Guy Lochhead, 02/09/10
Computer programmer best known creating the first ever adventure game, ‘Colossal Cave Adventure’. In the game, players navigate their way through a ‘maze of twisty little passages’ by typing two-word commands and reading the resultant events. Crowther initially devised the game for his daughters, but it soon became very popular, and spawned many imitators. Crowther was a caving enthusiast who’d been part of many important expeditions, and he used his knowledge of cave exploration to create very realistic recreations of caves he’d explored – to the extent that cavers who’d never played the game before found sections of it very familiar. Crowther is still very active, and became a certified SCUBA diver, aged 73. I think I like Crowther. He has said of the game that it ‘would be a computer game that would not be intimidating to non-computer people’, so he used natural language rather than standardized commands. I also like the fact that, to him, technical innovation and an active lifestyle are not mutually exclusive. I will incorporate the word ‘Xyxxy’, which allows players to teleport between two locations, and ‘Plugh’, which means nothing.