Adventure (1980)

I never tried this game growing up but I'm glad I decided to revisit the Atari and play through it. The game doesn't hold much content in the context of following generations, but for the era, it had a surprisingly large play area. I'm unsure if this was the first "open world" game, but I believe it is the root of the Action-Adventure genre and contained the first-ever Easter Egg.

I played through the game twice. Level 1 difficulty was ridiculous. I finished the game in less than 10 minutes. the second playthrough was on Level 2 and that was far more challenging. The element that really stood out was the bat. So many times I was near victory, only to have the bat swoop in and steal the item I was carrying. At one point, the Bat even made the unfortunate choice to place the chalice and all three dragons in the same maze section together, while dropping the sword in a completely out-of-reach part of the map. The bat shined as it complicated my life and mixed things up with dramatic flare.

While the game is simple visually, in gameplay style and doesn't have much content or story (even with the bat making a mess, I finished in 40 minutes), I think the game deserves the accolades and attention it's received in these past few decades. For the time, the game elements were fresh and unique and the game inspired one of my favorite genres. So if you want to check out some of the earliest roots in Video Game history, definitely put this one on your list.

I recently got myself the Atari 50 collection (which is superb) and with it, I have been going through many of Atari's seminal games. This has, rightfully so, brought me also to Adventure on the Atari 2600.

In Adventure, you are a dot that avoids ducks and drags various items around. Or that's what it looks like. In actuality, you are a mighty adventurer who fights dragons, conquers labyrinths and mysteries and is on a quest to bring the stolen Enchanted Chalice back to the Golden Castle.

It's a hard game to rate. It's ugly, short and either too obtuse or too evident depending on whether you've read the instructions. It's the archetype of a console adventure game: you collect key items to reach new places to get new key items while occasionally dealing with monsters. By today's standards, it's very generic.

On the other hand, getting to know a game that introduced so many new things to the medium is an adventure in itself. I mean, the game pretty much pioneered action adventure games, multi-screened games, games you can actually complete, continue feature, easter eggs... It even throws a built-in randomizer to give more playtime. And, if you know what you are doing (AKA read the instructions), it still is very playable. It's not a deep game experience but it is intriguing in all its archaic glory.

And once you return the Enchanted Chalice to the Golden Castle and get flashing colours as your reward in a true Atari way... Priceless.

Look: 8/10 Surprisingly high rating for how rudimentary the graphics are, but obviously he was attempting something unprecedented with this. And I actually really like how the "character" (square) changes colors. The sword feature could have been better implemented but that's more of a Play issue than anything.

Sound: 8/10 I can't really include this in the rating, but I will say I honestly prefer the silence and classic sound effects sounds over annoying repeated music.

Play: 8/10 Precedent-setting. This is my kind of gameplay after all: item retrieval, memorizing room arrangements, and fleeing enemies. Obviously very limited considering the hardware, but I liked the invisible maze feature of Difficulty 2, the Chalice retrieval then run back gameplay, and the range of difficulty levels and settings. I never tried Difficulty 3 and am quite sure I'd get frustrated with it. I found the use of the sword annoying, albeit largely due to limitations.

Feel: 8/10 While I have utmost respect for this game, I just can't claim to love it. I have a lot of respect for it, and probably will attempt Difficulty 3 some day, but again, just nothing that striking. Honestly, it's more so the difficulty options and the easter egg (which I never did pursue, another reason this probably should be a 7 but meh) that bump it up to an 8.

Attachment: 7/10 While I did everything in Difficulty 1, and much of Difficulty 2 (didn't necessarily kill every dragon or anything), I really only see myself returning to this to show someone else, or for a quick 1 minute playthrough of Difficulty 1 to feel good about myself after a frustrating NES-era game or something lol, or for Difficulty 3 if I am in the mood for rudimentary gameplay. An undeniably important game, and surprisingly fun considering its limitations, but can't give this a stellar rating.

While this game might have a lot of flaws by today's standards and can't help but be impressed with what it accomplished on the Atari 2600.

I'm not sure what was in the manual back in the day for this game but it gives you a purpose. You have stuff that needs to be accomplished in order to return all the chalices back to your castle. With 3 different levels (puzzles?) This game feels big...ok, well, big for a 2600 game. You have dragons after you and a world to explore. Some of it shrouded in darkness and some of it being a maze. This game clearly had a huge scope (again, for the time) and I am impressed by it.

I'm thankful for this game in so many ways as I can only imagine the countless games it helped inspire in the future and I even think if Atari went back and tried to remake this today they could add a little depth with story and make an intriguing game.

Adventure is definitely a classic that deserves to hold that moniker.

For being one of the first of its kind, Adventure isn't too bad of a game. Sure, it feels random, looks archaic, and hounds at you with thieving bats and vicious dragons, but the zany chases are actually pretty fun, if for a small bite.

The goal is fairly simple: get an enchanted chalice and bring it back to your home base, the gold castle. The player is a dot, moving between rooms that don't always obey spatial rules (sometimes you won't know where you'll end up in a maze) but the pathways are constant. The game has three difficulties: two main modes and one that is the second mode but randomizes items. To keep frustration to a minimum, stick to the first two modes.

The main gameplay is getting keys, unlocking castles and finding the grail within to return home (which also needs unlocked?) and avoiding dragons and bats at every turn, which will hound you like the plague. Luckily there's a sword item (that looks like an arrow key) that can kill these dragons, so it's not entirely frustrating.

And that's it. Small game, big piece of history, and a little fun for 20-30 minutes. Just don't expect it to be anyone's GOTY.