Magical creatures of the darkness and nail-biting, life threatening obstacles are just some of the elements added together to create the fantastical world of Colossal Cave Adventure, also known as Colossal Cave, ADVENT and Adventure. As one of the earliest and most popular games in the history of interactive fiction, Adventure paved the runway for future victorious text-based games, such as Zork, another early interactive fiction game (Wiki). With enhancements in plot development and interactions with the implementation of new items incorporated by Woods, ADVENT became known as Adventure, and interactive fiction’s journey to success began (Jerz). Interactive fiction owes its rise in popularity and development into a respected genre to Adventure’s powerful social impact.
As more professors and researchers learned about Crowther’s completely original computer simulation, news of a game called Adventure with imaginative characters and a compelling story line spread like wildfire, making it ‘The Game to Play.’ However, playing Adventure required a computer that supported a certain source code. There was only one source code for Adventure; the FORTRAN source code made by Crowther and expanded by Woods for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 computer (Adams). During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, there were also few well-equipped personal home computers. Being expensive and hard to find in the first place, most computers were used either for research or on college campuses. Since the age of computer technology was only just beginning, the computers used by researchers and professors were not as small or portable as computers are now. Having a home computer with any sort of graphical capabilities was quite an achievement, even in the eyes of society’s wealthiest and most influential people.
In 1976, Woods and Crowther’s source code for Adventure was ported from the original FORTRAN source into codes for other computer operating systems such as UNIX, then later for Heathkit and IBM-PC operating systems (Adams). Not only could Adventure be played on the PDP-10 computer, but now almost every working computer. However, there were still only a few opportunities for someone to play Adventure. Most people still did not own a home computer. Instead, they would find a way into a college computer lab or a friend’s home computer in order to play Adventure. The craze over a magical game, containing humor, terror and puzzles, exponentially increased in popularity.
Even for someone who had never seen ‘Welcome to Adventure!’ on a computer screen before, Adventure’s simplistic gameplay and goals were easy enough to grasp, yet more innovative than any other game already circulating. When Adventure was first being played in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, it is very likely that ADVENT was the first adventure game that the gamers ever played (Cree). There were not any blocky graphics. There was not a sound of a shooting missile. There was not playful background music as a player moved from scenario to scenario. There was not a controller with buttons and knobs that were necessary to move or complete actions. All a gamer needed was a keyboard to play Adventure. It was simple and elegant. People who played in college computer labs or in research laboratories talked about Adventure’s uniqueness, never playing a game that had only words and no graphic moving pictures before. There was something fantastic about a game that did not involve blocky objects or slow graphics that were aesthetically unpleasing.
Playing a computer game back in the 1970’s was different from playing a game now (Cree). With few personal computers circulating society, gamers needed to find another way to play Adventure When someone wanted to play a game on a computer, he or she would travel to the nearest college or university and request to use their computer lab (Cree). In order to not be disruptive during a class, gamers would go when classes were over and computer labs were just open for people to come and do homework. During this time, fans of Adventure would gather for a social hour as well as a competition. During all the talking and laughter about mistakes, which direction people should have gone, or helpful tips, gamers of all ages would gather together to play Adventure . Gathering together for a session of Adventure, playing to see who could travel the farthest into the Colossal Cave, became a popular social event for gamers. However, times when the computer lab is free of students after class hours did not come along very frequently. Professors would extend class, require more lecture time or simply close the computer labs early, making it impossible for people to use the computers. This made the time playing Adventure precious. During the time in between Adventure sessions, players were able to think about how they could get past the snake, giving their imaginations something to feed on. Gamers were able to discuss upcoming sessions with their fellow players, spreading the word about Adventure’s epic gameplay. Adventure became a popular discussion topic within both young and older age groups (Cree).
Improvements in computer technology led to accessing the internet and personal computers an easier task, making getting together to play games easier as well. Similar to the new social events when Adventure just came out, internet and computer improvements opened up a whole new level of socializing with other gamers. From meeting on the internet to play a game with a fellow gamer halfway across the world to being able to chat with them afterwards about the actual game, social skills were implemented along with video games, mirroring the events with Adventure in the 1970’s, just via computers instead of in a physical sense. The actual name of Adventure even became a gaming term in ‘The New Hacker Dictionary.’ ‘Vadding’ came from the ‘VAD’ of the first three letters of ADVENT, meaning to explore a map’s large buildings, looking for secret hiding places or codes (Jerz). After analyzing where computer gaming sessions and discussions started, it is easy to see they are the after effects of Adventure’s game culture.
Works Cited
Adams, Rick. "A history of 'Adventure.'" Editorial. Colossal Cave Adventure Page. Mzinga, 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/a_history.html>.
Cree, Graeme. "Adventure (aka Colossal Cave)." Rev. of Adventure, by Will Crowther. SPAG sparkynet, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.sparkynet.com/spag/a.html#advent>.
Jerz, Dennis G. "Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original 'Adventure' in Code and in Kentucky." Digital Humanities Quarterly 1.2 (2007): n. pag. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/001/2 /000009.html>.
Bogost, Ian, and Nick Montfort. "Adventure." Racing the Beam. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009. <http://vgc.zachwhalen.net/sites/vgc.zachwhalen.net/files/bogost-montfort- adventure.pdf>
“Interactive Fiction.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 3 Nov 2009. Web. 9 Oct 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction>
