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Colossal Cave Adventure by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 01/04/2013, 8:41am PST
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 NEW
    Colossal Cave Adventure by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 01/04/2013, 8:41am PST NEW
        You're in the hunt! NT by Bill Burr 01/04/2013, 4:52pm PST NEW
        I am going to correct this review by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/05/2013, 1:55pm PST NEW
    Massive Assault, Phantom Renaissance by Mischief Maxim 01/04/2013, 8:47am PST NEW
        That review reads harsher than I intended, I actually really love this game. by Mischief Maker 01/04/2013, 8:19pm PST NEW
            I disliked it. by WITTGENSTEIN 01/04/2013, 9:36pm PST NEW
                If you weren't playing World War, you weren't playing the real game. NT by Mischief Maker 01/04/2013, 10:11pm PST NEW
        Update by MM 10/16/2016, 7:25pm PDT NEW
    8 more days for this by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/22/2013, 11:21pm PST NEW
    La Mulana by Lurker 58913 01/23/2013, 3:10am PST NEW
        This game was ruined by the ridiculous puzzles by Arbit 01/23/2013, 9:09am PST NEW
            Agreed. by Lizard_King 06/12/2013, 11:53am PDT NEW
    Devil May Cry 4 Redux by Mischief Maker 01/23/2013, 11:38am PST NEW
        Re: Devil May Cry 4 Redux by Foil 06/07/2013, 1:37pm PDT NEW
            What's hilarious is icycalm's terrible opinions NT by SLURRRRRRRRP 06/07/2013, 1:48pm PDT NEW
            Please elaborate on the depth of DMC 1/3 that I missed! NT by Mischief Maker 06/07/2013, 2:03pm PDT NEW
                ...nothing? by Mischief Maker 06/07/2013, 6:57pm PDT NEW
                    Were you trying to cow me by implication alone, you fucking girl? by Mischief Maker 06/12/2013, 10:42am PDT NEW
            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 NEW
    Another Video Game Review: Duke Nukem 3D by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 01/25/2013, 4:49pm PST NEW
        This is going to sound retarded, but I actually wanted to read your Duke review. by Jerry Whorebach 01/25/2013, 6:55pm PST NEW
            Duke set the stage for American McGee's Alice. NT by Mischief Maker 01/26/2013, 10:30pm PST NEW
            Why I still play with Duke Nukem by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/06/2013, 5:06pm PST NEW
                Okay, this is pretty good. by Jerry Whorebach 02/07/2013, 11:45am PST NEW
        One more Half Life/Duke Nukem connection by Vested Id 01/25/2013, 8:12pm PST NEW
    WELL??? by Mischief Maker 02/03/2013, 10:19am PST NEW
    RESULTS by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/03/2013, 11:55am PST NEW
        Nice payoff, icecream >:( by fabio 02/03/2013, 1:18pm PST NEW
            Great, now I've got the mental image of TDARCOS in a wet T-Shirt. :( by Mischief Maker 02/04/2013, 8:09am PST NEW
            World's most loathsome profession by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/06/2013, 4:57pm PST NEW
                Undertakers? by motherfuckerfoodeater 02/06/2013, 10:16pm PST NEW
                    Yes, Undertakers. by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/07/2013, 11:35am PST NEW
                        You are making this bad rap up. Bad rap maker upper. by Fullofkittens 02/07/2013, 12:57pm PST NEW
                        Is there a Ralph's around here? NT by Tansin A. Sobchak 02/10/2013, 7:02pm PST NEW
            Re: Nice payoff, icecream >:( by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/10/2013, 11:14am PST NEW
                Re: Nice payoff, icecream >:( by fabio 02/10/2013, 12:17pm PST NEW
                Re: Nice payoff, icecream >:( by Ice Cream Jonsey 10/16/2016, 8:39pm PDT NEW
        Re: RESULTS by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/06/2013, 5:09pm PST NEW
            Re: RESULTS by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/06/2013, 8:45pm PST NEW
                What do you mean "Ridiculous e-mail address"? by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/07/2013, 11:25am PST NEW
                    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 NEW
                        You are a piece of garbage, Mr. Motherfucker. Stop bothering Tdarcos, then NT by get cancer and die 02/07/2013, 5:06pm PST NEW
                            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 NEW
                                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 NEW
                                    Pahah really. That was so sad it was almost cute. by Almost. 02/08/2013, 11:00am PST NEW
                                    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 NEW
    About the Bill Burr special "You people are all the same" by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/19/2013, 11:22pm PST NEW
        A "C". Okay, you are officially insane. by Souffle of Pain 02/20/2013, 7:34am PST NEW
            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 NEW
        What the fuck are you going on about, you insane masturbator? A bus? Whuh? by YOU CRETINOUS CRETIN 02/20/2013, 12:43pm PST NEW
            I object to that nasty word; please do not use it again by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 02/21/2013, 8:48am PST NEW
 
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