Matt Chat 13: Adventure

[Hamdar7]

Some of the most entertaining vidja' history ever. Keep it up Matt.

[JohnnysCoolStuff]

As one of the D & D generation, Adventure was far and away my and my friends' favorite Atari 2600 game.

[TinyTank2]

Those dragons sure look goofy! A classic game nonetheless, but it makes you appreciate the many advancements in digital dragon depictions.

[1300l]

That guy is a genios, to pick the atari, make a game like this not just with the limitation of the hardware, but also in a age where games (specialy for console games) was simple and more "arcade like". Adventures with puzzle was a more "mature" type of game where computers had it, not consoles untill the mid 90's (if im right with that statement, based in sonic, mario from consoles vs beneath a steal sky and even doom from the pc).

[IdaGno]

Stellar Track remains the most fun I've had playing video games.

[elfmann243]

Dammit, I'm running out of your videos to watch lol, Not only is it interesting for someone like me who missed out on this generation of games; being too young :S but i learn a lot from these videos like how certain games have evolved and what other games drew inspiration from. Often from other games. Awesome video as always, its great listening to you.

[OBSysteme]

@elfmann243 don't forget that its not too late to play the game of the golden era. they are all there on the net, just a matter of finding the ones you want to try out.

there is a legion of emulators for all sorts of environment if you don'T have the chance to play on retro-hardware as well.

[LordDreagon]

The bat reminds me of the little guy in Dungeon Master that steals your stuff. Great video and great fun!

[Diamondfist1]

Adventure is on the Atari 80 Games in One compilation for PC, and the console version Atari Anthology for Xbox and PS2. I originally played this on the Coleco Expansion Module #1, and still own it. This is still a favorite of mine. Thanks for the review.

[Ocea8i53]

Thanks for the info

[Ocea8i53]

Matt, thanks for the cheat. Would you happen to know when using a older tv set to plug a atari 7800 into, what those lines are during game play when recording the game with a video camera? I get wried lines and colors when recording that aren't seen when viewing with just eyes.

[blacklily8]

Yes, that's a problem with recording the screen of an old TV. You're seeing the scan lines that way. If you want to capture stuff like that, you need to buy a capture card and record it with your PC rather than just recording the screen of the TV.

[broken1394]

Well re-searched Matt!!!! fantastic vid. lol

[vintagevideogamegeek]

I have this game but didn't know about the Easter Egg. How did you make it appear?

[blacklily8]

Just google Adventure easter egg to find the solution (it's common knowledge now). Must have been fantastic to stumble upon it for the first time, though.

[vintagevideogamegeek]

The dragon looks like a duck to me!

[Konuvis]

Great review again and I loved the history at the beginning.

but I too found the music a bit distracting, can't really point out why. maybe it was a bit too loud, maybe the genre didn't really match the fantasy theme of the game but in any case I think your voice with the game sounds would have been fine.

oh and BTW I met Ray Kassar once and he was really nice, I didn't know about what you just talked about.

[blacklily8]

Hehe; yeah, that's why I decided to cut it or minimize it in later episodes. It's fun to play with, but I guess there's an art to timing and adjusting it just right.

I'm sure Ray Kassar is a nice guy; folks don't get to be in the positions he enjoyed by pissing everybody off. He had a vision for the company which he strove for mightily, but I just don't think it was the right vision. A more Google or Apple-esque attitude would have done them much better.

[mezrabad]

He did make the call to license Space Invaders for the VCS, so I'd give him credit for that. Overall though, he didn't know how to make his most valuable people feel valued. That ain't the way to do it.

Great video by the way, Matt.

[RichardEllwood]

Thanks Matt, I enjoyed this review very much. I remember playing this game and many other 2600 games in elementary school. Please keep the reviews coming!

[blacklily8]

No problem, Richard. Stay tuned for more!

[Daytona400f]

woot! I LOVED this game! I downloaded an Atari2600 emu solely to play this. Thanks for the props

[blacklily8]

Hehe, glad you liked it!

[CaptainRufus]

Not a bad one, but the music during the video was amazingly distracting/annoying.

[blacklily8]

Sorry to hear that. Was it just too loud, the type of music, or do you just prefer silence?

[CaptainRufus]

The silence with just game sound effects works better I think. Having an opening music bit works good, but not so much the music during it.

[rowdyrob3d]

I, for one, liked the background music. I didn't find it distracting. That having been said, if others find it annoying, by all means get rid of it, because it's your commentary that is the key attraction.

This episode was another great addition to the "Matt Chat" series!

[thejoyofsticks]

What a quirky game! It's stunning to think that a lot of the features in this game are still alive in today's adventure titles. A very informative vid. Cheers, Matt!

[blacklily8]

Thanks, thejoyofsticks. An interesting thing about the 2600 is that the hardware left a lot to the cartridge. So, developers could really do some fantastic stuff and found all kinds of tricks and workarounds. More advanced machines had sprites and such, but fewer ways to game the system, so to speak.

[blacklily8]

You're welcome, hemrawc. Thanks for watching!

[hemrawc]

Thank you! Very Informative!

[bartonle]

Great Video Matt.

[blacklily8]

Thanks! Wanted to ask--do you know where I can get free stock footage for future videos?

[blacklily8]

Grr...Okay, I can't get the annotations to work. Anyway, two things:

1. Meant to say "William" at the beginning, not "Warren." Sorry for those who were offended by this mistake.

2. Wanted to point out that Adventure wasn't the first game with an Easter Egg; there were some on earlier Fairchild games, for instance.

[bloglistanegra]

Hi Matt, thanks for the episode of one of my favorite Atari games. I love adventure games and I know several books have been written about text adventures (Twisty Little Passages, etc...). Unfortunatelly, I haven't seen any about the history of *graphic* adventure games. Do you have any plans on writing a book about this subject, basically in the same style as Dungeons & Desktops? It would be fantastic... Sometimes I think about writing one myself but I know my English is not that good.

[blacklily8]

I do indeed have that plan: "Floyd Lives: The History of Adventure Games." I want to cover text as well as graphical adventure games. Thanks for the comments!

[bloglistanegra]

That's great, I'd be glad to collaborate with this project if you need any help. Thanks!

[yethboth]

Very Good. :) Thank you very much for uploading this. :) Please keep these videos coming. :)

[blacklily8]

You're welcome!

[markvergeer]

You did it! A review of a 2600 game. ;-)

[dukdukgoos]

Hey, Matt... Adventure is one of the true classics. I remember fondly solving the "magic dot" puzzle when I was a kid (I think with some kind of hint sheet, can't imagine finding it accidentally). I've watched almost all your Matt Chat videos and even bought Dungeons and Desktops, which I enjoyed a lot. Video game history is a fascinating subject. I'd love to hear more technical details about the games and also interviews with some of the original programmers. Keep up the good work!

[blacklily8]

That's a good point, dukdukgoos. You could draw lots of connections between this and Metroid. Thanks for the comments and glad you enjoyed the book!

[marcusmalone]

The bridge is very much an early 'new item opens up hitherto unreachable areas' adventure game mechanism.

[marcusmalone]

Woohoo! My youtube name up in lights, or at least ones and zeros. By the way, both books arrived down under this week. Both have been occupying my attention much to the detriment of of the reading I am meant to be doing! Damn you, Matt of Matt Chat.

[blacklily8]

Hehe, well, there must not be that many people out there who are distracted from their studies by other studies! :)

[marcusmalone]

You'd think task management would not be a problem, what with all the CRPGs i've played since Bard's Tale I. Such is life.

[blacklily8]

Ah, Bard's Tale! Or: Tales of the Unknown Vol. 1 (must be the most-unknown actual title in the history of games). Whew. What a classic.

[marcusmalone]

It would appear that I have not been doing enough non-study related reading. Bards Tale 1 indeed. What a neophyte!

[HatNJ]

Cool 1st Comment on a GREAT Game

Good episode Glad I subscribed

[blacklily8]

You're welcome, HatNJ, glad you enjoyed it.