ADVENTURE [Atari 2600] A FAQ by John N. Daily daily@capital.net 01/06/2000 v1.1 =================== --- Credits --- =================== To Atari, for publishing what is arguably the first ever Adventure/RPG game. To Warren Robinett for creating what is definitely the first ever "Easter Egg" in a game, as well as one of the greatest and most influential games of all time. Adventure was a true original in the world of Space Invaders and Pong clones that was 1978 Video gaming. To my kids Zachary and Caleb, for making me realize how much fun the 2600 can still be. ====================== --- Contents --- ====================== 1: Why a FAQ? 2: Gameplay a) The Story of Adventure b) Using the Controller c) Difficulty Switches d) Characters and Items 1) Hero 2) Evil Magician 3) Yorgle, Grundle and Rhindle 4) The Black Bat 5) The Keys and Castles 6) The Magnet 7) The Sword 8) The Bridge 9) The Enchanted Chalice e) Variation 1 f) Variation 2 g) Variation 3 h) Tips 1) Tempt the Bat With Used Keys 2) Use the Bat to Do Your Dirty Work 3) Learn the Mazes! 4) Help! There's a Dead Dragon In My Way!! 5) Lock Him Up and Throw Away the Key 3: The History of Adventure 4: Tricks a) The Very First "Easter Egg" Ever b) Walking Through Walls c) Walking On The Game Select Screen 5: Useful Links 6: Bibliography and Copyright Information 7: Version history 1: WHY A FAQ? ============= Well, I began to feel nostalgic. I wanted to produce a FAQ that would help reproduce the fascination I felt as a child popping the game cart into what was a relatively new medium at the time: the video game. For a game produced in the late 1970's on a very limited machine (only capable of moving two objects at once, for example), it's pretty amazing the depth this game has. It's also easier to find a loose cartridge at a flea market or garage sale than it is to find the actual instructions for 2600 games. For these reasons, I decided the poor, forgotten, old Atari 2600 deserved better than to fade away with so little documentation as proof of its existence. Thus, a new series of FAQs is born! I hope you enjoy them; drop me a line and let me know that someone is actually reading this! :-) 2: GAMEPLAY =========== A) THE STORY OF ADVENTURE Apparently, it's not *always* in the details. In Adventure, you play a nameless hero trying to set right the nasty deeds performed by a nameless evil magician in a nameless Kingdom. It seems the evil magician has stolen an Enchanted Chalice from a Golden Castle. The Chalice is hidden somewhere in the Kingdom, and you must find it and return it to its proper home. B) USING THE CONTROLLER Assuming you are playing the actual game cartridge on an Atari 2600 (or Sears compatible system), hold the joystick so that red button is in the upper left corner. Pushing the joystick up, down, left and right moves your character in the same direction. To pick up an item, simply run into it. To drop an item, press the red button. In Adventure, you may only carry one item at a time. C) DIFFICULTY SWITCHES Again, assuming you are playing the actual game cartridge on an Atari 2600 (or Sears compatible system), the LEFT Difficulty Switch will control "bite speed". If it is set to "B", the Dragons will pause before they bite you. If it is set to "A", they will bite without hesitation. The RIGHT Difficulty Switch, when set to "A" will cause the Dragons to run away from the sword. D) CHARACTERS AND ITEMS 1) HERO This is your character. You're the most handsome square in the Kingdom. :) 2) EVIL MAGICIAN This is the guy that stole the Enchanted Chalice. You'll never see him, but he's responsible for all the Bad JuJu in the Kingdom. 3) YORGLE, GRUNDLE and RHINDLE These are the three infamous duck-like dragons in Adventure. Bet you forgot they had names, didn't you? :) Yorgle is the Yellow Dragon. He is found in all three game variations, and is a bit slower than your character. He guards the Enchanted Chalice in Game Variation 2. In Game 1, he will be roaming around the Kingdom. Yorgle is afraid of the yellow key. He will not go near you if you are carrying it, and he will not be found in any room in which it appears. Grindle is the Green Dragon. He travels at the same speed as Yorgle, but will chase you regardless of what you may be carrying. He guards the Black Key, the Bridge and the Magnet. Rhindle is the Red Dragon. He is the fastest Dragon and travels at the same speed as your character. Thus, he is the most difficult to evade. He mainly guards the White Key, but in Game Variation 3 he can be found guarding the Enchanted Chalice.. If any of the Dragons succeed in getting you between their jaws, all it takes is one direct bite and you will be swallowed whole. The only thing you can do is move around a bit in the belly of the Dragon who has made you his lunch, which is fun but not too helpful in finishing the game. You do have a saving move however; simply press the Game Reset switch and you (along with any Dragons you might have slain) will be reincarnated. Any item you might have been carrying at the time of your demise will be where you dropped it. 4) THE BLACK BAT The Black Bat will be the cause of most of your misery. If you have never played Adventure before, be prepared for the frustration this little bugger will be causing you. The Black Bat is like a crow: he loves to pick things up. However, his taste is not limited strictly to shiny objects. He will pick up anything he can find, including Dragons. He also loves to trade things, giving you whatever he may be carrying in exchange for whatever *you* are carrying. It is not unheard of for a player to be nearing a castle gate with the proper key, only to have the Bat come out of nowhere and exchange it for a Dragon! There are two fairly good points about the Bat though. The first is that it can retrieve items that have become stuck in walls. The second is that you can catch the Bat and whatever item it may be carrying. For example, the Bat is carrying the sword. You may catch the Bat and carry it around until you find a Dragon. Maneuver the bat so that the sword stabs the Dragon, then let the Bat go. Chances are, it will drop the sword and carry the dead Dragon away (this is especially easy to do at the start of Game Variation 2). The Bat moves at the same speed as the player, and it does not appear in Game Variation 1. 5) THE KEYS AND CASTLES There are up to (depending on the Game Variation you are playing) three different colored keys: Yellow, Black and White. Each Key corresponds to the same color castle. At the start of the game, each castle is locked and can only be opened with the same color key. Like any other item, you may only carry one key at a time. 6) THE MAGNET The magnet attracts any items that may be in the same room with it. I've never found it to be all that useful, although it is good for getting items that may be stuck in a wall. 7) THE SWORD Fairly obvious, use the sword to kill the Dragons. 8) THE BRIDGE The bridge is used to walk through certain walls (mainly in the mazes). With the exception of the "Easter Egg" trick, I've never found it to be that useful. To use it, pick it up by an end, place it over the wall you want to walk through (both ends of the Bridge must be on a area the player can actually walk on), then press the button. A word of caution: be careful when using the Bridge. As the game is set up so that touching an object causes you to pick it up, if you touch any part of the Bridge while walking through it, it is possible for you to become trapped within a wall. 9) THE ENCHANTED CHALICE This is the Holy Grail of Adventure; the reason for playing. You must find it and return it to the Yellow Castle to win the game. E) VARIATION 1 The easiest game. If you have never played Adventure before, start with this. There are only two Dragons (Yorgle and Grundle) to deal with, and two castles to explore. There is one maze (the Blue Labyrinth) to navigate. There is no Black Bat in this game and Yorgle roams freely about the Kingdom. He *may* be guarding the Enchanted Chalice. F) VARIATION 2 This game features all three castles, keys and Dragons. There are also two more labyrinths that must be navigated; one in the White Castle and another in the Black Castle. The Black Bat makes his first appearance in this game. This variation has "fixed" settings. That is, all of the items and characters will always be in the same place every time you play. Yorgle guards the Enchanted Chalice. G) VARIATION 3 This game variation is exactly the same as Variation 2, except that all object, key and character placement is now completely random. Rhindle guards the Enchanted Chalice. H) TIPS 1) TEMPT THE BAT WITH USED KEYS Some players like to use a key to open a Castle gate and then place that key inside the Castle for safe keeping. I say, once you've raised the gate (you don't have to walk inside the Castle to do this) drop the used key somewhere else in the Kingdom where the Bat can get at it. The more used items scattered around that he can play with, the less likely he's going to grab something you need. 2) USE THE BAT TO DO YOUR DIRTY WORK Just like the example I gave in the Black Bat section, grab that little bugger when he's carrying around the sword. Use him to kill any Dragons out in the open, then let him go to (hopefully) carry off a carcass, leaving you with the sword in the process. 3) LEARN THE MAZES! They are not terribly complex, but as they are designed in such a manner that they can't exist in the 'real' world, they can be confusing. It's very easy to find yourself at a dead end when a Dragon is in pursuit. Learn them, so that you can navigate them more quickly when you're in a hurry. 4) HELP! THERE'S A DEAD DRAGON IN MY WAY!! Well, it's possible to get the bat to take the Dragon out of your way, but it doesn't happen very often. If possible, find and deposit two another item or two near the Dragon. The Atari 2600 had a problem with drawing too many things on screen at once, and the result is an annoying flickering that can enable you to actually walk through the Dragon. 5) LOCK HIM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY It is possible to lure the Bat into any of the castles and then leave towing the key behind you, thus locking the door and trapping him inside. Note that, although rare, he does occasionally manage to find his way out (by osmosis through the walls?) anyway. 3: THE HISTORY OF ADVENTURE =========================== In 1978, the climate for home video game design was fairly static. Sports and combat styled games (tanks and bi-planes) were common themes. The arcades, however, were a different story. That was the year that Tatio, a Japanese corporation, had tapped into their (and our) country's increasing fascination with UFOs and the possibility of life on other planets. Using this as a base theme for a new game, they created a monster. The game was Space Invaders, and they sold 6 times (60,000 in the United States alone, distributed through Midway) the normal number of units. Everyone saw these little goose stepping aliens in their dreams, and the companies with home video game systems (at that time Atari, Magnavox, Fairchild, Bally and RCA) saw gold. Space had become the theme of the times, and Invader clones were at the front of the pack. While Atari hadn't yet licensed Space Invaders for their VCS home system, and while their in-house development team was given the freedom to pretty much do what they want, this atmosphere becomes important later. Enter Warren Robinett. Having joined Atari in 1978, he single handedly (all the game developers worked alone back then) was responsible for Adventure, from conception to creation. The policy at Atari at that time was not to publicly give credit to their designers, for fear that the recognition and increasing popularity of credited designers would start bidding wars and, thus, raise the designers' fees. As a result, many developers left Atari; most notably, David Crane, Larry Kaplan (who, ironically, was Robinett's boss at Atari), Bob Whitehead and Alan Miller (who formed Activision, the world's first software only company). Robinett would leave too, to form The Learning Company (still in operation today; their latest hits are the Pokemon Blue and Red Project Studio Print Shop programs for home computers), but not before he exhibited his frustration with Atari's "no names" policy by creating the first ever "Easter Egg": his name hidden within the Adventure game. Surprisingly, not only *didn't* Warren get into trouble over this, Atari apparently liked the idea so much that they later created a series of games where the object was to find hidden items: The SwordQuest series. Jump forward to 1979. Home systems are inundated with space games when Adventure arrives. While not the incredible hit it is made out to be now, it is a breath of fresh air. A new genre is born and the release of The Legend of Zelda seven years later for the Nintendo Entertainment System may have owed more than a little to Warren Robinett. 4: TRICKS ========= A) THE VERY FIRST "EASTER EGG" EVER If there is anyone reading this who doesn't know what an "Easter Egg" is, it's simply anything hidden within the game; tricks, codes and messages all are examples. If you have enjoyed any of these in any games over the past 21 years, you may thank Mr. Robinett. Here's how to find his message in Adventure: 1) Start Game Variation 2 or 3 2) Enter the Black Castle. Make sure you have the Bridge handy. 3) Make your way through the maze until you get to an screen where everything begins to flash. As we know by the limited amount of objects available on screen at once, this can only mean one thing: there is something else in this room. 4) Using the Bridge, enter a small square room at the bottom center of your screen. This room contains a small "dot" that is only 1 pixel in size (by comparison, your character is 16 pixels in size; four wide and four deep). The dot is not invisible; rather, it is the same color as the ground. If you want to make sure you have it, simply walk near a wall on the side you're carrying it. It should show up. 5) Take the dot to the room just below and to the right of the Yellow Castle. This is the room with a black band running up and down the right side. Drop the dot somewhere in the room. 6) Go and get two more objects and drop them in this room. The black line should flash. Simply walk through the line and enjoy a little piece of history! B) WALKING THROUGH WALLS The Bridge can be a fun little time waster. Experiment a bit with it; it is possible to use it to travel to screens you shouldn't be allowed to travel to! :) C) WALKING ON THE GAME SELECT SCREEN On the game select screen, simply pull down on your joystick and your character will appear. Appropriately, you will be the same color as the border of the Select screen (depending on what number you have chosen). 5: USEFUL LINKS =============== For those of you who wish to view an actual Instruction manual, Greg Chance hosts an archive of them at http://videogames.org I can not guarantee that this FAQ's game is available, as I have not looked. Nor can I be responsible for the accuracy of information provided there. Nevertheless, it is an extremely useful and entertaining site for those people who are interested in "Classic" video gaming. For those of you who can't find a cartridge of Adventure (or don't have a 2600 to run it on), Vgr has created a terrific PC port called "Indenture". Hop on over to http://www.clark.net/pub/vgr/ to get it. For this and other useful FAQs, visit Game Faqs at http://www.gamefaqs.com I will be adding more Atari 2600 FAQs shortly. 6: BIBLIOGRAPHY AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION ========================================= Bloom, Steve. Video Invaders. Arco Publishing, Inc., 1982. (Author Unknown). Interview With Warren Robinett. Game Over net (http://www.gameovernet.co.uk/wr-int.htm) This entire document Copyright 2000 by John N. Daily All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, by any means, without permission in writing by the author. This document may not appear in any electronic format, including CD Rom, other than on Game Faqs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) and the author's own site, without permission in writing by the author. This document is not to appear with any emulation related materials, nor be compressed with emulation related files. While I am not entirely against emulation, most Atari games still have active copyrights attached to them and are not in the public domain. Besides, it's sooo much more fun finding an actual copy of the game, popping it in, and grabbing that cheesy, wrist cramping joystick! :) 7: VERSION HISTORY ================== v1.1 (This version) - fixed a directional error in Section 4A v1.0 - first release - v1.0 (1/6/2000)