Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone
Adventure released for the iPhone
Part of me just wants to post this screenshot, link this app, and say "go get it," but I have a feeling that my blogging overlords here would think I was just being lazy -- they might not understand that this is a screenshot from Adventure, which is available for free on the iPhone. Anyone who ever played an Atari 2600 and owns an iPhone won't need any more explanation than that to install this.
But I don't want to be seen as lazy (any more than I already am), and so I'll also say that Adventure basically pioneered the action-adventure genre of games, and that though its art is spare and its noises are little more than bleeps and bloops, both are classic and coated with pure nostalgia. While Adventure is currently controlled on the iPhone with tilt controls, its designer will add touch controls as well in the future.
Other than that: go get it. It's free.
But I don't want to be seen as lazy (any more than I already am), and so I'll also say that Adventure basically pioneered the action-adventure genre of games, and that though its art is spare and its noises are little more than bleeps and bloops, both are classic and coated with pure nostalgia. While Adventure is currently controlled on the iPhone with tilt controls, its designer will add touch controls as well in the future.
Other than that: go get it. It's free.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
William said 9:43AM on 11-19-2008
Awesomely Old school!
/Get this freakin' duck away from me.
//http://www.homestarrunner.com/main13.html
Reply
eric f. said 9:50AM on 11-19-2008
The image of that key brings back weird memories...
Reply
Bob S. said 9:54AM on 11-19-2008
This is really, really good. It isn't emulated -- there are times when this does not act the same as the original -- but without an iPhone version of Stella and the ROM file, it's as good as it gets. It's so faithful that I was surprised by the one or two deviations from the original. (At least one of these is a bug -- the bat can freeze while switching objects.) And the tilt controls work fine; I don't think touch controls will work as well, but maybe folks who are playing this during meetings will be able to be more discreet or something.
The easter egg is there. And although, as I say, the bat does very occasionally freeze while randomly switching objects, there's a way for the player to freeze it deliberately, but I haven't been able to find out whether that's in this version.
Reply
Bob S. said 10:19AM on 11-19-2008
(I should clarify: In the original Atari cartridge, the player can deliberately stop the bat while switching objects under certain specific conditions. In this remake, the bat occasionally freezes while switching objects randomly. I haven't yet been able to test whether this remake reproduces the cartridge's bug that allows players to deliberately stop the bat.)
mike said 10:49AM on 11-19-2008
You wrote:
"basically pioneered the action-adventure genre of games"
I think this would be more accurate if you inserted the word "graphical" as in "graphical action-adventure." The reason is that text adventures such as Adventure itself and Mystery Mansion predate this game.
Also, I would check on the existence of Apple II games that pre-date the Atari version of adventure before making the claim.
It is one of the first graphical a-a games, but not sure it pioneered the genre.
Reply
Tony said 11:28AM on 11-19-2008
I think he meant to say it pioneered 4-way smooth scrolling graphical action adventure games, but got lazy and shortened the sentence. ;-)
What Adventure did pioneer, though, was Easter Eggs. Adventure contains the first known Easter Egg (not sure if the iPhone remake contains the Egg or not...) And it was a brilliant Easter Egg, too...I will forever remember the name of the programmer who wrote Adventure thanks to his Easter Egg.
Bob S. said 11:40AM on 11-19-2008
Actually, while Crowther's Colossal Cave Adventure inspired Robinett's Atari version, the Atari version is pretty contemporaneous with Mystery Mansion and others. Robinett designed and started coding the game in early '78. Atari's Superman cartridge used Robinett's code but was actually released first.
(And geez, Tony, I said right there in comment 3 that it contains the easter egg. Geez.)
Mark Ross said 11:43AM on 11-19-2008
The easter egg is in there.
Reply
Megs said 3:03PM on 11-19-2008
Oh, my inner 4-year-old just let out a shriek of joy. *goes to download it*
Reply
michael said 3:20PM on 11-19-2008
The one thing I remember about it is the rabbit that attacks you - just like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Reply
Fritz Laurel said 6:34PM on 11-19-2008
'Nuff said! Downloading, ahem, I mean "purchasing" now...
Reply
surya narayan singh said 11:36PM on 11-19-2008
The new voice-activated Google Mobile app for the iPhone is finally released
http://snsays.com/2004/googles-voice-search/
Reply
Tamar said 11:12AM on 11-20-2008
I'm still waiting for Q-Bert.
Also, I'd love it if someone can port the Amusement Park games for the Palm OS (AP1, AP2, and AP3, which I believe were released between 1999-2003) to the iPhone. These were games that were precursors to today's brain challenge games and rock. CakeSoftware.com used to maintain them, but the site went dead and the main contact, "David," is not reachable.
Reply
patrick said 3:23PM on 11-20-2008
holy cow ... weird memories indeed. i remember the game, but can't wait to play it on iphone so i can remember all the "stuff" that goes with it. definitely a blast from the past!
Reply