Scott Adams was working as an advanced computer programmer at the 
Florida Institute of Technology in Florida, when he was introduced to
Crowther and Woods's original ADVENTURE by a friend. It was running on
the company mainframe, a DEC PDP-10, and after ten days he had solved
the game.

Adams had just bought a Radio Shack TRS-80, and he wanted to be able 
to play adventures on this small home computer as well. He got the idea of 
producing an interpreter, which would allow him to write many different 
adventures, but at the same time cram a lot of information into a very small 
area of memory.

His first adventure was Adventureland, which was written in Basic and 
featured a split screen showing locations, objects and exits at the top,
with the player's instructions and computer replies scrolling independently 
underneath. On the advice of Lance Micklus he translated Adventureland 
into machine language, having been persuaded that people were concerned 
about speed.

Adventureland was released commercially through "The Software 
Exchange" of Milford, New Hampshire and "Creative Computing Software" 
in 1978. The program was written on a Radio Shack TRS-80 level II.

The project nearly died in the making, when Mrs. Adams got enough of her 
husband being locked in a room for six months writing programs. She put 
the disk in the stove - luckily for Scott, and a grateful world, the stove
was not switched on. The quarrel was solved elegantly: Mrs. Adams wrote the 
next adventure, "Pirate adventure".

Adams went on to found Adventure International in 1979, which first
twelve adventure games was:

"Adventureland"
This is the one that started it all. Set in a swampy forest near a sunny 
meadow, the scene soon moves underground to royal chambers and a 
chasm. Can you think of uses for an empty wine bladder and evil smelling 
mud? The large dragon sleeping peacefully in the meadow begs a good 
hard kick - is he really as harmless as it seems? Is it possible to get past
the thin bear and still collect the thirteen treasures to complete the game? 
Some devious thinking is needed to solve this - but it has been enjoyed by 
many beginners and experienced players alike. 29 locations.

"Pirate's Cove"
A strong theme runs through this game where you will come across bottles 
of rum, old chests, an anchor and an extremely greedy and loquacious 
parrot. The story begins in the player's London flat, and after some chilling 
discoveries, moves to Pirate's Island. Easier than Adventureland, this one 
has a keener sense of humour, and reaches a climax with a gigantic hoax. If 
you can't take a joke, be prepared to put your fist through your screen 
when you get there. Written by Mrs. Adams, 25 locations and only two 
treasures.

"Mission Impossible"
This one is different, set in an automated power plant where a saboteur is 
loose with a bomb. A tape recorded message tells you, Mr. Pelps, that your 
mission, should you decide to accept it, is to prevent the bomb from 
detonating. Rather a drab game as far as descriptive content is concerned, 
and quite a difficult one. Breakthroughs seem to come rarely after long 
periods of frustration, and it is a game that lends itself to "stop-start" 
playing.

"Voodoo Castle"
This is set in a dark castle with 24 rooms, and it leads on naturally to "The 
Count".

"The Count"
Dracula, in this case - although the adventure only has 19 locations, "things 
change" throughout the game, as night succeeds day.

"Strange Odyssey"
This is set in space, on a damaged spaceship, crash-landed on an alien 
planet. The Adventurer must collect treasures of alien civilizations - if he 
can successfully manipulate the controls of a strange travelling device. Can 
you mend your crippled ship, climb slime trees, and tame a dia-ice hound? 
This adventure has 22 locations, and only five treasures - but the last one 
will prove extremely difficult to find.

"Mystery Fun House"
Successfully recreating the atmosphere of a fun-house on a computer, this 
is a quest to find secret plans. Not an easy one, but so appealing and 
intriguing, that it is always fun to come back in search of a solution. Has 
some 37 locations, and is many people's favourite of the twelve.

"Pyramid of Doom"
Difficult in parts - notably at the beginning and the end, but easy enough in 
the middle to give the novice some encouragement. Nervous tension is 
created by the appearance of a small nomad, who proceeds to follow the 
Adventurer around. There is humour in the throne room, and a counterfeit 
object. If you can successfully avoid the rats and the mummy, you're well 
on the way to success.

"Ghost Town"
This has all the feel of a deserted Western town, complete with Saloon, 
Barbershop and Jail. Who is ringing the bell, can you ride a horse, and how 
do you set about breaking in to a jail, are some of the problems you will 
come up against. It has nearly 40 locations, and can be solved in more than 
one way. It also has a couple of objects carried over from "Pyramid of 
Doom". One of Scott's best.

"Savage Island I & II"
A two-part Adventure, the first is considered extremely difficult, and even 
hardy Adventurers try not to mention part 2. Starting off on a deserted 
beach, the chilling discovery of a large stone head in your likeness, lends
to a feeling of unease. Soon forgotten in the exploration of a volcano, lake 
and caves, pursued by and over-friendly bear. Beware the hurricane whilst 
you struggle over the first hurdle - the bear. Part 1 is a good game, which 
may take quite a few months to complete. Part 1 has to be solved before 
the second - a password to the second is the goal of the first. As for Part 2 
- it's breathtaking. These are the toughest of the Scott Adams adventures, 
and not for the faint-hearted.

"Golden Voyage"
This is less difficult than "Savage Island I & II", and concerns your race to 
bring back the elixir of youth for the king.

After the twelve classic games Scott was involved in writing what was
to be a series of four DC Comic based games. The first three of these,
The Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, Torch & Thing were released and have
a similar style to Scott's other games. Torch & Thing in particular used
Scotts new improved game driver to allow you to switch between the two
characters and had some truely rotten puzzles.

Scott also revisited his original series to produce...

"Return To Pirate Adventure"
A quite nice sequel to the original pirate game.

"Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle"
A really sneaky little game where everything has many solutions and
working out the right way to put everything together to solve the lot
is really hard. It also has the worst pun I've ever come across in
an adventure game. This one is my favourite Scott Adams game.

ObFolklore:
	The Dragon32 version of Claymorgue seems to be buggy and cannot
be completed. 

These adventures may appear, at first glance, to be just like all other
programs around, but they were the first, and in fact, most other text
adventures merely imitate the Scott Adams series.

Scott Adams' story can be found in the December 1980 edition of BYTE.

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History of this file:

	Morten Lohre (edb_morten@debet.nhh.no) wrote the short summary on
	Scott Adams and the synopsis of the twelve classic games. The
	text is based on information found in "Atari Adventures" by
	Tony Bridge, published in London by Sunshine Books (1984) and
	"The Computer & Video Games Book of Adventure" by Keith Campbell,
	published by Melbourne House (1983).

	Alan Cox (iiitac@pyr.swan.ac.uk) added information about what
	happened after the twelve classics.
