ADVENTURE [Atari 2600]

ADVENTURE [Atari 2600]
A FAQ by John N. Daily
[email protected]
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)