Holy crap! This game looks exciting! I should have played it!
Adventureland by Scott Adams
Published by Adventure International
Original Release Year: (Non-Graphic Version) 1979, (Graphic Version) 1982
Version Played: Commodore 64
This review has been slightly edited from its originally published version on my home page, Places & Predators.
Scott Adams' Adventure was the first text adventure game I ever played. I heard about Crowther's Colossal Cave Adventure from a friend in elementary school who had played it on his father's computer at work. His vivid descriptions, probably more vivid than the descriptions by Crowther (or was it Wood?), stuck in my head and I couldn't stop daydreaming about this fantastic game with the huge serpent and the bird in the cage and a magic black rod! Hmm, those elements sound like the basis of a pornographic B-movie.
Published by Adventure International
Original Release Year: (Non-Graphic Version) 1979, (Graphic Version) 1982
Version Played: Commodore 64
This review has been slightly edited from its originally published version on my home page, Places & Predators.
Scott Adams' Adventure was the first text adventure game I ever played. I heard about Crowther's Colossal Cave Adventure from a friend in elementary school who had played it on his father's computer at work. His vivid descriptions, probably more vivid than the descriptions by Crowther (or was it Wood?), stuck in my head and I couldn't stop daydreaming about this fantastic game with the huge serpent and the bird in the cage and a magic black rod! Hmm, those elements sound like the basis of a pornographic B-movie.
The version with which I was was familiar.
My first encounter with Adventureland was on the Commodore Vic-20 because there was almost nothing else to do on the Vic-20. I tried to write my own programs of the types of games I wanted to play but crashed out when I was completely confused by GOSUB routines. Inevitably, the Vic-20 wound up being a computer I mostly used to play the first five Scott Adams text adventures. I eventually sold the computer to my Uncle Jack who gave it to my cousins on Christmas. They had no interest in the text adventures and simply played River Raid for hours. The heathens!
This cover represents over half of the game's locations!
The game is incredibly simple with really just one puzzle that kept me guessing for months (which I'll get to later). These games came on cartridges for the Vic-20 but I don't remember how much they cost. I loved reading and I loved role playing games and I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books so text adventures were right up my alley. Unfortunately, Scott Adams' first five games could be solved in a single day. I was ultimately dissatisfied with the meager amount of entertainment each one delivered and went back to playing with my Star Wars figures in the backyard.
I like that "superb graphics" is in quotes. Honesty!
The history of the game is far more interesting than the game itself. But since this blog isn't about history, might I recommend a thoroughly edutaining blog that is: The Digital Antiquarian. [I know if you're reading this you almost certainly know about that but I wrote this review so long ago that this might have been new information back then! And I'm not just a fan of the site because he gave me a shout out in his history on this game! Although I think that's how I found the site! By Googling "Grunion Guy"!]
This isn't a must play text adventure because of the quality of the game and the puzzles. But I think it's a must play simply because it was many people's introduction to a genre that would take over the home computer gaming world for at least a decade. Plus it's short and it's easy and there's a bear that's just begging for it.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
When I first finished the game, I did so with only twelve of the thirteen treasures because the only way I knew how to get past the bear was to feed it the *ROYAL HONEY*. I probably spent weeks going back to that bear's ledge trying to figure out a way past him without sacrificing one of my treasures. One night when my friend Sal (now a QAnon anti-vaxxer) was spending the night, I was showing him the game hoping that he might have some insight into getting past the bear. After trying multiple inputs that got me nothing but an inane response from the parser, I, in a fit of showing off to my friend, typed "SCREW BEAR." When the game responded with "The bear is so startled, it falls of the ledge," my friend Sal and I erupted into laughter. I couldn't imagine why bestiality was the answer to the problem, but I didn't really question it much either. I had won! I beat the game! And I had a good story to tell when I found out, years later, that the parser only accepted the first three or four letters of any word and the answer was really just "SCREAM."
Fittingly enough, Scott Adams tells nearly the identical story on an extra feature on Jason Scott's documentary Get Lamp [Coin #0359 from the Kickstarter!]. It was such a treat to hear Scott Adams recount the story of a fan that was the same exact experience I had gone through. And, I imagine, a legion of other frustrated gamers. When in doubt, screw it!
SCORES!
Game Title: Derivative!
Puzzles: I solved them when I was twelve o they can't be that hard.
Gameplay: Aged.
Graphics: Not very good when they exist at all.
Concept: Double derivative!
Fun Time: Less than an hour but that's because I remembered how to solve the game from when I was twelve.
This isn't a must play text adventure because of the quality of the game and the puzzles. But I think it's a must play simply because it was many people's introduction to a genre that would take over the home computer gaming world for at least a decade. Plus it's short and it's easy and there's a bear that's just begging for it.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
When I first finished the game, I did so with only twelve of the thirteen treasures because the only way I knew how to get past the bear was to feed it the *ROYAL HONEY*. I probably spent weeks going back to that bear's ledge trying to figure out a way past him without sacrificing one of my treasures. One night when my friend Sal (now a QAnon anti-vaxxer) was spending the night, I was showing him the game hoping that he might have some insight into getting past the bear. After trying multiple inputs that got me nothing but an inane response from the parser, I, in a fit of showing off to my friend, typed "SCREW BEAR." When the game responded with "The bear is so startled, it falls of the ledge," my friend Sal and I erupted into laughter. I couldn't imagine why bestiality was the answer to the problem, but I didn't really question it much either. I had won! I beat the game! And I had a good story to tell when I found out, years later, that the parser only accepted the first three or four letters of any word and the answer was really just "SCREAM."
Fittingly enough, Scott Adams tells nearly the identical story on an extra feature on Jason Scott's documentary Get Lamp [Coin #0359 from the Kickstarter!]. It was such a treat to hear Scott Adams recount the story of a fan that was the same exact experience I had gone through. And, I imagine, a legion of other frustrated gamers. When in doubt, screw it!
SCORES!
Game Title: Derivative!
Puzzles: I solved them when I was twelve o they can't be that hard.
Gameplay: Aged.
Graphics: Not very good when they exist at all.
Concept: Double derivative!
Fun Time: Less than an hour but that's because I remembered how to solve the game from when I was twelve.
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