4 ms·

I ran the game and when I `suspend`ed it, it said: I can suspend your adventure for you so you can resume later, but you will have to wait at least 45

I ran the game and when I `suspend`ed it, it said: I can suspend your adventure for you so you can resume later, but you will have to wait at least 45 minutes before continuing. It definitely enforces it: This adventure was suspended a mere 1 minute ago. Even wizards have to wait longer than that! Does anyone know the motivation behind that design choice? It's especially weird since the README encourages suspending the game every half hour or so.

cmeacham98 3y ago
Perhaps to discourage save scumming?
- oxygen_crisis 3y ago
  Yep, comment lines from the original Crowther and Woods PDP-10 FORTRAN source code: C SUSPEND. OFFER TO EXIT LEAVING THINGS RESTARTABLE, BUT REQUIRING A DELAY C BEFORE RESTARTING (SO CAN'T SAVE THE WORLD BEFORE TRYING SOMETHING RISKY). https://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/games/source/ https://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/games/source/
  - talkingtab 3y ago
    Yes. People who wrote games "Way Back Then" (wbt) did not see games as about high scores but as more like life choices. There is no save in life. So adventure and rogue (my poison of choice) were more about how to learn, how to adapt. How to fail gracefully (over and over again). Not that learning any of that is very much fun, but hey, that's life. [edit misspell games fortunately there is save in HN]
fijiaarone 3y ago
So time sharing systems don’t get filled up with people playing games.
- fijiaarone 3y ago
  By the way, “Colossal Cave Adventure” was a retcon added at least 20 years later. The game was originally called “advent”.
  - zerocrates 3y ago
    "At least 20 years" is almost certainly an overstatement. Slippage of what people call it is only to be expected for something that doesn't really formally give itself a title (ADVENT being more of a filename), and what it does most directly identify itself as became so synonymous with the genre. The game starts up with "WELCOME TO ADVENTURE!!" and then the instructions (if you ask for them) begin "SOMEWHERE NEARBY IS COLOSSAL CAVE..." so the naming is not exactly out of left field. You can pretty readily find evidence of people calling it "Colossal Cave" and "Colossal Cave Adventure" already in the 80s. I think the first time I saw it (a Mac port from the early 90s or earlier among a pile of other free/shareware games on a set of floppies), it was called "Adventure," obviously also a popular choice for what to call the game, and my preference.
    - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
      I first played it on a Commodore PET around 83 or so, but later got it for my Atari ST, probably around 87 and it was already called Colossal Cave then.
      - musicale 3y ago
        From the 4.2BSD UNIX User's Manual (2/1/1983) Adventure(6) ... DESCRIPTION The object of the game is to locate and explore Colossal Cave ... So certainly before 1983.
      - mcv 3y ago
        I also recall the name Colossal Cave from the mid-80s, although I also remember the name Advent. I think it was called both. One might be the file name and the other the formal name, or something.
ChicagoDave 3y ago
We figured a way around that. On a PDP, you could detach your session, go about your business, then attach it when you came back.
- jfk13 3y ago
  When I was at university, my workaround was to patch the relevant bytes in the saved file to reset the timestamp. (Made even more convenient by running it via a wrapper script that automatically zeroed the timestamp on exit.)

cmeacham98 3y ago

Perhaps to discourage save scumming?

oxygen_crisis 3y ago
Yep, comment lines from the original Crowther and Woods PDP-10 FORTRAN source code: C SUSPEND. OFFER TO EXIT LEAVING THINGS RESTARTABLE, BUT REQUIRING A DELAY C BEFORE RESTARTING (SO CAN'T SAVE THE WORLD BEFORE TRYING SOMETHING RISKY). https://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/games/source/ https://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/games/source/
- talkingtab 3y ago
  Yes. People who wrote games "Way Back Then" (wbt) did not see games as about high scores but as more like life choices. There is no save in life. So adventure and rogue (my poison of choice) were more about how to learn, how to adapt. How to fail gracefully (over and over again). Not that learning any of that is very much fun, but hey, that's life. [edit misspell games fortunately there is save in HN]

fijiaarone 3y ago

So time sharing systems don’t get filled up with people playing games.

fijiaarone 3y ago
By the way, “Colossal Cave Adventure” was a retcon added at least 20 years later. The game was originally called “advent”.
- zerocrates 3y ago
  "At least 20 years" is almost certainly an overstatement. Slippage of what people call it is only to be expected for something that doesn't really formally give itself a title (ADVENT being more of a filename), and what it does most directly identify itself as became so synonymous with the genre. The game starts up with "WELCOME TO ADVENTURE!!" and then the instructions (if you ask for them) begin "SOMEWHERE NEARBY IS COLOSSAL CAVE..." so the naming is not exactly out of left field. You can pretty readily find evidence of people calling it "Colossal Cave" and "Colossal Cave Adventure" already in the 80s. I think the first time I saw it (a Mac port from the early 90s or earlier among a pile of other free/shareware games on a set of floppies), it was called "Adventure," obviously also a popular choice for what to call the game, and my preference.
  - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
    I first played it on a Commodore PET around 83 or so, but later got it for my Atari ST, probably around 87 and it was already called Colossal Cave then.
    - musicale 3y ago
      From the 4.2BSD UNIX User's Manual (2/1/1983) Adventure(6) ... DESCRIPTION The object of the game is to locate and explore Colossal Cave ... So certainly before 1983.
    - mcv 3y ago
      I also recall the name Colossal Cave from the mid-80s, although I also remember the name Advent. I think it was called both. One might be the file name and the other the formal name, or something.

ChicagoDave 3y ago

We figured a way around that. On a PDP, you could detach your session, go about your business, then attach it when you came back.

jfk13 3y ago
When I was at university, my workaround was to patch the relevant bytes in the saved file to reset the timestamp. (Made even more convenient by running it via a wrapper script that automatically zeroed the timestamp on exit.)