Scott Adams was working as an advanced computer programmer at the Florida Institute of Technology in Florida, when he was introduced to Crowther and Woods's original ADVENTURE by a friend. It was running on the company mainframe, a DEC PDP-10, and after ten days he had solved the game. Adams had just bought a Radio Shack TRS-80, and he wanted to be able to play adventures on this small home computer as well. He got the idea of producing an interpreter, which would allow him to write many different adventures, but at the same time cram a lot of information into a very small area of memory. His first adventure was Adventureland, which was written in Basic and featured a split screen showing locations, objects and exits at the top, with the player's instructions and computer replies scrolling independently underneath. On the advice of Lance Micklus he translated Adventureland into machine language, having been persuaded that people were concerned about speed. Adventureland was released commercially through "The Software Exchange" of Milford, New Hampshire and "Creative Computing Software" in 1978. The program was written on a Radio Shack TRS-80 level II. The project nearly died in the making, when Mrs. Adams got enough of her husband being locked in a room for six months writing programs. She put the disk in the stove - luckily for Scott, and a grateful world, the stove was not switched on. The quarrel was solved elegantly: Mrs. Adams wrote the next adventure, "Pirate adventure". Adams went on to found Adventure International in 1979, which first twelve adventure games was: "Adventureland" This is the one that started it all. Set in a swampy forest near a sunny meadow, the scene soon moves underground to royal chambers and a chasm. Can you think of uses for an empty wine bladder and evil smelling mud? The large dragon sleeping peacefully in the meadow begs a good hard kick - is he really as harmless as it seems? Is it possible to get past the thin bear and still collect the thirteen treasures to complete the game? Some devious thinking is needed to solve this - but it has been enjoyed by many beginners and experienced players alike. 29 locations. "Pirate's Cove" A strong theme runs through this game where you will come across bottles of rum, old chests, an anchor and an extremely greedy and loquacious parrot. The story begins in the player's London flat, and after some chilling discoveries, moves to Pirate's Island. Easier than Adventureland, this one has a keener sense of humour, and reaches a climax with a gigantic hoax. If you can't take a joke, be prepared to put your fist through your screen when you get there. Written by Mrs. Adams, 25 locations and only two treasures. "Mission Impossible" This one is different, set in an automated power plant where a saboteur is loose with a bomb. A tape recorded message tells you, Mr. Pelps, that your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to prevent the bomb from detonating. Rather a drab game as far as descriptive content is concerned, and quite a difficult one. Breakthroughs seem to come rarely after long periods of frustration, and it is a game that lends itself to "stop-start" playing. "Voodoo Castle" This is set in a dark castle with 24 rooms, and it leads on naturally to "The Count". "The Count" Dracula, in this case - although the adventure only has 19 locations, "things change" throughout the game, as night succeeds day. "Strange Odyssey" This is set in space, on a damaged spaceship, crash-landed on an alien planet. The Adventurer must collect treasures of alien civilizations - if he can successfully manipulate the controls of a strange travelling device. Can you mend your crippled ship, climb slime trees, and tame a dia-ice hound? This adventure has 22 locations, and only five treasures - but the last one will prove extremely difficult to find. "Mystery Fun House" Successfully recreating the atmosphere of a fun-house on a computer, this is a quest to find secret plans. Not an easy one, but so appealing and intriguing, that it is always fun to come back in search of a solution. Has some 37 locations, and is many people's favourite of the twelve. "Pyramid of Doom" Difficult in parts - notably at the beginning and the end, but easy enough in the middle to give the novice some encouragement. Nervous tension is created by the appearance of a small nomad, who proceeds to follow the Adventurer around. There is humour in the throne room, and a counterfeit object. If you can successfully avoid the rats and the mummy, you're well on the way to success. "Ghost Town" This has all the feel of a deserted Western town, complete with Saloon, Barbershop and Jail. Who is ringing the bell, can you ride a horse, and how do you set about breaking in to a jail, are some of the problems you will come up against. It has nearly 40 locations, and can be solved in more than one way. It also has a couple of objects carried over from "Pyramid of Doom". One of Scott's best. "Savage Island I & II" A two-part Adventure, the first is considered extremely difficult, and even hardy Adventurers try not to mention part 2. Starting off on a deserted beach, the chilling discovery of a large stone head in your likeness, lends to a feeling of unease. Soon forgotten in the exploration of a volcano, lake and caves, pursued by and over-friendly bear. Beware the hurricane whilst you struggle over the first hurdle - the bear. Part 1 is a good game, which may take quite a few months to complete. Part 1 has to be solved before the second - a password to the second is the goal of the first. As for Part 2 - it's breathtaking. These are the toughest of the Scott Adams adventures, and not for the faint-hearted. "Golden Voyage" This is less difficult than "Savage Island I & II", and concerns your race to bring back the elixir of youth for the king. After the twelve classic games Scott was involved in writing what was to be a series of four DC Comic based games. The first three of these, The Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, Torch & Thing were released and have a similar style to Scott's other games. Torch & Thing in particular used Scotts new improved game driver to allow you to switch between the two characters and had some truely rotten puzzles. Scott also revisited his original series to produce... "Return To Pirate Adventure" A quite nice sequel to the original pirate game. "Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle" A really sneaky little game where everything has many solutions and working out the right way to put everything together to solve the lot is really hard. It also has the worst pun I've ever come across in an adventure game. This one is my favourite Scott Adams game. ObFolklore: The Dragon32 version of Claymorgue seems to be buggy and cannot be completed. These adventures may appear, at first glance, to be just like all other programs around, but they were the first, and in fact, most other text adventures merely imitate the Scott Adams series. Scott Adams' story can be found in the December 1980 edition of BYTE. --------------------------------------------------------------------- History of this file: Morten Lohre (edb_morten@debet.nhh.no) wrote the short summary on Scott Adams and the synopsis of the twelve classic games. The text is based on information found in "Atari Adventures" by Tony Bridge, published in London by Sunshine Books (1984) and "The Computer & Video Games Book of Adventure" by Keith Campbell, published by Melbourne House (1983). Alan Cox (iiitac@pyr.swan.ac.uk) added information about what happened after the twelve classics.