Why Atari 2600 Adventure is such a fun game

ataritimes.com ^ | Warren Robinett

[grundle]

Atari 2600 Adventure, programmed by Warren Robinett, is my favorite video game of all time.

Here are some interesting Atari 2600 websites:

The first chart on this page has the 128 colors from the Atari 2600 color palette. Put your cursor over any color to see the RGB values:

http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/200109/msg00285.html

Here's a message board for people who write their own Atari 2600 programs, which they offer for free as downloads to use on the various shareware Atari 2600 emulators (such as PCAE and Stella):

http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/

Here's an even better message board with more of the same kinds of discussions:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?sid=e312c08dcf95462f7671705390bff9f4

Here's a long list of links that are useful for anyone who's interested in writing Atari 2600 programs:

http://www.atariage.com/2600/programming/index.html

Here's a map of the kingdom in Adventure:

http://www.warrenrobinett.com/adventure/adv-map1.gif

Adventure was ranked #1 on Atari Times's list of the 20 greatest Atari games of all time. This is also where the above article comes from:

http://www.ataritimes.com/features/ataritop20_6.html

Here's the machine code for Adventure, along with some comments:

http://www.toadstool.net/games/adventure/source.htm

Here's where you can get some Atari 2600 emulators and all the games. The emulators are free shareware. It's perfectly legal to download any games that you already own the cartridges for:

http://www.atariage.com/2600/emulation/index.php?SystemID=2600

[rattrap]

Cool article, I remember that game fondly. I saw an interview with the creator of The Legend of Zelda the other day on TV and he was saying how the areas in the game we're inspiried by areas around his house in the mountains of Japan.

[Sybeck1]

I have it a one of those Atari games that plug straight into the TV.

[stainlessbanner]

2600ping

[Gefreiter]

*sigh* to be so carefree again.

I dug "Adventure". Never saw the secret room though.

[Wage Slave]

I absolutely adored that game. The text version was my introduction to computers and it was instant addiction.

[Charles Martel]

Those "direct-to-TV" games are slick. I've got one of the Atari "joystick only" type, and a Commodore 64 version as well. There are Intellivision versions, too, and I suspect it's only a matter of time until a TI-99/4A game hits the market.

BTW, there are wireless versions now. Too cool.

[finnman69]

Great game

[stainlessbanner]

[Zack Nguyen]

I used to play text games as a young boy. To this day I don't think I've ever enjoyed a game more than "Enchanter."

[Mr. Jeeves]

So who here also played an even earlier game, Rogue (on a VAX 11/780, no less), and loved it? ;)

[L98Fiero]

Wow, flashback!

I remember paying $200 for an Atari 2600 and $45 at Sears for the Asteroids game. That must have been the Christmas of '81 or so.

Funny thing is, new consoles and games cost about the same money now.

[L98Fiero]

I hated that freakin' dragon.

[Oberon]

I absolutely adored that game. The text version was my introduction to computers and it was instant addiction.

When I went to visit my cousin, a year older than me and a freshman at Virginia Tech, his girlfriend showed me an adventure game all the engineering students were playing on their 8086 portable PCs...it was called "Rogue." Again, love at first sight.

[MeanWestTexan]

Zork I, II, and III on an Apple II+ (48K and no lower case key, woo-hoo!) rocked.

InfoCom!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Infocom bump!

I absolutely loved "Enchanter". The hardest one though was Suspended". Never did finish that one. I may have to go into the cellar and hook up my Atari 800xl and boot it up and give it another shot.

[wingsof liberty]

Oh, what a trip!! Dont get eaten by the green dragon! The game made the funniest swallowing sound when a player got eaten. So that was 25 years ago...makes you wonder what kinds of games we will be playing 25 years from now!

[Oberon]

So who here also played an even earlier game, Rogue (on a VAX 11/780, no less), and loved it? ;)

I played the PC port of Rogue, and also PC Hack, Moria, and Angband.

Get out your "geek" crayon and color me "geek."

[CzarNicky]

How did I know that it was you who posted this.

[Qwinn]

Heh, yes, it was a great game!

My other favorite game for the 2600 was an Activision product... the one where you were in the jungle, jumping on crocodile heads and swinging over vines. I'm not saying it had the long list of qualities that Adventure had, but it had great graphics (for the 2600) and was just great fun for me.

Qwinn