Adventure games can take a myriad of forms these days, including relying solely on text. Creative developers can experiment with all kinds of settings, characters, and storylines, giving players an equally compelling variety of choices.
Despite how sophisticated they can be, some of the first text-based video games belong in the adventure genre, recalling a time when players had to use more of their own imaginative power to complete the experience. A few text-based adventure games date from the 1960s and 1970s, but it was the 1980s when text-based games were among the most popular. These are some of the best of the era that nostalgic players look back on today.
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6 Dracula
Adventure And Interactive Fiction
- Publisher: CRL Group
- Designers: Rod Pike and Ian Ellery
- Platforms: Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
- Release Year: 1986
Dracula is an example of text-based adventure games at their peak when it came to storytelling, character development, and novel adaptation. The game is based on Bram Stoker's classic novel and follows the same pattern as the original narrative. Players begin in the small town near Dracula's castle, go there and interact with the count, then head back to London to hunt the vampire.
This game was the first to be rated by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), and they rated it as appropriate for ages 15 and up due to the blood and gore. The publisher was apparently disappointed, as they were hoping to market the game with an 18+ rating.
5 King's Quest: Quest For The Crown
The Beginning Of A Classic Adventure Franchise
- Publisher: Sierra On-Line
- Designer: Roberta Williams
- Platforms: IBM PCjr, Tandy 1000, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh, MS-DOS, Master System
- Release Year: May 10, 1984
This series evolved into the next generation of point-and-click adventure games of the 1990s that ran on CD-ROM power, but it all started with the initial text-based installment. There was an official remake released in 1990, partly to market the upcoming games.
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The story of the first King's Quest sets up the rest of the franchise with the adventure of Sir Graham, and how he became King of Daventry. The following games also either take place in Daventry, or feature the royal family of the same kingdom.
4 Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
The Remake Of A 1970s Classic
- Publisher: Infocom
- Designers: Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels
- Platforms: PDP-10, PDP-11, some personal computers
- Release Year: 1980
The original Zork dates from 1977, and it was so successful that it was expanded and re-released in three parts, starting with this one in 1980. It was a ground-breaking game that combined exploration, puzzles, and treasure all in one adventure.
Players have to use text commands to navigate everything in the mysterious world of Zork. The directions have to be simple, using the imperative verb in the form of a command, like "open window" or "unlock door." Despite its simplicity, the program's text replies and prompts are surprisingly articulate and even snarky.
3 Oregon Trail
The Edu-Tainment Adventure Everyone Played
- Publisher: MECC
- Designers: R. Philip Bouchard
- Platforms: Apple II, DOS, macOS, Windows
- Release Year: 1985
There are versions of this game that date back to 1977, and its continuing success resulted in remakes, sequels, and several spinoffs that lasted well into the 1990s. This version, which was released in 1985, added more maps and graphics to the mostly text-based game. It allowed the player to choose one of three professions, each with a varying difficulty level and different items to start.
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The year is 1848, and the main character is leading a wagon train that must travel from Independence, Missouri, to Willamette Valley, Oregon, a famous route now known as the Oregon Trail. True to how the real experience would have been, players must face starvation, uncertain terrain, and weather, along with minigames for hunting and rafting.
2 The Hobbit
One Of Many Text-Based LotR-Inspired Games
- Publisher: Beam Software
- Designers: Veronika Megler and Philip Mitchell
- Platforms: Amstrad CPC, Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Dragon 64, IBM PC, Macintosh, Oric, MSX, and the ZX Spectrum
- Release Year: November 1982
It wasn't just that The Hobbit was a more than decent adaptation of Tolkien's book of the same name. It also featured an advanced type of parsing language called "Inglish" that allowed the player to type more complex sentences than simple two or three-word commands.
The Hobbit also included a wealth of RPG-like elements that would have been associated with the table-top adventure games of the time, like a carrying limit and organizing items by size and weight. Another unique element that has echoed through the ages was the NPCs that acted and moved independently of the protagonist.
1 Wizard's Castle
A Classic Fantasy Adventure RPG
- Publisher: Joseph R. Power
- Designer: Joseph R. Power
- Platforms: DOS
- Release Year: 1980
The creator, publisher, and designer of Wizard's Castle, Joseph Power, published the game's DOS code in the July/August edition of Recreational Computing magazine. It was converted to Microsoft BASIC by J. F. Stetson later that same year, and to the Glk/ZCode, the same one that ran the original Zork, by Adam Biltcliffe in 1997.
One of the oldest and most bare-bones text adventure games ever created, Wizard's Castle was also one of the most innovative, especially for this early era. The player begins by creating a unique character, starting with their race and class, and giving them opportunities along with various rooms and areas to explore, all through a strictly text-based user interface. The storyline is fairly elaborate too, and tells the story of the player's quest to find the Orb of Zot.