Colossal Cave Adventure
This article is about the text adventure also known as Adventure. For the Atari 2600 game, see Adventure. For the TI-99/4A cartridge titled Adventure, see Pirate Adventure. For the Intellivision game also known as adventure, see Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain. For the genre, see adventure game.
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| Colossal Cave Adventure | |
| Developer | Will Crowther, Don Woods |
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| Publisher | Will Crowther, Don Woods |
| Platforms | TOPS-10 |
| Released | Adventure (Crowther version) TOPS-10 worldwide: 1975-1976 FORTRAN-77 source worldwide: 2007 macOS, Z-code worldwide: 2011 TRS-80 MC-10 worldwide: 2015 Adventure (Crowther and Woods version) TOPS-10, ULTRIX, UNIX worldwide: 1977 CDC 6400, FORTRAN-77 source worldwide: 1978 Altair 8800 worldwide: 1978/1979 Wander (partial): 1981 Commodore 64 source code: 1983 BDS C source: 1985 DOS (FORTRAN-77): December 1987 Amiga, DOS (MS Fortran 5): November 1990 DOS (BDS C): 1990 DOS, OS/2, UNIX (BDS C): 1991 DOS (FORTRAN 77): 1992 TADS: 1993 Z-code (Inform 5): 1994 Z-code (Inform 6), GINAS, Hugo: 1995 Glulx: 2000 Glulx (GUI): 2002 CWEB: 2003 ADRIFT: 2006 Z-code (Inform 7): 2016 Adventure II Source: 1978-1981 Z-code (Inform 7): 2016 Adventure 3 DOS: 1978 Amiga, DOS, Mac OS, and Windows: August 1985 TADS: 1999 Z-code (Inform 7): 2016 Adventure 5 Source (FORTRAN IV): 1978 The Original Adventure CP/M, HDOS: February 1982 DOS: February 1983 Colossal Adventure Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Camputers Lynx, C64, Enterprise, MSX, MTX, Nascom, Oric, Spectrum: 1983 Adventure 6 Source: 1984 TADS: 1999 Z-code (Inform 7): 2017 FunAdv OpenVMS: 1992 Adventure in Humongous Cave AGT: 1993 Z-code (Inform 7): 2005 370 Point Adventure DOS: 1993 580 Point Adventure Source: 1993 TADS: 1999 Adventure 2.5 Amiga, DOS: 1995 Z-code (Inform 7): 2016 Adventure 4 Amiga, DOS: 1995 701 Point Adventure TADS: 2000 Adventure 770 DOS, Linux, macOS: 2003 iOS: 2017 701 Point Adventure+ TADS: 2004 |
| Added to Museum |
Crowther Z-code worldwide: August 24, 2019 Crowther/Woods Z-code worldwide: September 4, 2009 Wander worldwide: August 25, 2019 Glulx (regular+GUI) worldwide: August 26, 2019 Amiga/DOS/Source worldwide: August 28, 2019 ADRIFT/GINAS/Hugo/TADS WW: August 28, 2019 Hugo source worldwide: August 28, 2019 BDS C Adventure DOS/OS2/Source/UNIX USA: August 28, 2019 The Original Adventure Osborne 1 CP/M USA: September 8, 2019 Adventure II Z-code worldwide: August 24, 2019 Adventure 2.5 Amiga/DOS/Source worldwide: August 27, 2019 Adventure 3 DOS/Source/Z-code worldwide: August 24, 2019 Amiga/Mac/Windows worldwide: August 28, 2019 TADS worldwide: September 8, 2019 Adventure 4 Amiga/DOS/Source worldwide: August 27, 2019 Adventure 5 Source worldwide: August 26, 2019 Adventure 6 Z-code worldwide: August 24, 2019 Amiga/DOS/Source worldwide: August 28, 2019 TADS worldwide: September 8, 2019 FunAdv OpenVMS worldwide: September 8, 2019 370 point Adventure DOS/Source worldwide: August 27, 2019 580 Point Adventure TADS worldwide: September 8, 2019 701 Point Adventure TADS worldwide: September 8, 2019 701+ Point Adventure TADS worldwide: September 8, 2019 770 Point Adventure DOS/HTML/Linux/macOS/Source/Windows worldwide: September 8, 2019 Adventure in Humongous Cave DOS USA: September 8, 2019 |
Colossal Cave Adventure was the adventure game that gave the genre its name. It was also known as Colossal Cave, Adventure in Humongous Cave, Adventure, or ADVENT. The latter is due to the 6 character limit of computers at the time. It was a complete text adventure with no graphics, since the computer it was originally written for had no graphic output.
Gameplay
The game had the elements that would become a staple of the adventure genre, such as story-based gameplay, puzzles, and inventory. It had a point-based system, where you're awarded a number of points out of a possible total, based on whether you accomplished certain tasks in the game.
Development
Will Crowther developed Colossal Cave Adventure from 1975 to 1976 on TOPS-10 using the PDP-10 owned by his employer, Bolt Beranek and Newman, in FORTRAN IV. This was shared over the ARPANET, the precursor to the internet, of which Crowther was part of the development team.
In 1977, Don Woods found it, converted it to FORTRAN-10, and expanded it with Will Crowther's permission, completing his version later that year. Also in 1977, it was ported to C for UNIX by Jim Gillogly. The Crowther and Woods version became quite popular, inspiring many others to create their own games in a similar style.
Inspiration
There were text-based games were released before it, such as Hunt the Wumpus, which was created in 1973. Hunt the Wumpus was known for its bats which would transport the player to another room, which also appear in Colossal Cave Adventure. However, Colossal Cave Adventure is the adventure game that popularized the genre, and included an inventory and puzzles, which remain a staple in most western adventure games to this day.
The cave in Colossal Cave Adventure is based on Bedquilt Cave, a cave within the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky, that connects to Colossal Cave. In 1972, Will Crowther's then-wife Patricia was part of the team that found the link that connected Flint Ridge caves to the Mammoth Cave. The Bedquilt cave was Will's favorite part of the Mammoth cave system, so after his divorce to Patricia, he decided to make a game based around it from a map he had made, in the hopes that it would be a game that his daughters would enjoy. As he was a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, he decided to combine elements of fantasy role-playing into the game as well. In the game, you search for treasure while navigating the maze-like caverns and avoiding or fighting the creatures.
Versions
Will Crowther's original version
The original FORTRAN IV version of Colossal Cave Adventure by Will Crowther, before it was continued by Don Woods, was discovered in a tape backup of Don Woods' student account at Stanford in 2005. The date of this version, March 11, 1977, reflects the point when Don Woods first discovered the game and saved it to his student account.
- A TOPS-10 version for PDP-10 was developed by Will Crowther in 1976.
- A macOS version was compiled by Troy Fullwood in 2011 from a 2007 FORTRAN-77 source conversion by Matthew Russotto.
- A Z-code version was developed in Inform 7 format by Chris Conley in 2011.
- A TRS-80 MC-10 version was developed in Color BASIC by Jim Gerrie in 2015.
Will Crowther's and Don Woods' version
The 1977 350-point version by Crowther and Woods is also available on many different systems.
- A TOPS-10 version for PDP-10 was developed by Will Crowther and Don Woods in FORTRAN-10 in 1977.
- A ULTRIX version for PDP-11/70 version was developed by Kent Blackett in FORTRAN IV Plus in 1977.
- A UNIX version was developed by Jim Gillogly in C in 1977.
- A CDC 6400 version, on the NOS/BE operating system, was developed by David P. Erickson in CDC FORTRAN IV in 1978.
- A conversion to FORTRAN-77 was developed by Bob Supnik at the Digital Equipment Computer Users' Society while employed by the Digital Equipment Corportation in 1978.
- An Altair 8800 version was developed by Jay R. Jaegar in BDS C in the late 1970s. This version has separate values for treasures, survival, and score.
- This version was converted to BDS C 1.43 by L. C. Calhoun for CP/M in 1985.
- This version was the basis of a version for DOS by Bob Wither in 1990.
- This version was the basis of a version for UNIX, OS/2, and DOS by Jerry D. Pohl in 1991.
- A Commodore 64 version was available as source code in the book Exploring Adventures on the Commodore 64 by Peter Gerrard in 1983.
- A DOS version, based on Bob Supnik's FORTRAN 77 version, was developed by Kevin Black in December 1987.
- Amiga and DOS versions were developed by Don Ekman in Microsoft Fortran 5 in November 1990.
- A DOS version was developed in FORTRAN 77 by Kenneth Plotkin for DOS in 1992.
- A CWEB version was developed by Donald E. Knuth in 2003.
In addition, the 1977 350-point version by Crowther and Woods has also been ported to many different scripting languages:
- A partial Wander version was developed by Peter Langston in 1981.
- A TADS version was developed by Dave Baggett in 1993, based on Don Ekman's Microsoft Fortran 5 version.
- Three Z-code versions were developed:
- Two by Graham Nelson: An Inform 5 version was released in 1994 and an Inform 6 was released in version 1996, both based on Dave Baggett's TADS version.
- An Inform 7 version was released in 2016, based on Donald E. Knuth's CWEB version.
- A GINAS version was developed by Jeff Standish in 1995, based on Graham Nelson's Inform 5 version.
- A Hugo version was developed by Kent Tessman in 1995, based on Graham Nelson's Inform 5 version.
- Two Glulx versions were developed, both based on Dave Baggett's TADS version:
- The first Glulx version was developed by Andrew Plotkin in 2000.
- The second Glulx version was developed by Simon Baldwin in 2002, with a graphical user interface, using his gtoolbar extension.
- An ADRIFT version was developed by Nick Rogers in 2006, based on Graham Nelson's Inform 6 version.
Extended versions
Colossal Cave Adventure has also been extended multiple times:
- The Original Adventure, a 370 point version, was developed by Jim Gillogly and Walt Bilofsky.
- This version was sold commercially by The Software Toolworks for HDOS and CP/M in February 1982, and for DOS in February 1984.
- Colossal Adventure was developed by Level 9 Computing in 1983. This version was released commercially for Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit computers, BBC Micro, Camputers Lynx, Commodore 64, Enterprise, Memotech MTX, MSX, Nascom, Oric, and ZX Spectrum
- Adventure II, a 440 point version, was developed by Peter Luckett and Jack Pike, of Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough, from 1978 to 1981.
- This version was converted to Z-code in Inform 7 format by Arthur O'Dwyer in 2016.
- Adventure 2.5, a 430 point version, was developed by Don Woods for DOS and Amiga in 1995.
- This version was converted to Z-code in Inform 7 format by Arthur O'Dwyer in 2016.
- This version was converted to C by Ken C. Wellsch in August 1985, and is available for Amiga, DOS, Mac OS, and Windows.
- This version was converted to Z-code in Inform 7 format by Arthur O'Dwyer in 2016, based on Ken C. Wellsch's C version.
- This version was converted to TADS by Bennett Standeven in 1999.
- Adventure 3, also known as Adventure 550, a 550 point version, was developed by David Platt in FORTRAN for DOS in 1978.
- Adventure 4, a 660 point version, was developed by Mike Arnautov for DOS and Amiga in 1995, combining Adventure II and Adventure 3 into a single game.
- Adventure 5, a 501 point version, was developed by David Long at the University of Chicago in 1978. It is only available as source code for FORTRAN IV.
- Adventure 6, a 551 point version, was developed by David Long and an anonymous coder in 1984.
- This version was converted to Z-code in Inform 7 format by Arthur O'Dwyer in 2017.
- This version was converted to TADS by David Picton in 1999.
- FunAdv, a 370 point version, was developed by Neale White III for OpenVMS in 1992.
- Adventure in Humongous Cave, a 1000 point version, was developed in AGT by David R. Malmberg in 1993.
- This version was converted to Z-code by Al Golden in 2005.
- 370 Point Adventure, a 370 point version, was developed by Paul Munoz-Colman for DOS in 1993.
- 580 Point Adventure, a 580 point version, was developed by Mike Goetz in 1993.
- This version was converted to TADS by Bennett Standeven in 1999.
- 701 Point Adventure, a 701 point version, was developed in TADS by David Picton in 2000, combining Adventure 3 and Adventure 6 into a single game.
- 701+ Point Adventure, an 805 point version, was developed in TADS by David Picton in 2004 based on Adventure 701, with extensions.
- Adventure 770, a 770 point version, was developed by Mike Arnautov, based on Adventure 4, in 2003 and released for DOS, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and iOS.
Legacy
The version by Will Crowther and Don Woods spread all over the ARPANET, inspiring many others, such as Sierra, Infocom, and Adventure International.
The point system would be used in the games by the companies that were formed in which the founders were inspired by the game. Sierra, in particular, continued the point system well into the graphical point-and-click era of adventure gaming.
