From the Desk of Roberta Williams …

I am very proud to announce our updated Colossal Cave 2.0, our new ‘enchanted cave’ version! I have always admired this historic text adventure, referring to it as deeply engaging and captivating -- and arguably the spark that ignited the onset of computer gaming – and have desired for many years to bring it to life with beautiful graphics, atmospheric sounds, and characters of charm…or roguery. This has always been an enchanted cave which – beware! -- is also your adversary, and it was important that we capture that imagery and spirit. I am now so excited by our considerable efforts that I urge everyone to check out our latest release, Colossal Cave 2.0. My team and I have been hard at work the last eight months since our January release of Colossal Cave perfecting playability while also enhancing the mysterious, metaphysical, and immersive nature of Colossal Cave.

Ahead of this undertaking, I reviewed the many reactions to our initial release – both positive and negative. I adapted or corrected the unfavorable responses while at the same time maintaining or improving the complimentary ones – though always keeping in mind the essence of the original gameplay which, to me, is sacrosanct. As a game designer myself, I recognize a great design. It is my humble opinion that the original Colossal Cave has stood the test of time due to the innovative and imaginative minds of Will Crowther and Don Woods, the original creators of this classic text adventure game. When Ken and I decided to reimagine Colossal Cave, I swore not to change the gameplay and strategy of these two ingenious men. Although, to be fair, there are those who would argue that by adding 3D graphics, character animations, sound effects, or music – and even a point-and-click interface – that would be changing it. Well, yes – I do agree with that. But still, my assertion is that, as with any script of a story, or a design strategy of a game, the means of experiencing it can be done in various ways or means, similar to reading a book and then experiencing that same story in a movie.

I am very excited for players of all ages – but for those who especially love adventure games – to experience Colossal Cave 2.0. Broadly speaking, here are the enrichments:

• Enhanced graphics (higher-resolution textures, post-processing to enhance colors, more real-time lighting and shadows, realistic-looking water, magical effects, particle effects with mist, fog, and smoke – among other graphical embellishments).
  
• The addition of player footstep sound effects while traversing the Colossal Cave world. And I took great care to make them sound very realistic.
  
• More atmospheric sound effects really bring the cave alive. I imagined the cave having a spirit, an essential ‘being’ without a body. There is an ‘aliveness,’ but also mystery and magic.
  
• Improving the animation of the many characters inhabiting the cave – giving them more charm…or nastiness!
  
• The cave itself is your adversary – not any one of the characters. It really is between YOU and the CAVE.
  
• Bettering the IU, the interface. To make Colossal Cave – 2.0 easy to play without having to figure out the interface. Playing the game is enough to think about!

As a final entreaty: check out our free Demo! You will be able to experience almost 20% of Colossal Cave 2.0 before deciding on whether you’d like to buy it for yourself. My fingers are crossed and know that you won’t be disappointed!

[http//steam]All my best,

Roberta

Today marks a momentous occasion, a confluence of technological innovation and a nostalgic nod to the origins of digital gaming. After months of relentless labor, an avalanche of creative thinking, a steady stream of community feedback, and an excitingly engaging approach to user interaction, we are thrilled to announce the re-release of the iconic text-adventure game, "Colossal Cave Adventure" on SteamVR!

Journey back in time to the golden age of text-based games, now crafted into a vibrant, sensory-rich VR environment that surpasses anything you could've imagined. We've gone above and beyond, bringing this classic to life in a highly detailed, fully immersive three-dimensional experience, while preserving the core elements that made the original so captivating. Welcome back to the mystifying, magical caves— only this time, you won't just be reading about them, you'll be living them.

You asked, we listened. After receiving reports of some players experiencing seasickness within the cavernous depths of the game, we've introduced a brand-new teleportation-style locomotion system. This ensures a more comfortable experience, as you traverse the colossal chambers and labyrinthine mazes, without compromising on the thrilling aura of the game. We've managed to blend comfort, mystery, and excitement in one potent mix— a recipe we hope you will savor.

The reimagined Colossal Cave is a sprawling, vast entity, boasting mammoth caverns and seemingly endless mazes. Harnessing the raw power of Steam VR, we're now able to render the game's scale and depth with unprecedented detail and realism. The enhanced visual and auditory VR experience elevates the classic game into an entirely new plane, transforming the mystical underground universe into a tangible, touchable reality. Most untethered headsets can only dream of delivering this level of detailed immersion.

You might be wondering, "But how can I upgrade my existing game?" We've got you covered. For those of you who already possess Colossal Cave on Steam, you'll find the game updating itself the next time you log in (although, if you've opted out of automatic updates, you'll need to take a moment to manually initiate the update).

Now for the grand finale: Colossal Cave VR isn't restricted to any particular headset. Be it the Oculus Quest 2, Rift, or Rift S, Valve Index HMD, or any other VR headset compatible with Steam, you're all set to dive into the cavernous depths and experience this enchanting virtual reality. All you need is your VR headset, controllers, and an eagerness to explore, solve riddles, and unravel the game's magical mysteries. (Note: Colossal Cave currently does not support controllers with touch controls/gestures.)

So, prepare to embark on an exhilarating journey into the past, all the while reveling in the groundbreaking advancements of modern gaming technology. You'll laugh, you'll puzzle, and you might even scream, but we promise: you won't want to leave. Rediscover the magic and mystery of Colossal Cave— now reimagined for SteamVR.

Log into Steam today, don your headset, and get ready to delve into the depths of the most immersive Colossal Cave 3D Adventure yet. You'll never look at text-adventures—or VR gaming—the same way again!

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Howdy, Colossal Cavers!

Over 300,000,000 years ago, water started tricking through some limestone, eventually carving what is currently known to be the longest known, connected cave system on the planet: Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, USA.

Did you know that the woman who made this discovery was a tiny programming caver, named Patricia Crowther?  This tiny, but colossal discovery is known as being the speleological equivalent of summiting Mount Everest, for the first time.

Did you know that her husband, Will Crowther, also a programming caver, had an integral role in programming the packet switching between the first 4 connected “routers” (Interface Message Processors) making up the ARPANET (the precursor to today’s internet)?  Will played a pivotal role in the invention of the Internet. Yes, that internet.

Did you know that Will Crowther built the first text-adventure game around muddy little maps he’d made with his wife?  Inspired by 60’s style AI (known as ELIZA) and made as a bonding exercise with his young daughters, ADVENT (as it was known at the time) would be one of the first viral games, as it spread across the ARPANET, shutting down entire departments for weeks at a time, as people were so entranced with the depth, light whimsy, and whisps of Dungeons & Dragons style fantasy.

There is so much more to this story.  And you can learn all about it, in today’s update!

Behind the scenes, fanciful little elves are endlessly hard at work polishing the experience of playing and navigating Colossal Cave.  The most recent addition is that of a dilapidated, fuzzy, old television set. We’ve added some fun and informative goodies to this TV, like a look back at the history of ADVENT and Colossal Cave.  We’ve included a fully realized documentary to the game, narrated by Roberta Williams. We’ve set it up for more programs in the future.  Grab a TV dinner and stay tuned!

While we’re thrilled to include this little nugget of history directly to the game, for ease of access, we’ve also added it to YouTube, for those who may prefer to watch it, online.

Take a historic plunge into the darkness.  Don’t forget your lamp!

Also, in this update:

• Fix to Fee-Fie-Foe-Foo (FFFF) not causing eggs to show up on map when used in Giant Room.
  
• Fix to maze hint popping up at higher frequency than intended.
  
• Updates to Russian Localization.
  
• Removed unused pickaxe hotspot in Y2 mirror room.

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• Fix for PC Hall of Mists' Secret Canyon entrance (was a grey box blocking it).
• Fix to allow re-spawning after player dies by falling through the floor or a crash - to return to a known safe location.
• Misc. Bug fixes for localization, Wellhouse Stairs, Repository Scoreboard, Mountain King Texture
• Instruction enhancements for Wellhouse Level.

Colossal Cave has a new price! We have heard our gamers, and the price of Colossal Cave is now $24.99.

From Ken Williams - "Thank you all! And, there is good news. We are repricing the game. If you look now, the game is $24.99. The fact that we lowered the price says that we listen to players.

And that said, I can explain a bit of what happened behind the scenes. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure this is a game for everyone. It targets a fairly small slice of the market. It's a mentally challenging game in a world where the bigger hits are action oriented. It's also a game that many of the target buyers feel they've already played. We didn't want to cheapen the quality of the game, so when you look at our production cost, and divide it by the size of the target market, you recognize that the price per copy needs to be high.

I didn't (and still don't) consider $39.99 to be a big number. You can hardly go to the movies these days, with popcorn and parking, and not spend that much. Roberta's last game sold over a million copies at $59.99, over 25 years ago! That's probably over $100 in 2023 numbers. I'd also mention that many of today's games, that are available at low cost, have in-game spending. We have none of that and don't plan on using this game in any way to make money beyond the initial purchase.

I should also mention that buying the game gives you all of: The Windows version, the Mac version, the Steam Deck version, and the Steam VR version (when it is available .. soon I hope!) The Steam Deck version is a true Linux version that runs awesome on a Steam Deck, and the Steam VR version of the game is a big step up from what we released on the Quest 2. I should probably also admit that we got pinged for a few things on the initial release of the Quest 2 version and we are addressing those issues now for our Steam VR version of the game. The Steam VR (or should I call it PC VR?) release will be an amazing one. From my perspective, it's a heck of a deal.

And all of that said: Today's price points are lower and player expectations are for lower prices. It doesn't matter what I think is fair, what math I run through my spreadsheets, or anything except what players think. The message I've heard is that $39.99 is too high, so we lowered it.

Ultimately, for Roberta and I the game isn't as much about money as it is having happy players. We are very proud of the game and want as many people playing it as possible. It would be nice if we could recover our investment, but if we don't, we don't. The most important thing is that players are happy."

SUMMARY
- Price change - $24.99

- We decided to bundle all five versions under one steam key: PC, Mac, Steam Deck (a true Linux native Steam Deck version), Linux AND an amazing Steam VR version (coming very soon) There are some VERY dramatic enhancements that are in the Steam VR version over what was released on the Quest 2 VR.
- It doesn't sound like a big deal, but probably the biggest impact change was to add text to the page that asks about taking instructions. The way the original text game works is that if the player asks for instructions they are given 1,000 moves on the lamp, otherwise they are given only 300. Completing the game in 300 moves should only be attempted by someone playing the game to get the maximum 350 points. The idea is to take instructions until you have worked out your strategies for winning and then play again NOT taking instructions.
The original game gave the player no indication of what was happening. We debated adding something but forced ourselves to be true to the original game. That turned out to be a bad idea, in that players were running out of lamp time.


- A less obvious change, but one with great impact was that we completely replaced all of the marketing copy on the Steam site and added a video of Roberta playing the game. Our initial Steam page gave the impression that it was an action game. I never wanted that. It's not an action game and anyone thinking it is will be disappointed. It's more like an interactive escape room or puzzle game. It's important that the right players buy the game, and that they know what they are getting. I also wanted to emphasize the history more. It's a museum piece for people who want to see the history of gaming. We're working on a documentary now that highlights the origins of the game.

- The mazes are impossible for most players. There are at least three solutions to them (dropping items, subtle differences in the way the rooms look, subtle differences in the room descriptions). There is a hint that pops up asking the player if they'd like a hint, but it was coming up only every 50 moves and was only in one of the two mazes. We dropped this to five moves and placed it in both mazes.

FYI - Don Woods, one of the authors of the original game played, and gave this feedback with a fourth way to solve the maze:

"I was dismayed at how trivial the all-alike maze becomes when the game fills in the map as I go. I just ran around a while and then looked to see what I had. And of course the pirate's lair is much much easier to find given that the map reveals the northwest exit: the ONLY passage in that maze that isn't E/W/N/S/U/D. I wasn't sure what you'd do to make it harder to find, and instead the map makes it stand out! (The art for the lair itself was quite nice, btw.)"
- When a player would get killed and choose resurrection, the lamp counter was not being reset. In other words, if you were almost out of lamp light, and fell off a cliff, you'd still have the same number of time left in your lamp post-resurrection. We now give you a minimum of 300 moves in the lamp after resurrection.
- The hint on the grate (the entrance to the cave) was broken. We fixed it.
- There are some rooms that have passages that return you to the room from which you departed. There are also passages that roll the dice to decide where to take you. We added hints to these so that players would realize what was happening.
- Various bug fixes, translation fixes (improved the russian, japanese and italian translations), and improved animations.

• Music pauses when opening a menu and resumes when closing, instead of stopping it altogether.
• Localization/translation fixes.
• Grate hint particle effect properly appears after first time.
• Maps can fully reset without needing to close and reopen the game.
• Added a more detailed description when taking instructions, offers additional chance to confirm if you want to take instructions.
• Maze Different now offers a hint if you haven't taken it in Maze Alike. Hint shows after 50 moves.
• Fix to Repository camera.