Author: professor6153

In 1978 Scott Adams introduced Adventureland to the world. It would have the distinction of being possibly the very first adventure game created for the home computer and the very first in the Adventure series which would go on to span 14 games. The twelve original text adventures would be re-released with graphics as Scott Adams Graphic Adventures (SAGA) beginning in 1982. The final two games debuted with graphical versions while the first twelve were initially released purely as text adventures. Pirate Adventure was also released in 1978 and remains a fan favorite to this very day.

1979 was a busy year for Scott Adams. He formed Adventure International and over the course of that year released six additional text adventures in the Adventure series: Secret Mission, Voodoo Castle, The Count, Mystery Fun House, Strange Odyssey, and Pyramid of Doom. Scott was a pioneer in computer programming and early game design. The puzzles found in his interactive adventures would lay the groundwork for and influence many in the field. In 1990 Computer Gaming World reported a statement by a “respected designer” that it was impossible to design new and more difficult adventure puzzles, because Adams had already created them all in his early games. He was not content to copy or mimic but would constantly experiment with and push the boundaries of text adventures. You could see the growth and experimentation with each successive game produced in 1979.

Scott’s adventures first appeared on a 16 KB Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I but were subsequently released on most of the major home computers of the day such as Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore PET, VIC-20, and ZX Spectrum. Scott’s work in the field is nowhere near finished as we roll into 1980 but I thought it would be fun to rank the first eight adventures to appear in the Adventure series. I am going to share my personal list but I am really interested to hear about yours. I understand that this is subjective and it will be greatly influenced by your favorite genres and your own nostalgia with these games. I will further stipulate that each of these games are significant in their own right and would find themselves in different rankings based on the criteria or question; but I’m going to rank my list based on pure enjoyment.

I agonized over this list a bit because quite frankly the entire list comprises just about all of the best interactive fiction that 1978 and 1979 had to offer anyway. I am at this point what you might call a Scott Adams “fan boy” for a number of reasons. You could make the argument that he was the first person to create an adventure game for the personal home computer and you have to admire and respect his creation and formation of Adventure International. He was an entrepreneur and pioneer during the growth of personal home computer gaming. In those early years you would have been hard pressed to find a company that did a better job advertising their games and Scott Adams worked hard to port his games to most of the major home computers. When you add in the proliferation of games Scott created in 1979; each one advancing and experimenting with the medium how can you not be a huge fan? So by ranking these games this is not an indictment against any of them but a celebration of their creation and, once again, completely subjective. So, without further ado, here is my own ranking of the Scott Adams games up to 1980.

1. Voodoo Castle

Voodoo Castle cover art

I will forever remember this ending because it was so very different for a text adventure at the time. Maze and treasure hunting tropes had been kicked to the curb to be replaced by a game that played more like a giant puzzle box.

2. The Count

The Count cover art

This was a game that introduced the progression of time and plot where every move had to be choreographed and perfectly orchestrated. There were a small number of locations that were all tightly plotted and well thought out. I believe I had to restart this adventure more than any of them; including Strange Odyssey.

3. Pyramid of Doom

I am sucker for the Egyptian theme. There is something about exploring the dark recesses of an underground pyramid that really resonates with me. This game is more than just a treasure hunt. Like Voodoo Castle, there is a much cooler meta-plot and the heart of a dark Pharoah to destroy.

4. Pirate Adventure

The pirate theme has an irresistible allure for many and if you want to introduce someone to the Scott Adams text adventures you could make a strong argument for this one to be the place to start.

5. Mystery Fun House

This is probably in a higher position on my own list than it may find itself in other’s lists but I liked the puzzles and the quirky humor sprinkled throughout the game. While I am not a big fan of the addition of humor in my adventure games it seemed to work here. The puzzles and locations were just plain quirky, odd and unusual (pick your favorite synonym) but seemed well placed for a Mystery Fun House.

6. Secret Mission

This is not my favorite genre by any stretch however this was Adam’s first foray away from maze and treasure hunt tropes so deserves an elevated spot. There was a tight plot, a limited number of moves, and a small number of locations all densely woven together.

7. Strange Odyssey

This was Scott Adam’s first foray into the science fiction genre. It introduces teleportation and a completely disconnected map. This game was hard. It advertises itself as moderate but I’m going to respectfully disagree and is easily head & shoulders the hardest game of the first eight. Your frustration factor will be high with this one but so are the rewards when you solve the puzzles.

8. Adventureland

I imagine that many will be surprised to see this game last on the list and I am almost positive it will find itself in a different spot in other’s lists. I enjoyed this game but I saw it as a homage to Colossal Cave and the springboard by which Scott Adams would grow and progress as a game designer.

There you have it. My current ranking of the Scott Adams text adventures through 1979. It serves as both a celebration of them and a “shot across the bow”. I’d like you to share your own list and rankings and any fond memories these games may bring back. I am sure some of these games are very nostalgic for some. What is even more exciting is that as we now move into 1980 and move forward there will be even more Scott Adams offerings to experience.

My journey and experience with games from 1979 ends with Pyramid of Doom. This seems fitting as the Scott Adam’s adventures have represented some of the very best offerings from this period. Mr. Adam’s was an extremely busy man in 1979; publishing no less than 6 games that year. Scott Adams’s did not write the story for Pyramid of Doom. The credit goes to Alvin Files; who never did create another. Alvin, as the story goes, had figured out how the Scott Adams Adventure system worked, wrote this game, and then sent it in to Mr. Adams. Scott Adams then worked to fix and tweak some of the coding and then released it as #8 in the Adventure series.

You begin this game in the desert and the initial premise is that you’re on an Egyptian treasure hunt which will lead you into the dark recesses of a recently uncovered Pyramid. Once inside the Pyramid you’ll discover a meta-plot which involves you having to destroy the heart of a Pharoah who has been darkened by evil.

You’ll need to find the Pharoah’s heart and find a way to destroy it or you’ll be killed by the iron statue of the Pharoah in his throne room. A mural in the throne room reads; “Seek ye well the HEART of Iron” and another cryptic clue explains; “Pharoah’s heart is red like yours, yet evil has darkened it.” I have always been a sucker for games with an Egyptian motif but having to find and destroy the dark heart of a Pharoah in order to be victorious checks a lot of boxes for me. In hindsight; the riddle and clues are well thought out and highly entertaining.

You’ll also encounter a mummy underneath the Pyramid as well as a Purple Worm (a hat tip to the Dungeons & Dragons crowd). There are one or two tougher puzzles in the game; however most of the rest of them are moderate with fair solutions as well. The “one axe I have to grind” here is the inclusion of a Giant Oyster in the game. In the ruins of an ancient Pyramid? In the middle of a hallway? And this Giant Oyster eats dried camel jerky? Come on now. I actually solved this one on my own; not because it made sense; but because many other text adventures in 1979 have had Giant Clams or Oysters in their game that you have to either pry open or feed. Don’t ask me why. Greg Hassett’s Voyage to Atlantis contained a Giant Clam that I had to pry open with a crowbar; this particular Oyster enjoys dried camel jerky. It must be an acquired taste. I believe 4 to 5 different interactive adventures in 1979 contained a Giant Clam or Oyster that you had to get open somehow. We could almost include it as another trope; each interactive adventure had to have a maze, a treasure hunt, and a Giant Clam.

I, despite the Giant Clam/Oyster digression, immensely enjoyed this game and it is one of my favorite Scott Adam’s adventures thus far. I liked the setting and the climax of the story is reminiscent of the unique climax to Voodoo Castle. You need to find 13 different treasures and deposit them in the Hieroglyphics Room AND destroy the heart of the dark Pharoah. We have enjoyed eight different text adventures from the mind of Scott Adams thus far and in my next blog post I’m going to attempt to rank these first eight offerings in order of personal preference. I strongly encourage you to sit down and watch The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser and then grab your favorite beverage and begin your own foray into the Pyramid of Doom.

Covert art for Journey

Journey is an interactive text adventure from the mind of Steve Baker. In an early feature article in Softalk Magazine Roberta Williams mentioned a number of text adventures which had influenced her work. She had mentioned Colossal Cave and that she had also played every single Scott Adams adventure she could get her hands on; which is not surprising. What WAS surprising is that she also mentioned Journey from Steve Baker as influential.

Steve Baker worked in the video games industry and continued to produce games until 2006. He worked for Apple and Atari and was responsible for the Atari 5200 port of Defender. He has his own website where you can learn more about his background and game experience.

Journey is a treasure hunt. You have a limited number of moves to find nine items and then place those items in a safe within the mansion. The nine items are as follows:

• lantern
• key
• coin
• knife
• matches
• crowbar
• diamonds
• silver spoon
• rope

The game is also based on a 350 point scoring system. You receive points for accomplishing various tasks in the game as well; such as successfully unlocking the door in the mansion.

There are various ways that you can die within the game (somewhat abruptly I might add) and if you do perish and restart than the items will be randomly scattered throughout the game again. We’ve seen this before with both of Gary Bedrosian’s games: Lords of Karma and Empire of the Over-Mind.

The game locations are a bit varied as well somewhat disjointed. The mansion has two floors to explore while underneath the well there are sewer tunnels. What was surprising is that you can also end up in Downtown Hollywood of all places. This created somewhat of a disconnect for me and the cohesiveness of the game locations didn’t resonate well with me.

This game is very hard to find but if you would like to play this text adventure you can download the game HERE. There really is no plot to speak of here; the game ends when you find all nine items and place them in the safe and then quit. There might be some replay value here if you become enamored with the prospect of trying to score as many points as possible. I have one more game left to review for 1979 and then we’re moving ahead to 1980. I am excited to share the 1980 list I’ve compiled with you.

This is the first science fiction game to spring from the mind of Scott Adams. He continues to explore different genres while at the same time continuing to experiment with the medium. We have witnessed this first hand playing his previous games and now with this one he continues to do something completely different. You’ll find yourself struggling with alien technology and also dealing with a completely disconnected map as you teleport from location to location.

This game was hard and I struggled with this game more so than any of the others to come before it. I probably spent at least two total hours before I finally had an “aha experience” with the alien machinery. I struggled with the phaser, I struggled mightily with the glasses and I struggled on the ice planet. It took me twice as long to complete this game than any of the other previous Scott Adam games.

However I loved it.

It was odd, fascinating, frustrating and exhilarating all rolled into one. You are back to collecting treasures and depositing them at your ship at the end but the disconnected map, alien landscapes and alien machinery more than make up for reintroducing a treasure hunt to us. There is certainly a plot here. You’ve landed on an alien world and your ship is not capable of leaving. You’re stranded and it’s up to you to explore your alien environment to see if there is a way for you to escape.

I’m not going to give you a walk through. I want you to play it and experience it one day as I have. I can’t tell you the number of times I pushed and pulled on that damn rod (umm, I’m referring to the one in the game attached to the alien machine). I was almost ready to pull my hair out rather than the rod out. Once I thought I had it all down and began to cycle and teleport myself to different locations; I struggled once again and realized I didn’t know how to reset the thing or go backwards. This brought on another 30 to 45 minutes of experimentation before I finally figured it out.

There are a number of puzzles that you’ll need to work through and they are just difficult enough that a beginner or intermediate player is going to struggle here. If you have successfully played through all of Adam’s previously published works then you’ll find that player growth is running parallel to Scott Adam’s growth as a designer and artist. If you have no experience with interactive fiction to this point you may not want to choose this game to “cut your teeth” on as I feel that beginning players will struggle.

I have to berate myself publicly where the phaser in the story is concerned. I knew what I had to do and where I needed to go but I nothing I tried seemed to be working. I should have examined my phaser and it would have saved me a good twenty minutes of heartache. A newbie mistake.

The glasses puzzle however was diabolical. I honestly only solved it on my own because I remembered reading or having a conversation with someone about the puzzle years ago (admittedly I’ve been around the block a few times – I like to consider myself experienced rather than old however) and yet I still struggled with the verbage in the game and experimentation with the glasses. I found that dealing with the methane snow storm was a tricky puzzle as well.

If you’re a game historian or you are interested in how games have progressed over time this game offers a first in that the map that you have to create is completely disconnected. The only way to access key locations is to teleport to them AND there is a pattern and specific means to reach each necessary area. All of this will have to be mapped and puzzled out and this was a first in interactive fiction history. The design, idea, execution of design and implementation are all original and a first. It took some getting used to and was difficult to master which is why I said a beginning player might struggle.

Adding to the difficulty of the puzzles and game design was the restriction that you are on limited oxygen with your space suit. Once you obtain everything that you need, treasures included, you have to make your way back to your ship, leave the planet and reconnect with your mother ship. Once you do that you’ll find yourself victorious. I encourage you to try this game out; it is engaging but be warned it may cause you to take up drinking. If you find yourself struggling at some point in the game and would like a gentle nudge (not an outright answer) all you need do is ask.

In Two Heads of the Coin you play the role of a detective who is very reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. Your sidekick is a Dr. Grimsby rather than Dr. Watson.

We have spent a lot of time in past reviews looking at the historical progression of interactive fiction and identifying the common tropes during that period. This game is historically significant in that it tries and accomplishes something which, up to this point, has never been done before.

Robert LaFore has his entire story take place in the detective’s sitting room. The entire plot and game progresses through conversation between the characters. The game begins with a visitor knocking upon your door at a late hour looking for help. The visitor is a Mr. James Conway. In character, you show Mr. Conway into the sitting room and have him sit down; at which point you then ask him how you can be of assistance. Mr. Conway explains that he wants you to investigate the disappearance of his wife.

The game progresses and you obtain clues and information by talking to Mr. Conway and asking him questions. This is where the game becomes really unique and it really shines. You are not “choosing” questions from a menu or playing a “pick your path to adventure” game. You have to quite literally play the role of detective and ask the right kinds of questions that will elicit “clues” which allow you to piece together the solution. We are also not talking about a two word parser here. Your questions can use proper grammar and be rather lengthy; as if you’re having an actual conversation! I am sure the program is just working off of key words in your sentences but it comes off as rather sophisticated for 1979.

If you find yourself struggling during the interview you can ask Dr. Grimsby for help who will usually do a good job of asking the questions that you did not think to ask. He will not hesitate to make you aware of that either.

This is not a long game and will probably be solved in about a 45 minute session. The idea of obtaining clues through an actual dialogue in 1979 was quite novel. I was able to work the puzzle out though I found the solution a bit difficult to swallow. If you’re interested in trying something completely different that won’t take up too much of your time I strongly recommend you sit down with Lafore’s Two Heads of a Coin. In hindsight; I wonder if Lafore’s work influenced Infocom’s Deadline or Witness which would come much later.

Spider Mountain Adventure and Lost Dutchman’s Gold were written almost back to back. The game is written by Teri Li once again with the help of Bob Liddil.

This game sports an interesting and original title and I was looking forward to it. I was hoping for something similar to the author’s previous work, Lost Dutchman’s Gold, or at least an improvement upon it.

It would seem that what the author did instead was merely edit the locations of Lost Dutchman’s Gold turning it into a fantasy setting. The source code and everything seems exactly the same except for the locations. Instead of starting with a mule you start with something called a “burdenbeast”. Instead of the saloon you now have a tavern in the same location. Instead of dealing with Indians you’re dealing with orcs.

The dungeon is located beneath the tavern this time rather than located out in the hills. There are no puzzles at all in the game; it is merely a snatch and grab. You do have to do some digging in the dungeon much like you had to do in Lost Dutchman’s Gold but the game easily telegraphs where you have to dig.

There are four treasures that you need to find and you’ll want to drop them in the tavern to earn your points for them. If you find all four treasures and deposit them in the tavern then you’ll score 100% and win the game. This game only took me a little over an hour to complete. I owe the rapid run through to just having recently completed Lost Dutchman’s Gold. Once you begin Spider Mountain Adventure after playing the former you’ll recognize that it is the same game but with all of the locations edited. I was very disappointed with Teri Li’s follow up offering especially after enticing me with such a cool game title.

Greg Hassett published three games in 1979: Sorcerer’s Castle Adventure, Enchanted Island, and lastly Voyage to Atlantis.

While the medium saw Gary Bedrosian and Scott Adams begin to experiment and move away from text adventure tropes; Greg Hassett embraces them. We are once again subjected to not one but two different mazes in this game and we are also on another treasure hunt.

The game is quite simple. We’re to assume that we’ve docked our submarine in the lost city of Atlantis and we’re going to don our oxygen tank and swim around collecting as many different treasures as we can. There are no room descriptions and no real plot other than to collect the treasures and deposit them back at the submarine for points.

While you’re swimming around the ruins of Atlantis you will find many of the treasures are guarded by underwater denizens. Your goal will be, much like it was in Enchanted Island (also by Hassett) to find a way to eliminate the guardian so that you can obtain it’s treasure. This usually involves finding something that satisfies the guardian so that it will go away. There are other times where you will use a spear gun to eliminate the guardian.

One of the puzzles is extremely silly and involves feeding a peanut butter cup to a school of piranhas. I find myself crying “foul” to silly, no-nonsense puzzle solutions like this. The labyrinth of the minotaur seems terribly out of place in Atlantean ruins or an underwater environment as well.

The following 11 treasures need to be found and deposited back at the submarine: jade medallion, many coins, valuable piranha teeth, gold scissors, a platinum pick, gold statuette, golden apple, silver key, platinum spear, glistening pearl and golden fleece.

It only took me around two hours to play through the entire adventure. The room descriptions were very simple and the plot was non-existent. The puzzles were all of a lock and key variety and posed no real challenge.

I find the Atlantis theme to be terribly exciting but much like the city itself my high hopes for the game ended up being sunk.

This is another quality text adventure from the mind of Scott Adams. It is #7 in his popular Adventure Series and in 1979 Scott Adams was like Stephen King with writer’s block; writing and programming six adventures in that year.

The quality and originality of his work turned yet another corner with the creation of Mission Impossible, Voodoo Castle, The Count and now Mystery Fun House. He abandoned text adventure tropes of the period and replaced them with plot and some ingenious puzzles.

In this adventure scenario you play the role of a spy who has to enter a mysterious fun house and obtain some hidden blueprints. There are quite a few locations and a number of puzzles to solve in order to successfully complete your mission. Some of the successful ingredients that made Secret Mission and The Count great games are also found here in this one. There is a greater degree of “humor” or quirkiness in this than in the previous two games and this may resonate more with some than with others.

Most of the puzzles were not too terribly difficult but a couple do require you to backtrack and revisit locations until you have that “aha experience”. I do want to report that I did experience some frustration with the parser and some verb recognition in this game. This had not been an issue for me in the previous installments but these experiences for each user are subjective. I seemed to have a lot of problems with the gum and the stick for example and then finally landed on the correct verb. There was a huge issue with the grate late in the game too. I spent a lot of time trying to blow it up which was a purposeful red herring I am sure but I also spent an inordinate amount of time playing “guess the verb” where that grate was concerned. I again played “guess the verb” in the Rolling Barrel room as well so there were a few times where I felt like I was battling the parser a little bit. There is one puzzle right at the end that was both funny and diabolical all rolled into one. I will admit that I had to go to Scott Adam’s Hint Book and get a nudge on this one. I like his hint book because it will not give you an outright solution in most cases but point you in the right direction. It did point me to a location and I then had the “aha moment” that I hinted at earlier and I was then able to solve that last puzzle and obtain the plans.

Mystery Fun House has a diverse number of puzzles and unique locations due to the game’s setting. Who doesn’t expect weird and quirky when exploring a mysterious fun house? This game, much like Voodoo Castle, plays like a large puzzle box that needs to be solved. When you play a text adventure like Secret Mission, Voodoo Castle, The Count or Mystery Fun House you’re bound to become “stuck” with a particular puzzle or part of the game. I find that when I am not at the computer or playing the game; I am mentally turning the problem over in my mind and trying to look at it from different perspectives. I try to create a mental plan or road map of what I am going to try to do to move the game forward when next I play. There is an immense feeling of satisfaction when you do finally get it right without any kind of help. The very fact that a computer game has you thinking about it during a typical work day should bring immense satisfaction to Mr. Adams or to any game creator for that matter. It’s the hallmark of a job well done.

Cover Art for Adventure #5: The Count

I initially had a difficult time with this offering. I had mentioned in a previous post that Scott Adams would continue to experiment with the medium and that is exactly what he did with The Count. He introduced a mechanic that was so unconventional at the time that it made me think I was doing something wrong or missing something. I actually exited out of the game and started over three or four times before I allowed myself to give into the story.

Many text adventures up to this point have experimented with the concept of time or having only a limited number of moves. The most common way we’ve experienced this is having our torch or light source go out leaving us in darkness and having to begin again. In every single case the concept of time is monitored by the player and the player’s actions have a direct affect on how time passes in the game.

In The Count, what Scott Adams does is remind the player that time marches on and waits for no one. There are a couple of plot devices which occur in the game that are dependent on the game progressing through time and specifically entire days.

You begin the game by waking up in a large brass bed. The character that you portray KNOWS why he or she wakes up in a strange place but it is up to YOU as the player to deduce why you are there. It will not be long, once you begin to wander around and explore, before you begin to realize you are in Count Dracula’s castle and you are there to destroy the vampire. There is a strange pocket watch that you can find in the castle that will let you know how many moves you have left before sunset. Once darkness descends you are bitten by a vampire bat and you awaken the next morning with marks on your neck and your day begins anew. Each time this happened, I felt that this was such a dire circumstance that I must have done something wrong. I thought there is no way that it is ok to be bitten by this vampire bat and I would then quit and restart the game. I later realized that I hadn’t needed to restart the game; that I could have and even should have continued playing. The other plot device which helped me to realize that I need to allow game time to move along were the daily mail deliveries which occur. It is important to investigate the mail deliveries and to obtain the package contents or you’re not going to be able to win the game.

Mission Impossible played with the concept of time. You had a limited number of moves you could make before the bomb went off. The game title The Count is a bit of an irony because the game completely revolves around the concept of time as a plot device. There is a countdown each day until sunset and you MUST be very economical in your moves. Every move counts! Your inventory management and the way in which you move about the castle counts! You have three days to prepare, search for and then destroy the vampire. If you do not finish in three days, when you awaken on the fourth morning, you will be transformed into a vampire.

There are not many locations in the game but every move counts. There are very specific things that you must do each day in order to survive, destroy the vampire and emerge victorious.

You begin the game with a stake in your inventory. If you do not find a way to hide the stake before you go to bed that first evening the vampire will take it from you. When you awaken the next morning it will be gone. You will not be able to complete the game without the stake. So you must find a way to hide the stake so that the vampire doesn’t find it. Good luck.

This paragraph contains a specific SPOILER so if you do not want to receive any SPOILERS I suggest you skip this paragraph and move on to the next one. If you’re a regular reader you know that I avoid giving you a complete walkthrough because if the game sounds interesting I would like you to experience it for yourself. However I am breaking from my normal pattern because I found this particular puzzle to be so odd that I felt it was borderline unfair. I am not going to tell you why you need it, but one of the things you will need to win the day is a nail-file. You will want to find this nail-file on Day 1. When you’re exploring the kitchen you’ll find an oven in the kitchen. Each time you open the oven it is described as having sunlight streaming out of it. I thought to myself; “how odd – perhaps the vampire chases me into the kitchen and I have to throw him into the oven?” No. Not even close. The reason why sunlight is streaming out of the oven? Why it’s a solar oven of course. You want to wait until the sun goes down (you’re going to have to discover on your own how to stay awake) and then you can climb into the oven. Once you are in the solar oven you’ll find your nail file. Now I’ve never heard of a solar oven. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the concept of a solar oven. I knew I NEEDED something like the nail-file; but I didn’t know what it was and I couldn’t find anything anywhere. I spent probably two hours minimally stuck at this point in the game. I actually got lucky and found that Scott Adams had published a hint book that NUDGES you in the right direction by substituting words for numbers. So I had to cheat a little bit with this one. In hindsight; I NEVER would have gotten to the possibility of a solar oven and waiting until dark to crawl inside. So I am glad that I ended up taking a hint and becoming a big cheater face. I REALLY hated doing that because I was really enjoying the game.

On Day 2 you’re going to want to find Dracula’s crypt and you’ve got some work to do there to set you up for Day 3. Day 3 is when you have your final showdown with the Count.

Let me warn you; the game is all about getting a proper sequence of events completed in the correct order and doing so with a limited number of moves. There are a couple of things you can find and use to prevent you from being turned into a vampire or at least slow down the process. Manipulation of your environment also takes centerstage in this game. Do not study the screen capture below as it contains SPOILERS!

I found myself saving and restarting several times until I got the order of things correct on each day and had all of the right items. I found the ending to be extremely gratifying because the The Count, in my humble opinion, is the hardest game in the Adventure Series to this point. It is also quite possibly my favorite or at least in my top 3 (I’ll share these with you in a future blog post). I think it would have been a clear favorite if not for the solar oven encounter. It was ALMOST a deal breaker for me but didn’t stop me from enjoying and appreciating this adventure scenario. The mechanics and concepts introduced in this text adventure are novel and really set it apart from the other adventures in this series. The game is much harder than I make it sound and you’re going to find it challenging to manipulate the surrounding environment to your advantage but the payoff is satisfying. In the end I had a lot of fun seeing to it that this particular vampire went down for The Count. (insert groan here)

This is the fourth text adventure by Scott Adams in his Adventure Series and 1979 would prove to be a very busy year for the young Mr. Adams. This would be the second of six adventures that he would publish: Mission Impossible, Voodoo Castle, The Count, Strange Odyssey, Mystery Fun House, and Pyramid of Doom.

From what I can gather during my research it would seem that Alexis Adams, Scott’s wife at the time, created the broad strokes of the story and then Scott did most of the writing and all of the programming.

In Voodoo Castle; Count Cristo has been placed under a curse and it is up to you to find a way to break the curse and free Count Cristo.

Mission Impossible broke away from the maze and treasure hunt tropes and Voodoo Castle follows its predecessor down this road. The plot and locations are tight and concise and represent the components of a puzzle box just waiting to be solved. You will find that you are indeed picking up different items scattered throughout the castle but not to score points in some kind of treasure hunt. The items that you find may help you solve a puzzle in a different location or may lead to even more questions.

The ring that you find on the Count helps you to get to a new location while the shield that you find in the game protects you in another location. These are two examples of the interlocking nature of the puzzles and items found in Voodoo Castle. The locations and puzzles found in the game are all very unique and interesting and cause you to sit back and do a little head scratching. The game overall is not too terribly difficult but it is not an easy one either. I would rate this game as more difficult than Adventureland, Pirate Adventure and Mission Impossible. When you solve a particular problem or puzzle in Voodoo Castle it essentially allows you to move to a new location or propels the story forward. All of these little successes when they occur causes tremendous satisfaction during game play.

As the plot in Voodoo Castle unfolds you’ll soon discover that you’re ultimately collecting items to complete a ritual which will break Count Cristo’s curse. Solving the many puzzles found in Voodoo Castle will allow you to get your hands on two different ancient pages which outline the items which you’ll need for the ritual and how it should be performed. The climax or endgame to Voodoo Castle is a real treat as you’re going to have to literally complete the steps in the ritual correctly. It is here you’ll encounter probably the toughest puzzle of the game. Despite doing everything correctly I could not get the ritual to work. I was lucky to stumble across the solution and I will say this much. When you’re dropping items and juggling your inventory you’ll notice that with one of the items the game suddenly asks; “WHERE?” This is a decidedly different response and you should dwell on what that might mean. Good “luck”.

I really enjoyed Voodoo Castle. I felt like I was in an old episode of Scooby Doo. The investigation of the castle felt real and having to move back and forth between locations and testing theories really resonated with me. When you eventually solve a puzzle (on your own) the feeling of exhilaration is indescribable. Those feelings will soon dissipate when you find yourself in a new location with yet another new puzzle to solve but the puzzles fit nicely together.

I eventually broke the curse of Count Cristo but that didn’t stop Voodoo Castle from putting a spell over me. This was my favorite adventure of the four so far that have been created by Scott Adams. He continues to perfect his craft and to experiment with the medium. The overall plot and the way in which all of the puzzles interlocked together would be an influence for text adventures which would come later. If you’re going to try one of the earlier text adventure offerings from Adventure International; I recommend you start with this one.