The original Adventure game was written by Will Crowther in FORTRAN on a PDP-10.when he worked at BBN (Bolt Beraneck (sp?) and Newman) as a gift to his two daughters as a sort of "going away" present on the occassion of his divorce from their mother. This gift was presented to them in 1975. The first enhancements made by Don Woods of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence LAB were primarily the "wit's end" section of the game, not present in the original version. The offer is still open, but the address has changed... I left Honeywell back in '86, and I understand that they no longer have a valid forwarding address for me. If you want a copy, mail the SASE to Dave Platt Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 W. Bayshore Road, Suite 205 Palo Alto, CA 94303 Note that the Colossal Cave described in the maps I have here is not the original Willie Crowther / Don Woods version popularized in the 350-point Adventure game written in FORTRAN. Rather, it's the version distributed in the extensible 550-point Adventure game I wrote while at Honeywell. The 550-point cave is a superset of the Crowther/Woods cave, but has a good deal of new stuff added around the edges. No fancy graphics version, just a few sheets of paper with a decent copy of Bruce Beaumont's original artwork. --------------------------- Here's a patchwork of Adventure history I've pieced together over the years. I try to note conjectures where appropriate. Please fill in holes, anyone.. Willie Crowther was a caver, as were several other BBNers back in the 70s. I was once told that there's a Crowther Pass in one of the big caves (maybe Mammoth Cave), though I think it was named after his (ex?) wife. People at BBN became interested in developing computerized cave maps. I remember Bill Mann with some version of a cave map at BBN around 1980. Willie took the computerized map and made a sort of game out of it. You could move between the rooms, using the names and directions for the actual cave (Mammoth Cave?). While I don't remember much about the Adventure source code myself, I vaguely recall that it was heavily data dependent. The cave arrangement and the things inside were all set up as program data. From this I'd conjecture that Willie's first Adventure might well have lived on the PDP-1, since that would have been a logical place for working on *visual representations* of cave maps. After all, it had that nice, big CRT. Since the cave map was a data structure rather than a chunk of code, moving from the PDP-1 to Tenex and Fortran would not have been a major trauma. In any case, people spoke reverently of Willie's programming prowess (though not so reverently of his commenting/documentation skills). The classic 350 point Adventure emerged after Don Woods at Stanford got his hands on Willie's cave map game. According to legend, the Arpanet played a crucial role in that development. An extended form with new rooms and puzzles was produced by Eric Roberts while at BBN around 1980. The last I heard he's now with DEC in their Silicon Gulch facility, and is also a heavy with CPSR. I've seen a few written things about Adventure. One of the Help or Info commands in the classic 350 point game talks about Willie and Don. There was also peculiar article by Scott Adams in Creative Computing around 1980. The article includes a photo of Scott that names him and calls him the "creator of Adventure." The editors of Creative Computing added a discreet box of comment to the article that doesn't call Scott a liar, but strongly emphasizes the efforts of Willie and Don. Another brief article appeared in "Buss, The Independent Newsletter of Heath Computing" when Adventure began appearing on H8's and H89's (1982?). I believe it was written by Walt Bilofsky, founder of Software Toolworks. This one outlines some of the things I said above. Gordon Letwin made his name writing OS software for Heathkit ("Type spaces to determine baud rate"). As an "implementer" of Adventure, he probably wrote the driver program for interpreting the Adventure database. I remember he did a version for Heath in which the "Spelunker Today" magazine was replaced by "REMark," Heath's user magazine. If any of the folks mentioned above read this, accept my greetings and a "long time no see" to many, and fill in or fix details as appropriate. Bye. Rick. (smith@sctc.com) --------------------------- Our PDP-1 had no CRT. Further, Adventure was never anything but a text game. Bill, Pat and Willy did the (real) cave plotting on the PDP-1 and got software running that plotted the caves on a Calcomp plotter attached to a terminal port on our prototype TIP. |In any case, people spoke reverently of Willie's programming prowess (though |not so reverently of his commenting/documentation skills). (He gave me some pencilled flow charts of the Arpanet IMP from 1970 and before, which I still have...) I suppose I could always call Willy up and ask him about some of this stuff... as far as I know he doesn't read the network. /JBL (levin@bbn.com) The original Adventure game was written by Will Crowther in FORTRAN on a PDP-10.when he worked at BBN (Bolt Beraneck (sp?) and Newman) as a gift to his two daughters as a sort of "going away" present on the occassion of his divorce from their mother. This gift was presented to them in 1975. The first enhancements made by Don Woods of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence LAB were primarily the "wit's end" section of the game, not present in the original version. Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers From: bernie@fantasyfarm.com (Bernie Cosell) Subject: Re: XYZZY Origins Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 01:21:12 GMT In article <37tu1o$kdf@hpuerci.atl.hp.com>, Sandy Morton writes: } In article <+A3Bv*zh0@fantasyfarm.com>, bernie@fantasyfarm.com (Bernie Cosell) writes: } |> Depends on what you mean by 'adventure'. Will Crowther says he } |> made up the term out of whole cloth when he was putting ADVENT } |> together. Advent was the original program of this genre from which } |> all the others have descended in one way or another. } } This is the adventure to which I refer. So, how do you know this? And, } have you any idea what he meant by "out of whole cloth"? More, please. Well, Will Crowther made the game up after we had been playing D&D for a few months. A new arrival on the ARPANET project was also a housemaster at Harvard at the time and D&D had pretty much just appeared. He dungeounmastered up a dungeon and a bunch of us from the project team got sucked into playing. Due to our inclinations, we were almost zero interested in the 'battle and monster' aspect of the game, but rather a lot more interested in the cooperation/innovation/puzzlesolving aspect. And so quite against the tide of the D&D world at the time, our dungeon turned into more of a group problem-solving expedition than an every man for himself hack-em-up. Anyhow, it was great fun but VERY difficult for folk who had any sort of a life: getting the eight of us together at the same time and in the same place with nothing else to do for four hours or so was a nontrivial problem. So Will had the astounding idea that he could cobble up a computer-mediated version of the game. We mostly thought he was nuts [but had long-since learned not to underestimate what Will could innovate]. Given our predilections in the real game, in ADVENT puzzles and cleverness were more of a premium than quick reflexes and keeping track of hit-points. I can't recall why he decided to do it in FORTRAN. I'm not convinced that portability was a big concern of his, but FORTRAN was actually a fairly reasonable higher-level-language choice among those available on TENEX [I mean, what did you have? BCPL, BBN-Lisp and FORTRAN; I'll note in passing that when I did the Eliza-clone called "doctor" back in '66, I made a different decision: I decided on BBN-Lisp]. As for 'out of whole cloth', I meant just what the idiom means: he devised this little pseudo-puzzle and needed a magic word to make it happen, and he just made one up. It has no antecedent nor is it an acronym or anything like that. /bernie\ -- Bernie Cosell bernie@fantasyfarm.com Fantasy Farm Fibers, Pearisburg, VA (703) 921-2358 --->>> Too many people; too few sheep <<<--- From: hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: xyzzy Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 05:13:13 -0700 In article <43ld3a$2ka@ub.d.umn.edu>, cbusch@ub.d.umn.edu (Christopher G Busch) wrote: > Where did the "spell" xyzzy originally come from. I remember it from an > old text adventure game. Now I see it occasionally. You are recalling that it was used as a magic word in Adventure. BUT EVEN BEFORE THAT it was already a magic word, taught by math teachers the world around as a mnemonic device to remember how to do cross products. "Cross products?" you ask. Indeed. The cross product of two three-dimensional vectors is the vector whose length is the area of the parallelogram with the two given vectors as adjacent sides, and direction perpendicular to the plane of that parallelogram. There is a "simple" formula for the cross product. If A = B x C, where A, B, and C are the vectors (Ax, Ay, Az), (Bx, By, Bz), and (Cx, Cy, Cz), then: Ax = By Cz - Bz Cy Ay = Bz Cx - Bx Cz Az = Bx Cy - By Cx Notice that the second and third equations can be obtained from the first by simply rotating the subscripts, x -> y -> z -> x. The problem, of course, is how to remember the first equation. You do that by remembering the "magic word", consisting of the subscripts, taken in order: xyzzy. And that, friends, is the origin of the magic word xyzzy. This use of the word was around long before Adventure (or Collosal Caves or whatever name you knew it by) was ever written. When I first played Adventure, finding "xyzzy" in it was like finding an old friend in an unlikely place. Or an inside joke. -Ron Hunsinger From: rendell@cs.monash.edu.au (Robert Paige Rendell) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.games.int-fiction Subject: Re: XYZZY - the true story (reposted from alt.folklore.computers) Date: 6 Oct 1995 01:51:23 GMT mol@marvin.df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes: > >I found the following on alt.folklore.computers. Part of the >discussion was crossposted to r.g.i-f as well, but this particular >message only appeared in a.f.c, it seems, so I'm taking hte liberty of >reposting it here. As a physicist, I find it especially fascinating... >>From: hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) >>Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers >>Subject: Re: xyzzy >>Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 05:13:13 -0700 >> >>BUT EVEN BEFORE THAT it was already a magic word, taught by math teachers >>the world around as a mnemonic device to remember how to do cross >>products. Odd - I saved this post, also a cross-post from a.f.c, away last year - it seems to contradict the mnemonic claim (isn't usenet marvellous? Two contradictory definative answers :) } Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction } From: librik@netcom.com (David Librik) } Subject: The Origin of ADVENTURE } Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 22:33:25 GMT } } The following article was posted on alt.folkore.computers, but I think its } historical significance warrants its re-posting here. This is how and why } Will Crowther invented Adventure. (One thing not mentioned in here is that } Will was a caver who did a good deal of exploration in the Flint Ridge - } Mammoth Cave System, where there really is a Colossal Cave containing a } Bedquilt area.) To find out what Don Woods, Stanford AI hacker, did with } Will's game, read Steven Levy's book HACKERS. } } (The original discussion concerned the origin of the magic word XYZZY.) } } - David Librik } librik@cs.Berkeley.edu } } ~Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers } ~From: bernie@fantasyfarm.com (Bernie Cosell) } ~Subject: Re: XYZZY Origins } ~Sender: cosell@world.std.com (Bernie Cosell) } Organization: Fantasy Farm, Pearisburg, VA } ~Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 01:21:12 GMT } } In article <37tu1o$kdf@hpuerci.atl.hp.com>, Sandy Morton writes: } } } In article <+A3Bv*zh0@fantasyfarm.com>, bernie@fantasyfarm.com (Bernie Cosell) writes: } } |> Depends on what you mean by 'adventure'. Will Crowther says he } } |> made up the term out of whole cloth when he was putting ADVENT } } |> together. Advent was the original program of this genre from which } } |> all the others have descended in one way or another. } } } } This is the adventure to which I refer. So, how do you know this? And, } } have you any idea what he meant by "out of whole cloth"? More, please. } } Well, Will Crowther made the game up after we had been playing D&D } for a few months. A new arrival on the ARPANET project was also a } housemaster at Harvard at the time and D&D had pretty much just } appeared. He dungeounmastered up a dungeon and a bunch of us from } the project team got sucked into playing. } } Due to our inclinations, we were almost zero interested in the 'battle and } monster' aspect of the game, but rather a lot more interested in the } cooperation/innovation/puzzlesolving aspect. And so quite against the } tide of the D&D world at the time, our dungeon turned into more of } a group problem-solving expedition than an every man for himself } hack-em-up. Anyhow, it was great fun but VERY difficult for folk } who had any sort of a life: getting the eight of us together at the } same time and in the same place with nothing else to do for four } hours or so was a nontrivial problem. } } So Will had the astounding idea that he could cobble up a } computer-mediated version of the game. We mostly thought he was } nuts [but had long-since learned not to underestimate what Will } could innovate]. Given our predilections in the real game, in } ADVENT puzzles and cleverness were more of a premium than quick } reflexes and keeping track of hit-points. } } I can't recall why he decided to do it in FORTRAN. I'm not } convinced that portability was a big concern of his, but FORTRAN } was actually a fairly reasonable higher-level-language choice among } those available on TENEX [I mean, what did you have? BCPL, } BBN-Lisp and FORTRAN; I'll note in passing that when I did the } Eliza-clone called "doctor" back in '66, I made a different } decision: I decided on BBN-Lisp]. } } As for 'out of whole cloth', I meant just what the idiom means: he } devised this little pseudo-puzzle and needed a magic word to make it } happen, and he just made one up. It has no antecedent nor is it an } acronym or anything like that. } } /bernie\ } -- } Bernie Cosell bernie@fantasyfarm.com } Fantasy Farm Fibers, Pearisburg, VA (703) 921-2358 } --->>> Too many people; too few sheep <<<--- -- Robert Rendell \((/ rendell@molly.cs.monash.edu.au ~oo~ What do you know about Tweetle beetles? Well... /))\