10 "Firsts" That Changed Video Games Forever

First: Colossal Cave Adventure (1976)

Many of the earliest text adventures are a mystery, the games themselves undocumented. As such, Colossal Cave Adventure represents the oldest recorded example of the genre, released in 1976 on PDP-10. In the game, players are tasked with exploring a mysterious cave rumoured to contain vast treasures, the objective being to acquire as much wealth as possible in a single playthrough.

As a work of interactive fiction, the gameplay in Colossal Cave Adventure consists of typing simple text commands, moving the character from one location to the next, instructing them to interact with the environment, collect objects and access various items located in the inventory. Remarkably influential, the game is considered the first of its kind, and is often credited with pioneering the entire genre, as well as influencing aspects of the RPG and roguelike genres.

The game was also the first to introduce fantasy into video games, and is considered a precursor to the modern adventure game, a genre which would later be popularised by Sierra Entertainment. In 1979, an attempt was made to recreate the game graphically on Atari 2600, and the result is considered the first known example of an action-adventure game, meaning Colossal Cave Adventure singlehandedly created two distinct genres: traditional adventure games and action-adventure games.