Rob's Adventure Game Page

Since my second real job, where a co-worker introduced me to the all-text game "Adventure" on a PDP-11, I have been fond of what have come to be known as Adventure Games. Some say the popularity enjoyed by this genre in the early days of microcomputers was in part due to the fact that buyers who could afford home computers tended to be literate, intelligent, and to enjoy reading and logic puzzles - but as computers became more affordable and began to permeate the mainstream, and as the demographic of users shifted, the graphic action game eclipsed the adventure. Debate about whether the genre is moribund or even dead waxes and wanes in the press, but none can really argue that the heyday of adventure games isn't past, even though good new titles continue to be published. Be that as it may, there is a large community of people who share a nostalgia for the adventure game - and there are some great websites out there: In particular, I and many others reserve a place in our hearts for the (sadly, defunct) company Infocom and its pioneering games that set a gold standard never really equalled since.

There are some websites devoted to "abandonware" - i.e. copies of games that are no longer actively published. The legal status of this varies - some copyright owners have actively released their old games for free.

Nowadays commercial adventure games (see Dreamcatcher for a current publisher) are graphical and mouse-driven, but there exists a vibrant community of enthusiasts who continue to create text adventures, now known as "Interactive Fiction" or IF for short, using a variety of tools.

Here are instructions on using the if-archive. To play the games from the archive, you'll need a copy of the game file, and a corresponding interpreter program. To author games, you'll need a compiler and associated libraries. There are two main authoring systems: Inform and TADS. Inform is the system compatible with the original Infocom zcode game files.

Inform
Click here to find zcode games.
Here is a listing of IF Competition winners.
Here is a listing of XYZZY Award winners.
Click here to find frotz interpreters for Inform games.
Here are some PalmOS interpreters - the best seems to be Frobnitz.
Here is Kronos for PalmOS, to play Magnetic Scrolls games.

TADS
Click here to find TADS games.
Click here to find TADS interpreters.

My Collection of Adventure Games
I amassed a fairly extensive collection of adventure games over the years, starting with some Commodore Vic-20 cartridges of Scott Adams games, then Infocom games and others for the Atari ST platform, and later for the PC, with a side trip onto the Palm handheld. I consider myself very fortunate in that my daughter enjoys adventure games and we have played several of the newer graphic adventures together - they are in red. Games I have completed are in bold. Games I started but never finished due either to a bug or losing interest are in italics.
Adventure Games for the PC in my collection include the following (indexed alphabetically by name):
A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M| N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
These are action/adventures for the PC:
Here is my Infocom collection for the Atari ST computer:
Here are other adventures for the Atari ST:

There are a few publishers, most notably Humungous Entertainment, who have made available some great adventure games aimed at younger audiences.
My collection of PC Adventure Games for kids includes:

The Evolution of Adventure Games
Some games are now avaliable to play via an emulator
Magazines & Game Sites

Computer Gaming World
Electronic Gamers Monthly
PC Gamer
Maximum PC
Computer Games Magazine
IGN
The Adrenaline Vault
Gamasutra
PC Game Review .com
PC Games Magazine at http://www.pcgamesmag.com is defunct.