This program left me in something of a quandry, because Adventure is, unashamedly, a copy of the first ever adventure game.
For those of you who may not know your computer game history, back in the mists of time (the early 1970s) two computer geniusses called Don Woods and Willy Crowther - Americans both - wrote a game called ADVENT. They called it that because at the time, computer files could only have names of up to six letters, and they had to be in caps. ADVENT, believe it or not, is short for adventure.
Since then, numerous people have written their own version of the game, some of them commercial products. This is possible because the program was public domain - ie nobody claimed copyright on it Adventure is yet another version.
That means that, to the seasoned adventure, the plot is as familiar as the Lord's Prayer to a born again Christian. You have to collect the treasures, take them back to the hut where you start. The objective is to collect all the treasures there are in the game and so score maximum points.
I'm assuming that, since this is a copy of ADVENT, the plot continues to be basically the same - I haven't had the time to play through the entire game, nor have I seen a solution. Indeed, there would be nothing wrong with that if it were the same game - it's very challenging, and everybody who claims to be an adventurer should have had a go at it at least once in their lives. But it has also been done so many times: I really don't know if we need another version of it.
Having said that, Adventure Software's version is very attractive the screens are well laid out, the choice of colours is good and makes the text easy to read, and everything seems to be programmed correctly.
Which means that if you haven't got a copy of ADVENT, then I would recommend this ory> for you - it's as good as any other.
If you have already got a copy, or played it on a mainframe, then I wouldn't bother.
Label: Adventure Software (soon to be released on the Players label)
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Gary Rook
4th November 1986
