History
Pirate Adventure was the second game from Scott Adams and his company Adventure International. The game was released in 1979 originally as a TRS-80 game. The game later went on to have version on other game and computer platforms.
The game is a text adventure game similar in style to Scott Adams other text adventure game of the time Adventureland. Adams is considered by many to be the original creator of the text adventure game. Like most text adventure games the game centered on finding objects by looking in and around the environment and then using those objects in different areas of the game's environment. The game had a classic desert island setting.
The game's packaging read "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum... You'll meet up with the pirate and his daffy bird along with many strange sights as you attempt to go from your London flat to Treasure Island. Can you recover Long John Silver's lost treasures? Happy sailing, matey"
Gameplay
The gameplay mechanic for Pirate Adventure was the same as that used in Adventureland. Movement and actions in the game would always take the form of simple phrases such as Walk North or Walk West or even Open Door or Climb Tree. Players could use the same mechanic to interact with objects in the game.
The player began the game in a London flat (apartment) and was then magically transported to Pirates Island. The player had to find two treasures and build a ship to travel to Treasure Island, to find the treasures, to successfully complete the game.
Trivia
In the game the player had to use the magical phrase "Say Yoho." This phrase was also the title of a regular magazine column that Scott Adams had with SoftSide magazine.
In December 1980 Scott Adams published the BASIC source code for Pirate Adventure in BYTE magazine. Many readers went on to create their own text adventure games from the manipulated code.
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