Adventure Games

This article is an illustrated and resourced summary of “Adventure Games” from Mark J.P. Wolf’s “Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology & Art of Gaming” (2021).

Adventure games distinguish themselves from other genres through their game worlds, typically comprised of interconnected rooms or locations that players can explore in a nonlinear manner. These games involve intricate objectives beyond simple actions like capturing or shooting, often requiring multi-step completion involving tasks such as locating keys, unlocking doors, and retrieving essential items. Players can manipulate and carry objects like tools, weapons, and keys, while settings often evoke historical periods or thematic genres like fantasy or science fiction. Despite featuring challenges and antagonistic elements, traditional antagonists are often absent. Instead, the game world itself becomes the antagonist as players navigate its geography, uncover hidden areas, and master the use of various objects. While exploration, navigation, and tool usage are present in many genres, adventure games place these aspects at the forefront, making them essential subgoals for achieving the main objectives. Understanding how these subgoals contribute to the overall objective is a significant part of the adventure game experience.

The history of adventure games traces back to the inception of Peter Langston’s Wander in 1974 (see Figure 1), although it would remain obscure until much later. The turning point arrived with Willie Crowther’s visionary creation. Merging his passion for cave exploration, Dungeons & Dragons, and programming expertise, Crowther crafted Colossal Cave Adventure in 1975. Don Woods later expanded on Crowther’s foundation, giving rise to Adventure in 1976. This all-text game introduced interconnected rooms navigated via typed responses (“n” for “north” or “d” for “down”). These games, known as text adventures or interactive fiction, garnered attention, with Infocom as a notable producer.

The transformative influence of Adventure was clear when Atari programmer Warren Robinett took on the challenge of translating it into a video game. This led to the birth of Adventure in 1979, the first graphical adventure game (see Figure 2). It featured 30 interconnected screens, using cinematic cuts instead of scrolling and showcasing disjointed regions that required specific tools for access. As home computers improved, graphical text adventures emerged, like Richard Garriott’s Ultima (1980) with scrolling in multiple directions.

The 1980s marked the inclusion of features from console-based games into home computer adventures. Titles like King’s Quest (1984) introduced animated characters over background graphics, while games such as Mystery House (1980) pioneered the integration of graphics into text adventures (see Figure 3). Graphics standards evolved, with Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) and Video Graphics Array (VGA) bringing higher resolutions and more colors. The Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) engine, introduced in 1987, improved user interfaces by incorporating on-screen action and cutscenes.

The rise of CD-ROMs in the late 1980s allowed for better graphics, sound, and even video clips. Myst (1993) exemplified this advancement, becoming a best-selling game (seee Figure 4). Myst revamped conventions and graphics, creating a seamless player experience by integrating information into the game world. The success of Myst rekindled interest in adventure games, leading to a surge of CD-ROM-based titles, including The Martian Chronicles (1995) and Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster (1995).

The emergence of MMORPGs expanded the adventure genre by creating persistent worlds with massive player interaction. These games departed from single-player adventures, becoming a genre of their own. Minecraft (2009) introduced procedurally generated worlds, and many single-player games incorporated elements from various genres.

While the adventure genre’s boundaries have blurred due to overlapping features, the core aspects of exploration, navigation, and tool use remain central to its essence. The journey from text-based beginnings to immersive virtual worlds reflects the enduring appeal of adventure games.

Takeaways

• Adventure games feature interconnected, nonlinear game worlds with complex objectives beyond simple actions.
• Gameplay involves tasks like finding keys, unlocking doors, and using objects, emphasizing exploration and navigation.
• Traditional antagonists are often replaced by challenging game worlds where players navigate geography and master tools.
• The history of adventure games begins with text-based titles like “Wander” (1974) and evolves into graphical adventures like “Adventure” (1979) and “Myst” (1993).
• The genre’s evolution includes graphical enhancements, integration of storytelling elements, and the rise of MMORPGs and procedural world generation.

Further Readings

Ant, “Wander (1974)—A Lost Mainframe Game Is Found!” Retroactive Fiction, April 22, 2015. Available at https:// ahopeful.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/wander-1974-a-lost-mainframe-game-is -found/.

Just Adventure website. Accessed August 22, 2023. Available at http://www.justadventure.com.

Monfort, Nick. Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.

Robinett, Warren. Foreword to The Video Game Theory Reader, edited by Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, vii–xix. New York: Routledge, 2003.

This article is an illustrated and resourced summary of “Adventure Games” by from Mark J.P. Wolf’s “Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology & Art of Gaming” (2021) and has been copyedited with Chat-GPT 3.5. This article has been written to make Wolf’s Encyclopedia and its entries more accessible.