Introduction

It begins when you awake in a large brass bed in a castle somewhere in Transylvania. Who are you? What are you doing here? And why did the postman deliver a bottle of blood?

Difficulty Level: Moderate

How An Adventure Works

If you've never played an Adventure before, you're in for a real treat. Adventuring permits the player to move at will from location to location within the game "environment" and to examine objects for clues that will reach the objective of the game. For example, an adventure might begin something like this:

I'M IN A ROOM. VISIBLE OBJECTS ARE A RUBY-ENCRUSTED BOX AND A CLOSED DOOR. TELL ME WHAT TO DO.

You might want to begin by entering a direction (North, South, East, West) to see if you can leave the room. Chances are, though, that you will have to find a way to get through the closed door. Let's try something basic. You type:

OPEN DOOR

but the computer tells you in no uncertain terms:

SORRY, IT'S LOCKED. WHAT SHALL I DO?

GET BOX

and the computer responds with:

OK

By saying "OK", the computer has let you know that the command has been accepted and the box "picked up". Now that you're "holding" the box, let's see if we can peek inside. You type:

OPEN BOX

This time the computer understands and you are rewarded with the following response:

OK. INSIDE THERE IS A KEY AND A RARE POSTAGE STAMP. Since we still want to exit the room, trying the key to unlock the door might be a good idea. The postage stamp might come in handy so you type:

GET KEY AND STAMP

But the computer responds:

SORRY, I CAN'T DO THAT...YET!

Ah yes - asking the computer to get both the key and the stamp is most definitely a compound command, something that your computer cannot understand. Try again, this time asking for the objects separately. You type:

GET KEY

and then:

GET STAMP

The computer will answer "OK" each time and you will have what you need.

By "getting" the key and the stamp, they are stored for later use as you are, in effect, carrying them. As for your next series of moves, you might want to go to the door (GO DOOR), try the key in the lock (UNLOCK DOOR), and move down the hallway that's just outside. (GO HALLWAY).

You're on your way!

The Adventure Series - An Overview

By definition, an adventure is a dangerous or risky undertaking; a novel, exciting or otherwise remarkable event or experience. On your personal computer, Adventure is that and more.

Playing any of the Adventure series consists of three elements: you, the user; the games themselves; and the author, Scott Adams, of Orlando, Florida.

In beginning any Adventure, you will find yourself in a specific location: a forest, on board a small spaceship, outside a fun house, in the briefing room of a nuclear plant, in a desert, etc. The top portion of your video display will tell you where you are and what you can see; the bottom section of the display is devoted to inputting commands to your robot computer and receiving messages that may arise as the result of your orders. You have to get used to looking at both the top and bottom portions in order to find out what's going on in the game game but it doesn't take long for the reading to become a reflex. In fact you will have to live in those imaginary worlds.

By using two-word commands you move from location to location (called "rooms" although some rooms represent outdoor sites such as a swamp), manipulate objects that you find in the different rooms (pick them up, put them down, carry them, etc.) and perform actions as if you were really there.

The object of a game is to amass treasure for points or accomplish some other goal such as preventing the destruction of the automated nuclear plant in Secret Mission. Successfully completing a game, however, is far easier to state than achieve. In many cases, you will find a treasure but be unable to take it until you are carrying the right combination of objects you find in the various locations.

If you're tired of video games of bouncing balls or shooting at targets; if you're ready for an intellectual challenge that transports you to new worlds of experience; if you want to see what a skilled programmer can do with a micro, invest in one of Scott Adams' games. An early Adventure (Adventureland or Pirate Adventure) is a good place to start because the more Adams creates, the tougher his puzzles get.