the future founders of. Following his divorce from Pat in 1975, Crowther wanted to connect better with his daughters and decided a computerized simulation of his cave explorations with elements of his role-playing games would help. He created a means by which the game could be controlled through so that it would be 'a thing that gave you the illusion anyway that you'd typed in English commands and it did what you said'. Crowther later commented that this approach allowed the game to appeal to both non-programmers and programmers alike, as in the latter case, it gave programmers a challenge of how to make 'an obstinate system' perform in a manner they wanted it to.

Will Crowther's original Adventure (1976) running on a PDP-10Developed over 1975 and 1976, Crowther's original game consisted of about 700 lines of code, with about another 700 lines of data, written for BBN's timesharing computer. The data included text for 78 map locations (66 actual rooms and 12 navigation messages), 193 vocabulary words, travel tables, and miscellaneous messages.

On the PDP-10, the program loads and executes with all its game data in memory. It required about 60k (nearly 300kB) of core memory, which was a significant amount for PDP-10/KA systems running with only 128k words. Crowther's original version did not include any scorekeeping. Once the game was complete, Crowther showed it off to his co-workers at BBN for feedback, and then considered his work on the game complete, leaving the compiled game in a directory before taking a month off for vacation. During that time, others had found the game and it was distributed widely across the network, which had surprised Crowther on his return.

Though titled in-game as Colossal Cave Adventure, its executable file was simply named ADVENT, which led to this becoming an alternate name for the game.One of those that had discovered the game was, a graduate student at in 1976. Woods wanted to expand upon the game and contacted Crowther to gain access to the source code. Woods built upon Crowther's code in FORTRAN, including more -related elements based on his love of the writings of. He also introduced a scoring system within the game and added ten more treasures to collect in addition to the five in Crowther's original version. His work expanded Crowther's game to approximately 3000 lines of code and 1800 lines of data. The data consisted of 140 map locations, 293 vocabulary words, 53 objects (15 treasure objects), travel tables, and miscellaneous messages. Like Crowther's original game, Woods' game also executed with all its data in memory but required somewhat less core memory (42k words) than Crowther's game.

Don Woods continued releasing updated editions through to at least the mid-1990s.Crowther did not distribute the source code to his version, while Woods, once finished with his improvements, widely distributed the code alongside the compiled executable. Woods' 1977 version became the more recognizable and 'canon' version of Colossal Cave Adventure in part due to wider code availability, on which nearly all revisions described in the following section were based. Crowther's original code was thought to have been lost until 2007 when an unmodified version of it was found on Woods' student account archive.

Later versions. Later versions of the game added pictures, such as version by.Both Crowther's and Woods' version were designed to run on the PDP-10, enabling certain features unique to the platform. The PDP-10 architecture was, with each able to store five 7-bit characters.The game's FORTRAN code compared player's commands with its vocabulary but using only the first five letters of each English word.Unfortunately, this limitation was silently evident to the game player too, and adversely affected gameplay ('north' would be equivalent to 'northeast').Hence, Woods added the five-letter limit notes to Crowther's original game instructions.The PDP-10 also implemented which allows saving and restoring of the state of the entire program, instead of a more traditional save file. Both these features made it difficult to directly port the code to other architectures.One of the first efforts to port the code was by of the in 1977. Gillogly, with agreement from Crowther and Woods, spent several weeks porting the code to to run on the more generic architecture. It can be found as part of the Operating Systems distributions, or as part of the ' package under most distributions, under the command name 'adventure'. The game was also ported to 's super-mini running in the late 1970s, utilizing FORTRAN IV, and to IBM mainframes running VM/CMS in late 1978, utilizing.

In 1978, Chris Eisnaugle and Dan Blumenfeld, both high school students at the time, replicated the entire 350-point version of the game by coding a functional equivalent in for a 2000C. The gameplay and text content were identical to the original by Crowther and Woods. In the late 1970s, a version was produced by; some years later this version was ported to the. Also released versions of Adventure in 1979 for the and computers.in 1981 released The Original Adventure. Endorsed by Crowther and Woods, it was the only version for which they received royalties. Microsoft released in 1981 with its initial version of 1.0 as a for the IBM PC, making it the first game available for the new computer. It was released on a single-sided 5​ 1⁄ 4 inch disk, required 32K RAM, and; it could not be opened from DOS.

Microsoft's Adventure contained 130 rooms, 15 treasures, 40 useful objects and 12 problems to be solved. The progress of two games could be saved on a diskette. Later versions of the game moved away from general purpose programming languages such as C or Fortran and were instead written for special interactive fiction engines, such as Infocom's.In addition to strict ports of the game, variations began to appear, typically denoted by the maximum number of points one could score in the game; the original version by Crowther and Woods had a maximum of 350 points. Russel Dalenberg's Adventure Family Tree page provides the best (though still incomplete) summary of different versions and their relationships.A generic version of the game was developed in 1981 by Graham Thomson for the as the Adventure-writing kit.

This stripped-down version had space for 50 rooms and 15 objects and was designed to allow the aspiring coder to modify the game and thus personalize it. The game's code was published in April 1982.Dave Platt's influential 550-point version (released in 1984) was innovative in a number of ways.

It broke away from coding the game directly in a programming language such as FORTRAN or C. Instead, Platt developed A-code – a language for adventure programming – and wrote his extended version in that language. The A-code source was pre-processed by a FORTRAN 77 (F77) 'munger' program, which translated A-code into a text database and a tokenized pseudo-binary. These were then distributed together with a generic A-code F77 'executive', also written in F77, which effectively 'ran' the tokenized pseudo-binary.

Platt's version was also notable for providing a randomized variety of responses when informing the player that, for example, there was no exit in the nominated direction, introducing a number of rare 'cameo' events, and committing some outrageous puns. Dave Platt's 550-point version of Colossal Cave – perhaps the most famous variant of this game other than the original, itself a jumping-off point for many other versions including Michael Goetz's 581 point version – included a long extension on the other side of the View. Eventually, the player descends into a maze of catacombs and a 'fake Y2'. If the player says 'plugh' here the player is transported to a 'Precarious Chair' suspended in midair above the molten.

(The 581-point version was on SIGM011 from the CP/M Users Group, 1984.)In 2017, received permission from Crowther and Woods to release the source code for a forward port of their last version of the game dating from 1995. Raymond refers to this port as Open Adventure, but it uses the original six-character name for the executable in order to avoid colliding with the BSD port. Main article:'Xyzzy' is a magic word that teleports the player between two locations ('inside building' and the 'debris room'). Entering the command from other locations produces the disappointing response 'Nothing happens.' As an in-joke tribute to Adventure, many later computer programs (not only games but also applications) include a hidden 'xyzzy' command – the results of which range from the humorous to the straightforward. Sol survivor pc cheats walkthrough. Crowther stated that for its purpose in the game, 'magic words should look queer, and yet somehow be pronounceable', leading him to select 'xyzzy'.

The meaning and origin of the term are unclear, but Crowther has said 'I made it up out of whole cloth just for the game', and offered that as he had been considering working at at the time, he focused on a word starting with X. Maze of twisty little passages In Crowther's original version of Adventure, he created a maze where each of ten room descriptions was exactly the same; YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE.The layout of this 'all alike' maze was fixed, so the player would have to figure out how to map the maze. One method would be to drop objects in the rooms to act as landmarks, enabling one to map the section on paper. Woods' version added a second maze, where the description of each of eleven rooms was similar but subtly different.For example, YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTING PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. And YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTING LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. The layout was still fixed but the player did not have to drop inventory objects to map the maze.

Instead, this 'all different' maze required the player to recognize the wording changes to find maze exits and its solution. Don Woods was doing doctoral research in algorithms, and he designed this maze as (almost) a, with two exceptions important to gameplay.The phrase 'you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike' has become memorialized and popularized in the culture, where 'passages' may be replaced with a different word, as the situation warrants. This phrase came to signify a situation when whatever action is taken does not change the result. The line was used by in the title for his book about the history of, Twisty Little Passages: An Approach To Interactive Fiction.

Plugh When the player arrives at a location known as 'Y2', the player may (with 25% probability) receive the message 'A hollow voice says 'PLUGH'.' This magic word takes the player between the rooms 'inside building' and 'Y2'. Some other games recognize 'PLUGH' and will respond to it, usually by making a joke. The adventure game contained a cavern with the word 'PLUGH' written on the wall; if the player typed this word into the command parser, he was sent back to his starting point. The TRS-80 adventure game Haunted House – one of the few commercial adventure games playable with only 4K of RAM – requires the player to type PLUGH to enter the haunted house. If the player types PLUGH inside the haunted house, the game replies, 'Sorry, only one PLUGH per customer.' Another TRS-80 game, replies to PLUGH with 'You got better.'

Plugh.com gives further historical background to the name, allegedly by.In popular culture The game 's third act draws direct inspiration from this game, as well as Crowther's career in caving. Crowther, 1976; Crowther & Woods, 1977., pp. 85–87., pp. 56–57. ^ Jerz, Dennis (2007).

^ Rick Adams. The Colossal Cave Adventure page. ^, pp. 91–92. Crowther W.,2016-03-07 at the, 1976.

^ Montfort, Nick (2003). Twisty Little Passages: An Approach To Interactive Fiction. Cambridge: The MIT Press. ^ Peterson, Dale (1983). Pp. Crowther W., Woods D., 1977.

Crowther W., Woods D., 1977. Bilofsky, Walt. Walt's Home Page. Retrieved 30 September 2014.

Lemmons, Phil (October 1981). Retrieved 19 October 2013. Retrieved 2012-01-29. Russel Dalenberg (March 20, 2004).

Retrieved March 10, 2016. Thompson, Graham. Scot, Duncan, ed. April 1982.

Chirgwin, Richard (30 May 2017). Retrieved 30 May 2017. (2001). Dan Sanderson.

Pp. 375–382. ^ Jerz, Dennis G. Retrieved 2006-10-20. ^ Staff (January 17, 2016). Retrieved January 19, 2016. Dyer, Richard (1984-05-06).

The Boston Globe. Archived from on 1997-06-07., p. 57. From the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2008., p. 77., pp. 134–135., p. 28. Craddock, David L (August 5, 2015). 'Chapter 2: 'Procedural Dungeons of Doom: Building Rogue, Part 1 '. In Magrath, Andrew (ed.).

Dungeon Hacks: How NetHack, Angband, and Other Roguelikes Changed the Course of Video Games. Press Start Press. Brewer, Nathan (July 7, 2016). Archived from on September 19, 2016. Retrieved September 15, 2016. Heron, Michael (August 3, 2016). Retrieved August 3, 2016.

Connelly, Joey. The Jaded Gamer. Retrieved March 2, 2014. Buchana, Levi (August 26, 2008). Craddock, David (September 15, 2017). Retrieved September 15, 2017.

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A web page giving responses to 'plugh' in many games of interactive fiction. Retrieved 2012-01-29.

Retrieved 2018-08-02. Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2018-08-02.

Haff, Gordon (August 10, 2010). Retrieved February 23, 2016. Bishop, Brian (June 30, 2014). Retrieved February 22, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2018.Bibliography.

Montfort, Nick (2005). Twisty Little Passages: An Approach To Interactive Fiction. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Barton, Matt (2008). Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games.

Demaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games. McGraw-Hill Professional. Dibbell, Julian (1998). My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World.

Julian Dibbell. Sloane, Sarah (2000). Greenwood Publishing Group.External links Wikiquote has quotations related to:Wikimedia Commons has media related to.

at the with downloadable versions for many platforms. at the. Includes download links for many versions and platforms. Jerz, Dennis G. The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations.

Retrieved 2007-08-11. (as recovered from Don Woods' student account at Stanford)., an actively (as of 2018) maintained version of Adventure for Linux/Unix, Mac OS, Windows and HTML/Javascript., on released by. for the original PDP-10 version drawn by Mari Michaelis.