The new book from the University of Kentucky Press, Mammoth Cave Curiosities” A Guide to Rockphobia, Dating, Saber-toothed Cats and Other Subterranean Marvels, offers some new tidbits from Will Crowther about his ground-breaking 1970s computer game, “Colossal Cave Adventure.”
In a subsection confidently headed “The First Computer Adventure Game,” we find this weaselly clunker: “Developed in 1976, Adventure was probably the first computer adventure or IF game…” (217).
Probably? Of course “Colossal Cave Adventure” was the first computer adventure game. First of all, the section heading in your own book says so; and second, Crowther’s game “COLOSSAL CAVE ADVENTURE” named the adventure computer game genre (though of course it build on precedents).
Snark aside, I enjoyed reading Will Crowther’s reactions to the author’s questions — how addicted were his kids to the game, and why did he create it.
My daughter got obsessed with Floyd Collins: The Musical when I took her to see it a few months ago in Pittsburgh. Its the story of a caver trapped in Great Sand Cave (a short drive from the Bedquilt entrance to Colossal Cave). I have enjoyed the chance to relive, through her enthusiasm for the musical, the amazing and magical experience I had during my own visit to Colossal Cave.
I also enjoyed hearing amusing details from Jason Scott’s documentary trip. (Jason had invited me along on that trip, but I was recovering from pneumonia and had to decline.)
Yes, the genre did not emerge from Crowther’s head fully formed. My quibble is with the phrasing, not the idea.
that said, it is definitely the one that broke the widest and blew the most minds and inspired what came next
there’s been intense research to show that it probably isn’t the first computer adventure game