ADVENT

ADVENT /ad'vent/ n.  The prototypical computer adventure
   game, first designed by Will Crowther on the {PDP-10} in the
   mid-1970s as an attempt at computer-refereed fantasy gaming, and
   expanded into a puzzle-oriented game by Don Woods at Stanford in
   1976.  Now better known as Adventure, but the {{TOPS-10}}
   operating system permitted only six-letter filenames.  See also
   {vadding}, {Zork}, and {Infocom}.

   This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style since expected in
   text adventure games, and popularized several tag lines that have
   become fixtures of hacker-speak: "A huge green fierce snake bars
   the way!"  "I see no X here" (for some noun X).  "You are in a
   maze of twisty little passages, all alike."  "You are in a little
   maze of twisty passages, all different."  The `magic words'
   {xyzzy} and {plugh} also derive from this game.

   Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of the
   Mammoth & Flint Ridge cave system; it actually *has* a
   `Colossal Cave' and a `Bedquilt' as in the game, and the `Y2' that
   also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to a secondary
   entrance.