The title screen. Note, if you will, the masterful use of negative space. Before I kick things off, I should mention that I’ve completely redone all the Final Ratings, and converted them to the new RADNESS Index (standing for Righteous Admirability Designation, Numerically Estimating Seven Scores). I’m pretty pleased with how […]
Game 37: Burial Ground Adventure (1979)
A familiar style of title screen. Today’s game is Burial Ground Adventure, another in the surprisingly common sub-genre of “early text adventures designed by young boys”. Joel Mick is the boy in question for this game. He was twelve at the time, based in New Jersey, and apparently distributed the […]
Game 36: Battlestar (1979)
Quite some time ago I played through a text adventure called Aldebaran III, which has a pretty good claim on being the first adventure game to be explicitly based on an existing property. Today I’m writing about another of those, although exactly what property it’s adapting is up for debate because… […]
Game 34: The Atlantian Odyssey (1979)
I want to know more about Ultra-Mon, the Intelligent Monitor! Today’s game is The Atlantian Odyssey (spelled as the more aesthetically-pleasing Atlantean Odyssey in some places, but I’m going with what’s on the title screen). It’s not one I’ve ever heard of before, and I can’t find anything about its origins […]
Game 33: Mission Impossible (1979)
The opening screen of Mission Impossible The screen above shows the beginning of Mission Impossible, the third Scott Adams adventure, and it starts with a bang. Well, relatively speaking; we’re not exactly at the fireworks factory, but by the standards of the era things are zipping along. You start in […]
Game 31: Swords and Sorcery (1978)
Monsters on the battlements from left to right: demon, werewolf, zombie, goblin, dragon, unknown, and wizard. Ah, that familiar orange glow. Despite all the grief that the various PLATO CRPGs have given me – I’m looking at you Moria, and you The Game of Dungeons – going back to that system almost […]
Game 29: Lords of Karma (1978)
The cover of Avalon Hill’s 1980 release Lords of Karma is the first game from Gary Bedrosian, who will later create the well-regarded Empire of the Over-Mind and something called GFS Sorceress. It was first created in 1978, and eventually published by Avalon Hill in 1980. (Avalon Hill is not a name […]