People

Will Crowther

The first adventure

The programmer and caver who created Colossal Cave Adventure in 1976, inventing the text adventure genre and inspiring generations of game designers.

cross-platform pioneeradventuretext-adventurearpanet 1936–present

Overview

William Crowther was a programmer at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (the company that built ARPANET) who created Colossal Cave Adventure in 1976 - the first text adventure game. Drawing on his experiences exploring Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and his love of Dungeons & Dragons, Crowther created something entirely new: an interactive fiction that let players explore a virtual world through text commands.

Fast Facts

  • Born: 1936
  • Profession: Programmer, caver
  • Employer: BBN (ARPANET creators)
  • Key creation: Colossal Cave Adventure (1976)
  • Hobby: Cave exploration (Mammoth Cave)
  • Influence: D&D player

The Creation

Why Crowther made Adventure:

  1. Going through divorce, wanted game for daughters
  2. Combined two interests: caving and D&D
  3. Based on actual Mammoth Cave geography
  4. Added fantasy elements (dwarves, magic)
  5. Distributed on ARPANET

Colossal Cave Adventure

The original text adventure:

YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING.
AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALL STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND
DOWN A GULLY.

> GO BUILDING

Simple commands, evocative descriptions, emergent exploration.

Real Cave Mapping

Crowther was a serious caver:

  • Member of Cave Research Foundation
  • Surveyed Mammoth Cave system
  • His maps helped connect cave systems
  • Game geography matches real cave

The Bedquilt area in the game corresponds to actual cave passages.

Technical Innovation

What Crowther created:

InnovationImpact
ParserTwo-word command interpretation
World modelRooms, objects, state
InventoryCarrying items between locations
PuzzlesEnvironmental problem-solving

Don Woods’ Expansion

In 1977, Stanford student Don Woods expanded the game:

  • More rooms and puzzles
  • Fantasy elements enhanced
  • Became the version most people played
  • Spread across university networks

Legacy

Crowther’s creation spawned:

  • Zork - MIT students inspired by Adventure
  • Infocom - Commercial text adventures
  • Sierra - Graphical adventures
  • Entire adventure genre

Every adventure game traces lineage to that small brick building.

Later Life

Crowther remained private:

  • Continued technical work
  • Rarely spoke about Adventure
  • Legacy recognised retrospectively
  • Game preserved in multiple versions

See Also