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Well, except for the other Scott Adams that pretty much started adventure games on computers.

http://www.msadams.com/

http://www.msadams.com/adventures.htm

No, Scott Adams. Scott Adams in the style of Infocom. Some would prefer to say that Infocom made text adventures in the style of Scott Adams.

No, Scott Adams. Scott Adams in the style of Infocom. Some would prefer to say that Infocom made text adventures in the style of Scott Adams.

I'm not sure if nobody plays them. They're available for download at http://www.msadams.com/downloads.htm
and there is an interpreter for them called ScottFree (to play on other computers).

Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead you. :-) That's why I had the ;-) in there. I still think that that was an amusing use of the audio from that tape.

Well, keep in mind that you presented what was a legit question, which at the time you got a "you can't get there from here" answer.

1) The program didn't support tape to disk
2) The OS or disk utility didn't support tape to disk
3) TI computers went tits up
4) Scott Adams adventures went tits up

I gave the problem some thought, but the only means I knew of at the time to convert tape to disk was perhaps the use of "Terminal Emulator II", and upload the tape to a site, and then download. But IIRC TE-II didn't support upload with protocol and BBSs were in short supply in 1982-1983. I tried using compuserve, but they complained I was trying to pirate the game, the game that you could only play with the cartridge, which happened to come with the game.

It is however an amusing use tape, and you have to respect the geek who knows based on sound which game it came from.

The Scott Adams adventures irritated me greatly back in the day. I could never get very far and gave up quickly. Maybe now that I'm 20+ years older, I'll appreciate them better.

This is why it was so easy to believe that someone out there might have a save game they wanted to continue playing, though the sad truth is it would be easier to just start from the very start.

Those games were a bit of pain in the fact that often times the barrier wasn't so much figuring out the puzzle, but figuring out how to get the game to parse what you want to do. I remember Mystery Fun House where I was stuck trying to use the gum on the stick to get the coin.

http://www.msadams.com/downloads.htm

And then there's all my Music Maker compositions. Music Maker was a blast. Why the hell did it save all 14K of usable VRAM to tape for even the shortest composition?

Something to do with the fact that anything being processed by the graphics processor needing to be compiled first. Keep in mind that we are talking a first generation home computer, and it was impressive enough that the program allowed you to save your compositions. This wasn't the norm at the time.

As mentioned, he's not the same Scott Adams, the adventure-engine/game-writer as the Dilbert version.

The Scott Adams adventure games are still available at SAGA.

There's also the iFiction site, too, to play his and other text adventure games online.

Enjoy!

Actually, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came smack dab in the middle of the big text-adventure boom of the 1980s. If you want early, go check out the Zork trilogy or Scott Adams's games. (No, not that Scott Adams.) And if you'd like to try Hitchhiker's, it's playable on the web at Douglas Adams's site.

If your conscience is bothering you now, all of the Scott Adams series (the two titles you mentioned being private-labeled S.A. titles IIRC) is now shareware and Scott has a PayPal account as well.

Easy payment straight to the artist!

...is that Scott Adams finds text adventures boring...

Why does this upset me so much?

I will tell you why:

Go to the bottom of that page, and notice that he gave away copies of Return to Pirate's Island 2...

Guess what - that game, as it exists today - would not look like it does now had it not been for my direct input.

You see, during the development of RTPI2, I was a beta tester for Scott, for this game. I, among other people, signed up on a mailing list, got copies of the game engine and data modules (an Windows EXE and various DAT files) to play around with - to note what was right, what was wrong, what should be improved.

I noticed right off things to be improved - the descriptions of rooms and objects were very primitive - I asked him to change it, so that it would be more story-like. I gave him the suggestion of adding sound effects to help liven the game up a bit. It was strange, once I started making the various requests, there was a small hiatus in postings to the group from Scott, then he announced that he was going to completely revamp the engine based on my suggestions! I was floored!

I had gotten onto the list, and became a beta tester, because I see him as an influence on my early computer life - I got into computers and programming because of the early games, especially text adventures. As a kid, I looked up to him in those early days as a notion of someone who had "made it" - there were others (you don't hear much from them - like Bill Budge, etc) - but to actually get this kind of chance, well - couldn't pass it up.

But never did I expect to cause him to totally alter the game play of that new adventure. But I did, somehow.

Anyhow, he finished up the game, thanked all of the volunteers, mailed each of us an autographed piece of the game script code, and gave each of us a copy of the finished game. The list went on for a while, then was shut down (not too many months ago, actually).

But one thing he gave me (though I can't give it to anyone - at least not yet), is something that very few beta testers get - actual game code. You see, I knew what he was using for RTPI2 - Visual Basic. I offered to convert the system back to standard console mode, by first doing whatever cleanup to the VB code, then downconverting that to C, and making it portable (with a Linux port in mind for the future). Well, I got the code (and no, I will NOT give it to anyone, so don't even THINK about emailing me), and (sorry to say) - it was crap. Basically it was a VB wrapper around the old hacked up IBM BASICA source from the original game of RTPI (or was it GWBASIC?) - anyhow, it was ugly - damn ugly. I started a conversion, trying to straighten out the GOTOs and whatnot into more standard VB (and let's not turn this into a VB flame fest, alright?), but I stopped after a few days - it was horrible.

But, I still have the code, and I might still convert it, someday...

So - I can't understand why Scott says he hates text adventures - I think he might be bitter about the way things have gone with RTPI2 - as far as sales, etc - he just isn't making money there. Maybe he is also bitter about the fact that it is nearly impossible for a person to "go it alone" as far as making a game is concerned, and marketing it, and selling it.

No, I don't think RTPI2 is the be all and end all of text adventures. Infocom has already proven what really can be done. I just can't understand why it is possible for fantasy fiction authors to make a bundle, but as soon as you try to make a text adventure game, no one seems will to buy the thing for "reading pleasure" - I tend to wonder if an ebook-type system, where you could actually read and adventure, would be more of the style (think of it as "choose-your-own-adventure" or "twist-a-plot", but on steroids). Would anybody buy such an interactive book (I am also thinking of Diamond Age here, as well)?

Wow... Looks like someone beat Mr. Adams' family with industrial strength ugly sticks: http://www.msadams.com/family.htm

Scott Adams has been busy creating Dilbert and selling out.

Oh, the OTHER Scott Adams. He has released a new game last year called Return To Pirates Island 2. You can also
play online version of his classic games.

He's got Pirate Adventure, The Count, etc. Gotta love those two-word parsers. Also available for the Palm, tho I haven't tried them out.

DT
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