Atari Adventure

An Atari 2600 adaptation of AdventureGame, created by WarrenRobinett.

http://www.warrenrobinett.com/adventure/

Since the 2600 didn't have text capabilities, certain aspects of the game had to be adapted in ways that would work on the 2600. Objects can be taken and dropped, though only carried one at a time. There are obstacles like locked doors, and puzzles like mazes. And there were creatures such as the dragons and bats.

Objects in the game included:

• Keys - opens castle doors.
• Castle doors - technically, these are objects.
• Sword - kills dragons.
• Bridge - Allows walking through walls; some mazes need this to be solved.
• Magnet - draws objects in the room closer. Useful to retrieve objects stuck in walls.
• Dragons - they try to kill you, though they run away from the sword, among other objects.
• Bats - they move objects around the universe, and sometimes try to steal your stuff.
• Chalice - you win when you take it to the yellow castle.
• Magic Dot - Used to find the EasterEgg.

The goal of the game is to find the chalice and bring it to the yellow castle.

This game is credited with the following video game innovations:

• Game universe made of multiple screens; the character could reach other screens by walking off the edge of the current screen.
• The adventure game format of obstacles, puzzles, objects and creatures.
• The EasterEgg, originally used to covertly claim credit for programmers.

There is a bug in the game's hardest difficulty setting, where the game places items randomly in such a way that the game is unsolvable.

The most remarkable thing is the functionality squeezed into such a small space: The total memory used by the game program was 4096 bytes (4K) for the game code (in ROM) and 128 bytes for program variables (in RAM). The processor used was a 1.2 MegaHertz?, 8-bit processor (6502).

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http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1

"Adventure Game Shrine:" http://www.toadstool.net/games/adventure/ (Includes disassembled source and...)

April 21, 1997 interview with WarrenRobinett: http://www.toadstool.net/games/adventure/interview1.htm

Another interview: http://thejadedgamer.net/interview_warrenrobinett.shtml

Flash version: http://www.simmphonic.com/programming/flash.htm#

Review: http://www.gamingworldx.com/features/CGOTWAdventureAtari2600.shtml

More Sites: http://www.sproat.net/jeremy/atari2600/

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CategoryGame