What is Atari 2600 'Adventure' like

[Nubiandaze]

Hey All,
I recently read on some site that the greatest videogame ever made was the Atari 2600 game called "Adventure'. I own this game but my Atari 2600 cable is broken so I can't play it. What makes this game so good (if it is) as it mustn't be too many k I wouldn't imagine. I will have to play it one day.

Nubian.

[Jibbajaba]

Do you have a link to this site? Adventure is a good game but no where near the best game ever, IMHO.

Chris

[Kamino]

It's awesome man.
Well, it'll sound lame. AFAIK, you move a square around and try to get the right key to get through each castle....its cool.
had the first easter egg of any game.

[Sniderman]

Here:

http://www.erasurewars.net/indenture.html

Or look up Craig Pell's "Indenture" - it's ATari 2600 Adventure for the PC in DOS. Download it and play it to see what all the fussw is about.

[christianscott27]

I recently read on some site that the greatest videogame ever made was the Atari 2600 game called "Adventure'. I own this game but my Atari 2600 cable is broken so I can't play it. What makes this game so good (if it is) as it mustn't be too many k I wouldn't imagine. I will have to play it one day.

by great you should think "landmark/groundbreaking" rather than "you wont be able to put it down".

a couple of things secure adventures place in the pantheon of greatness

- some would call it the first RPG (or rather quest game), although thats highly debatable, still though the programmer took the 70s era dungeon text adventure games and translated that into graphic form.

- adventure has a lot of screens and an actual story, most games at that time were of the pong and space invaders type, static and endless.

- something about adventure sticks in gamer's brains, the duck like dragons, the annoying bat. most famously adventure has the first easter egg, in fact getting to the hidden screen involves a whole new quest, adding replay value and giving geeks a way to impress their friends.

[k8track]

As always, you have to take the context of the time into account. There's been 25 years of video game graphics evolution since then, so today's younger gamers, having been weaned on PS2 and Xbox, Doom and Halo, et. al., might not see what all the fuss is about--not impossible, of course, but difficult. At the time, though, it was mindblowing--I remember playing it over and over at the Atari VCS kiosk in K-Mart as a kid, forever cementing it in my consciousness as one of the greats.

[kainemaxwell]

Wasn't Adventure the first Atari title to have multiple screens also?

[Arcade Antics]

This one oughta get more responses in the VG forum... seems pretty "on topic" to me.

>>>shimmy<<<

[PhoeniX]

I am not a lover of the VCS, but, this game (though it requires A LOT of imagination) is very interesting. You're a dot and you're on a quest, dragons that look like (IMO) ducks are after you... That's about it.

BTW, if you play you MUST do the easter egg (first VG easter egg), check out google or something to figure out how as I don't remember.

If you want to see the game check out the picture archives on this site, look to the left and click "pictures & video" and then select "Atari 2600" then you can see a few screen shots which are pretty representative of the look of the games.

[rbudrick]

I grew up with an Atari 2600 but I never really played Adventure until around '97 or '98. I thought it was interesting and I fiddled around with it for a while. I had no instructions, nor had I really heard anything about the game before. I thought it was pretty cool for it's time and after an hour or so I had beaten all three quests. I thought I was pretty cool for having no instructions, heh heh. It was great that the game was actually beatable! Most Atari games were just "get the highest score you can" games.

-Rob

[fergojisan]

It's probably not as great as when you were a kid. I think someone mentioned the multi screens, when you're a kid it's a lot of fun to get lost in the game. Especially Game 3, the random object placement game. It is definitely still my favorite game of all time; I paly it whenecer I fire up the 2600 or the emulator.

"Get these friggin' ducks away from me." - Strongbad

[digitalpress]

Here's my review.

The game is VERY important in my "career" asa gamer. It was the game that first enlightened me as to how big, open-ended, and full of surprises a videogame could be.

http://www.digitpress.com/reviews/adventure.htm

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/atari2600/adventure.gif

[digtempest]

If you try to look for the easter egg, then remember to keep the bat occupied with something and kill all dragons first. And play game 2 or 3, the e.e. doesn't exist on game 1.

[Djfinny]

I still remember when it first came out - playing it with my brother as kids on a small black and white TV. Certainly the first game of its type. I played it so much that first day when I went to sleep that night, I actually dreamed I was still playing the game. Can't say I've ever experienced that again with any game. -_-

DJ

[Cauterize]

I still remember when it first came out - playing it with my brother as kids on a small black and white TV. Certainly the first game of its type. I played it so much that first day when I went to sleep that night, I actually dreamed I was still playing the game. Can't say I've ever experienced that again with any game. -_-

DJ

That happened to me with Marvel Vs Capcom for DC, i got it for xmas in '99 or '00 and i played it all day n dreamt about being a fighter in it!

[Cantaloup]

I wouldn't call it the greatest video game ever made. I would say it's one of the best games on the 2600, and definitely a landmark in video game history. It's an ancestor of games such as the Legend of Zelda series. You control a character (represented by a square) on a quest to retrieve a magic chalice. Items you find will help you overcome obstacles, but you can only carry one at a time. Adventure was one of the first adventure-style games to make use of an entirely graphic display and real-time game play. Prior to this, most adventure/quest games, which were primarily on computers at that time, were text- and turn-based (for example, Zork).