adventure

So I liked the text-based adventure game a lot more than the Atari version. I got farther in the Atari version than I did the text-based one, but it wasn't as fun of an experience. Perhaps this is because I've never played a text-based game before, and the whole experience was rather novel. Plus, with the Atari's graphics being what they were, I preferred the setting I came up with in my imagination based off the text's descriptions. Then again, I had a much harder time getting around in the text-based game because I couldn't picture the cave's layout. I ended up finding the chamber with the snake maybe once and then never making it back there because I couldn't figure out how I'd gotten there the first time.
I liked the text-based version mostly because it reminded me of reading a fantasy novel. Still I wonder what the experience would have been like if we'd played the text-based game and then an Adventure video game with today's graphics.

Since discovering how much I enjoy adventure games, I have tried on several occasions to play text-based adventures. I am inherently curious about classic geek culture, so it was only natural for me to be interested in Adventure and Zork, and my abiding love for all things Douglas Adams led me to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text game and the even more obscure Bureaucracy. But to say that I have any experience with these games would be a lie. I have plenty of experience in trying to play them, getting frustrated, and giving up, but not in playing.

I wanted so much to play these games – I like to be in on geeky in-jokes, and I am an incurable completist when it comes to my favorite authors. But somehow, even with walkthroughs, I just cannot figure out these games. I got the cursed ring off of Elaine Marley's finger with minimal assistance, but I got Arthur Dent run over by the bulldozer countless times, despite the fact that I know full well how he survives in every other version of the story.  read more »

Adventure was quite an experience for me. having never played a text based game, it was very different from what i have experienced in the past and present. it was surprisingly fun. having the story played out in my head was like reading a novel that literally puts you in the middle of it. needless to say, it wasn't an eassy game. however, although it lacks a basic story line (a basestory line found in most adventure style games found today), it, to me, is considered a story. being an existent in my own mind and making my own movements and actions literally made me in control of the entire story. the search for treasure isn't the first thing you find out about, and to be honest, it took me about ten minutes to find out where the heck to go.  read more »

In my last blog, I discussed the subjectivity of the text-based game Adventure. Now after experiencing both the Atari version of Adventure and the text-based version, I can make a comparison and expound upon my previous idea.

One of the main concepts that stuck out to me while comparing these two Adventures was the representation of character. In the text-based narrative, the character was essentially you. The discourse of text gives you basic surroundings, boundaries, and objects with brief description and you create the whole abstract world. You would subjectively envision yourself as the main character exploring this metaphysical realm. The “magic circle” in this game would be this creation you have manifested in your mind.  read more »