Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
From:
[email protected] (Neil K. Guy)
Subject: Classic Adventure article reprint
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 18:15:48 GMT
This is from TidBITS, a newsletter for Mac users. Issue #229, June 6,
1994... I thought someone might be interested...
- Neil K.
< begin TidBITS article... >
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Colossal Cave Revisited
-----------------------
by Mel Park <
[email protected]>
I just received my copy of Apprentice, the CD of source code put
out by Celestin Company (mentioned in TidBITS #228_). My CD came
so soon because I am one of the hundreds of authors whose work is
contained within.
Looking through the CD's contents, I was pleased to see that the
source code for Advent is on the disk. Advent is the successor to
the game of ADVENTURE, which in one form or another has been known
to the computing community for 30 years. On one hand, having
ADVENTURE still distributed in 1994 pays homage to the tradition
of this first of all the text-based computer games. On the other
hand, I am pleased even more to see it because of my close
association with the real cave on which the game is based and
because of the tradition within the caving (call it spelunking if
you must) community that the game ADVENTURE represents. How many
know that the world you explore in ADVENTURE is a real place? The
online help for Advent gives this brief description:
> *** THE HISTORY OF ADVENTURE (ABRIDGED) ***
> ** By Ima Wimp **
> ADVENTURE was originally developed by William Crowther, and later
> substantially rewritten and expanded by Don Woods at Stanford Univ.
> According to legend, Crowther's original version was modeled on an
> a real cavern, called Colossal Cave, which is a part of Kentucky's
> Mammoth Caverns. That version of the game included the main maze
> and a portion of the third-level (Complex Junction - Bedquilt -
> Swiss Cheese rooms, etc.), but not much more....
"According to legend" - Hah! ADVENTURE is based on a real cave,
one that is, indeed, now part of the Mammoth Cave System in
Kentucky. The cave is not Colossal, however, but Bedquilt Cave. In
our small circle, Willie Crowther is a famous, as was his wife
then, cave explorer of the 60's and 70's when Colossal, Bedquilt,
Salts, Crystal and the other caves under Flint Ridge, Kentucky
were mapped together to become the longest cave in the world. In
1972 the Flint Ridge caves were joined to Mammoth Cave, over on
the next ridge, in a series of difficult trips in low, half-water-
filled passages under Houchin's Valley. That connection is still
called the Everest of speleology. The total known length of the
Mammoth Cave System exceeds 350 miles and exploration is still
going on.
Bedquilt was Willie's favorite part of the cave system. I still
have a copy of his map of it. Computer types who grew up exploring
ADVENTURE don't realize how accurately the game represents
passages in Bedquilt Cave. Yes, there is a Hall of the Mountain
King and a Two-Pit Room. The entrance is indeed a strong steel
grate at the bottom of a twenty-foot depression.
On a survey trip to Bedquilt, a member of my party mentioned she
would one day like to go on trip to Colossal Cave, where she
understood the game ADVENTURE was set. No, I said, the game is
based on Bedquilt Cave and we are going there now. Excitement!
Throughout the cave, she kept up a constant narrative, based on
her encyclopedic knowledge of the game. In the Complex Room
(renamed Swiss Cheese Room in Advent) she scrambled off in a
direction I had never been. "I just had to see Witt's End," she
said upon returning. "It was exactly as I expected." When we
finished with our work, I let her lead out, which she did
flawlessly, again because she had memorized every move in the
game. Believe me, the cave is a real maze, and this was an
impressive accomplishment for a first-time visitor.
A second funny incident also reminded us of the game. About three
years ago, a party was returning from a survey trip in Bedquilt.
When suspended in space at the most awkward point in the climb out
of the Hall of Mists, one party member, Roger, noticed to his
horror a copperhead snake (was it THE SNAKE?) on the ledge next to
his right hand. This climb is more difficult than just typing "up"
or "down" on your computer terminal. At the top of it, you are
stretched all the way out, pressing against one wall with hands
behind you and against the other wall with outstretched legs,
while fervently searching for place to put your butt or back in
order to support your weight. You can't move anywhere quickly in
that predicament. Confronted by the snake, Roger was so beside
himself that all he could do was yell "strike, strike" as the
copperhead proceeded to do just that. Tom, the party leader, had
already made the climb up (and not seen the snake). Looking around
for something to do, he found a stick (was it the MAGIC WAND?), in
the Bird Chamber (the room with the rivers of orange stone,
actually a beautiful column of orange travertine). Wand in hand,
he moved the snake away. Fortunately, the snake lacked energy from
having been in the 55-degree cave for a while, and Roger was
wearing gloves and heavy caving attire. None of the snake bites
penetrated.
An exciting and readable history of the modern exploration of
Mammoth Cave, up to the 1972 connection, is in "The Longest Cave"
by Roger Brucker and Richard Watson.
As a final irony, the Apprentice CD contains a small map of
Bedquilt Cave and it happens to be from Willie Crowther's mapping
data. It's in the About box for Vectors, my cave-mapping
application that I hadn't planned to be on the CD because it is
such an esoteric program (it's okay, Paul, you have my belated
permission).
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