# Colossal Cave Adventure

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Colossal Cave Adventure and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free text adventure that people say defined the genre, with a well-regarded Spanish port and a readable overview of its source code.

## Why people recommend it

- Good ports and source code overviews (2 comments): "the Spanish one it's really great, with even the backstory on creating the game perfectly translated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45998898)) "A nice overview of the source code for that is" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45998813))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Zork](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zork.md): 20 recommend
- [AI Dungeon](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ai-dungeon.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Colossal Cave Adventure", https://hackerapproved.com/p/colossal-cave-adventure/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).