I have been largely technology-free for the last week-ish (by choice!) — much like I was in the 80s. (See what I did there?) However, I just used my 1200 baud modem to dial in to CompuServe, and I’m ready to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart.
When we got our first IBM PC in 1983 (or thereabouts), it came with a program called Microsoft Adventure. While I was but a wee tyke at the time, I did know how to read, and Adventure quickly became my drug of choice. I could spend hours lost in the cave, searching for treasure. (Of course, once I learned about xyzzy, I didn’t waste time lost in the woods — that was a relief.)
I never did make it out of the cave at closing time, but my sister and her friend did. As they were standing in the last room, surrounded by sleeping dwarves, they asked themselves: “What would the A-Team do?” So they typed in oybjgbepu (hint: ROT-13 . . . although really, do I need to hide spoilers for a game that’s more than 30 years old?) and lo and behold! they blew a hole in the wall and won the game. Impressive, no?
Adventure made such an impression on me that I still refer to it not infrequently. On any given day you might hear me say something about a twisty little maze of passages, all different. Or I might say, “I’m at my Witt’s End (there are magazines here)!” I still remember that you have to drop the rod before you can get the bird, and it’s quite easy to kill the dragon. (With what? Your bare hands?) You’ll never get the nugget up the steps, and where else will you have not only the opportunity but the need to throw a bear?
Some time ago, I ran across an awesome article in Digital Humanities Quarterly: Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther’s Original “Adventure” in Code and in Kentucky. It’s a thorough look at the game and the actual cave on which it’s based, which is part of the Mammoth Cave system. While I’ve been through the tourist portion of Mammoth Cave, I’d love to go through the Colossal Cave portion. I wonder if I could find my way around just based on my knowledge of the game? Probably not, but it’d sure be fun to try.
wil wheaton is my copilot 