Adventure .... America

Jeff Woodward 

Issue 1

Dec 82/Jan 83

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Several years ago, three programmers in America developed the first Adventure type game on an American Government IBM Computer. Two of these guys were Willie Crothers and Don Woods. This Adventure was the Colossal Cave which soon spread (like wildfire!) to almost every large computer system in the world. Everyone was playing it. Then along came micro­computers and several people started developing Adventures for them. Perhaps the most famous is Scott Adams of Adventure International.

The original Colossal Cave Adventure was soon put on the TRS-80, Apple etc. but never made it to the Atari. Recently a programmer in the States - Robert A. Howell - has just fitted the original Adventure into a 32K tape or a 40K disk for Atari. He says it was a lot of work 'shoe-horning' it into 32K but it was worth it as now any Atari owner with 32K memory (no disk needed!) can play the classic Original Adventure.

It contains almost everything the large computer original has - the Pirate, Dwarves, Snake, Clam, Dragon, Bear, Troll, Breathtaking View, all 15 Treasures, all of the original rooms - including both mazes! ... etc, etc! It even allows you to save your position in the cave and then restore it at a later time so you may continue where you have left off without having to start all over again.

At the moment I do not know if the program is available in this country but I do know that it can be bought by Mail Order through Creative Computing Magazine - it is called ORIGINAL ADVENTURE. There are two versions available:

DISK   - CS-7504 (40K) $24.95

CASS - CS-7009 (32K) $19.95

Creative Computing's address is:-

Creative Computing Software,

P.O.Box 789-M,

Morristown, N.J. 07950

U.S.A.

 

You can expect to pay shipping costs of about $5 on these prices. If you send an International Money Order or quote your VISA or MASTERCARD (ACCESS) number this will be taken care of.

Good luck on your Adventuring.

Letters to America

When I first brought my Atari 400, now 16 months ago, there was very little in terms of books and software available so I set about to find some! I found a few User Club addresses from the back of The Atari Connection magazine (which is supposed to be available from Atari!) and wrote off with fingers crossed. The response I have had from our American friends is, to say the least, nothing short of fantastic. There seems to be nothing that is too much trouble for them and without exception all have offered to send me programs. I have also written to the American magazines - Compute!, Analog, Mace etc. and again have always received replies and offers of help on any subject.

I think any Atari enthusiast in this country taking the time to sit and write off to American Atari Users will be pleasantly surprised at the reaction.

Start writing NOW!  

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