retrogamer

Roberta and I received an incredible email with a picture of Will Crowther playing our game (colossalcave3d.com) in VR. This meant a huge amount to us. Will is responsible for our careers as well as that of many other people in our industry. Here’s an interesting piece of trivia... Colossal Cave is unique, in that the original text game was published by BOTH Microsoft and Apple. I just checked my original copies, and I can’t find Will Crowther’s name on either of the versions, even though no one disputes its’ heritage. I’m not sure why he was left out, or Don Woods, who made a major contribution to the game. The IBM version has only this comment in the documentation: “Adventure was originally written in FORTRAN at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as a demonstration of artificial intelligence.” It says something about how fast time is moving that the person who published the world's first AI game is playing the game in VR while AI explodes around us. Here’s a couple of fun excerpts from the email I received from Will's daughter who sent this picture: “… I can tell you that his first reaction was "they put the stream on the wrong side," which struck us both as funny - how could you possibly have known the "right" side? “ “… I'm a bit further along with it (and fully intend to finish), and I must say I'm experiencing a fun combo of nostalgia and novelty. I particularly like that the narrator is there to provide the original text, which lets me do this weirdly specific side-by-side comparison of the pictures I made in my head as a kid with the pictures you made in VR. And I also appreciate that I don't have to make my own map this time. :) …” “… really loved the segment on the wellhouse TV - you did a thoughtful job of putting the creation of Adventure in the context of what was going on with my parents around that time, as well as linking it to your story. I'll admit that I was a little star-struck that we got a response from both of you - my dad made Adventure as a fun side project, but you two have made sustained and lasting contributions. You and Sierra are central to the story of gaming and that is SO COOL. …”