Adventure – March 1980
owl writes:
https://www.atariarchive.org/blog/adventure-march-1980/
Of all the original games Atari put out for the VCS, Adventure may be the one that most people are familiar with today. Warren Robinett's third and final VCS game - though seemingly the second to actually be released - serves as a counterweight to the arcade action of its March 1980 brethren Space Invaders by providing a nearly unique experience on a home console in its day.
[...] Since the VCS isn't designed for full text adventure gameplay, Robinett worked on translating Colossal Cave Adventure's core idea to a graphical interface using the limited capabilities of the system. The VCS's "ball" sprite became the player character.The two high resolution sprites typically used for player objects became the objects located throughout the world, and the system's low-resolution background graphics would be used for screen room designs.
[...] The duck-like dragons themselves deserve a special mention as being one of the first examples of computer opponents exhibiting unique personality traits and goals. Yorgle, the yellow dragon, primarily guards the chalice, but will wander the game world hunting you or assisting his dragon pals provided the golden key is not nearby, as he's terrified of it. Grundle, the green dragon, guards three vital objects: the magnet, the bridge and the black key, and as such will generally stick around wherever one of those is currently located.
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