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
Dave and Jason return to the pioneering Artic Adventure series with Ship of Doom (Adventure C) before plunging into a fantasy world on the brink in The Dark Crystal by Sierra, licensed from Henson Associates and representing the very last example of Roberta Williams' parser game design.
The Dark Crystal manual and short story
The Dark Crystal on SierraGamers
The Dark Crystal map and solution in New Atari User
Ship of Doom on Spectrum Computing
Ship of Doom, reimagined top-down
All Sierra On-Line Hi-Res Adventures
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Holiday merriment! All the hosts! Return special guests! Minimal editing!
Retro Adventurers Dave, Jason, Nick, and founder Ben(!) chat about the year that was, later joined by Scott Adams (Episode 3) and Tim Gilberts (Episode 5)!
Hear about Tim Gilberts' Heathkit, Scott Adams' next professional moves, adventures in ADABAS / Natural, and a long-overdue callback to the Clarion Beauty Computer!
Ken Reed's Adventure II article in Practical Computing
Maze for the MK/14 computer kit
Tuesday Dec 17, 2024
Tuesday Dec 17, 2024
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy, Jason and Nick ask for a double-helping of Shakespeare text adventures. The chef heaps a challenging amount of "appetizer" Macbeth (1984, Oxford Digital Enterprises) on their plates, but main course Avon (1982/1988, Topologika) has its day. And that day may be foul, and/or fair, as you like it.
Avon (Playable online, BBC Micro)
Topologika on The Digital Antiquarian
Tuesday Dec 10, 2024
Tuesday Dec 10, 2024
In this interview episode we're transfixed by the career of Ron Martinez, whose interactive fiction began as a writer for the Be an Interplanetary Spy book series, the Trillium/Telarium home conversion of Rendezvous With Rama, and the design and implementation of Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy powered by his own TRANS Fiction System parser. Since then Ron has had a widely varied career, and a widely varied career since then including pioneering work in NFTs.
Ron and Jason discuss the wild experimental days at Electronic Arts, the nature of "post-linear" storytelling and the trade-offs of writing in the Star Trek universe, and Ron's brush with actual immortality.
Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy on archive.org
Rendezvous with Rama on archive.org
Tuesday Nov 05, 2024
Tuesday Nov 05, 2024
Jason and first-time Retro Adventurer Nick Moffitt sample two courses of text adventure horror, featuring Infocom's "MIT with the serial numbers filed off" The Lurking Horror and Sir-Tech Software's "don't call it a Murder Hospital, call it the" Crypt of Medea.
Jason also speaks with Strange Studies of Strange Stories co-host Chad Fifer about how, when, and why the Lovecraftian school of horror became mainstream entertainment fodder.
The Call of Cthulhu (2005 film)
Thursday Oct 24, 2024
Thursday Oct 24, 2024
Seemingly from out of nowhere, Kingdom of the Seven Stones, a sprawling text/graphic adventure has just been published for the Commodore 64 by The Future was 8 Bit. Creator (and Retro Adventurers listener!) Robin Raymond joins Jason to talk about how the game took shape, why it's cartridge-only, and what the future might hold for his new C-based 8-bit adventure game engine.
Kingdom of the Seven Stones @ TFW8b
Martin Piper's technical analysis
Sunday Oct 06, 2024
Sunday Oct 06, 2024
Dave and Jason make another transatlantic cultural exchange in this episode, beginning with the youth-oriented Windham Classics' Swiss Family Robinson before heading to the deadly grownup world of Norse mythology for Legend's Valhalla.
Valhalla playable online (ZX Spectrum)
Tuesday Sep 17, 2024
Tuesday Sep 17, 2024
In this interview episode (cruelly cut short by an impatient harbormaster) we barely scratch the surface of the careers of the legendary power couple of adventure gaming. Jason speaks with Roberta and Ken Williams of On-Line Systems / Sierra On-Line fame. We touch on chapters from the late 1970s to present day, including the first text/graphics adventures on the Apple II to King's Quest and Phantasmagoria, and the new reimagined Colossal Cave published by Cygnus Entertainment.
Farewell to Tara by Roberta Williams
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.