Adventure is an action adventure game developed and published by Atari. It was released in 1979 on the Atari 2600 and is considered the first action-adventure game selling over 1 million copies. It also introduced the first easter egg in a game.
Story[]
An evil magician has stolen the Enchanted Chalice and has hid it somewhere in the kingdom. You must retrieve the Chalice and put it back into its rightful place in the golden castle. But beware as the evil magician has created three dragons, Yorgle, the yellow dragon who is mean, Grundle, the green dragon who is mean and ferocious, and Rhindle, the red dragon who is the deadliest. Recover the Chalice and to the golden castle, and slay any dragon that is in your way.
Gameplay[]
The player fighting the dragon Grundle in the white castle.
The player controls the character which is a square and explores which contains castles and mazes. The object of the game is to retrieve the chalice and return it to the gold castle. Items such as a sword, keys to unlock doors, and a magnet used to pull objects. There are three dragons that must be defeated to complete the game and recover the enchanted chalice and put it in the golden castle. The player can also carry a stash of items with him and drop the ones he doesn't want and uses the one he wants to use by joystick command.
Enemies[]
Dragons[]
There are three dragons that roam the world to be defeated. They can be killed if touched by the player's sword. If the console's difficulty switch is in the "A" position the dragons will run away when they see the sword. A dragon can strike the player and swallow him and when the dragon's mouth is open he cannot be attacked.
- Yorgle- is the yellow dragon and is afraid of the golden key. Besides guarding the chalice he will wander around.
- Grundle- is the green dragon and will guard, the bridge, magnet, chalice, and black key.
- Rhindle- is the red dragon and is the deadliest of all three. He moves much faster than the others and guards the white key and chalice.
Bats[]
A black bat will fly around the screen and will sometimes pick up and drop an object. The player can catch the bat and carry it around. The bat can also take the player's sword and give him a dragon in return. If the player is eaten by a dragon the bat can pick up the dragon and carry it along with the player in the dragon's stomach around the whole game world.
Easter Egg[]
Easter Egg, "Created by Warren Robinett."
If one were to travel the black castle catacombs on Game 2 they can find a gray dot object in the south wall of a chamber that can only be reached by using the bridge. The player must bounce along to retrieve the object. Bring the dot to the east end of a corridor below the gold castle causes a wall object to become invisible and there is a room showing the words "Created by Warren Robinett."
Game Selection[]
There are actually three different games of different difficulty through the Game Select switch.
- Game 1 is the easiest version of the game and does not contain the white castle, the maze in the black castle, or the red dragon.
- Game 2 is the full version of the game containing all the features and easiest way to get to the Easter Egg.
- Game 3 is also a full version except that the locations of the objects are at random and can be found anywhere. It can be easy or hard to defeat considering that the items are placed at random anywhere and the gold key could be locked in the gold castle.
Development and Conception[]
Game designer Warren Robinett was inspired by a computer text game called Colossal Cave Adventure. His boss told him the game woudn't be good. But Robinett finished the game Adventure and it became the pack-in game for the 2600 and went to sell over 1 million copies. Also since Atari didn't credit programmers for their work Robinett put an Easter Egg in the game so that people would know he created the game.
The Atari 2600 having its limitations caused the walls on each side of the game to be mirror images of each other giving the game's confusing mazes.