Crystal Cave
? 1977
- Language:
- English
- Systems:
- FORTRAN
- Platforms:
- Mainframe
- Entered by:
- dave, Strident
- Added:
- 10-12-2010
- Edited:
- 21-01-2022
Synopsis
Notes
Was originally written in FORTRAN on the UNIVAC system. It bears a resemblance to Colossal Cave with an improved parser.
Seems to have been developed sometime between 1977 and 1980, perhaps as early as 1976. 1977 has been temporarily added as a date here, in order to flag the game up as a very early example.
See Jason Dyer's All the Adventures project for a thorough exploration of the game, which also includes comments for a contemporary player of the game.
The C source code for Crystal Cave adventure, converted from the original Fortran by Kevin O'Gorman, ported to Linux and packaged by Glenn Hutchings is available on the IFarchive; as is a Macintosh version.
The Macintosh version of the game is playable online, but does include a minor bug near the start.
Resources (Upload file)
[+] Users who have solved this game
[+] Users currently playing this game
This appears buggy. I have tried to download the .sit file from https://www.macintoshrepository.org/6422-crystal-cave-adventure but Stuffit detects an error when attempting to expand the file. You end up with a 4kb read me file and an empty file with no extension.
I can expand it with Stuffit Expander 5.5 under Basilisk II, but Stuffit Expander 4.0.1 under Mini vMac doesn't want to know.
Thanks I'll give it a go. It sounds like you had the same issues as me.
I finally got it to run using Jason Dyer's HD image and downloading Basilisk II. It works ok using OS8.0 and the proforma ROM.
I have finally managed to start this one properly and after playing around with the Basilisk II settings, I can confirm that the optimum configuration (to my jaundiced eye anyway) are as follows;
open the BasiliskIIGui.exe file (installed with Basilisk or automatically generated if missing) and change the Graphics/Sound tab to Window, 60Hz, Width 640 Height 480. On the Memory/Misc tab choose RAM Size 64MB, Mac Model ID Quadra 900, CPU Type 68030 and install the PERFORMA rom file whiuch can be downloaded from several sites. Untick Enable JIT Compiler.
Then open the Basilisk_prefs file and amend the mag_rate setting to 2 (this will enlarge the active application window in the MAC OS 8.1 environment.) Attach the Mac OS 8.1 system and the Macintosh HD_250GB drive in HFV explorer. Opening Basilisk II should now present you with a Crystal Cave application window where you can double click the red game icon.
If anyone needs the configured hard drive I can send a copy.
A poor game sadly. I love text adventure arcana but this is buggy and turgid. The game's equivalent of the maze of twisty little passages, all different, seems to be randomly generated. The point of each room having slightly different spellings is of course so that you can use them as a form of navigation. Here it is impossible to map the forest because of the randomness. I am not sure if this is deliberate or sloppy coding. You can also take the boat and carry it around with you, however LOOK describes it as still floating on the lake.
The game asks you if you want help every few moves, for instance "are you trying to get further into the lake?" popped up ten times in thirty moves and it is impossible to turn it off as far as I can see. If you don't answer yes or no every time the parser refuses to let you continue.
Some of the descriptions are very well done and realistic but the game is also lacking puzzles. I have mapped eighty odd locations and not come across a single puzzle yet, beyond being tiresomely thrown out of the caverns every time I pick something up or even whem climbing a pillar. Best avoided I think unless you like reading descriptions of mineral deposits.