Tidepool Adventure, a faithful recreation of Colossal Cave

Playing Beta Testing Requests and Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I’m recreating Colossal Cave Adventure within my storytelling game world Tidepool using the original Crowther/Woods data files from 1977. Tidepool Adventure can be played using both the traditional command-line approach, or by walking around within a 3D hand-drawn version of the cave.

I will need testers soon (next week), especially those very familiar with the original game. I want my version to behave identically to the original, warts and all. Our first goal is to test the parser interface. To compare TIdepool Adventure with the original, I’ll make available a PDP-10 emulation of the original game, or you can use the Graham Nelson port, which is close enough.

Let me know if you’d like to become an alpha tester. Either respond here, or use the contact page on our website.

I’ll post updates and quandaries to this topic as we go.

Thanks,
Tim

playtidepool.com

2

I don’t know how much time I’ll have available, unfortunately, but this project sounds quite exciting. If you want some stress-testing done on the parser interface I can help with that at least.

3

Thanks Draconis. I’ll PM you when I post Tidepool 0.3.3 (next version with Adventure).

It’s going slow, but I hope to get at least the Crowther parts working by Wednesday.

4

If anyone wants to do a little spelunking of their own, I need to analyze the logic for the dwarf and the pirate. I could probably figure out the fortran, but someone else might know better.

One thing I noticed in the data file is that some room connections don’t allow the dwarf, which seems to suggest that the dwarf is actually moving around on its own and not just a random occurrence, as I have always thought.

Original source is here: ifarchive.org/if-archive/gam … nal.tar.gz

A simplified pseudocode explanation of their behavior will suffice here. The comments seem straightforward.

5

Just completed the full game for the first time. Only took me 35 years to do it!

A few of those puzzles had me looking through the source though (dark room, endgame, last point). Not proud of it, but geez louise those were tough.

My 10 year old daughter got one puzzle I couldn’t figure out (the clam).

6

I consider the dark room to be a prime example of a spectacularly unfair puzzle. (I got it without spoilers, back in the day! …but I was also extremely young, extremely determined, and had nothing better to do with my time. I would never get it today.)

7

Found out later that Graham Nelson’s port changed one word in the final hint (the word “word” to something else).

Thinking about it this morning, this change actually made it harder for me, because I don’t consider the answer a type of … his more specific thing. Maybe it’s British?

Had it stayed more general I would have expanded my thought process. Anyway, changing a key word in the final clue is a bit of an overreach, IMO.

8

Just discovered the original source has a hint for the dark room that triggers after 25 moves there.

The Graham Nelson doesn’t have this hint, nor ones for the grate, bird, snake, maze, and witt’s end.

I’m guessing someone in the chain of ports left out the hints.

9

Hi teefal,
I took a look at playtidepool.com. I’m not interested in downloading the actual app, but I’d love to chat about “Adventure” if you have any burning questions. :slight_smile: My quuxplusone.github.io/Advent/ is a faithful recreation of the Fortran original, ported to C and copiously commented. (And there are faithful ports of a few expansions on there too, for comparison.)
I’ll try to watch this thread; or my email is arthur.j.odwyer at gmail.com.