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Reviews
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by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 01/04/2013, 8:41am PST |
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There are few times that a single program spawns an entire genre of application software, but 1978's Colossal Cave Adventure did exactly that. Two men, Crowther and Woods, who loved exploring caves, took their love of spelunking in a new direction, by writing a computer program to create a game in which you had the ability to be in a simulated world that you could apparently walk around and be told, in prose, what was happening, and you could give simple commands to the game to tell it what you wanted to do. The fact that the source to the program was available in a reasonably portable language for that time (Fortran IV), made it possible for Colossal Caves Adventure to move to virtually every computer system in existence, from minicomputers such as the PDP-11 all the way to Mainframes such as the IBM 360/370 series.
This started a whole new genre in computer games: Interactive Fiction. Where before, people might write a book to tell a story, they could now write a much richer story by creating an apparent world where the user could walk around, touch and interact with things and other characters, and the state of the game could change based on those choices
The availability of graphical character sets allowed the development of interactive fiction games which had actual maps, where you could see the game board, and then with the development of actual graphic imaging capability spawning graphical interactive fiction games such as the PC-based Myst and coin-operated games such as Dragon's Lair.
Colossal Cave Adventure provides a series of puzzles, where you start in the outdoors in front of a house; you want to get into the house, and eventually enter the caves and explore them. To do that may sound easy but some solutions to puzzles cause other puzzles to be blocked until you change what you are doing. For example, you have one puzzle where you want to get a bird in a cage, but you'll also find a magic rod that you'll need, but you have to drop the rod until you catch the bird, but you also need the cage. And you also try to accumulate treasures and put them in the trophy room in the house, but along the way you'll meet a pirate in a maze who robs you, and so you have to find where he hid the loot. And you have to avoid being killed by dwarves. Yes, lots of puzzles and things you need to do to complete the game, and there is even a scoring system to determine whether you got all possible points.
The game went through a number of enhancements, as other people expanded the game by adding more puzzles and higher scores. Other similar games such as Dungeon pushed this further by expanding the world of the game and adding a whole new series of puzzles. Then the commercial Zork series of games pushed this even further. Other interactive fiction titles such as A Mind Forever Voyaging and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed new and different scenarios, but the base idea remained the same: to solve a series of puzzles in order to complete the game and hopefully get a full score.
While primitive by today's standards, the original Colossal Cave Adventure was quite innovative for its time, creating a new genre of game, an interactive puzzle which could be told as fiction has done for books. And Colossal Cave started it all.
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The January Short Review Classic Contest by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/04/2013, 7:49am PST 
Colossal Cave Adventure by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 01/04/2013, 8:41am PST
You're in the hunt! NT by Bill Burr 01/04/2013, 4:52pm PST
I am going to correct this review by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/05/2013, 1:55pm PST
Massive Assault, Phantom Renaissance by Mischief Maxim 01/04/2013, 8:47am PST
That review reads harsher than I intended, I actually really love this game. by Mischief Maker 01/04/2013, 8:19pm PST
I disliked it. by WITTGENSTEIN 01/04/2013, 9:36pm PST
If you weren't playing World War, you weren't playing the real game. NT by Mischief Maker 01/04/2013, 10:11pm PST
Update by MM 10/16/2016, 7:25pm PDT
8 more days for this by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/22/2013, 11:21pm PST
La Mulana by Lurker 58913 01/23/2013, 3:10am PST
This game was ruined by the ridiculous puzzles by Arbit 01/23/2013, 9:09am PST
Agreed. by Lizard_King 06/12/2013, 11:53am PDT
Devil May Cry 4 Redux by Mischief Maker 01/23/2013, 11:38am PST
Re: Devil May Cry 4 Redux by Foil 06/07/2013, 1:37pm PDT
What's hilarious is icycalm's terrible opinions NT by SLURRRRRRRRP 06/07/2013, 1:48pm PDT
Please elaborate on the depth of DMC 1/3 that I missed! NT by Mischief Maker 06/07/2013, 2:03pm PDT
...nothing? by Mischief Maker 06/07/2013, 6:57pm PDT
Were you trying to cow me by implication alone, you fucking girl? by Mischief Maker 06/12/2013, 10:42am PDT
What's the difference between horribly shallow and laughably shallow? NT by we already know you don't laugh 06/07/2013, 3:33pm PDT
Another Video Game Review: Duke Nukem 3D by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 01/25/2013, 4:49pm PST
This is going to sound retarded, but I actually wanted to read your Duke review. by Jerry Whorebach 01/25/2013, 6:55pm PST
Duke set the stage for American McGee's Alice. NT by Mischief Maker 01/26/2013, 10:30pm PST
Why I still play with Duke Nukem by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/06/2013, 5:06pm PST
Okay, this is pretty good. by Jerry Whorebach 02/07/2013, 11:45am PST
One more Half Life/Duke Nukem connection by Vested Id 01/25/2013, 8:12pm PST
WELL??? by Mischief Maker 02/03/2013, 10:19am PST
RESULTS by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/03/2013, 11:55am PST
Nice payoff, icecream >:( by fabio 02/03/2013, 1:18pm PST
Great, now I've got the mental image of TDARCOS in a wet T-Shirt. :( by Mischief Maker 02/04/2013, 8:09am PST
World's most loathsome profession by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/06/2013, 4:57pm PST
Undertakers? by motherfuckerfoodeater 02/06/2013, 10:16pm PST
Yes, Undertakers. by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/07/2013, 11:35am PST
You are making this bad rap up. Bad rap maker upper. by Fullofkittens 02/07/2013, 12:57pm PST
Is there a Ralph's around here? NT by Tansin A. Sobchak 02/10/2013, 7:02pm PST
Re: Nice payoff, icecream >:( by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/10/2013, 11:14am PST
Re: Nice payoff, icecream >:( by fabio 02/10/2013, 12:17pm PST
Re: Nice payoff, icecream >:( by Ice Cream Jonsey 10/16/2016, 8:39pm PDT
Re: RESULTS by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/06/2013, 5:09pm PST
Re: RESULTS by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/06/2013, 8:45pm PST
What do you mean "Ridiculous e-mail address"? by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/07/2013, 11:25am PST
It's ridiculous because your name is ridiculous. And so's your face. by now go motherfuck yourself. Also: 02/07/2013, 2:28pm PST
You are a piece of garbage, Mr. Motherfucker. Stop bothering Tdarcos, then NT by get cancer and die 02/07/2013, 5:06pm PST
Uh, thanks but I don't need help, I can do my own insults NT by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/07/2013, 5:08pm PST
I'll wait two minutes before replying to myself. that'll fool em. NT by Thoughts from an aspie dumbass. 02/07/2013, 8:11pm PST
Pahah really. That was so sad it was almost cute. by Almost. 02/08/2013, 11:00am PST
Or better yet: make a post then make another one faking my handle NT by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/19/2013, 10:02pm PST
About the Bill Burr special "You people are all the same" by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/19/2013, 11:22pm PST
A "C". Okay, you are officially insane. by Souffle of Pain 02/20/2013, 7:34am PST
BUS. Bus! Bus! I like the part when I saw a bus on screen. Public transit. by However, I didn't get the jokes. 02/20/2013, 9:13am PST
What the fuck are you going on about, you insane masturbator? A bus? Whuh? by YOU CRETINOUS CRETIN 02/20/2013, 12:43pm PST
I object to that nasty word; please do not use it again by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/21/2013, 8:48am PST
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