''Adventureland ''is the first

text adventure '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

video game for microcomputers, released by

Scott Adams Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated '' Dilbert'' comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. ''Dilbert'' gained natio ...

in 1978. The game involves searching for thirteen lost artifacts in a fantasy setting. Its success led Adams to form

Adventure International Adventure International was an American video game publishing company that existed from 1979 until 1986. It was started by Scott and Alexis Adams. Their games were notable for being the first implementation of the adventure genre to run on a m ...

, which went on to publish thirteen similar games in the ''Adventure'' series, each in different settings.

Gameplay

1982 graphical re-release ''Adventureland'' is controlled through the use of written commands. These can consist of a single word, such as those used for player character movement, including north, south, east, west, up, and down. They can also take the form of simple, two-word

verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

phrases, such as "climb tree". Although the game can recognize about 120 words, the parser only takes the first three letters into account. This means not only that the parser occasionally misidentifies words, but also that commands can be truncated: "lig lam" would be interpreted as "light lamp." In order to complete the game, the player has to collect the thirteen lost artifacts: A statue of Paul Bunyan's blue ox, ''Babe'', the jeweled fruit, the golden fish, a dragon's egg, a golden net, a

magic carpet A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction. It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its users to their destination. In literature One o ...

, a diamond necklace, a diamond bracelet, a pot of rubies, the "royal honey", a crown, a magic mirror, and a "firestone."

Development

''Adventureland'', Adams' first program, is similar to the earlier ''

Colossal Cave Adventure ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...

'', though slightly scaled down in comparison. The

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

for ''Adventureland'' was published in '' SoftSide'' magazine in 1980 and the database format was subsequently used in other interpreters such as Brian Howarth's '' Mysterious Adventures'' series. ''Adventureland'' was written for the

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

, then ported to other systems, most of which didn't exist in 1978: Apple II, Atari 8-bit family,

TI-99/4A The TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A are home computers released by Texas Instruments in 1979 and 1981, respectively. Based on the Texas Instruments TMS9900 microprocessor originally used in minicomputers, the TI-99/4 was the first 16-bit home computer. ...

PET A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...

, VIC-20, Commodore 64, IBM PC,

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

Dragon 32/64 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before m ...

, and

Exidy Sorcerer The Sorcerer is a home computer system released in 1978 by the video game company Exidy. Based on the Zilog Z80 and the general layout of the emerging S-100 standard, the Sorcerer was comparatively advanced when released, especially when compar ...

. A cut-down, three treasure version entitled ''Adventure 0: Special Sampler'' was also sold at a lower price. In 1982, ''Adventureland'' was re-released with graphics, thus enabling the player to view visible representations of the scenery and objects."Scott Adams Classic Adventures"
Adventureland, retrieved April 20, 2009

Reception

Mark Herro for '' Dragon'' commented that "I can't recommend ANY version of Scott Adams' ADVENTURE series highly enough. Beg, borrow, or steal a chance to play ADVENTURE!!!!!"

References

External links

"Adventureland game walkthrough part 1 commodore 64 version."
YouTube, 15 February 2013, accessed 31 October 2020 * {{Adventure International 1978 video games 1970s interactive fiction Adventure games Adventure International games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commercial video games with freely available source code Commodore 64 games Commodore PET games VIC-20 games DOS games Dragon 32 games TRS-80 games Video games developed in the United States ZX Spectrum games