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Original Colossal Cave Adventure Now Playable On Alexa (amazon.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Alexa,-start-Colossal-Cave dept.

Last month Eric Raymond announced the open sourcing of the world's very first text adventure. Now Slashdot reader teri1337 brings news about their own special project: A few old-timers here may recall with fond memories the phrase "Somewhere nearby is Colossal Cave..." Well, a voice-playable version of Colossal Cave "Adventure" is now available on Amazon Echo devices as a [free] Alexa Skill. This is a port of the original 1976 text adventure game written by Willie Crowther and Don Woods, which started the interactive fiction genre and led to later games like Infocom's Zork. This version was written from scratch as an AWS Lamda function incorporating the original 350-point game database, and made available with permission from Don Woods.

36 comments

  1. Good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Very. Very.

    1. Re:Good. by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When I first ran across this it was a few years old. Someone wanted me to port it to Pick Basic as a way to get me interested in programming. It was called Adventure then. Inform has their port source here:
      http://inform-fiction.org/examples/index.html

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. ME: GO NORTH by mschwanke97402 · · Score: 1

    Alexa: You can't go that direction.

    Yup, going to be LOTS of fun

    1. Re:ME: GO NORTH by teri1337 · · Score: 1

      Author's note: I tried to keep this version of Adventure as faithful to the original as possible, though I did add a few 'optional' commands to help game-play through a voice interface. For example, for a one-time 2-point score penalty you can ask Alexa for possible paths from your current location by asking for a path hint. This option was added to help mitigate the very point you raise. :)

  3. About all it is good for... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then when you get lost in the maze and the secret words don't help, Amazon will pop up and say

    "You appear to be a bit lost. We think you would like this map. Slightly used. Only £1000.00 plus £9.99 shipping. Buy".

  4. Sounds like a cool idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But show me someone who would actually sit there for hours playing this with alexa and i'll show you a psycho.

    1. Re:Sounds like a cool idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, sometimes I wonder, with all these new things and social networks, how these youngster are oblivious to these simple pleasures we had back then. Then I wonder what I have lost for being unable to capture all the experience of the ones who came and went before me (but some experiences -- like war -- would be certainly too painful).

      Teri1337 is really elite, that was a worthy project -- though I might disagree with the hint about the available directions... but then, youngums these days have almost zero attention span... :-/

  5. XYZZY by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    'nuff said.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:XYZZY by teri1337 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Don Woods informed me that he pronounces it "zizzy". As such, the skill allows both the pronunciation "zizzy" or spelling out the letters individually as "X-Y-Z-Z-Y" to work equally.

  6. I know what Colossal Cave cave is by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    But what is Alexa?

    (is what I'm saying right now, and what people 20 years from now will say when questioned about popculture fads like Alexa)

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:I know what Colossal Cave cave is by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Alexa is a voice interface hooked to a database that logs personal information about you and your family and sells that information to anyone that Amazon can sell it to.

    2. Re:I know what Colossal Cave cave is by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Orwell is spinning in his grave.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    3. Re:I know what Colossal Cave cave is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Indeed he his, I just checked his grave cam.

    4. Re: I know what Colossal Cave cave is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cam is so badly worn that the finger lever on the microswitch is not reliably closing the switch.

    5. Re:I know what Colossal Cave cave is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Voice-driven internet will likely change, but it's not a fad that's going away.

      Considering the sheer size of Amazon, I wouldn't be surprised if "Alexa" is the name of whatever voice-driven internet turns into.

  7. Re:If you're interested in the history... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Good Lord you're up early to start whoring your affiliate links!

  8. Re:If you're interested in the history... by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    And now you earn $55k (with bonus) in IT in Silicon Valley.

  9. A great way to play this kind of game by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    Hearing a voice read the text would make it easier for your mind to create mental pictures as you play. I like it!

    1. Re:A great way to play this kind of game by pubwvj · · Score: 1

      For some people. For others verbal is far harder. I would much rather read than listen. Reading is 10x faster and easier to remember and reference, for me. Verbal memory is far slower, very linear and inefficient, for me.

  10. What? No light? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    I hope they will get eaten by a grue.

    1. Re:What? No light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grues are from Zork. ADVENT had bottomless pits.

    2. Re:What? No light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you sure you aren't thinking about "Hunt the Wumpus"?

  11. Re:If you're interested in the history... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to get the 1980s/1990s "Big Blue Discs" that had DOS games and apps. Citadel and Catacombs were cool text games, and LHX Attack Chopper was a cool flight sim.

  12. Re:No article on the Michelle Carter verdict ? by Arashi256 · · Score: 0

    Oh shut up you elist fuck. It's news for nerds and by that, this piece of news fits. The fact that *you* don't find it worthwhile is neither here nor there.

  13. XYZZY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do you pronounce XYZZY for colossal cave?

  14. Pretty cool by chispito · · Score: 1

    It's a little bit like playing a freeform pen and paper RPG with a computer as DM. It's also a painful reminder of how simple the Adventure/Colossal Cave parser is.

    --
    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  15. Would You Like to Play a Game? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Alexa says "Would You Like to Play a Game?" I am heading for the basement.

  16. StoryHarp from 1998 for voice-activated IF by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 2

    By me: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/...

    It's a tool for quickly editing interactive fiction that can be driven by voice recognition.

    I actually applied (with mixed feelings, given Alexa's possibilities for privacy violation) to Amazon's Alexa developer funding program to port StoryHarp to Alexa's system just after Alexa came out, but nothing came of it.

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  17. Wumpus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Was this the game with the Wumpus?