Adventure (A2600, 1980)
Graphics-6.5 Sound-6.5 Control-7 Challenge-4/6/6.5 Story-N/A
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-9
Overall Score-6.5
+
Arcade-like/real-time interpretation of earlier text adventure games - second ever action adventure game after Superman (A2600)
Pretty large interconnected world for the time w/ indoors and outdoors areas as well as locked doros (castle entrances)
Object interaction (pick up and drop items) and some ability/tool gating (magnet - pulls any other item towards it (even across water) and lets you carry two items at once albeit a bit slowly+can help with taking back items taken by the bat, magic bridge - used to cross water tiles, a sword which can be used to defeat the dragons)
Keys that open the castles can also re-lock opened doors (lets you trap some enemies - can carry the bat into a castle and lock it)
Difficulty options via the game select switch (1/easy (no bat, white castle, red dragon, dark cave mazes), 2/normal, 3/hard - randomized item locations)
Pretty fast movement, Diagonal movement
Persistent world - dropped items stay where you dropped them, unlocked doors stay unlocked and enemies leave corpses. If you get eaten by a dragon the world also stays as it was if you just press reset and you respawn at the starting point of the current game
Dragons can chase you between screens on Normal and above
The bat enemy can steal items, from where they were placed or while carried. It can also carry the player, the enemies (dragons) or an item around (the behavior is random). It can also accidentally kill the dragon by carrying the sword into it - systemic/consistency element
Some dragon enemies are also afraid of things - the yellow one is afraid of the yellow key, and it can be used to chase him off
Randomizer feature (switches around the locations of items and enemies on hard/level 3 mode)
One of the first game with an easter egg (hidden developer credit message)
+/-
Non-linear structure (can get some keys and items in either order)
No save feature (can play it online with save states on the creator's website nowadays)
Can move other objects between screens with the magnet but it's a bit fiddly
Can sort of carry two items by moving them close to each other and then moving into either one over and over but it's a bit clunky and really only works well on Easy since there's no bat. Otherwise one at a time
Automatic combat (just move into an enemy with the sword in hand)
Very short and easy game 1/easy mode
Killed enemies stay dead until you've died a couple of times?
Can't use the bridge to move over between screens (over water at the edge of a room) - it looks like you can but you get stuck at the edge of the next screen)
The magnet is optional in game 2/Normal mode
Can grab items through thin water gaps
Dark rooms w/ limited field of view (FoV) - no torch/lamp item
No player character upgrades (stats, armor, new moves, etc.)
-
Items can get stuck in walls including the magnet
Some control issues (the magnet is active even when dropped which can get in the way, picking items up automatically from moving into them can get in the way in tight spaces since you can't rotate the direction in which you're holding an item without dropping it - if you pick up a bridge from above then try to use it to cross water north of you then it won't work (can be an issue in tight spaces since it's rather big), )
Not being able to hold more than one or two items at a time leads to a lot of backtracking and there will also be some empty rooms on Normal/Hard
Some cheap deaths - a dragon can appear very close to you even if it was not there when moving away from the current room (even if you move back again quickly it can suddenly be there)
Some trial & error (the objective isn't explained in-game - take the trophy to the first (yellow) castle, getting through a dark cave maze - very limited FoV which can't be increased, magnet pulls items through water tiles)
No map - the samey looking rooms make it fairly easy to get lost in the medium and hard worlds
The bat can get really annoying since it seems to move randomly and you can't kill it or stop it (it can't kill you either but can drop you in a bad spot)
Short (Easy only takes a few minutes, Normal around 10 and Hard about the same)
Bugs:
-Visual glitch when carrying a bridge horizontally between screens - makes it look like half of it is on the other side of the screen
-The magnet sometimes stops working temporarily while lying on the floor near another item
Notes:
-http://warrenrobinett.com/ecv/adv_emu1/
-Influenced by Colossal Cave Adventure (Wikipedia, Wired)
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-6.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-9
Overall Score-6.5
+
Arcade-like/real-time interpretation of earlier text adventure games - second ever action adventure game after Superman (A2600)
Pretty large interconnected world for the time w/ indoors and outdoors areas as well as locked doros (castle entrances)
Object interaction (pick up and drop items) and some ability/tool gating (magnet - pulls any other item towards it (even across water) and lets you carry two items at once albeit a bit slowly+can help with taking back items taken by the bat, magic bridge - used to cross water tiles, a sword which can be used to defeat the dragons)
Keys that open the castles can also re-lock opened doors (lets you trap some enemies - can carry the bat into a castle and lock it)
Difficulty options via the game select switch (1/easy (no bat, white castle, red dragon, dark cave mazes), 2/normal, 3/hard - randomized item locations)
Pretty fast movement, Diagonal movement
Persistent world - dropped items stay where you dropped them, unlocked doors stay unlocked and enemies leave corpses. If you get eaten by a dragon the world also stays as it was if you just press reset and you respawn at the starting point of the current game
Dragons can chase you between screens on Normal and above
The bat enemy can steal items, from where they were placed or while carried. It can also carry the player, the enemies (dragons) or an item around (the behavior is random). It can also accidentally kill the dragon by carrying the sword into it - systemic/consistency element
Some dragon enemies are also afraid of things - the yellow one is afraid of the yellow key, and it can be used to chase him off
Randomizer feature (switches around the locations of items and enemies on hard/level 3 mode)
One of the first game with an easter egg (hidden developer credit message)
+/-
Non-linear structure (can get some keys and items in either order)
No save feature (can play it online with save states on the creator's website nowadays)
Can move other objects between screens with the magnet but it's a bit fiddly
Can sort of carry two items by moving them close to each other and then moving into either one over and over but it's a bit clunky and really only works well on Easy since there's no bat. Otherwise one at a time
Automatic combat (just move into an enemy with the sword in hand)
Very short and easy game 1/easy mode
Killed enemies stay dead until you've died a couple of times?
Can't use the bridge to move over between screens (over water at the edge of a room) - it looks like you can but you get stuck at the edge of the next screen)
The magnet is optional in game 2/Normal mode
Can grab items through thin water gaps
Dark rooms w/ limited field of view (FoV) - no torch/lamp item
No player character upgrades (stats, armor, new moves, etc.)
-
Items can get stuck in walls including the magnet
Some control issues (the magnet is active even when dropped which can get in the way, picking items up automatically from moving into them can get in the way in tight spaces since you can't rotate the direction in which you're holding an item without dropping it - if you pick up a bridge from above then try to use it to cross water north of you then it won't work (can be an issue in tight spaces since it's rather big), )
Not being able to hold more than one or two items at a time leads to a lot of backtracking and there will also be some empty rooms on Normal/Hard
Some cheap deaths - a dragon can appear very close to you even if it was not there when moving away from the current room (even if you move back again quickly it can suddenly be there)
Some trial & error (the objective isn't explained in-game - take the trophy to the first (yellow) castle, getting through a dark cave maze - very limited FoV which can't be increased, magnet pulls items through water tiles)
No map - the samey looking rooms make it fairly easy to get lost in the medium and hard worlds
The bat can get really annoying since it seems to move randomly and you can't kill it or stop it (it can't kill you either but can drop you in a bad spot)
Short (Easy only takes a few minutes, Normal around 10 and Hard about the same)
Bugs:
-Visual glitch when carrying a bridge horizontally between screens - makes it look like half of it is on the other side of the screen
-The magnet sometimes stops working temporarily while lying on the floor near another item
Notes:
-http://warrenrobinett.com/ecv/adv_emu1/
-Influenced by Colossal Cave Adventure (Wikipedia, Wired)
