Editing Interactive fiction (section)

====''Adventure''====
Around 1975, [[Will Crowther]], a programmer and an amateur caver, wrote the first text adventure game, ''[[Colossal Cave Adventure|Adventure]]'' (originally called ''ADVENT'' because a filename could only be six characters long in the [[operating system]] he was using, and later named ''Colossal Cave Adventure'').<ref name="jerz">{{cite web | author = Jerz, Dennis G. | date = 17 February 2004 | url = http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/canon/Adventure.htm | title = Colossal Cave Adventure (c. 1975) | publisher = Dennis G. Jerz, [[Seton Hill University]] | access-date = 20 October 2006 |url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070906223152/http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/canon/Adventure.htm | archive-date = 6 September 2007 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> Having just gone through a divorce, he was looking for a way to connect with his two young children. Over the course of a few weekends, he wrote a text based cave exploration game that featured a sort of guide/narrator who spoke in full sentences and who understood simple two word commands that came close to natural English. Adventure was programmed in [[Fortran]] for the [[PDP-10]]. Crowther's original version was an accurate [[simulation]] of part of the real life [[Mammoth Cave National Park|Mammoth Cave]], but also included fantasy elements (such as axe-wielding dwarves and a magic bridge).

Stanford University graduate student [[Don Woods (programmer)|Don Woods]] discovered ''Adventure'' while working at the [[Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]], and in 1977 obtained and expanded Crowther's source code (with Crowther's permission). Woods's changes were reminiscent of the writings of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], and included a troll, elves, and a volcano, which some claim is based on [[Mount Doom]], but Woods says was not.<ref>"Even the description of the volcano, which some writers have claimed was modelled after Mount Doom, was written with no particular vision in mind." {{cite web| url = http://www.avventuretestuali.com/interviste/woods-eng| title = Interactive Fiction? I prefer Adventure| access-date = 22 May 2007| date = June 2001| work = L'avventura è l'avventura|url-status=live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120204191752/http://www.avventuretestuali.com/interviste/woods-eng| archive-date = 4 February 2012| df = dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams/intro.html |title=Jerz's Introduction (Storytelling and Computer Games; UWEC Panel, May 2001) |publisher=Jerz.setonhill.edu |access-date=1 February 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230202618/http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams/intro.html |archive-date=30 December 2010  }}</ref>

In early 1977, Adventure spread across [[ARPAnet]], and has survived on the [[Internet]] to this day. The game has since been ported to many other [[operating system]]s, and was included with the floppy-disk distribution of Microsoft's [[MS-DOS]] 1.0 OS. ''Adventure'' is a cornerstone of the online IF community;{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} there currently exist dozens of different independently programmed versions, with additional elements, such as new rooms or puzzles, and various scoring systems.

The popularity of ''Adventure'' led to the wide success of interactive fiction during the late 1970s, when home computers had little, if any, graphics capability. Many elements of the original game have survived into the present, such as the command '[[xyzzy (magic word)|xyzzy]]', which is now included as an [[Easter egg (media)|Easter Egg]] in modern games, such as ''[[Microsoft Minesweeper]]''.

''Adventure'' was also directly responsible for the founding of Sierra Online (later [[Sierra Entertainment]]); [[Ken Williams (game developer)|Ken]] and [[Roberta Williams]] played the game and decided to design one of their own,<ref name="jerz"/> but with graphics.