Why Atari 2600 Adventure is such a fun game

ataritimes.com ^ | Warren Robinett

[Who dat?]

From the “real” game…

big snip…

…

YOU’RE IN NUGGET OF GOLD ROOM.
A THREE FOOT BLACK ROD WITH A RUSTY STAR ON AN END LIES NEARBY.

TAKE

OK

N

YOU ARE AT ONE END OF A VAST HALL STRETCHING FORWARD OUT OF SIGHT TO THE WEST. THERE ARE OPENINGS TO EITHER SIDE. NEARBY, A WIDE STONE STAIRCASE LEADS DOWNWARD. THE HALL IS FILLED WITH WISPS OF WHITE MIST SWAYING TO AND FRO ALMOST AS IF ALIVE. A COLD WIND BLOWS UP THE STAIRCASE THERE IS A PASSAGE AT THE TOP OF THE DOME BEHIND YOU.

ROUGH STONE STEPS LEAD UP THE DOME.

W

YOU’RE ON ‘EAST’ BANK OF FISSURE.

THROW ROD

OK

E

YOUR LAMP IS GETTING DIM. YOU’D BEST START WRAPPING THIS UP, UNLESS YOU CAN FIND SOME FRESH BATTERIES. I SEEM TO RECALL THERE’S A VENDING MACHINE IN THE MAZE. BRING SOME COINS WITH YOU.

YOU’RE IN THE HALL OF MISTS.

ROUGH STONE STEPS LEAD UP THE DOME.

D

YOU’RE IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING WITH PASSAGES OFF IN ALL DIRECTIONS.

N

YOU ARE IN A LOW N/S PASSAGE AT A HOLE IN THE FLOOR. THE HOLE GOES DOWN TO AN E/W PASSAGE.

D

YOU ARE IN DIRTY PASSAGE.

W

YOU’RE IN DUSTY ROCK ROOM.

D

THE SEPULCHRAL VOICE INTONES, ‘THE CAVE IS NOW CLOSED!’ AS THE ECHOES FADE, THERE IS A BLINDING FLASH OF LIGHT (AND A SMALL PUFF OF ORANGE SMOKE) . . . . AS YOUR EYES REFOCUS, YOU LOOK AROUND AND FIND…

YOU ARE AT THE NORTHEAST END OF AN IMMENSE ROOM, EVEN LARGER THAN THE GIANT ROOM. IT APPEARS TO BE A REPOSITORY FOR THE ‘ADVENTURE’ PROGRAM. MASSIVE TORCHES FAR OVERHEAD BATHE THE ROOM WITH SMOKY YELLOW LIGHT. SCATTERED ABOUT YOU CAN BE SEEN A PILE OF BOTTLES (ALL OF THEM EMPTY), A NURSERY OF YOUNG BEANSTALKS MURMERING QUIETLY, A BED OF OYSTERS, A BUNDLE OF BLACK RODS WITH RUSTY STARS ON THEIR ENDS, AND A COLLECTION OF BRASS LANTERNS. OFF TO ONE SIDE A GREAT MANY DWARVES ARE SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR, SNORING LOUDLY. A SIGN NEARBY READS – ‘DO NOT DISTURB THE DWARVES!’ AN IMMENSE MIRROR IS HANGING AGAINST ONE WALL, AND STRETCHES TO THE OTHER END OF THE ROOM, WHERE VARIOUS OTHER SUNDRY OBJECTS CAN BE GLIMPSED DIMLY IN THE DISTANCE

SW

YOU ARE AT THE SOUTHWEST END OF THE REPOSITORY. TO ONE SIDE IS A PIT FULL OF FIERCE GREEN SNAKES. ON THE OTHER SIDE IS A ROW OF SMALL WICKER CAGES, EACH OF WHICH CONTAINS A LITTLE SULKING BIRD. IN ONE CORNER IS A BUNDLE OF BLACK RODS WITH RUSTY MARKS ON THEIR ENDS. A LARGE NUMBER OF VELVET PILLOWS ARE SCATTERED ABOUT ON THE FLOOR. A VAST MIRROR STRETCHES OFF TO THE NORTHEAST. AT YOUR FEET IS A LARGE STEEL GRATE NEXT TO WHICH IS A SIGN WHICH READS – ‘TREASURE VAULT. KEYS IN THE MAIN OFFICE.’

THE GRATE IS LOCKED.

TAKE ROD

OK

NE

YOU’RE AT NE END.

DROP ROD

SW

YOU’RE AT SW END.

THE GRATE IS LOCKED.

BLAST

THERE IS A LOUD EXPLOSION, AND A 20 – FOOT HOLE APPEARS IN THE FAR WALL, BURYING THE DWARVES IN THE RUBBLE. YOU MARCH THROUGH THE HOLE AND FIND YOURSELF IN THE MAIN OFFICE, WHERE A CHEERING BAND OF FRIENDLY ELVES CARRY THE CONQUERING ADVENTURER OFF INTO THE ORANGE SUNSET.

YOU SCORED 350 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 350 USING 365 TURNS.

ALL OF ADVENTUREDOM GIVES TRIBUTE TO YOU, ADVENTURE GRANDMASTER!

TO ACHIEVE THE NEXT HIGHER RATING WOULD BE A NEAT TRICK! CONGRATULATIONS!!

DO YOU WANT TO PLAY AGAIN?

N

--------

And that is all.

[Sir Gawain]

I've moved on to World of Warcraft. It rocks.

[GraniteStateConservative]

The guy who played Tim in the BBC series The Office plays Arthur Dent. It should be great!

[Sprite518]

Yes I had an Atari 2600 too. I loved it. I use to play those games for hours in the Winter months back when I was living in Northern Virginia. We use to love Warlords, Space Invaders, and Missile Command.

[avg_freeper]

I want a remake of the game where you get to rip the wings off the bat as it screams in pain.

That #@*%&! sword stealing b@st@!# !@#@$@!@

[Eagle of Liberty]

Zork was a great text game too.

[avg_freeper]

Does the Commodore 64 one have Load Runner on it? If so I've gotta get one.

[ShadowAce]

[NathanR]

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

I bought those games as soon as they came out on the Osborne I which was before the Apple.

I the originial Zork better that I had played a few years before. Unfortunately, it could not be put on a 5.25" floppy. I had played it on a DEC20. (It had been written for a DEC10 at MIT.)

[zencat]

I played Adventure on the 2600 with such obsession, that 20 years later you put a joystick in my hand and I can cruise right through the mazes without even thinking.

Still have the entire area stored as a cognitive map in my head. Seriously.

[BigDaddyTX]

I may be selling my cocktail table arcade cabinet that has about 3,800 games loaded on it. You can play side-by-side or head-to-head. So this is not a direct solicitation, just thinking out loud.

[timtoews5292004]

Lucas released one with star wars episode III related games that is in the shape of Darth Vaders Helmet.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I would never tell my wife about my misspent youth.

I have.

I have the lapel button from the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (the one that says 'Don't Panic' on it) mounted on the corner of the monitor of my main PC. Based on my wife's standard response to all computer application errors, I felt I had too.

By the by...did you get the Babel fish? I did. Got the tee-shirt to prove it.

[timtoews5292004]

3,800 in a little tabletop box like that? wow. what kinds of games are we talking about, and what kind of system did you have to build into the box to make it run?

[yawningotter]

Cool! I still remember my way around the maze. (at least on level one)

[dhs12345]

How true! I remember playing Adventure. What a fun game.

Adventure and Moria are still my favorites after many years of playing rpgs. Moria originally ran on a Vax system under VMS and was later ported over to the PC. I think you can still get a copy on the Internet and even a copy for your Palm Pilot.

[aft_lizard]

I never had a any atari system, although we did have pong, I think that was intellivision. But it was built into the system. I fell in love with rpg's while playing legend of zelda on the snes or famicom to you nipponese out there.

[Mannaggia l'America]

I loved Star Raiders.

I never understood the adoration for that game. Back in the day, I read constant glowing reviews of it, so I got it for my Atari 800XL (which replaced my Atari 400). It seemed like most of the time I was just staring at stars flying by...

For the 2600, my favorite games were Kaboom and Yar's Revenge.

I had Yar before it was even in stores. My dad had a friend who worked at a chip fabrication plant and he would swipe a handful of ROMs. He had a little business going of "converting" Atari cartridges from one game to another. For example, he could take your Asteroids and "convert" it to Pac Man for $15. He would take out the Asteroids ROM and put in a Pac Man ROM - then he had the Asteroids ROM to "convert" someone else.

I was his "salesman" at my school. :-) In return for my sales, he gave me a cartridge that had a type of ZIF socket (Zero Insertion Force) sticking out of it and ROMs for all of the 2600 games. So I would just have this special cartridge inserted into the 2600 and pop in and out the ROM chips to play different games.

[Qwinn]

"Put the string in the brick" was the silliest command in all three Zorks."

AMEN! I was able to get through all 3 Zorks without having to seek help (not saying it was easy, just saying I was -able- to). But the stupid "put the string in the brick" (isn't it obvious that makes dynamite?!), with no variation in syntax accepted, was just utterly ridiculous.

Infocom games were the -best-.

Does anyone else remember "A Mind Forever Voyaging"? Yeah, it was a liberal anti-conservative propaganda piece, but at the time I was too young to recognize that, and at the time I thought it was quite fun and well written.

I'm still pissed that they never made a sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide. (speaking of which, has anyone seen the promos for the movie? I caught the promo for the first time yesterday - looks awesome!)

Qwinn

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It seems like a hundred years ago that I played Infocom games.

You can play them again. Well, at least THHGTTG.

Check it out here.