Colossal Cave Adventure Game

Just A Question

So, I'm not sure if I should be asking this here, but I don't know where else to ask. I have the 430 pt version of Adventure for Mac, and I CANNOT get past Witt's End. I have googled walkthroughs out the wazoo, and nothing works. I have wandered until my lamp runs out. Did nothing over and over and over, etc. Thanks in advance for any help. And sorry in advance if I shouldn't be posting this here.

i remember playing the game, and even downloaded it on the phone, but have so far avoided to start because i don't want to be suckered into it again

Thanks for this. Way out of my era, but I like playing Zork, so this should be pretty fun!

andiwm2003 said:

ok, I decided to not post this in the gaming forum because although it's about a game it's lightyears away what the kids there discuss.

Will Crowther is a internet pioneer (we all know Al Gore invented the internet but Will made some part of it work). I had the honor and pleasure to climb with him s few times. In the 70's (yes, they had not only electricity then, no they also had computers) he programmed a text based game called "Colossal Cave Adventure" that you still can play on a mac today (http://www.lobotomo.com/products/Adventure/index.html) but also on the iphone (called Advent).

So here is the question: is there one of the follow up versions available on the mac that has some Amiga/Atari/C64 type graphics to it (see pic)?

Would be cool to get it to run on Mac or PC and revive the game. Reviving it as a text only is a bit unsatisfying in todays world.

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Are the follow up games you mentioned, new adventures? The addition of some still graphics like your illustration doesn't seem like they would add too much to the experience.

A text adventure came seemed interesting to me, and btw this qualifies for the game forum, however, I went to download it on my iPad via Safari and it asked me what I wanted to open it with, the default was "Bump" however in Bump I got a message that the app was going away and there was nothing to see. Then it dawned on me, for the iphone or ipad it would have to be an app.

Did not see anything called "Advent", but I did find something in the App Store called Wizard's Choice. The first adventure is free, looks like following adventures (included in the download cost something). It looks like a traditional text game, but instead of allowing you to type out actions and choices (as I remember), it simply offers 2 or 3 choices at the bottom of each page, hardly satisfying for me.

But then there is Frotz which I am in the process of downloading. Supposedly you can play Zork on it. Well see.

I don't quite understand the OP. Is the question about whether it is possible to get "follow-up" games or whether you can play "versions of the game with graphics"?

If it's the latter, you can always run the ZX Spectrum version in an emulator.

Just get the game here:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0006097

EDIT: It seems that link is for the text-only version. This seems to be the correct page:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0011293

And download for example Fuse from here:
http://fuse-for-macosx.sourceforge.net/Site/Fuse_for_Mac_OS_X/Fuse_for_Mac_OS_X.html

Started playing Zork on the iPad app called "Frotz" and now I remember all of the experimenting with the right use of words for questions to progress through the game, lol. I think it would be cool if they updated this kind of game with an A.I. that is more intuitive and knowledgeable. It really is needed for a modern game, even as a text game. For example with Zork, which I played many years ago, after "open window" the game states the window has been opened enough to allow entry, but "climb through window" result in "You can't see any such thing", then when I type "look through window", I get "Window is open, but I can't tell what is beyond it." So it knows there is a dang-gone window, cooperate damn you!

Huntn said:

Started playing Zork on the iPad app called "Frotz" and now I remember all of the experimenting with the right use of words for questions to progress through the game, lol.

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I love, love, love Infocom games. The Zork series...that brings back memories of being eaten by a Grue.

Huntn said:

I think it would be cool if they updated this kind of game with an A.I. that is more intuitive and knowledgeable. It really is needed for a modern game, even as a text game. For example with Zork, which I played many years ago, after "open window" the game states the window has been opened enough to allow entry, but "climb through window" result in "You can't see any such thing", then when I type "look through window", I get "Window is open, but I can't tell what is beyond it." So it knows there is a dang-gone window, cooperate damn you!

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Such language in a high class establishment like this!

Mousse said:

I love, love, love Infocom games. The Zork series...that brings back memories of being eaten by a Grue.

Such language in a high class establishment like this!

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What I've found in my old age is that I don't have the patience to experiment with all of the nuances of asking a question to get a substandard A.I to understand my intent. It's also annoying to have to give directions as "north, south, etc" when I don't have a good orientation that starts off with standing behind a house.

I wonder if there is a new text based adventure that actually has an adequate vocabulary and understanding of language so it's not so painful? Set aside for now...

Huntn said:

What I've found in my old age is that I don't have the patience to experiment with all of the nuances of asking a question to get a substandard A.I to understand my intent. It's also annoying to have to give directions as "north, south, etc" when I don't have a good orientation that starts off with standing behind a house.

I wonder if there is a new text based adventure that actually has an adequate vocabulary and understanding of language so it's not so painful? Set aside for now...

Click to expand...

Well, the phraser is very rudimentary back in the day. You basically need to stop thinking in sentences and use "verb" + "noun" for it to understand. To crawl into an open window for instance, you would type something like "enter window." Occasionally you'd need to inject an adjective if there are multiple items referenced by the noun. The there are multiple buttons in the Dam so you'd have to type "push red button" to push the red button.

On a side note, after 2 decades, I finally figured out the secret of the "granite wall" in the Altar area. I knew the "Hello Sailor" poem was THE clue. 20 years later, I typed in the correct command in the correct room. Before I had always used the food and drink to knock out the Cyclops. But the command created the third exit from the Altar area.

melissapete24 said:

Just A Question

So, I'm not sure if I should be asking this here, but I don't know where else to ask. I have the 430 pt version of Adventure for Mac, and I CANNOT get past Witt's End. I have googled walkthroughs out the wazoo, and nothing works. I have wandered until my lamp runs out. Did nothing over and over and over, etc. Thanks in advance for any help. And sorry in advance if I shouldn't be posting this here.

Click to expand...

melissapete24 said:

Just A Question

So, I'm not sure if I should be asking this here, but I don't know where else to ask. I have the 430 pt version of Adventure for Mac, and I CANNOT get past Witt's End. I have googled walkthroughs out the wazoo, and nothing works. I have wandered until my lamp runs out. Did nothing over and over and over, etc. Thanks in advance for any help. And sorry in advance if I shouldn't be posting this here.

Click to expand...

I’m having trouble watering the plant in the I-phone version of Advent. Colossal Cave Adventure. It might be a problem in the App. When you try to water the plant, nothing happens and the APP appears to freeze. I have tried all sorts of combination phrases thinking it was a puzzle in the game to figure out. But I think it’s just not working right. And you need to water the plant to climb the beanstalk to get the trident and eggs. Hope someone knows what’s going on.