1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:19,279 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 4 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 1: are you? It's time for a tech Stuff Tidbits episode. 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 1: And if you follow news and announcements about video games, 6 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: you've had a really busy week. This week, the Summer 7 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: Game Fest kicked off a ton of streams that contained 8 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:40,680 Speaker 1: trailers for dozens of upcoming titles, ranging from quirky independent 9 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:45,239 Speaker 1: games to new entries and established franchises. And that kind 10 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: of inspired me. I started thinking about some of the 11 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: computer games I really loved when I was a little kid. Now, y'all, 12 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: I was born in the nineteen seventies. That means I 13 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: grew up around the same time as the personal computer, right, 14 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: because that became a thing in the seventies, And some 15 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: of the games I played on our old Apple to 16 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: e didn't have any sound or any graphics. All the 17 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: imagery in the game existed only in text descriptions and 18 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:18,959 Speaker 1: my imagination. So I am today talking about text based 19 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: computer games. Now, if you've ever enjoyed a Choose your 20 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:26,040 Speaker 1: Own Adventure style book and I don't even know if 21 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:28,120 Speaker 1: those are still a thing now. I may still be 22 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:30,959 Speaker 1: dating myself, but if you've ever read one of those, 23 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: you have a sense of what a text based computer 24 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,480 Speaker 1: game is like. The player of the game reads a 25 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: description of an environment, which may or may not include 26 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: hints of dangerous things that surround the player. The player 27 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: then types in a command. That command could be to 28 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 1: walk in a specific direction, which will take you to 29 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 1: a new location, assuming you can actually go that way. 30 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: Or it might involve picking up something in the room 31 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: or taking a closer look at some or it might 32 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 1: involve trying to talk or battle someone or something in 33 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: the area, or maybe to hide from something. The tricky 34 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: thing is the player will always come up with more 35 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: options than the programmer considered or anticipated when they made 36 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: the game, and that makes text based adventures sort of 37 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: a puzzle that's on a meta level. The puzzle ends 38 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: up being what did the programmer have in mind at 39 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: this point in the game, Because you can get stuck 40 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: in these games. You could start to use what you 41 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 1: think is every single potential option, but it's just that 42 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: you haven't fallen on the one that the programmer had 43 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: in mind. Thinking outside the box won't necessarily help you. 44 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: The game can't accommodate creative answers that programmers didn't think about. 45 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: So with the old text based adventures, the programmer would 46 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: have to lay out what is possible through code, and 47 00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: the code was pretty primitive, and the player would type 48 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: in a command and the game would have to determine 49 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 1: if the command made sense or not. If the command 50 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: did make sense, well, then the player would get a result. 51 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:11,359 Speaker 1: That result might not be a positive one. It might 52 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: end up being a you can't do that, because even 53 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: though the command makes sense, something else has to happen first. 54 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,919 Speaker 1: For example, if a door is locked, if the command 55 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:22,519 Speaker 1: didn't make sense at all, if the programmer had not 56 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: thought to include that in the limited vocabulary of the game, well, 57 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: the game would then have to tell the player that 58 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: what they tried didn't work. And there were a lot 59 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: of different ways that various text based games would inform 60 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: players that what they were trying was a non starter. 61 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: You might get something like I don't understand what you're 62 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: trying to do, or that won't work, or I don't 63 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: think that helped, or I don't know what blank means, 64 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: blank being whatever command you typed in that the game 65 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: just can't handle. Those were pretty typical responses. Not all 66 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: of them were used in every single game, but almost 67 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: pretty much every text based game had some variation of that. Now, 68 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: it might help if we think of a hypothetical example. 69 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: So let's say you've created a text based game in 70 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: which the player starts in a room, and this room's 71 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,960 Speaker 1: just got It's a regular square room. There's a locked 72 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:24,720 Speaker 1: door to the north, there's a hallway to the west, 73 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: there's a window to the south, and the east wall 74 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: is blank. And maybe you've created some flavored text for 75 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: the room, saying that the floor is stone and the 76 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: walls are wood, and they are covered in healing wall paper, 77 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 1: and a dim chandelier hangs from the ceiling. You know, 78 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: you give it some more text than just there's a 79 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:49,839 Speaker 1: door to the north and a hallway to the west 80 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: and a window to the south. You want to create 81 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: a mood, and that mood will depend upon the style 82 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: of game you're making, right, So, if you're making a 83 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: horror game, you wanted to be super creepy and atmospheric. 84 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: If it's an adventure game, maybe it's mysterious that kind 85 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 1: of thing. So you don't necessarily go bonkers with this description. 86 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: You don't want to write a full novel, but you 87 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: want it to be interesting enough so that the player 88 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:19,479 Speaker 1: gets a sense of where they are and the style 89 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 1: of game they're playing. So you try then to anticipate 90 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:25,480 Speaker 1: the sort of actions that your players are going to 91 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:29,840 Speaker 1: try when they start in this position. You want to 92 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: anticipate enough of them so that you know for the 93 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:36,920 Speaker 1: vast majority of commands that are typed in, because that's 94 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: how you interact with a tech based game. You have 95 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: a prompt where you type in your commands. You want 96 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: those commands to get some sort of response and not 97 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:48,359 Speaker 1: just go straight to the default. I don't know what 98 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: you're doing if you can help it, because you want 99 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: to hook those players in and have them have a 100 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,359 Speaker 1: good experience. So you probably have thought about what the 101 00:05:57,360 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: game should say if the player tries to open the 102 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: lock door, so maybe it responds with the locked door 103 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: won't budge, or maybe despite your valiant efforts, the door 104 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:11,720 Speaker 1: remains locked. Maybe you also anticipate that some players will 105 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 1: try to look out that window on the south wall, 106 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: so you write something like the view outside the window 107 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:21,040 Speaker 1: is of an unremarkable lawn, A bit overgrown or something 108 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:25,159 Speaker 1: to that effect. Players can then choose to go to 109 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,920 Speaker 1: the west, which is walking into the hallway that will 110 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:31,680 Speaker 1: take them into a new setting, or maybe they want 111 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: to search the room. Maybe you write it so that 112 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: that action searching the room uncovers a key that fits 113 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 1: the door to the north, though I would argue that 114 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: would be a bit too easy, that you probably should 115 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: put the key somewhere else so that there's a little 116 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: more gameplay there. But more likely you just decide that 117 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: the flavor text is really just flavor. So let's say 118 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 1: that your character searches the room and the response is 119 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: you find nothing useful, or something to that effect. The 120 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: point is the responses that the player sees all come 121 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,599 Speaker 1: from the programmer. I know that should be obvious, but 122 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: it's something that we have to keep in mind. Like 123 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: every time we play a game, unless it's a weird glitch, 124 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,200 Speaker 1: the response we get when we do something was put 125 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 1: there on purpose, right, Someone had to think about that 126 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: and build it into the game. So with text based adventures, 127 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: everything you encounter has to have been put there intentionally 128 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,360 Speaker 1: or else there's a problem with the code. It could 129 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 1: be that there was an error somewhere that breaks something. 130 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: So if the programmer anticipates a specific action, they can 131 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: write up a response that's appropriate or funny or whatever. 132 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: But for everything else, the game is just going to 133 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 1: present a standard default response like I don't know how 134 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: to do that, or whatever it may be. Anyone who 135 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: has ever run a role playing game as a game master, 136 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 1: you know what that is. It's physically impossible to anticipate 137 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: everything players will do when you have a human who's 138 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:09,760 Speaker 1: acting as game master. Humans have the potential to run 139 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: with wild player ideas, even if they had not planned 140 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: for such a thing in the past. I used to 141 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:20,320 Speaker 1: as a teenager write adventures for my group of friends 142 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: to play in games of Dungeons and Dragons. I'm sure 143 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,520 Speaker 1: this comes as a shock to none of you. I 144 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 1: didn't write professionally. These were just for my friends to play, 145 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: and I would come up with these ideas and I 146 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: would spend hours and hours and hours. I would remember, 147 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: I'd get up early on a Saturday morning and just 148 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: spend hours crafting adventures and dungeons, and I would have 149 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,640 Speaker 1: this whole kind of sequence playing out in my head 150 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:49,200 Speaker 1: of how this was going to go. But invariably at 151 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: some point, a player or a couple of players would 152 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:56,400 Speaker 1: come up with something that should certainly work. I just 153 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: hadn't thought about it, and then I had to figure 154 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,240 Speaker 1: out what to do. And some of my favorite gaming 155 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: sessions involved going completely off script because whatever the players 156 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: had suggested was viable and we should do it, even 157 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: though I had not anticipated it when I was crafting 158 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 1: the adventure. Now some game masters are far less comfortable 159 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: winging it. Nothing wrong with that. It's an intimidating thing 160 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:24,200 Speaker 1: to try and keep track of everything if you're making 161 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,319 Speaker 1: stuff up on the fly, and so these game masters 162 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: will sometimes hit a couple of tough choices, and neither 163 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: of them are great. One of them would be to 164 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: attempt to force the players toward a specific path, which 165 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,040 Speaker 1: makes them feel that they have no agency and that's 166 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: not much fun. Or it involves outright denying them their ideas, 167 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 1: and that often can also create a less satisfying playing experience. Well. Unfortunately, 168 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: text based games fall more into that restrictive style of play. 169 00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: For the most part, they might be very well designed, 170 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:03,080 Speaker 1: but they are still quite constrained. So game designers have 171 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: to come up with lots of clever puzzles and interesting 172 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,680 Speaker 1: text to keep players engaged and eager to see the 173 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,120 Speaker 1: adventure through to the end. And again, sometimes the puzzle 174 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: is trying to make yourself think like the programmer was 175 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,080 Speaker 1: thinking when they made the game in the first place. 176 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:21,439 Speaker 1: It's not so much how can I get this door open? 177 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,199 Speaker 1: It's how would so and so have designed this so 178 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: that I have to figure out a way to open 179 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: this door? And it still becomes like a puzzle game, 180 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:36,480 Speaker 1: but it also becomes something like a psychological assessment of 181 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 1: the person that wrote the game. It's a pretty interesting 182 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:43,200 Speaker 1: style of play. But all of this had to get 183 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:49,840 Speaker 1: started somewhere, right, So what was the first text based adventure? Well, 184 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:52,960 Speaker 1: we're going to find out, but first let's take a 185 00:10:53,080 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: quick break, all right, So who created the first text 186 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: based adventure and what was it? Well, the game was 187 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: called Colossal Cave Adventure and it was created by Will 188 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:18,560 Speaker 1: Crowther in the mid nineteen seventies. And this wasn't just 189 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: some hobbyist dipping his toe in programming. In the early 190 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, Crowther worked for Bolt, Baroneck and Newman, also 191 00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 1: known as BBN. Now you might not be familiar with 192 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:37,840 Speaker 1: that company name, but BBN played a crucial role in 193 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:42,040 Speaker 1: the development of technologies that underpin the Internet, and indeed, 194 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 1: Crowther himself was part of a small team working on arpaet, 195 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:49,880 Speaker 1: which was sort of a predecessor to the Internet. It's 196 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:54,520 Speaker 1: where a lot of the protocols and actual technologies that 197 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 1: allow the Internet to work were first developed. So here 198 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: you have this pioneer of network computing plugging away at 199 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 1: a major Department of Defense project, trying to design the 200 00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: tech that would allow computers to send data across vast networks. 201 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 1: And in his spare time, he would game, and he 202 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:16,319 Speaker 1: would go spelunking, that is, he would go cave exploring. 203 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:19,960 Speaker 1: As for games, he was a tabletop D and D 204 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: player Dungeons and Dragons, So that game first published in 205 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:28,679 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, and Crowther became a fan pretty early on. Now, 206 00:12:28,679 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: Crowther was married with kids, but his marriage was falling 207 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 1: apart and he and his wife initiated a divorce. So 208 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:37,959 Speaker 1: in an effort to create something that would let him 209 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:41,079 Speaker 1: connect with his kids and make something fun for them 210 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,840 Speaker 1: and allow him to find ways to spend time with them, 211 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,600 Speaker 1: Crowther brought together his knowledge of programming, his love of 212 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 1: exploration and caving and some elements of dungeons and dragons 213 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:56,880 Speaker 1: to put together the Colossal Cave adventure game. So he 214 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 1: chose a text based approach to make the game less 215 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:04,720 Speaker 1: intimidating to people who weren't familiar with computers. Remember this 216 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: is before the personal computer age. Computers were pretty scarce 217 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:14,040 Speaker 1: for you know, most people never even encountered one. If 218 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: they did, it was because they either worked in a 219 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:19,679 Speaker 1: research facility or they worked at a big company that 220 00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: happened to have like a mainframe computer as part of 221 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: its assets. But most people never even touched one. So 222 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: how do you make a computer game approachable? That's why 223 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 1: Crowther said, Let's make it a text based game. Players 224 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:37,080 Speaker 1: could type in commands in natural language and the program 225 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:40,280 Speaker 1: would check for words that matched viable options and then 226 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:42,920 Speaker 1: send a result to the player and update the story 227 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,480 Speaker 1: in the process. So Crowther's method was to allow for 228 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:49,680 Speaker 1: two word commands, so you could type something like go 229 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: north or look huddle. It was primitive, but it was 230 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 1: easy to understand. You quickly got the rules. You knew 231 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:01,920 Speaker 1: you couldn't say look under the rock. You couldn't do that. 232 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,920 Speaker 1: You could say look rock and maybe get more information, 233 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,080 Speaker 1: but you had to keep it to those two word commands, 234 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 1: and reportedly his kids really found the game interesting and 235 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:16,880 Speaker 1: fun to play. Crowther would actually release his game over arpinnet, 236 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 1: which I think makes it the first shareware text based 237 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: adventure game. It wasn't long before computer scientists at places 238 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: like Stanford got in touch with Crowther and asked permission 239 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 1: to further develop and enhance the game, and Crowther agreed. 240 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,760 Speaker 1: They thought that was great fun, and so over time 241 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:36,080 Speaker 1: versions of the game popped up that could be played 242 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: on different types of computers. Because remember, at this time, 243 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,560 Speaker 1: people are using all sorts of different proprietary computers, each 244 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:49,520 Speaker 1: working under its own computer language and computer like operating system. 245 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: So it would require recreating the game in many ways 246 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: in order for it to run on other machines, and 247 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,040 Speaker 1: that's exactly what various folks were doing. Originally these were 248 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:01,520 Speaker 1: big ol' honk and computer's house and research labs in 249 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:05,240 Speaker 1: university computer centers, but as the personal computer age dawned, 250 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: we started to see versions for those machines as well, 251 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: and often the game's title would simply be shortened down 252 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: to adventure. A few years ago, a guy named Eric S. 253 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,880 Speaker 1: Raymond uploaded the code for Colossal Cave Adventure with permission 254 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,080 Speaker 1: to get lab and now developers from all over the 255 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:27,640 Speaker 1: world can access the code and enhance it and look 256 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,040 Speaker 1: for ways to clean it up. And this is very 257 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,120 Speaker 1: similar to what the early programmers were doing in the 258 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:37,040 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. It's still happening today in many ways. It's 259 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,080 Speaker 1: carrying on the trend that Crowther inspired. Now, there have 260 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:43,520 Speaker 1: been tons of text based adventures over the years. I 261 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: remember playing the Zorich series extensively, which ultimately expanded beyond 262 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,080 Speaker 1: text based adventures, but that's how they started. Then there 263 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,920 Speaker 1: was the amazing text game of the Hitchhiger's Guide to 264 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:59,560 Speaker 1: the Galaxy that includes some logic defying puzzles creating an 265 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 1: improvable ability drive as a heck of a thing in 266 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: that game. But I did play it, and I ultimately 267 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: beat that game, but not without I think I ended 268 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:13,720 Speaker 1: up having to consult tip lines or hints or something 269 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: multiple times. I just could not suss my way through 270 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:22,560 Speaker 1: that game throughout the entire arc of the story. It 271 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,440 Speaker 1: is great, though some games had very cheeky titles. I 272 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,239 Speaker 1: will never forget the title The Leather Goddess of Phobos. 273 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,000 Speaker 1: I never played it. I understand it was not quite 274 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:34,920 Speaker 1: as salacious as the title would have you believe, but 275 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: I wouldn't know because I never I never got the 276 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:41,720 Speaker 1: guts to play that one. I remember playing The Hobbit 277 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,080 Speaker 1: and The Fellowship of the Ring, both in text. For them, 278 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: they had like very primitive graphics associated with it, but 279 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:50,320 Speaker 1: they were like still images, kind of like a picture book. 280 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,200 Speaker 1: There are dozens of great titles from the seventies and 281 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:56,080 Speaker 1: eighties out there. A lot of them are available for 282 00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:59,360 Speaker 1: you to play via the internet. You can find links 283 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: to web based versions of these text adventures if you 284 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:06,280 Speaker 1: want to play them. And they're also new text based 285 00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:10,520 Speaker 1: adventures coming out even in recent years. So one I've 286 00:17:10,520 --> 00:17:13,200 Speaker 1: heard of I have not yet played, is called Nighthouse. 287 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 1: It came out in twenty sixteen, and others have come 288 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,520 Speaker 1: out since then, as well as visual novels. I think 289 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:24,240 Speaker 1: visual novels, which is now a popular genre of computer game, 290 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: I think they owe a lot of their DNA to 291 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 1: the old text based adventures. So hats off to Will Crowther, 292 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,959 Speaker 1: a creator of the text based adventure game and say 293 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:41,359 Speaker 1: you you better turn on a light, it's getting dark. 294 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,720 Speaker 1: You are likely to be eaten by a group. Hope 295 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 1: you're all well. I will talk to you again really soon. 296 00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:59,960 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 297 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,200 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 298 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:05,280 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.