And there's cave, and more cave, and cave and cave and cave. "The one thing we don't want, this is a cave. And this is where she's been able to add her own spin. But in some places, she says, there isn't much description. She's working with multiple artists to remain true to the original narration, especially where there was a lot of detailed description of caves, items, and creatures. What Williams is bringing to the table is her own vision of what Colossal Cave Adventure looks like. I get to see it now."īut that's just it - now people get to really see the cave, not just imagine it. "I want people that have played this game… to feel yeah, this is right," Williams says. Williams says she isn't adding any of her own puzzles either, and while players no longer have to type commands like "take key" to get around, the same look messages, items, and actions are available - just in a point-and-click style this time. All the original source code is being used, as well as all the original narration. In many ways, it's as true a remake as they could create. Which is how Roberta and Ken Williams ended up remaking Colossal Cave Adventure as a 3D adventure game for PC and VR, in partnership with Unity. As Roberta Williams puts it: "It's the world's game." Roberta Williams tries out the Quest 2 while on a boat. So the Williamses could remake it if they wanted - as long as they didn't try to claim rights to it themselves. Instead, they wanted it to remain free to play, remake, retool, and iterate upon. Neither he nor Crowther had ever tried to claim rights to it. Woods explained to Ken on the phone that no one technically owns Colossal Cave Adventure, due to the organic way it was disseminated. It's Woods' version that was then distributed more widely, and that Williams played and used as inspiration for her own adventure games. Which is how Woods found it, and began to build on Colossal Cave with more high-fantasy elements, puzzles, a scoring system, and much more. Then, while he was on vacation, a bunch of his coworkers found the game left on a mainframe at the research company where Crowther worked, and began distributing it to other computers. The game was actually made by spelunker and programmer William Crowther back in 1976 based on his ex-wife Patricia Crowther's records of a real-life spelunking trip, combined with elements of Dungeons & Dragons. "He said, 'I don't know if we can get the rights.' So I left the office and went and did something else, and then an hour later I came in to ask him about lunch and he said, 'I just got off the phone with Don Woods.'"ĭon Woods isn't the creator of Colossal Cave, but he was a critical part of its ultimate popularity. "His eyes kind of brightened up," she remembers. Ken and Roberta Williams, during the Sierra On-Line days Williams suggested to Ken that instead of his project they take a crack at remaking Colossal Cave Adventure, turning the old text-based design into a modern, 3D game. That's why I started with Mystery House, my first design, and I went from there." I remember thinking how I was so drawn into this game to the point where I couldn't quit, I just had to keep going, and I couldn't be the only one. And I did it, and when it was done, I wanted to play more games like this, and there weren't any. I wanted to get every point, and this is a hard game to get all the points. "I was so immediately drawn into it I got addicted to it, literally," Williams recalls of her first time playing the 1976 text-based adventure. "Without Colossal Cave, Sierra On-Line would never have existed, and I would not have my career, or Ken either," she says. At the time, Ken was learning Unity with the intent of making a new game of his own when Williams suddenly remembered a game that had been very, very special to her years ago: Colossal Cave Adventure. But when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted lockdowns that halted many of her usual adventures, Williams needed a new project.
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