THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



THE VERY BIG CAVE ADVENTURE



PUBLISHER

CRL



AUTHOR

St. Brides's School



YEAR

1986



CATEGORIES

Text adventure



CONTROLS

Keyboard.



ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT

Back Cover Blurb 



Somewhere, deep in the primordial forest know to man as Epping,

lies a valley which time has forgotten and everyone else would

like to. And in the depths of that valley, locked firmly into the

solid granite is an iron grate. A grate, which, if it could be

opened, would lead the hopeful traveller into a vast network of

underground caves in which he might find riches beyond his

wildest dreams or encounter grim death in a thousand lurking

forms.



Alright. Belt up. I know you've read all this sort of stuff

before. This is a cassette inlay, you know.  You've got to write

things like that on cassette inlays. Now if you don't zip your

face up and listen to the rest of it I'll throw that rotten

tomato right back at you. Only I won't miss. 



Well, now you've interrupted me, I might as well introduce

myself. My name is Trixie Trinian. I'm a prefect at St. Bride's

and a crackshot with a ripe tomato. I also happen to be the best

possible guide for grasping adventurers seeking fame and fortune

in the Very Big Caves.



And even if I'm not, I'm the only one you're going to get.



Inside Inlay text 



About this programme



If I were to tell you that you are hoilding in your hands the

very first computer adventure, you wouldn't believe me.



You wouldn't say so, of course, since I am still holding the ripe

tomato from the other side of this bit of paper. But you wouldn't

believe me.



And you'd be wrong.



Way back at the beginning of computer history, enshrouded by the

mists of time, (or perhaps it was just J*ck Tr*mi*i's cigar

smoke), there was a computer game called simply "Adventure". It

didn't need any other name because there were no other computer

adventures. It was set in a complex of very big caves which were

called simply the Very Big Caves for similar reasons.



Things were simple in those days, as you can see. But nothing

could be quite as simple as the minds of the people who wrote the

adventure. Indeed there are many who would argue that simple was

too mild a term and that something more expressive was needed

such as "cretinous", or perhaps "criminally moronic". 



I shall leave others to debate these finer points of language.

The gist is that this adventure was sillier than any computer

programme has a right to be. If it had been a chap rather than

a length of cassette tape, people would have rung for the men in

white coats on sight.



Those sniffy individuals who think that adventures are superior

to "mindless alien-zapping" obviously never played this one. When

it comes to sheer unadulterated mindlessness, the programme

leaves all arcade games at the starting post wondering what

happened. 



Even The G***t Sp*ce R**e.



Strong men who devote their whole lives to telling people how

useful and valuable computers are freeze in their tracks at the

mere mention of this programme.



Well, you catch my drift. It is the kind of programme which gives

computers a bad name. Come to that, it is the kind of programme

that gives idiots a bad name. So you won't be surprised to learn

that, in the interests of the good name of computing, the game

was banned.



The original programmers were persuaded that it would be in the

interests of their health not to publish the adventure. They were

offered a certain sum of many to part with all rights to the

adventure. It was an offer they couldn't refuse.



Then a couple of programmers were offered a contract to produce

a new sensible version of the game. In return they were given a

fresh start in life. New names. The names were C***ther and

W**ds.



So everything ended well. The original game was buried deep. The

good name of computing was saved.



Or so it seemed.



Some years later, however, the original game was unearthed by a

St. Bride's pupil. 



Like so many great discoveries it was made by pure accident. The

girl had been innocently hacking into a computer system owned by

a major American government agency with a view of diverting the

payment of the British national debt into her personal account.

She came to an area deep within the system which was so

rigorously protected by security codes that she felt sure that

this must be where they kept the boodle. What she in fact found

was the contents of this tape. 



Let there be no misunderstanding. We are well aware that the

publication of this game may deal a blow to the reputation of

computing from which it could take decades to recover. Nobody

could be more concerned with the good name of computing than

ourselves, so it is with much heartsearching that we have weighed

one consideration against another. On the one hand was the good

name, perhaps the very future of computer technology. On the

other was the chance of a fast buck.



It just wasn't a contest.



We proudly present to the public in general and to you in

particular The Very Big Cave Adventure.



Instructions 



To load The Very Big Cave Adventure type LOAD""



In this game the computer understands most simple English

sentences. "EAT THE FOOD", "BREAK THE DOOR DOWN", etc. 



The game plays in two parts. At the end of part 1 you will be

asked to save your position. This must be done to tape or disk

(not RAM). You will then be asked to load the position at the

beginning of part two. This will enable you to carry with you all

the objects you wish to take from part one as well as all the

money you have made up to this point.



Several special commands are used in the game:



INVENTORY (or I) will list the things you have with you.



EXAMINE will allow you to take a closer look at almost any object

in the game. Make frequent use of this command.



SAVE and LOAD allow you to save and restore your position to tape

or disk. There is also a special facility which allows you to

save position instaneously into the computer's memory. To do

this just type SAVE or LOAD as normal and answer RAM to the

prompt "Tape, or RAM?"



TEXT and GRAPHICS. Every location in this game is illustraqted.

If you prefer a text-only adventure just type "TEXT". Type

"GRAPHICS" to turn the graphics back on.



The Very Big cave Adventure was written with The Quill, Patch,

The Illustrator and lots of N*scafe.





GENERAL FACTS



NOTES

