Comments on: Say "Xyzzy!"...Nothing happens

Say "Xyzzy!"...Nothing happens

cosmicbandito — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:14:45 -0800

Real Life "Colossal Cave Adventure”! Discussion of original source code, different versions of the game, hand draw maps, and lots of photos inside the cave the game is based on. Grab your shiny brass lamp and tasty food and meet me at the Bedquilt entrance.

By: Malor

Malor — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:48:32 -0800

This was really, really cool. Thanks for posting it!

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:05:29 -0800

Oh my god, yes. I love text adventure and I love, love, love cave maps. With the little dotted lines that lead off to who knows where, they remind me of the incomplete maps of the world from antiquity. HERE BE DRAGONS.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:07:32 -0800

The cave photos with attached room descriptions from the game are awesome. This is great!

By: Jofus

Jofus — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:14:58 -0800

I can feel a new LOLCATS meme coming on. (I can haz mint-cake?)

By: digiFramph

digiFramph — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:28:06 -0800

Plugh!

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:38:14 -0800

So awesome! Thank you for this!

By: salvia

salvia — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:38:31 -0800

Wow, cool, thanks. What academic research should aspire to be. :)

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:01:35 -0800

Wow. I never would have imagined that there is an actually maze of twisty passages, all alike. Holy cow.

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:52:10 -0800

That is awesome! Read, saved and favortied. Thank you!

By: Aversion Therapy

Aversion Therapy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:56:41 -0800

Wow, geekgasm. How sad is it that I really want to go caving with my laptop now, so I can play along as I go through the caverns?

By: Aversion Therapy

Aversion Therapy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:57:44 -0800

On review, there are an awful lot of comments beginning with "wow" in this thread...

By: everichon

everichon — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:20:20 -0800

Yeah, this is a keeper--thanks!

By: Grod

Grod — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:33:54 -0800

~~wow~~ I am amazed.

By: digiFramph

digiFramph — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:08:19 -0800

There is a version of colossal cave/advent you can play on-line!

By: Epenthesis

Epenthesis — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:17:03 -0800

My dad would have loved this.

By: Sparx

Sparx — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:39:22 -0800

I read this one on the weekend after a link in rec.games.int-fiction, thought about a post, but wondered about audience interest. Turn out - usenet is still cool! sometimes Actually, though (mild derail) in many way the older places of the web are better these days. /. is occasionally even readable since the invention of digg. But I digress. This is particularly good if you're familiar with the semi-mythic history of the game. Turns out Crowther did do interactive gamey bits (not widely known), and I was especially interested to learn he wrote it in part for something for his kids to do subsequent to his divorce. My dad introduced me and my brother to it on a mainframe at the university he worked at in 79(?), after his divorce, for something to keep us occupied. It became something of an infatuation. For years I kept the printout of my first ever successful traversal through collosal cave. Many moons later, the first compiled code I ever wrote was using inform downloaded from ftp.gmd.de, and the basics I learned from that kept me employed for years. It wasn't the best game ever written, but Andrew Plotkin liked it, which gave me a considerable egoboo. /dabs happy tear Here's to ya, Mr Crowther, and also to Mr Woods, the Lennon to your McCartney. Loosely speaking.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:59:39 -0800

Hey! THe original source code is there too! http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/crowther/ from the post that I assume started it all at http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_thread/thread/607acaf1a279d4dd/bd53b672a185d177#bd53b672a185d177