The Retro Adventurers

Poor Valhalla, but really it only has itself to blame.

🎧 Really (really, really, really… 😜) loving the origin stories for guests and stories from our youths. I too was a big Fighting Fantasy lad back in the day.

That this went on to “personals” and “grottos” brought out the grins here.

🎮 #VideoGames ⌨️ #TextAdventures #InteractiveFiction 🗺️ #Podcasts 📻

If someone reissued the entire set with the feelies and everything, I would THROW MONEY AT IT.

Journey of a Space Traveller (1983) I have been sent on a difficult and rather dangerous mission to a distant planet called EARTH. My mission is to locate ten items of treasure and bring them back to my spaceship. I will, in addition…

In which I embark on the works of Steve Lucas, one of the most prolific adventure authors of the 80s.

We play an alien visiting the dangerous planet known as EARTH.

bluerenga.blog/2025/07/26/j...

I’ve come to the realisation that I enjoy retro computer programming because the goal posts don’t move on a weekly basis and because it distracts me from the dark void engulfing the world while idiots cheer. Anyway, I like coding my little c64 games

Deadline and Seastalker Invisiclues, plus The Book of Adventure Games, nice!

Episode 30 features two of the newest games we've covered although you'd hardly know it! Captain Cutter's Treasure (PunyInform), Young Arthur's Quest (VIC-20/C64), and 10 Cave Adventure (Sinclair ZX81) get a look.
Also, Smooches Collier is in effect.
retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/30/

Sherlock – “Careful examination shows that the drawer has a false bottom” When making The Hobbit, Beam Software and Melbourne House apparently knew they were onto a good thing. They decided early that they wanted to make another similar adventure afterwards using what th…

ICYMI, my post this week was on the text adventure Sherlock.

Read about:

- Ingenious ways of portraying mastery of disguise
- Hobbit-bugs being replaced by "the more advanced, state-of-the-art Sherlock-bugs"
- What its Watson has in common with Blue Prince on PS5

www.superchartisland.com/sherlock

Found in an old tape a Text Adventure I created with my cousin 34 years ago (when I was 13), made using PAWS, that I didn't remember 😀. "Maxima Aventura", it was called. Although simple, it's complete and can be played

github.com/chernandezba...

🙃

Where other people have useful information, I have joyful memories of Infocom games.

What video game ignited your passion for gaming?

I played games as a Wee John on the Atari 2600, but when I hit the C64 games like these lit up my brain. Reflex gaming gave way to more puzzles, agency, in-depth writing, and obsessive play.

If any of y’all ever played the old Infocom game “Bureaucracy,” where I think the whole goal was to get your address changed at the bank without dying from high blood pressure first - we’re dealing with that trying to get me added to my mom’s safe deposit box at Regions Bank right now

I wonder if the "grotto fascination" came out of programmers now being "of age" and wanting to get rich and famous and have a grotto of their own: www.aquamagazine.com/builder/arti...

Time for TWiR, games and gaming card goodness this week. eXoIF, a new retro gaming collection with hundreds of text adventures, PC upgrade cards making big noises, and a retrospective of the owl game publisher.

All this and more in This Week in Retro Episode 226!
youtu.be/MUtxKUkJaXk

Workday Podcast Entertainment:
@spyhards.bsky.social Valerie Leon Interview
@retroadventurers.bsky.social
Souls of Darkon and The Robots of Dawn
@doomgeneration.bsky.social Innerspace
Thanks 🤠

Ordinary MIT graduates who bullied lesser nerds with their superior command of mechanical engineering!

Disk or tape version?

There's an our-Jason-and-that-Jason episode recorded recently which will be out later this summer!

Ben, Jason & @davevelociraptor.bsky.social of This Week in Retro take on the robots! CPC/Spectrum/C64 Souls of Darkon, then whodunnit tension in Epyx's The Robots of Dawn for Apple and C64, based (ish) on the Asimov novel.
Episode 29 of The Retro Adventurers, on your favorite podcast platform now.

If you recall #eXoDOS, allow me to point you to the recently released eXoIF - 876 individual interactive fiction titles, with multiple ports for each title. Over 50 platforms are represented! More here at the link. #Infocom #textadventures

www.retro-exo.com/if.html

You can now play "The Plot of the Phantom," the text adventure game that took me 40 years to finish | Scott Andrew Gnarled JavaScript warlock, musician, cartoonist, dilettante.

The Plot of the Phantom, a text adventure that took 40 years to finish
View Article | Join the HN Conversation

Summary of HN discussion 🧵👇 #hacker-news

text: (header) welcome to journey (other text) you are about to embark on a very hazardous but profitable journey. your goal is to get all things of value and place them in the safe est place possible. however you are fighting the clock, animals and the elements. journey understands many english words and phrases. don't be afraid to talk to your computer and be prepared for it's own response. you have at your disposal these and other commands: (commands split into left and right columns on the page) walk get drop run north light south kill west throw east describe up cut down tie jump open climb close stand lock step unlock look wish (more text) some of these commands may be abreviated. good luck on you new adventure, you too could be a (in bold, below) grand master journeyer.

journey, manual, apple II (1979) www.mobygames.com/game/150345/...

Yeah, that Byte is a meal
in itself!

1985's The NeverEnding Story text adventure is getting a remake ❤️ brocantygames.itch.io/the-neverend...

Sad that NarraScope is ending or bummed that you missed it? Keep the fun going with an informative chat between Andrew Plotkin (IFTF committee chair and all-around VIP) and Retro Adventurers Jason and Nick.
retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/28/

@retroadventurers.bsky.social While listening to your interview with Andrew Plotkin, I found this insert in my copy of The Book of Adventure Games II, which I recently obtained on eBay. (Btw, I just joined BlueSky in order to follow your account here!)

A wry take on Infocom's Infidel helped set Andrew Plotkin on the course to become one of the major tastemakers in interactive fiction. We discuss Inhumane, the Inform language, IFTF, and much more on Episode 28 of The Retro Adventurers.
Available on all podcast platforms or retroadventurers.com

ChatGPT makes excuses, Wing Commander gets updated and there's an Atari Earthquake, but why has Chris forbidden the term "Fake Australian"? And your top Atari ST memories on this week's show.
youtu.be/0erTSO9qR9c

Slippery question. You can still pay full price for boxed text adventures written last year for Commodore 64, Amiga, etc. from places like PolyPlay. But Malinche might have been the last to try to make a *Real Business* out of text adventures that could run on a 386.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinch...