Colossal Cave Adventure

EC Software Consulting

About this game

You are in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike...

Somewhere nearby is Colossal Cave, where others have found fortunes in treasure and gold, though it is rumored that some who enter are never seen again. Magic is said to work in the cave.

430 point version of the classic text-based game that started it all.

While this was not the first text-based computer game, it broke new ground and inspired generations of gamers and programmers alike.

Just a few of the memorable lines from the game to jog your memory and pique your interest.

- You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
- "MAGIC WORD XYZZY"
- A hollow voice says "PLUGH".
- A little dwarf just walked around a corner, saw you, threw a little axe at you which missed, cursed, and ran away.
- FEE FIE FOE FOO
- Rubbing the electric lamp is not particularly rewarding. Anyway, nothing exciting happens.
- A huge green fierce snake bars the way!

This implementation is a translation of Don Woods 430 point extension to William Crowther's original Colossal Cave Adventure. At this point, it pretty much stays true to the original.

Screen Appearance
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You can change the font size of the text displayed on the screen. Use the preferences to choose between small, medium (default), large, and extra-large.

Text to Speech
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You can have the game read aloud provided you have a Text to Speech library installed (Android 1.6+) and at least one English speaking locale. I don't know how useful this will be, but I'm enjoying it.

Also, it will warn you when you start the application if you have it turned on, just in case you are in a "quiet" area (meeting at work, library, etc.).

The Preferences menu item will allow you to turn on/off the feature as well as choose the locale you wish to speak.

This feature is not required to play the game, it is just a fun addition that I wanted to offer.

Voice Recognition
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If your device supports voice recognition, you can now speak your commands to the game.

When you speak your command, the voice recognition engine will show you a list of words that it understood you to say, allowing you to choose the correct one from that list.

You can customize the behavior of this as follows using the Preferences menu option:

- Turn on/off the voice recognition capability.
- Direct it to take the best match to your spoken command and automatically use it.
- Direct it to show you up to 5 matches to your spoken command.
- Direct it to show you up to 10 matches to your spoken command.

It does take a little time learning how to speak to it so that it will understand, but as the voice recognition technology continues to improve, so should your experience here.

Also, you won't be able to use voice recognition for everything. The magic words, for example, aren't exactly something you can speak.

Finally, for those words that don't distinguish themselves from others in the first 5 characters, I've built a translator to help. For example, you speak "Northeast" and select it, the game will translate that to "ne" which it will understand. If you encounter any of these that I've missed, contact me and I will add them.

I don't know how useful this will be, but I'm enjoying it.

Walk-through
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There are a couple on the developer's web site as well as some short ones to help you out if you need it.

Support
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There is now a menu option that will make it easier to contact the developer with any issues you may have.

History
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This game has a lot of history behind it. Check out the developer's web site for more information.

Ratings and reviews

Pro: same game I remember and loved. Con: same game I remember and hated. LOL. I like the nostalgia but a bit of modernization wouldn't be bad. (Come on, why won't you accept "take ax" instead of "take axe"?) Maybe you could offer a classic version and an updated version (like one that will accept "take all" for the items in the building).

I have loved this game since I first played it on an Apple computer in the '90s (it was already old then of course). Just one issue with this version: first time I played it after downloading, I decided to try out the "brief" feature where it gives only the name of each room as you enter it, not the full description. Now I can't figure out how to turn that off and have it give full description again! It's driving me crazy that I have to keep typing "look" to see which directions I can go in.

A million stars! I started playing this game on a teletype in junior high around 1980. Flipping loved it them, and was continually driven insane by trying to navigate... It is very exciting to have this on my phone now. To be able to be frustrated by this game anywhere at anytime is a reality that never would have occurred to me back in the day.

What's new

Corrected an issue with the on-device keyboard where the "enter", "done", or "go" key would add a new line to the input instead of executing the command.

Updated the app to run on newer devices and to better comply with Google developer policies.

It's been a while since this app has been updated - as such, Google has added permissions to some actions that weren't required before. You may be prompted to accept them on update. Feel free to contact me if you are concerned.