A little Robinett project

[Chris++]

A brief intro: Adventure's my favorite video game, rivaled only by the Doom episodes. It was the first graphical exploration-adventure video game (the Superman "engine" was, according to some reports, developed first; but Superman was released later), and as that's my favorite genre, this archetype of so many games that came after still has to top my list -- especially considering the surprising freshness returned to the game in the emulated PS2 Atari Anthology version, which actually randomizes Game 3, allowing for a lot more object-deployment configurations than the relative few found in the original program.

 

As a little 30th-Anniversary present concerning his arrival at Atari, I was thinking of sending Warren Robinett, a guy who's been very nice about my questions over the past few years, an e-mail with comments from people in the classic-gaming world regarding Adventure. Especially nifty would be remarks about what the game meant to you as a kid, what it still might represent to you, how you think it affected electronic gaming in general, what reputation it deserves in spite of its somewhat primitive design (remember, he did all that with 4K....well, actually, 1/20 less than 4K, because he had room for the Easter Egg -- the first ever, by the way), etc. Anyone who'd like to add a post to this thread should do so, and if you'd like to include your real name (or PM me), that would be extra super-duper nifty. I'll collate them, send them all to him (unless they're nasty or something, of course), and run the finished product by you guys before e-mailing it.

 

I'm going to ask my occasional correspondent Bill Kunkel (the Game Doctor) to offer a comment, and it would be great to have designers chime in as well (Thomas, Albert, et al.), not to mention anyone who knows about coding on the VCS (RT, etc.) or even bad-ass collectors (like Matt the Master of Prototypes). But really, anyone who'd like to provide an actual name is encouraged to "sign this card."

 

Unless, of course, most folks think this is a ridiculous idea. Is it kinda dumb? Too regressive, since it focuses on a past achievement? I could put some qualifying words at the beginning of the e-mail to that effect, I suppose. It just seemed like a neat way to thank the guy who made Adventure in spite of the fact that Ray Kassar had told him not to. One of the most influential defiances in electronic entertainment history, to be sure.

[PacManPlus]

I think that's a wonderful idea!

 

Adventure was the first game I was hooked on! Trying to find 'hidden screens' and the like.

 

He's a perfect example for thinking 'outside the box'. One of the best first generation home video games - if not *the* best.

[A.J. Franzman]

Adventure's easter egg was not the first, though it was perhaps the first widely-known.

[Uzumaki]

Adventure has been my favorite for a long time and it is still a fun game to play even though there isn't anything new. It's the random item arrangement at game 3 that keeps the game interesting. (including the occasional unwindable game because the key was nowhere to be found and presumed locked inside the castle)

[Chris++]

Thanks, guys.

 

Nobody else has anything to add?

[joeybastard]

The fact that I still can't win Adventure on the hard setting is proof of it's lasting greatness. I spent hours with Adventure as a kid and still love it.

[sukotsu9]

I didn't own Adventure as a kid but picked it up later (about 2000). After reading all the raves, I figured I'd try it out. LOVE IT! It's very different from most games, including those made years after, and the maze screens are great. The challenge is enough to keep replay up - a factor all video games wrestle with. One of the 2600's top titles, to me.

[Cassidy Nolen]

You know, maybe a nice plaque or something with a shadowbox commemorating his work would be nice to send to him.

 

Just a thought. He is a great person in addition to a brilliant designer. I think that was one of the most influential games in the history of video entertainment. The graphical representation of Scott Adams Adventure game was such a mind bending event I think few games could hope to have such impact. You can hack on his ducks, make fun of using the ball as the player and other limitations but I think it is/was one of the great games of all time.

 

Cassidy

[Chris++]

Not a bad idea at all, Cassidy. I have no clue how to get something like that together, though. I suppose I could search for "plaques" on Google and then talk Warren into giving me his address without spoiling the surprise. (Assuming large packages can be delivered through all the long, black lines protecting his house...)

 

Adventure's easter egg was not the first, though it was perhaps the first widely-known.

 

Which one was before Adventure? I'm curious.

[fire!fire!]

I was given an Adventure cart by a friend or I took it and never gave it back - can't remember...but it is funny I never really noticed or thought about the simple "player" representation...the square. It didn't have to look like a person or a creature or anything. The castles and dragons were cool, the sword was sword-like. I don't have a clue about programming or how hard the game was to make or anything, but I enjoyed playing Adventure.

[supercat]

(the Superman "engine" was, according to some reports, developed first; but Superman was released later)

 

According to WR, Atari wanted to do a Superman game based upon the engine he was working on, but he had no interest in the project. He handed off the engine he had at that point and continued work on Adventure. Superman predated Adventure in the Sears catalog; I don't know how the developments of the two games related chronologically. Adventure is IMHO the better of the two games, despite the lack of a timer, because the geography makes sense. Superman is in some ways more sophisticated and its color sprites were way cool back-in-the-day, but the reduction in flicker obtained by using the Ball should not be overlooked.

 

It's interesting, though, that both games run the object multiplexer at 30Hz. Running it at 60Hz would have made flicker less annoying I would think.

[supercat]

Which one was before Adventure? I'm curious.

 

A number of games for the Channel F included easter eggs, though I've heard stories that the creator liked to show off by triggering it on store machines. Adventure's easter egg remained a secret for many years, and was discovered by players following clues.

[ActionGeek]

I loved playing Adventure way back when I first got it for the 2600. As cool as the randomizer effect is on Game 3, I often imagine what the game might be like IF someone was to utilize MORE memory, KEEP the same primitive style of graphics, but ADD MORE maze or beasts or castles or rooms to castles or maybe even a 2-players at the same time mode or an accumulating of gold / other treasure kind of game play...

 

I love the fact that there are "franchises" of games these days (i.e. Grand Theft Auto, all the Mario games, etc.), but I wish that the retro-Atari 2600 game designers would think about ADDING TO classic games like Adventure instead of just upping the level of graphics. SIMPLE was perfect for Adventure, but why not have a bigger memory-size cartridge with just MORE classic Adventure in it?

 

Just an idea...

[Cassidy Nolen]

Does anyone have a connection to getting a plaque done? Maybe something with an image engraved of the cartridge art? Just an idea.

 

I'd throw a few bucks into it. I bet a number of people here would do that.

 

Cassidy

 

BTW, as far as I know, the kid that found the sprite was unassisted other than he knew that two items were on screen because it flickered. I can't recall if it was Kent's book or one of the others I read it in. I don't think he had clues. He did then submit it to Kunkels magazine (that might be the book I saw it in, cant recall).

[Zonie]

Adventure was the type of game that, in its simplicity, took the gamer into the surreal medieval world by blending just the right balance of graphics and imagination. A square block representing the player was just such a feature. I looked at it as the top of my head as I was looking down on the world I was walking around in. That's all I needed to draw me into the Adventure World. The catacombs were a unique and the ingenious way they were depicted used to send chills down my spine whenever a Dragon entered. Put simply, this game rocks.

[supercat]

I don't think he had clues. He did then submit it to Kunkels magazine (that might be the book I saw it in, cant recall).

 

Ah, but he did have clues.

 

From a programming perspective, WR could just have easily buried a purple dot in one of the dead-end rooms with purple walls, and made it so that it behaved identically to the gray dot in allowing people to pass through the magic wall. Had he done so, it would have been no more difficult for a player who knew where the dot was to find it, but in all likelihood nobody would have ever found it.

 

The dot was placed in a room that people would naturally enter while carrying an object in addition to the Surround. Thus, players could be expected to encounter the flickering it caused; curious players might wonder at the reason for the flicker. If observant, they would notice parts of that room were only accessible via the bridge, and would seek to explore them. Such exploration would likely result in at least some of them finding the dot.

 

Once the dot was found, players would probably be a little puzzled at what to do with it, but would receive a clue in the magic door room. The magic door takes on the color of one of the objects in the room. A white object turns the door red. A gold object turns it gold. What would a gray object do?

 

Once a player happened to bring a gray object into the magic door room along with another object, the fact that the door would flash invisible would provide a clue that perhaps the player could go through it. In fact the player can go through it, of course, with the well-known effect.

 

The beautiful thing about Adventure's easter egg, and a reason it remains my favorite, is that it is designed to be discovered by a suitably curious and observant player, even if the player has no idea that there is an easter egg. I can think of no other easter egg which rewards a suitably inquisitive player, though some Infocom games perhaps come close (the "credits" eggs aren't worthy of such mention, but some tricky situations are rewarded with rather satisfying messages).

[supercat]

The catacombs were a unique and the ingenious way they were depicted used to send chills down my spine whenever a Dragon entered. Put simply, this game rocks.

 

The real key, IMHO, to Adventure's power? The player-shaped hole in the dragons' bellies, and the way that when the player was eaten he was pretty much stuck but could move just a tiny bit.

 

Are there any other games, before or since, where players get so graphically swallowed alive?

[fire!fire!]

 

Are there any other games, before or since, where players get so graphically swallowed alive?

 

I never thought of it that way and I can't remember any other examples. I don't know if I would rather have that happen to me or to fry in Berzerk. Pretty creepy!

[Spud]

Does anyone have a connection to getting a plaque done? Maybe something with an image engraved of the cartridge art? Just an idea.

 

I'd throw a few bucks into it. I bet a number of people here would do that.

 

Cassidy

 

I used to manage a store for these people 4 or 5 years ago, we could take a scan of a picture and laser it into a crystal plate plus text under or over, wherever you want, it was all new back then when I was doing it and really cool but now I think you can have it done at Walmart in the photo area. Still a nice product. We charged like 85.00 for something in a 5x7 but I'm sure the prices have dropped in the last few years. P.S if you do this get the lighted base made for it, makes all the difference.

 

http://www.lasercrystalworks.com/pictures.htm

 

Just an idea.

[supercat]

Does anyone have a connection to getting a plaque done? Maybe something with an image engraved of the cartridge art? Just an idea.

 

I have a nice engraving machine at work, though perhaps if this is supposed to be a colaborative effort (as opposed to being an award from me) it may be better to go elsewhere. Still, it might be possible for me to engrave something and then pass it on to someone who could paint and mount it or something, and have it be a collaborative effort that way.

[accousticguitar]

I loved playing Adventure way back when I first got it for the 2600. As cool as the randomizer effect is on Game 3, I often imagine what the game might be like IF someone was to utilize MORE memory, KEEP the same primitive style of graphics, but ADD MORE maze or beasts or castles or rooms to castles or maybe even a 2-players at the same time mode or an accumulating of gold / other treasure kind of game play...

 

I love the fact that there are "franchises" of games these days (i.e. Grand Theft Auto, all the Mario games, etc.), but I wish that the retro-Atari 2600 game designers would think about ADDING TO classic games like Adventure instead of just upping the level of graphics. SIMPLE was perfect for Adventure, but why not have a bigger memory-size cartridge with just MORE classic Adventure in it?

 

Just an idea...

 

Try playing "Misadventure" in the 2600 hacks section. It has over 100 rooms and 5 dragons. It's not quite finished, but it's very playable.

[Lord Thag]

I remember getting to use the kiosk in Montgomery Wards as a kid while Mom did the shopping. My brother and I would get to play the 2600 for an hour or so when she shopped there, and for us, it was like a trip to Disneyland. Out of all the games in the demo unit, Adventure was the one we always played. It always had a special charm all it's own. Running around the various castles and dodging the weird, duck dragons while looking for the $@!% sword was hilarious and fun. It still is, thirty years later. I still pop the game in occasionally for a quick romp. Anybody can program a game. It takes some talent to program one that people remember and play thirty years after the release. Gotta love them duck-dragons!

[+Random Terrain]

I read about Adventure and Warren Robinett's easter egg in a video game book before I ever owned an Atari. I already wanted an Atari 2600, but Adventure made me want one even more. I finally got an Atari about a week before Pac-Man reached my local Woolco department store, but it took a while longer before I got my hands on Adventure. The scary dragons coming after me that seemed to be smarter than most other game characters and the much loved replayability had me hooked. I liked the game so much that I painted a picture in art class of a 3D cube with a sword wielding muscular arm sticking out of the side and a semi-realistic dragon about to do battle.

 

I thought Adventure was going to be the template for many games to come that would provide replayability and 'smart' enemies, but few game designers followed Warren Robinett's example. Inspired by Warren Robinett and a couple of other game designers, including Howard Scott Warshaw who took the Adventure template and improved upon it, I promised myself that if I ever found a way to make my own games that I would include Controlled Randomness for unlimited replayability and have characters that seemed to be more alive and more intelligent than most game characters with their predetermined moves and static starting positions.

 

Similar to what I have said on my web site, I think games like Adventure and E.T. are much better than that so-called adventure game Pitfall II: Lost Caverns where things are always in the same place and you jump over mindless enemies that just bounce up and down or move back and forth and usually don't even know you're there. Pitfall II: Lost Caverns did have some cool things in it such as being able to swim, but for the most part, it was just another lame exercise in perfect timing with nothing else to offer except the frustration of going back many screens to do it all over again. At least the original Pitfall let you skip or retry the screen you were on (your choice depending on whether you went left or right). The idiotically frustrating idea of making you go back multiple screens was not an advance, it was a giant step backwards and that model is still used today by misguided game designers.

 

I'm not the only one who believes that the most popular Activision games which lacked replayability and smart enemies were a major influence on those dark years dominated by Nintendo. It's too bad that more game designers back then weren't inspired by Adventure to make all kinds of replayable games with smarter enemies that weren't dependent on static starting positions and predetermined movements. If various types of games that were based on the Adventure template could have been created, maybe gamers would have demanded more instead of being lulled into accepting that vast wasteland of games for so long. We'd come across an occasional oasis over the years, but even now we are still just barely crawling out, reaching for the edges of the promised land.

 

I thank Warren Robinett, Howard Scott Warshaw, John Dunn, and others who created replayable games. All programmers who used the mighty power of Controlled Randomness in their games should be praised.

[Big Player]

I thank Warren Robinett, Howard Scott Warshaw, John Dunn, and others who created replayable games. All programmers who used the mighty power of Controlled Randomness in their games should be praised.

 

I agree. Pitfall II is great to look at but tedious to play.

 

I don't think Murder on the Zinderzeuf gets enough recognition for its design. It was my favorite game for the Atari comptuers. Great to see the link on your page to the interview with the game's designers.

[supercat]

I agree. Pitfall II is great to look at but tedious to play.

 

Indeed so. Once a person has cleared Pitfall II, what's the point of playing anymore? It's even less of a test of skill than Pitfall I. One bit of 'controlled randomness' that would have greatly improved the game would have been randomizing the vertical phasing of birds and, within limits, the horizontal positioning, when the player moves from screen to screen. Some combinations of phasing would require that a player who ran on the screen would have to run off again, but that's already the case now. The difference would be that by randomizing the combination of phasing and position players would have to quickly make a decision based upon two variables on the new screen instead of simply waiting for the bird on one screen to reach a particular height before moving to the next.