Pyramid – aka Pyramid 2000 – is a clone of Colossal Cave Adventure that trades the original game’s fantasy tropes for an Egyptian-themed pyramid crawler. Radio Shack published the game in 1979 for the TRS-80.
Quote
I knew from my research that the cassette recorder functoned as the TRS-80’s “tape drive”. It stored data as analog sound on magneetic audiotapes. When Halliday had first started programming, the poor kid hadn’t even had access to a floppy disk drive. He’d had to store his code on cassette tapes. A shoebox sat beside the tape drive, filled with dozens of these cassettes. Most of them were text adventure games: Raaka-tu, Bedlam, Pyramid, and Madness and the Minotaur.
Game Play
As with Colossal Cave and other text-based games, the player uses text commands (“North”, “West”, “Look”, “Open Door”) to navigate the game. It begins with a text prompt:
WELCOME TO PYRAMID!! YOU ARE STANDING BEFORE THE ENTRANCE OF A PYRAMID. AROUND YOU IS A DESERT.
From here, you enter the game’s namesake pyramid, explore its myriad chambers, and attempt to gather (ok, loot) as many treasures as you can. Threats come in the form of logic puzzles and monsters such as the inevitable Mummy.
Impressions
I loved Colossal Cave as a kid, so you’d think I’d have an affinity for this game. Instead, it’s a distracting echo of the game I knew so well. While many of the descriptions have changed, the layout is the same, and the challenges are only slightly tweaked.
For example, there’s a “bird statue” in Pyramid where there’s a bird in Colossal Cave. There’s a giant serpent in Pyramid and there’s a giant snake in Colossal Cave (both require the use of the bird to drive off the snake). The Mummy in Pyramid takes the place of the pirate; both steal your stuff.
Is it fun? Yes, but you’re better off playing the original Colossal Cave instead of this re-skinned version.
The Ready Player One Replay is an ongoing exploration of the games that inspired the novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Love it or hate it, there’s value in revisiting our geeky roots.
High Scores
- My High Score: YOU SCORED 0005 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 0220, USING 0035 TURNS.
Resources
Where to Play
- Figment Fly: Pyramid 2000
- Computer Archeology: Pyramid
- Gaming After 40: Adventure of the Week: Pyramid 2000