Adventure International was an American video game publishing company that existed from 1979 until 1986. It was started by Scott and Alexis Adams. Their games were notable for being the first implementation of the

adventure genre Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of Romance (prose fiction)#Definition, romance fiction. History In t ...

to run on a

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

system. The adventure game concept originally came from '' Colossal Cave Adventure'' which ran strictly on large

mainframe A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

systems at the time.

History

After the success of Adams' first

text adventure Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

, '' Adventureland,'' other games followed rapidly, with Adventure International (or "AI") releasing about two games a year. Initially the games were drawn from the founders' imaginations, with themes ranging from

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

to horror and sometimes

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. Some of the later games were written by Scott Adams with other collaborators. In 1980, five of the company's games were ported to the

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit entry level home computer that was sold by Commodore International, Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commod ...

. Developer Neil Harris recalled: " r sales guys could not figure out what they were gonna do with them. 'What are these games? It's all words on the screen! There's no graphics! What kind of a video game doesn't have video?' aughsAnd they became the best-selling cartridges for the VIC-20, period." By 1983 the company was employing 40 people and was based in Longwood, Florida. Fourteen games later, Adventure International began to release games drawn from film and fiction. The ''Buckaroo Banzai'' game was based on the film '' The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension'' (1984). Other games came from

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

- Adventure International released three '' Questprobe'' games based on the Marvel characters The Incredible Hulk,

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

, The Human Torch and the Thing. In 1982, Adventure International began releasing Scott Adams Graphic Adventures for computers like the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, while continuing to sell text-only games for less powerful computers such as the VIC-20 and TI 99/4A. Graphic adventures like ''The Hobbit (1982 video game), The Hobbit'' increased expectations of such games, however, and Adventure International's graphic adventures were inferior to others resulting in a rapid loss of

market share Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a Market (economics), market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those ...

. At its peak in late 1983/early 1984, right at the cusp of the

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturatio ...

, Adventure International employed approximately 50 staff and published titles from over 300 independent programmer/authors. Adventure International was based in the Sabal Point subdivision of Longwood - at 155 Sabal Palm Drive, Longwood, Florida near the east side of Sabal Point Elementary School. The company also had a retail store located in Sweetwater Oaks at 966 Fox Valley Drive, Longwood. Adventure International went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in 1986. The

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

s for its games reverted to the bank and eventually back to Scott Adams who released them as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

. In

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

the "Adventure International" name was a trading name of

Adventure Soft Adventure Soft is a British video game developer and publisher established by Mike Woodroffe, initially as an importer and reseller of Adventure International games as Adventure International (UK), and later using the names Horror Soft, Advent ...

and other games were released under the name that were not from Adventure International in the US.

Games

Scott Adams ''Adventure'' games

Scott Adams's original twelve adventure games were: *'' Adventureland'': Exploration of a fantasy landscape to collect thirteen treasures * '' Pirate Adventure'' (also called ''Pirate's Cove''): Hunt for lost pirate treasure * ''Secret Mission'' (originally called ''Mission Impossible''): Prevent terrorists from destroying a

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...

* '' Voodoo Castle'': Free a count from a voodoo curse. * '' The Count'': Kill

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...

. * '' Strange Odyssey'': Explore strange planets and collect treasure. * '' Mystery Fun House'': Capture secret plans hidden in a fun house. * '' Pyramid of Doom'': Plunder an Egyptian pyramid. * ''

Ghost Town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

'': Search a Western

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

for treasure. * '' Savage Island'' parts I & II: The most challenging adventure games, the player is not even aware of the game's goal. If the player completes part one, they are given one of two passwords to play the second part. * '' The Golden Voyage'': Sail the world to find the

fountain of youth The Fountain of Youth is a mythical Spring (hydrology), spring which supposedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted around the world for thousands of years, appearing in t ...

. The games were developed using an in-house adventure editor. The original interpreter was a two-word command interpreter running on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer, with later ports to many platforms. The source code for ''Adventureland'' was published in ''SoftSide'' magazine in 1980 and the source code for ''Pirate Adventure'' was printed in the December 1980 issue of ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

'', with an addendum in April 1981. This enabled others to discover how the engine worked and the database format was subsequently used in other interpreters such as Brian Howarth's '' Mysterious Adventures'' series. The 99/4A versions, published on disk or cassette by TI, require the Adventure Command Module cartridge. The later graphics versions (SAGA) featured graphics drawn on an

, mostly by in-house artist Kem McNair.

Other games

* ''Lunar Lander (1980 video game), Lunar Lander'' (1980) *''Missile Attack'' (1980) *''Project Omega'' (1980) *''Slag (video game), Slag'' (1980) *''The Eliminator (video game), The Eliminator'' (1981) *''Rear Guard (video game), Rear Guard'' (1981) *'' Stone of Sisyphys'' (1981) *'' Zossed in Space'' (1981) *''Airline'' (1982) *'' Bug Off!'' (1982) *Laser Ball (1982) *'' Preppie!'' (1982) *Reign of the Red Dragon (1982) *''Saigon: The Final Days'' (1982) *'' Sea Dragon'' (1982) * ''Triad'' (1982) *'' Tutti Frutti'' (1982) *''AREX'' (1983) * ''

Preppie! II ''Preppie! II '' is a video game written by Russ Wetmore for Atari 8-bit computers and published by Adventure International in 1983. Subtitled "The continuing saga of Wadsworth Overcash", it is a sequel to 1982's '' Frogger''-inspired '' Prepp ...

'' (1983) *'' Rally Speedway'' (1983) *'' The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension'' (1983) *'' Robin of Sherwood: The Touchstones of Rhiannon'' (1985)

References

External links

Scott Adams official website

Google Street view of Adventure International Headquarters
{{Adventure International 1978 establishments in Florida 1986 disestablishments in Florida Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1986 Defunct video game companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Florida Golden Joystick Award winners Longwood, Florida Video game companies based in Florida Video game publishers Video game companies established in 1978 Video game companies disestablished in 1986