Original Fortran code for "Adventure" text game found

http://games.slashdot...

Crowther's Original Adventure Source Code Found
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday August 14, @08:08AM
from the hollow-voice-says-plugh dept.
drxenos writes
"I don't know how many of you are fans of old-school text adventures (interactive fiction), but Will Crowther's original Fortran source code has been located in a backup of Don Woods's old student account. For fans like me, this is like finding the Holy Grail."

"Abstract
Because so little primary historical work has been done on the classic
text computer game "Colossal Cave Adventure", academic and popular
references to it frequently perpetuate inaccuracies. "Adventure" was
the first in a series of text-based games ("interactive fiction") that
emphasize exploring, puzzles, and story, typically in a fantasy
setting; these games had a significant cultural impact in the late
1970s and a significant commercial presence in the early 1980s. Will
Crowther based his program on a real cave in Kentucky; Don Woods
expanded this version significantly. The expanded work has been
examined as an occasion for narrative encounters (Buckles 1985) and as
an aesthetic masterpiece of logic and utility (Knuth 1998); however,
previous attempts to assess the significance of "Adventure" remain
incomplete without access to Crowther's original source code and
Crowther's original source cave. Accordingly, this paper analyzes
previously unpublished files recovered from a backup of Woods's
student account at Stanford, and documents an excursion to the real
Colossal Cave in Kentucky in 2005. In addition, new interviews with
Crowther, Woods, and their associates (particularly members of
Crowther's family) provide new insights on the precise nature of
Woods's significant contributions. Real locations in the cave and
several artifacts (such as an iron rod and an axe head) correspond to
their representation in Crowther's version; however, by May of 1977,
Woods had expanded the game to include numerous locations that he
invented, along with significant technical innovations (such as
scorekeeping and a player inventory). Sources that incorrectly date
Crowther's original to 1972 or 1974, or that identify it as a
cartographic data file with no game or fantasy elements, are sourced
thinly if at all. The new evidence establishes that Crowther wrote the
game during the 1975-76 academic year and probably abandoned it in
early 1976. The original game employed magic, humor, simple combat,
and basic puzzles, all of which Woods greatly expanded. While Crowther
remained largely faithful to the geography of the real cave, his
original did introduce subtle changes to the environment in order to
improve the gameplay."

Will Crowther's original FORTRAN source code
http://jerz.setonhill...

(Personally, I always got stuck in the damn maze myself!)

Frenchy