Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Episode 784: The Cave (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-24 07:00:08
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Downloads

Content

By the early 2010s, adventure games (in the old-timey sense) were largely seen as a relic of the past. Then, out of nowhere, developer Double Fine pulled in $3.3 million dollars' worth of crowdfunding for the sake of bringing the genre back to life. And in the midst of this newfound interest came The Cave: a platforming/adventure game mashup spearheaded by Ron Gilbert, the guy who originally brought us Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey and Nina Matsumoto as they go spelunking and bump up against The Cave's admirable-but-awkward attempts to translate classic adventure game elements into something more palatable for the Xbox 360 crowd.

Files

Comments

G

I’m glad Bob and Nina re-visited this mixed bag “classic”. These adventure game discussions are wonderful!

Adam Fister

I played Maniac Mansion on NES as a child and loved it, so I was super-hyped for this when it came out on 360. Kind of a mixed bag, but I still love the feel of Ron Gilbert games, they have a charm all their own. Thanks for covering this!

Frankie's Cauldron

I remember playing this game! It was perhaps the first Rob Gilbert game i had ever really played! I have played many of them since then. Thank you for covering this little game together; i always enjoy listening to you.

Nicholas Funnell

First game profiled on the podcast that was crowd funded?

Patreon User

I would be interested in a sequel to The Cave called The Café. The Café is a trendy coffeeshop without a fixed menu: customers must order their drinks using an LLM prompt. In this randomized, point-and-click Monkeyvania, you control three baristas that must explore The Cave (that is connected to the basement of The Café) to obtain the obscure ingredients needed to fulfill seven outrageous customers' orders. Each barista's capabilities and gameplay style are influenced by legendary retro cave games (e.g., Pitfall II, H.E.R.O., Boulder Dash). Each customer's absurd coffee order features a unique story and puzzles, and, due to the randomizer, the orders would need to be completed in a nonlinear order. Excess ingredients collected in The Cave become available for future runs, allowing the baristas to end the day earlier to go home and enjoy their personal hobbies (e.g., speedrunning LeChuck's Revenge). Earnings also accumulate across runs, so better coffee equipment can be purchased for The Café to provide faster service to the seven customers with the ultimate goal being able to close for the day in less than one minute. For competition and replayability purposes, the online leaderboards would feature a complex and scary grading system similar to that of the TETRIS® THE GRAND MASTER arcade series.

Donovan

It's quite sad to me your unlikely to try finding a gen Z guest to talk about Humongous Entertainment. It's a well deep enough for more than one episode even. Probably more interest in that topic than this one too...

Nat

I was really excited for The Cave since I was a big Ron Gilbert fan. After finishing it, I haven’t thought about it until this podcast showed up. Even if the game ended up being just “ehh”, this was a nice little trip down memory lane.

graham

Always love a Bob and Nina episode! Great to hear some Ron Gilbert love even if I never got round to The Cave.

Mysterious Benefactor

I remember picking this up because Ron Gilbert and it not clicking. Still a really interesting game, even if the end result was kind of a misfire.

Hugh Franck

I bounced off The Cave early for all the reasons Bob and Nina describe. Unfortunately a lot of Double Fine games from that era have the same issue for me: interesting concept, cool art, funny writing, and execution that is lacking. That’s probably why Psychonauts 2 was such a pleasant surprise years later. At least from Ron Gilbert’s time working at Double Fine for The Cave we got that neat half-hour video of him and Tim Schafer talking about adventure games for the Broken Age documentary.

Jason J

Glad to see the return of the Nina and Bob Adventure Game Hour. I don’t generally love adventure games with multiple characters but a controller based adventure game sounds appealing. Unfortunately and ironically this game is not available on modern consoles where such a scheme would be most beneficial.

Kevin Mayo

I was closely following Double Fine at the time so I bought The Cave on day one. It was just okay but I only ever played through it once. So my memory of it is fonder than that of anyone who slogged through multiple times.

Devon Dale

And Ron Gilbert has announced a new game, just days after your podcast—please keep working your magic, Bob & Nina!

José Jacob

Listening to this episode while browsing screenshot feels like the best way to experience this game

pwlas

I wanted to like this game a lot more than I did. It was still fun but I wouldn’t want to replay it again. A full playthrough in 2013 and another complete playthrough several years later for a podcast is enough. Note: the second time around I also did all the good endings which I didn’t know was possible the first time. You have to attempt to return the item like six times. The gift shop manager will not let you return them unless you are very persistent.