ABSTRACT
In early 1976, a new game appeared on the few computers connected to the nationwide Department of Defense computer network called the ARPANET. The author of the program was William Crowther, a physics major with a degree from MIT who spent ten years at Lincoln Labs working on real-time control systems and then moved to defense contractor BBN, where he did important work on the ARPANET. Crowther was also an active rock climber and caver, as was his wife, Patricia, who gained a measure of fame in caving communities in 1972 by navigating a tiny, narrow passageway to prove the Flint Ridge Cave system in Kentucky connected to the Mammoth Cave, making it the largest cave complex in the world. Crowther integrated his caving with his computer work by spending evenings at BBN plotting out caving routes on a mainframe. 1
