- 40% off, all week long! - 13 July 2026
Fifty years ago, a single lantern and a few lines of text lured a whole generation underground — and gave birth to the entire adventure genre. Now that legend is yours to walk through in full 3D, reimagined by Roberta Williams, creator of King's Quest. For one week only, Colossal Cave 3D is 40% off. Shoulder your pack, trim your lamp, and descend into a vast, glittering labyrinth where every passage hides treasure, every shadow might hide a dwarf's dagger, and a bad-tempered troll guards the one bridge you need to cross. Fifteen treasures wait in the dark. A grinning pirate would love to lighten your load. And there's no clock, no pressure, no hand leading you by the nose — just you, your wits, and a cave that rewards the curious. This is cozy adventuring the old way: slow, magical, and entirely your own. 🔦 40% off — July 13 to July 20 only 🎮 PC · Mac · Steam Deck · PC VR ✨ The greate…
- Colossal Cave updates with new "Explorer" mode! - 9 July 2024
We’ve just released a fun new option, with a new approach to Colossal Cave. We’ve added an “Easy” mode, for those simply looking to wander the halls without random, pesky attacks from the wandering droves of War Dwarves. From the desk of Ken Williams … “Colossal Cave is a game that is not easy. Even with lots of clues, making it to the end is a challenge. My suspicion is that some, perhaps many, buyers who purchased the game have never explored the full cave. To counter this we just released a new version of the game that has 'Challenging' or 'Explorer' mode. It is an option when you start a new game. If selected, you still have full access to the cavern, but the menacing dwarves are gone, the thieving pirate is gone, and you start the game with a full set of maps. You won't be able to attain the full 350 points, and most of the puzzles are still there, but you'll find it a much more re…
- Colossal Cave 2.0: The Enchanted Edition - 14 November 2023
From the Desk of Roberta Williams … I am very proud to announce our updated Colossal Cave 2.0, our new ‘enchanted cave’ version! I have always admired this historic text adventure, referring to it as deeply engaging and captivating -- and arguably the spark that ignited the onset of computer gaming – and have desired for many years to bring it to life with beautiful graphics, atmospheric sounds, and characters of charm…or roguery. This has always been an enchanted cave which – beware! -- is also your adversary, and it was important that we capture that imagery and spirit. I am now so excited by our considerable efforts that I urge everyone to check out our latest release, Colossal Cave 2.0. My team and I have been hard at work the last eight months since our January release of Colossal Cave perfecting playability while also enhancing the mysterious, metaphysical, and immersive nature of…
- SteamVR now available! - 20 May 2023
Today marks a momentous occasion, a confluence of technological innovation and a nostalgic nod to the origins of digital gaming. After months of relentless labor, an avalanche of creative thinking, a steady stream of community feedback, and an excitingly engaging approach to user interaction, we are thrilled to announce the re-release of the iconic text-adventure game, "Colossal Cave Adventure" on SteamVR! Journey back in time to the golden age of text-based games, now crafted into a vibrant, sensory-rich VR environment that surpasses anything you could've imagined. We've gone above and beyond, bringing this classic to life in a highly detailed, fully immersive three-dimensional experience, while preserving the core elements that made the original so captivating. Welcome back to the mystifying, magical caves— only this time, you won't just be reading about them, you'll be living them. Y…
- Historic Update - Retro TV, Tips, & Documentary Added - 5 April 2023
Howdy, Colossal Cavers! Over 300,000,000 years ago, water started tricking through some limestone, eventually carving what is currently known to be the longest known, connected cave system on the planet: Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, USA. Did you know that the woman who made this discovery was a tiny programming caver, named Patricia Crowther? This tiny, but colossal discovery is known as being the speleological equivalent of summiting Mount Everest, for the first time. Did you know that her husband, Will Crowther, also a programming caver, had an integral role in programming the packet switching between the first 4 connected “routers” (Interface Message Processors) making up the ARPANET (the precursor to today’s internet)? Will played a pivotal role in the invention of the Internet. Yes, that internet. Did you know that Will Crowther built the first text-adventure game around muddy little…
- UPDATE NOTES: Release 1.2.20750 - 25 March 2023
• Fix for PC Hall of Mists' Secret Canyon entrance (was a grey box blocking it). • Fix to allow re-spawning after player dies by falling through the floor or a crash - to return to a known safe location. • Misc. Bug fixes for localization, Wellhouse Stairs, Repository Scoreboard, Mountain King Texture • Instruction enhancements for Wellhouse Level.
- Price Change, Game Updates and Feature Additions - 27 February 2023
Colossal Cave has a new price! We have heard our gamers, and the price of Colossal Cave is now $24.99. From Ken Williams - "Thank you all! And, there is good news. We are repricing the game. If you look now, the game is $24.99. The fact that we lowered the price says that we listen to players. And that said, I can explain a bit of what happened behind the scenes. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure this is a game for everyone. It targets a fairly small slice of the market. It's a mentally challenging game in a world where the bigger hits are action oriented. It's also a game that many of the target buyers feel they've already played. We didn't want to cheapen the quality of the game, so when you look at our production cost, and divide it by the size of the target market, you recognize that the price per copy needs to be high. I didn't (and still don't) consider $39.99 to be a big numbe…
- UPDATE NOTES: Release 1.2.20386 - 17 February 2023
Fix to being able to open menus while in the beanstalk growing cutscene. Fix to being able to open menus while in the diamond dwarf startle cutscene. Fix to Repository hint being available after already turning the rod into dynamite. Fix to not being able to drop items in the north half of the repository. Fix to dwarf axe throwing animation. Fix Giant room. Removed collider on rocks beneath trident in art scene. Added blocking collider in programmer scene. Decreased random passage threshold from 5 to 3. Localization changes to Italian, Japanese, Russian Added message telling user they looped back to where they were. Adjusted trident position.
- UPDATE NOTES: Release 1.2, DATE: 2/2/2023 - 2 February 2023
Added hints to some puzzles to make player experience better. Improved translations in German and Russian.
- Colossal Cave returns from the 1970s in a 3D reimagining - 31 January 2023
Colossal Cave, originally released in 1977 from Will Crowther and Don Woods has been revived and reimagined for modern audiences. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/colossal-cave-returns-from-the-1970s-in-a-3d-reimagining
- UPDATE NOTES: Release 1.1, DATE: 1/27/2023 - 27 January 2023
• Music pauses when opening a menu and resumes when closing, instead of stopping it altogether. • Localization/translation fixes. • Grate hint particle effect properly appears after first time. • Maps can fully reset without needing to close and reopen the game. • Added a more detailed description when taking instructions, offers additional chance to confirm if you want to take instructions. • Maze Different now offers a hint if you haven't taken it in Maze Alike. Hint shows after 50 moves. • Fix to Repository camera.
- Update Notes January 22, 2023 - 22 January 2023
Fix for Mac Achievements not working
- Why Colossal Cave matters and why Ken and Roberta Williams remade it - 19 January 2023
Colossal Cave is an adventure game that predates its own genre and arguably everything we know as 'the rules' of modern game design. It began life as 700 lines of code on a PDP-10 mainframe computer in the 1970s, eventually making its way to IBM and Apple home computers by the early '80s as a 'launch title' for IBM's initial line of PCs. Now it's getting a second life as a fully realised 3D experience thanks to Ken and Roberta Williams, who credit Colossal Cave with inspiring the launch of their company, Sierra. "I honestly believe, had I never played it, I don't know what I'd be doing today. I don't know what Ken would be doing," Roberta Williams tells PCGamesN. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: King's Quest creators are remaking the first adventure game
- Happy New Year! - 9 January 2023
Happy New Year 2023!! Wishing you all a happy & prosperous New Year in 2023! This is the year that Colossal Cave finally releases! We've been working a long time on this, and we hope you enjoy it. We think it's something special, and we can't wait to share it with you all! Launching on Jan 19th!!
