Micro Adventure is the title of a series of books for young adult readers, published by Scholastic, Inc. during the 1980s. Created by Eileen Buckholtz and Ruth Glick, the YA series combined adventure stories with computer activities. The books are noted for the inclusion of short

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

type-in program A type-in program or type-in listing was computer source code printed in a home computer magazine or book. It was meant to be entered via the keyboard by the reader and then saved to cassette tape or floppy disk. The result was a usable game, ...

s related to the plot of the story that the reader could type into their computers, and also for the use of second-person narration (rather like the

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

series, though unlike those, Micro Adventure storylines could not be influenced by the decisions of the reader). Through the second-person narration, the reader took the part of Orion, a computer expert and agent for the Adventure Connection Team, and followed the action in the continuing struggle against ACT’s nemesis, BRUTE (Bureau of Random Unlawful Terror and Evil). The plots generally resembled those typically found in other works of the

secret agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

, ranging from

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aboard a

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to android doubles of the

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, but differ from other works for their different approach to twists, and a lack of oversimplification. Most of the programs, even “shoot-em-up” games, were tailored towards novice programmers and designed to be small (none were over 2 K in file size, a must given the limitations of some personal computers available at the time, such as the

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. ...

). Instructions were included on how to "tweak" the programs to make them run on many popular home computers of the time. As a bonus, an appendix to each book gave step-by-step analyses of each of the programs in that particular book as a method of teaching simple programming theory and construction. In 2017, Auri Rahimzadeh created a website to read the books and enter their programs in an on-page emulator.

List of titles

Micro Adventure series * 1. ''Space Attack: Micro Adventure Number One'' by Eileen Buckholtz and Ruth Glick (1984; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 2. ''Jungle Quest: Micro Adventure Number Two'' by Megan Stine and H. William Stine (1984; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 3. ''Million Dollar Gamble: Micro Adventure Number Three'' by Chassie L. West (1984; ) * 4. ''Time Trap (Micro Adventure, No 4)'' by Jean Favors (1984; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 5. ''Mindbenders (Micro Adventure, Vol. 5)'' by Ruth Glick and Eileen Buckholtz (1984; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 6. ''Robot Race (Micro Adventure, Vol. 6)'' by David Anthony Kraft (1984; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 7. ''Doom Stalker (Micro Adventure, No 7)'' by Ruth Glick and Eileen Buckholtz (1985; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 8. ''The Big Freeze (Micro Adventure, No 8)'' by Jean M. Favors (1985; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 9. ''Dead Ringer (Micro Adventure No 9)'' by Chassie West (1985; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * 10. ''Spellbound (Micro Adventure, No 10)'' by Megan Stine and H. William Stine (1985; Scholastic, Inc.; ) Magic Micro series * ''Captain Kid and the Pirates (Magic Micro No 1)'' by Glick, Buckholtz (1985; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * ''Superworld (Magic Micro No 2)'' by

Steven Otfinoski Steven Otfinoski is an author and playwright from Connecticut. Most of his books are aimed at young readers. He has written well in excess of 100 books. He is also the author of ''African Americans in the Performing Arts (A to Z of African Americ ...

(1985; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * ''Wizards of Wonder (Magic Micro Adventure, No 3)'' by Megan Stine and H. William Stine (1984; Scholastic, Inc.; ) * ''The Cats of Castle Mountain (Magic Micro, No 4)'' by Buckholtz, Glick (1985; Scholastic, Inc.; )

Links

{{Portal, Children and Young Adult Literature * Micro Adventure website by Auri Rahimzadeh: https://auri-microadventure.azurewebsites.net/ American young adult novels Novel series Home computer software Scholastic Corporation books