Colossal Cave Adventure is a 1976 text-based adventure game by Will
Crowther, based on his own spelunking experience, and expanded in 1977
by Don Woods. In it, the player explores a vast cave system rumored to
be filled with treasure and gold, by typing one- or two-word commands.
These are interpreted by the game's natural language input system. The
program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the
results of the player's attempted actions. It is the first well-known
example of interactive fiction, as well as the first well-known
adventure game, for which it was also the namesake. The version by Woods
expanded the game in size and increased the amount of fantasy elements
present in it, such as a dragon and magic spells. Both versions were
spread around the nascent ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, and
were very popular in the computer community. Noted as one of the most
influential video games, it was in 2019 inducted into the World Video
Game Hall of Fame.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1642:
The Société Notre-Dame de Montréal founded Fort Ville-Marie,
a permanent mission that eventually grew into the Canadian city of
Montreal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal>
1902:
The Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known surviving geared
mechanism, was discovered among artifacts retrieved from a shipwreck off
the Greek island of Antikythera.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism>
1947:
After renegotiating a contract with the makers of her signature
perfume Chanel No. 5, Coco Chanel received a share of wartime profits
from its sale, making her one of the richest women in the world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel>
1974:
The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force detonated a series of
car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, killing 34 people and
injuring almost 300 more.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_and_Monaghan_bombings>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
fjord:
A long, narrow, deep inlet between cliffs.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fjord>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
They who say, "There will always be war," do not know what they
are saying. They are preyed upon by the common internal malady of
shortsight. They think themselves full of common-sense as they think
themselves full of honesty. In reality, they are revealing the clumsy
and limited mentality of the assassins themselves. The shapeless
struggle of the elements will begin again on the seared earth when men
have slain themselves because they were slaves, because they believed
the same things, because they were alike.
--Henri Barbusse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Barbusse>
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