See Colossal Cave (Arizona) and Colossal Cavern for other natural caverns with this name.
For the United States Air Force engine technology program, see Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology.| Colossal Cave Adventure | |
|---|---|
 Opening page of Will Crowther's original Adventure running on a PDP-10 |
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| Developer(s) | William Crowther and Don Woods |
| Publisher(s) | CRL |
| Platform(s) | Many (initially PDP-10) |
| Release date(s) | 1976 (Crowther); 1977 (Woods) |
| Genre(s) | Adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Input methods | Keyboard |
Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure)[1] was the first computer adventure game. It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky.[2] The Colossal Cave subnetwork has many entrances, one of which is known as Bedquilt. Crowther reproduced portions of the real cave so faithfully that cavers who have played the game can easily navigate through familiar sections in the Bedquilt region on their first visit.[3]
Contents |
Will Crowther was a programmer at Bolt, Beranek & Newman, which developed the ARPANET (a forerunner of the Internet). Crowther was an experienced caver, who applied his experience in Mammoth Cave (in Kentucky) to create a game that he could enjoy with his young daughters.[4]
Crowther had explored the Mammoth Cave in the early 1970s, and created a vector map based on surveys of parts of the real cave, but the text game is a completely separate entity, created during the 1975-76 academic year [5] and featuring fantasy elements such as an axe-throwing dwarf and a magic bridge.
The version that is best known today was the result of a collaboration with Don Woods, a graduate student who discovered the game on a computer at Stanford University[6] and made significant expansions and improvements, with Crowther's blessing. A big fan of Tolkien, he introduced additional fantasy elements, such as elves and a troll.
Until the 2007-2008 academic year, students at Stanford University were required to re-implement the game as an assignment in their first computer programming course.
When Roberta Williams and her husband Ken discovered the game, and were subsequently unable to find anything similar, they were inspired to create their own software house, founding On-Line Software (later Sierra Online, and then Sierra Entertainment), which created the first graphical adventure game (Mystery House), and quickly became a dominant player in the entertainment software market for the next two decades, creating successful adventures such as King's Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry.
Crowther's original game consisted of about 700 lines of FORTRAN code (see the original source code), with about another 700 lines of data, written for BBN's PDP-10 timesharing computer. The data included text for 79 map locations, 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 words (nearly 300kB) of core memory, which was a significant amount for PDP-10/KA systems running with only 128k words.
Woods also developed his game in FORTRAN for the PDP-10 (see the source code). 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, travel tables, and miscellaneous messages. Like Crowther's original game, Woods' game also executes with all its data in memory, but required somewhat less core memory (42k words) than Crowther's game.
The Adventure FORTRAN code took full advantage of the machine dependent, 36-bit, architecture of the PDP-10. Each PDP-10 word (an integer) packed five 7-bit ASCII characters in the high order 35 bits of a 36-bit word. And programmers could compare integers in FORTRAN directly with five character strings. This architecture was evident to the game player too, since the game only distinguished the first five characters of all the vocabulary words it understood. One feature of the PDP-10 operating system was its ability to save, restore, and restart execution of a program's core memory image, even after a program terminates. This feature was the original basis for saving, or suspending, an adventure game. Suspending a game in this manner saved an entire copy of the game program to disk, rather than just player specific data. These PDP-10 machine dependencies made porting of the Crowther/Woods Adventure to other platforms more difficult.
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 Z-machine.
Many versions of Colossal Cave have been released, mostly entitled simply Adventure, or adding a tag of some sort to the original name (e.g. Adventure II, Adventure 550, Adventure4+, ...). Large value numeric tags denoted the maximum score a player can achieve after playing a perfect game. Hence, Crowther/Woods Adventure, the first with a point scoring system, is also synonymous with Adventure 350. Russel Dalenberg's Adventure Family Tree page[7] provides the best (though still incomplete) summary of different versions and their relationships.
Until Crowther's original version was found,[8] the "definitive original" was generally considered to be the version that Don Woods expanded in 1977. As part of that expansion, Woods added a scoring system that went up to 350 points. Extended versions with extra puzzles go up to 1000 points or more. The AMP MUD had a multi-player Colossal Cave.
In 1977, Jim Gillogly of the RAND Corporation spent several weeks porting the code from FORTRAN to C under Unix, with the agreement of both Woods and Crowther. It can be found as part of the BSD Operating Systems distributions, or as part of the "bsdgames" package under most Linux distributions, under the command name "adventure".
The game was also ported to Prime Computer's super-mini running PRIMOS in the late 1970s, utilising FORTRAN IV, and to IBM mainframes running VM/CMS in late 1978, utilizing PL/I.
Microsoft released a version of Adventure in 1981 with its initial version of MS-DOS 1.0 for the IBM PC (on a single sided disk, requiring 32kB of RAM).
Dave Platt's influential 550 points version 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 an FORTRAN 77 (F77) "munger" program, which translated A-code into a text database, and a tokenised pseudo-binary. These were then distributed together with a generic A-code F77 "executive", also written in F77, which effectively "ran" the tokenised pseudo-binary.
Platt's version was also notable for providing a randomised variety of responses when informing the player that, e.g., there was no exit in the nominated direction, for introducing a number of rare "cameo" events, and for committing some outrageous puns.
"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, 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.[9] Explanations of the origin and meaning of the term are similarly wide-ranging, but Crowther has said "I made it up out of whole cloth just for the game," and "I was considering working for XEROX at the time, which probably suggested starting with an X." [5]
"You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" is a memorable line from the game, popular in hacker 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 "all alike" maze was created by Crowther; Woods created a second maze, described as "all different" [5]. In the "all different" maze, the player's current location is described in eleven different ways with each description providing a clue as to available exits from that particular point (e.g., "little maze of twisting passages" may have an exit north, while "maze of little twisty passages" may have exits north and south):
Don Woods was doing doctoral research in graph algorithms, and he designed this maze as (almost) a complete graph, with two exceptions important to game play. One potential name variation, "little twisting maze of passages", is not used.
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". A popular theory is that the word is short for "plughole" (allegedly a caver term) but no evidence supports this claim, and the game does not feature a plughole in this location.
Some other games recognize "PLUGH" and will respond to it, usually by making a joke.[10] The adventure game Prisoner 2 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.
Down the hall from Platt, three programmers were developing a debugger for a commercial operating system (CP-6). They added a command to show a stack trace, and called the command “plugh”. The command passed all internal reviews for release until a technical writer refused to allow a funny word that didn’t mean anything to be included in the product. A lengthy development meeting determined a backronym expansion: “Procedure List Used to Get Here”.[citation needed]
One of the treasures the player needs to collect are golden eggs, found in the Giant room. If you say the magic phrase (one word at a time) written on the wall of that room, the eggs will be moved back to the Giant room, wherever they are and wherever you are. For example:
You can use the golden eggs to pay the troll later by throwing them at him. Thanks to the magic phrase, you can get the eggs back.
If you say 'fum' instead of 'foo', the game commands you to start the phrase over.
Other memorable lines from the game are:
According to author Dale Peterson, Don Woods continued releasing updated editions through to at least the mid-1990s.[11] Just as Woods picked up the development of Adventure where Crowther left off, other programmers continued the story in their own way.
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 CP/M version — included a long extension on the other side of the Volcano View. Eventually, the player descends into a maze of catacombs and a "fake Y2". If the player says "plugh" here the player finds himself or herself transported to a "Precarious Chair" suspended in midair above the molten lava. (The 581-point version was on SIGM011 from the CP/M Users Group, 1984.)
Dave Platt's 550-point F77 version had some memorable moments as well:
Platt also had a number of "cameos" — very rare random events of no consequence. For example:
Other versions added their own flavour to the proceedings.
Colossal Cave
Adventure or Adventure,
ADVENT, or Colossal
Cave was originally written for the PDP-10 in 1976 by
Willie Crowther and Don Woods, and was the first ever text adventure game.
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 AND DOWN A GULLY.
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTING PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTING LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A LITTLE MAZE OF TWISTY PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A TWISTING LITTLE MAZE OF PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A TWISTY LITTLE MAZE OF PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A TWISTY MAZE OF LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A LITTLE TWISTY MAZE OF PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF LITTLE TWISTING PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT. YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF LITTLE TWISTY PASSAGES, ALL DIFFERENT.
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE.
YOU ARE AT WITT'S END. PASSAGES LEAD OFF IN *ALL* DIRECTIONS.
YOU ARE IN A NORTH/SOUTH CANYON ABOUT 25 FEET ACROSS. THE FLOOR IS COVERED BY WHITE MIST SEEPING IN FROM THE NORTH. THE WALLS EXTEND UPWARD FOR WELL OVER 100 FEET. SUSPENDED FROM SOME UNSEEN POINT FAR ABOVE YOU, AN ENORMOUS TWO-SIDED MIRROR IS HANGING PARALLEL TO AND MIDWAY BETWEEN THE CANYON WALLS. (THE MIRROR IS OBVIOUSLY PROVIDED FOR THE USE OF THE DWARVES, WHO AS YOU KNOW, ARE EXTREMELY VAIN.) A SMALL WINDOW CAN BE SEEN IN EITHER WALL, SOME FIFTY FEET UP.
YOU ARE ON THE EDGE OF A BREATH-TAKING VIEW. FAR BELOW YOU IS AN ACTIVE VOLCANO, FROM WHICH GREAT GOUTS OF MOLTEN LAVA COME SURGING OUT, CASCADING BACK DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS. THE GLOWING ROCK FILLS THE FARTHEST REACHES OF THE CAVERN WITH A BLOOD-RED GLARE, GIVING EVERY- THING AN EERIE, MACABRE APPEARANCE. THE AIR IS FILLED WITH FLICKERING SPARKS OF ASH AND A HEAVY SMELL OF BRIMSTONE. THE WALLS ARE HOT TO THE TOUCH, AND THE THUNDERING OF THE VOLCANO DROWNS OUT ALL OTHER SOUNDS. EMBEDDED IN THE JAGGED ROOF FAR OVERHEAD ARE MYRIAD TWISTED FORMATIONS COMPOSED OF PURE WHITE ALABASTER, WHICH SCATTER THE MURKY LIGHT INTO SINISTER APPARITIONS UPON THE WALLS. TO ONE SIDE IS A DEEP GORGE, FILLED WITH A BIZARRE CHAOS OF TORTURED ROCK WHICH SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CRAFTED BY THE DEVIL HIMSELF. AN IMMENSE RIVER OF FIRE CRASHES OUT FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE VOLCANO, BURNS ITS WAY THROUGH THE GORGE, AND PLUMMETS INTO A BOTTOMLESS PIT FAR OFF TO YOUR LEFT. TO THE RIGHT, AN IMMENSE GEYSER OF BLISTERING STEAM ERUPTS CONTINUOUSLY FROM A BARREN ISLAND IN THE CENTER OF A SULFUROUS LAKE, WHICH BUBBLES OMINOUSLY. THE FAR RIGHT WALL IS AFLAME WITH AN INCANDESCENCE OF ITS OWN, WHICH LENDS AN ADDITIONAL INFERNAL SPLENDOR TO THE ALREADY HELLISH SCENE. A DARK, FOREBODING PASSAGE EXITS TO THE SOUTH.
A HOLLOW VOICE SAYS "PLUGH".
kill dragon WITH WHAT? YOUR BARE HANDS? yes CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE JUST VANQUISHED A DRAGON WITH YOUR BARE HANDS! (UNBELIEVABLE, ISN'T IT?)
YOU FOOL, DWARVES EAT ONLY COAL! NOW YOU'VE MADE HIM *REALLY* MAD!!
Colossal Cave Adventure | Table of
Contents | Walkthrough
| Colossal Cave Adventure | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | William Crowther |
| Publisher(s) | CRL Group |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| System(s) | MS-DOS, Apple II |
| Players | 1 |
| Rating(s) | None |
Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as ADVENT, Colossal Cave, or Adventure) was the first computer adventure game. It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky. The Colossal Cave subnetwork has many entrances, one of which is known as Bedquilt. Crowther reproduced portions of the real cave so faithfully that cavers who have played the game can easily navigate through familiar sections in the Bedquilt region on their first visit.
Crowther had explored the Mammoth Cave in the early 1970s, and created a vector map based on surveys of parts of the real cave, but the text game is a completely separate entity, created during the 1975-76 academic year and featuring fantasy elements such as an axe-throwing dwarf and a magic bridge.
The version that is best known today was the result of a collaboration with Don Woods, a graduate student who discovered the game on a computer at Stanford University and made significant expansions and improvements, with Crowther's blessing. A big fan of Tolkien, he introduced additional fantasy elements, such as elves and a troll. Until the 2007-2008 academic year, students at Stanford University were required to re-implement the game as an assignment in the first computer programming course.
Colossal Cave also holds a prominent place in computing history: when Roberta Williams and her husband Ken found the game, and were subsequently unable to find anything similar, they were inspired to found On-Line Software (later Sierra Online, and then Sierra Entertainment), which created the first graphical adventure game (Mystery House), and then quickly came to dominate the entertainment software market for the next two decades.
 Introduction screen |
   | A Java version of the Colossal Cave Adventure - Astrodragon.com: Adventure (Colossal Cave) |
| | Colossal Cave Adventure (c.1975) - Where Is That File? (Dennis G. Jerz -- Seton Hill University) |
| | >plugh responses - >plugh - Responses |
| | Bedquilt - The real Colossal Cave |
| | Adventure: Crowther's original source code found; photos from inside the real Colossal Cave - Adventure: Crowther's original source code found; photos from inside the real Colossal Cave - rec.arts.int-fiction | Google Groups |
| | Crowther's original source code for Adventure - Index of /if/crowther |
| | Mac OS X version of Colossal Cave Adventure - Lobotomo Software: Adventure |
| | Adventure Family Tree - EarthLink® - Page Not Found |
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