Adventure

Game created by Warren Robinett for Atari
Published in 1979

1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)

The first of the adventure game genre.

2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

The world consisted of castles and a maze of pathways.

3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

The game is top down perspective, although some objects in the game, such as the dragons and the castles are shown from a front or side perspective to show more detail even though the.

4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

The player can move the avatar in the four cardinal directions and pick up one object at a time to carry with them. The different objects have different functions and are needed to accomplish the goal. There was no instruction indicating what this goal was, but I determined it to be retrieving the glowing challis from the black castle and bringing it back to the yellow castle, using the yellow keys to enter the yellow castle to pick up the sword to kill the dragon guarding the black key and the dragon guarding entrance to the maze to the black castle.

5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) describe.

The gameplay was highly intuitive, in fact, I did not see any instructions describing how to play the game. The imagery of castles and dragons implies what actions are to be expected from the player, such as picking up the sword and using it to slay the dragon, or picking up the key and using it to enter the castle. The doors of the castles and the gaps on the top bottom or sides of the screen imply that you can exit the screen in certain locations.

6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

The gameplay has a very simple pattern. You can move around the screen up left right or down. If there is an enemy in the screen they move towards you. Each screen has one or more entry/exit points that you can move through to get to a new screen.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?

The graphics and audio of adventure depict how limited the technology at the time was.

8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of

1. ease of play

Adventure was easy to play although it was a bit obscure about what to do at times.

2. enjoyability

Adventure was enjoyable to play because it offered enough challenging to make you feel accomplished when you beat the game.

c) level of engagement/immersion

The level of engagement was as high considering the simple graphics and sounds.

9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?

I had heard of Adventure before but never played it.

10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?

The game is very typical of an adventure game.