Colossal Cave Adventure: A History Quiz

Answer: Will Crowther

Will Crowther developed "Adventure" in 1975, and released the original version in 1976. At the time, it was simply a cave simulation, that allowed players to travel the cave virtually. Woods expanded on it in 1977, adding the fantasy elements. Gillogly, who worked at the RAND Corporation, rewrote the code into C for use by Unix machines. Dave Platt wrote the 550-point version of the game, and changed much of the coding.

Answer: Mammoth Cave

Crowther, an expert spelunker when he wasn't programming, wrote the original game based on his explorations of Bedquilt Cave, part of the system of caves connected to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Crowther's ex-wife explored many of the caverns in the early 1970s and made significant discoveries. Crowther recreates the cave so well in the game that real spelunkers who have visited Mammoth Cave can navigate the game their first time.

Answer: FORTRAN

The original code for the game was roughly 700 lines of Fortran code. It can be found at several locations on-line.

Answer: Stanford

Woods was working at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) when he worked on "Adventure." In 1977, Woods expanded the game to the 350 point version that is most commonly known today. He added several elements, such as elves and the troll. For many years, Computer Science students at Stanford were actually required to re-code the game as part of their first programming course. Woods worked with fellow graduate student Don Gilbert to map out the game. Other additions Woods made to "Adventure": The underground volcano, the vending machine, the Soft Room, the Oriental Room, the dragon, the beanstalk and the friendly bear.

Answer: PDP-10

Crowther wrote the original code for "Adventure" on a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10.
PDP stands for "Programmed Data Processor." The first PDP systems came out in 1968, and they were state of the art during much of the 1970s. However the introduction of VAX systems in the late 1970s led to their eventual demise in 1983.

Answer: Sierra On-line

Sierra created much of the early graphical adventure software of the 1980s and 1990s, including such legendary games as "Leisure Suit Larry."
Infocom, a company started by students at MIT, created "Zork" (a text adventure inspired by "Adventure") and many of the most successful interactive fiction games of the 1980s. Adventure International was founded by Scott Adams, another pioneer in interactive fiction. Mindscape was created by Walt Bilofsky in the early 1980s to market a PC version of "Adventure."

Answer: Version 4

In version 4 players could score 660 points. Version 3 had 550 points, Version 5 had 501 points, and Version 6 had 551 points. The largest known version was written by David Malmberg, has 1000 possible points and is known as "Huge Cave".

Answer: Wizardness

The certificate, issued by Mindscape and signed by Crowther and Woods, was a certificate of Wizardness. At the time, it was a serious trophy for computer geeks. The game provided a secret code when players won, which they would send to Mindscape to receive their certificate.

Answer: XYZZY

XYZZY has been used by programmers over the year as a "no operation" code. Engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center have even inserted it into their codes.

Answer: Designed Arpanet

Will Crowther and his wife Pat were on the team at Bolt, Beranek and Newman that created ARPANet, the network that ultimately led to the Internet. ARPA stands for "Advanced Research Projects Agency", a division of the Department of Defense.