Explore classic text adventure games from legendary publishers and authors including Magnetic Scrolls, Level 9, Infocom, Scott Adams, and Interplay. A podcast for fans of GET LAMP, Eaten By a Grue, The Classic Adventurer, Renga In Blue, and Quest For Clues. Follow us on your favorite podcast app, and keep the conversations going on Facebook and Bluesky.
Episodes
4 days ago
4 days ago
Creator of games including Hadean Lands, Spider and Web, and Shade, as well as a long-time maintainer of Inform and participant in Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) leadership, Andrew "Zarf" Plotkin was also a teenager once. And back then he wrote Inhumane, as covered in Episode 27.
Jason and Nick welcome him to the program discuss the creation of Inhumane, the evolution of his work as a participant in the modern interactive fiction community, and the prospects for another "Infobom" title in that parody vein.
Zarfhome (personal homepage and contact info)
Episode image from The Book of Adventure Games II
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
All the way back in Episode 1 we promised to play Level 9's Knight Orc. Ben and Jason chip away at that obligation by playing... the first of three independent-load sections of the game. (We're working on it!) They do their best to navigate the aptly-named "KAOS" engine and assemble rope. (So much rope.)
But first, a clearout of news and listener mail, and a visit to the wry parody of Infidel, Andrew Plotkin's Inhumane. The game is loaded with death traps and unlicensed appearances by famous characters, including a cameo from the villain of Episode 20's Mask of the Sun.
Knight Orc (playable online, BBC version)
How to program a text adventure in C
Mystery of Arkham Manor (Spectrum Computing)
Mystery of Markham Manor (IFDB)
Monday Jun 02, 2025
Monday Jun 02, 2025
Ben and Jason take on the text adventure distillations of two uniquely British phenomena.
First up is the "prolific musical innovator" genre with Number 9 Software's Beatle Quest, a psychedelic trip into lots and lots of Beatle song concepts and name-checking.
For the main course, the duo explore the "slobs in space" phenomenon through the storytelling of shareware highlight Jacaranda Jim by modern-day InfoSec celebrity Graham Cluley. It's one of Ben's all-time games, but can he convert his American collaborator?
Beatle Quest by Garry Marsh (IFDB)
Beatle Quest (playable online, ZX Spectrum)
Jacaranda Jim by Graham Cluley (IFDB)
Jacaranda Jim (play online or download)
Christopher Drum's Infocom Zork on Cosmopolitan
Graham Cluley's computer security news (YouTube)
Cover photo CC-BY 2.0 khakidoggy
Monday May 26, 2025
Monday May 26, 2025
Tim Gilberts is back for another rummage through the magazine rack, this time with Jason and Dave. We pull a corporate newsletter and three full-length issues, all from the 1982-1984 period.
We look at the first (and only?) newsletter put out by Spinnaker sub-brand Trillium (later Telarium), browse through the general-interest UK mag Personal Computer Games and compare it to a similar American counterpart, Computer Gaming World, before finishing up in the Sierra On-Line sponsored Softline, with none other than Tron on the cover.
Trillium Newsletter v1n1 (1984)
Personal Computer Games #6 (May 1984)
Computer Gaming World Mar/Apr 1983
Bill Bowman, CEO of Spinnaker Software (ANTIC Interview #278)
David Seuss, co-founder of Spinnaker Software (ANTIC Interview #305)
Galactic Adventures (The CRPG Addict)
Patricia Mitchell, Thorn EMI (ANTIC Interview #302)
Chris James, Thorn EMI (ANTIC Interview #326)
Journey to the Planet Pincus (Renga in Blue)
Tuesday May 13, 2025
Tuesday May 13, 2025
Peter Golden, author of Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow and a key figure in Bantam Software's Living Literature series joins us for a conversation about his work in text adventures and subsequent work as a novelist.
Thursday Apr 24, 2025
Thursday Apr 24, 2025
For this roundup of Sherlock Holmes adventures from the 1980s, Ben and Jason call in an expert: Sherlockian playwright Christian Neuhaus, co-creator of You've Ruined a Perfectly Good Mystery. The trio of amateur sleuths take on the three major commercial releases in chronological order.
First up is Sherlock from Melbourne House, written in the same "Inglish" system that powered The Hobbit... and with many of the same strengths and liabilities. Written by Philip Mitchell, whose Australian take on 19th century London doesn't fool Ben for a second.
Next it's the smorgasbord of shipboard mayhem Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow. Author Peter Golden will join us on a future episode to talk about how this Bantam Software release came to be.
Finally we take on Infocom's final all-text creation, Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels by Bob Bates. Does it send the legendary series and unparalleled investigative team out on a triumphant note by putting the player in Watson's shoes?
Sherlock by Melbourne House (IFDB)
Sherlock (playable online, ZX Spectrum)
Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow (IFDB)
Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow (playable online, DOS)
Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels (IFDB)
Monday Apr 14, 2025
Monday Apr 14, 2025
POW! KABOOM! KWAH!
Dave and Jason explore two 1980s text adventures pulled from the world of comic books! (At the time, comics were just one of many forms of narrative expression and not the dominant storytelling platform as they are this century.)
First up it's Redhawk from Melbourne House, which experiments with text/graphics adventure presentation by building a three-panel comic on-screen based on player input. Can you, as mild-mannered news photographer Kevin Oliver and as flying, fighting superhero Redhawk save the city?
Then it's Questprobe: Spider-Man from Adventure International, from the short-lived Marvel Comics series which just predated the company's end. Amazing feats of wall-walking and strength await!
Finally, we play the work-in-progress of the unfinished Questprobe: X-Men, provided by Scott Adams himself from his archives.
Questprobe: Spider-Man (playable online, Apple II verson)
Questprobe: Spider-Man on IFDB
Sunday Apr 06, 2025
Sunday Apr 06, 2025
🎂It’s our first birthday!🎂Enjoy an anniversary celebration with all the hosts and minimal editing!
Founder Ben holds a contest of Retro Adventurers knowledge–who will reign supreme? How many countries have at least one download per episode? Who will be named the Seven of Nine of text adventure podcasting? Will the boys have a polite conversation about expanding to other genres or will chairs fly?
Thank you for listening to our first year of classic text adventure discussion and review. Please get in touch with us with suggestions for the years to come.
(And yes, Nick knows our frequent guest is Tim Gilberts, he was just distracted.)
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves playable online (not a text adventure!)
Welcome, keyboard warriors!
The Retro Adventurers is a podcast for everyone who has battled fading lanterns, unmappable mazes, and verb selection. Join us to celebrate text adventures from the peak years of the 1970s and 1980s as well as throwbacks from the modern age. Keep the conversations going on Facebook and Bluesky, or write contact@retroadventurers.com.