Development Crowther's original version William Crowther in 2012 Teleprinter computer terminalĬolossal Cave Adventure was originally created by William Crowther in 19. The ultimate goal is to earn the maximum number of points-350, in the 1977 version-which involves finding all the treasures in the game and safely leaving the cave. It also adds a points system, whereby completing certain goals earns a predetermined number of points. The 1977 version of the game, upon which later versions were based, adds ten more treasures and more fantasy elements. The player can die by falling into a pit or being killed by the dwarves, but otherwise the game has no ending or goal beyond finding the treasures. Although it is based on a real cave system, it contains a few fantasy elements such as a crystal bridge, magic words, and axe-wielding dwarves. The original 1976 version of the game contains five treasures which can be collected. The program's replies are typically in a humorous, conversational tone, much as a Dungeon Master would use in leading players in a tabletop role-playing game. If it does not understand the player's commands, it asks for the player to retype their actions. The program acts as a narrator, describing to the player their location in the cave and the results of certain actions. There are dozens of rooms, each of which has a name such as 'Debris Room' and a description, and may contain objects or obstacles. The allowable commands are contextual to the location, or room, the player is in for example, 'get lamp' only has an effect if there is a lamp present. The player types in one- or two-word commands to move their character through the cave system, interact with objects in the cave, pick up items to put into their inventory, and perform other actions. The player must explore the cave system and solve puzzles by using items that they find to obtain the treasures and leave the cave.

Gameplay Colossal Cave Adventure running on a PDP-11/34 with a monitor, showing the point systemĬolossal Cave Adventure is a text-based adventure game wherein the player explores a mysterious cave that is rumored to be filled with treasure and gold. It has been noted as one of the most influential video games, and in 2019 was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame by The Strong and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games. It also influenced the creation of the MUD and computer role-playing game genres. It directly inspired the creation of numerous games, including Zork (1977), Adventureland (1978), Mystery House (1980), Rogue (1980), and Adventure (1980), which went on to be the foundations of the interactive fiction, adventure, roguelike, and action-adventure genres. Both versions, typically played over teleprinters connected to mainframe computers, were spread around the nascent ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, which Crowther was involved in developing.Ĭolossal Cave Adventure was one of the first teletype games and was massively popular in the computer community of the late 1970s, with numerous ports and modified versions being created based on Woods's source code. Woods's version expanded the game in size and increased the number of fantasy elements present in it, such as a dragon and magic spells. The original game, written in 19, was based on Crowther's maps and experiences caving in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the longest cave system in the world further, it was intended, in part, to be accessible to non-technical players, such as his two daughters. It is the first well-known example of interactive fiction, as well as the first well-known adventure game, for which it was also the namesake. The program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the results of the player's attempted actions. The game is composed of dozens of locations, and the player moves between these locations and interacts with objects in them by typing one- or two-word commands which are interpreted by the game's natural language input system. In the game, the player explores a cave system rumored to be filled with treasure and gold. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as Adventure or ADVENT) is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer.

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