What an Adventure!

What an Adventure! was Originally Posted on June 6, 2005 by lavarock

Now-a-days kids play games that seem almost real. Some games allow them to create whole new worlds and control them. yet more than 30 years ago, the games controlled us!

As early as 1972 a game was introduced that drove computer geeks crazy; that game was called Colossal Cave and was a very difficult and frustrating text game.

The game started out with the following text:

[b]Welcome to Adventure!! Would you like instructions?
y

Somewhere nearby is Colossal Cave, where others have found fortunes in treasure and gold, though it is rumored that some who enter are never seen again. Magic is said to work in the cave. I will be your eyes and hands. Direct me with commands of 1 or 2 words. I should warn you that I look at only the first five letters of each word, so you’ll have to enter “northeast” as “ne” to distinguish it from “north”. (Should you get stuck, type “help” for some general hints. For information on how to end your adventure, etc., type “info”.)

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.[/b]

Then you were presented with a blinking cursor. If you typed nothing, the game just sat there, and sat there, blinking, blinking.

You would then try typing “NE” and “help” and so on. You had to actually THINK what you were doing. What a concept!

If you want to try it, download it here http://homepages.enterprise.net/kbb/ColossalCaves.html

Be forewarned, you cannot finish the game in one sitting. It will frustrate you.

I have read all of the source code, made changes (I had the FORTRAN version) and even started writing my own game; determining how to parse directions, how to change rooms and how to leave an item at a location. It was quite a leariing experience.

Sometime when you tire of audio and video games, give a text (and thinking) game a try!