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This is Adventure's programmer's website.

On the 2600, there were also the the Swordquest series of games, more puzzle games than RPGs, I'd say.

Play Rocky's Boots by Warren Robinett. The almost-perfect educational game. (I had it on Commodore 64, but I believe there's a Apple II image downloadable from this site: http://www.warrenrobinett.com/rockysboots/ )

http://www.warrenrobinett.com/rockysboots/

I always wondered if/when they'd ever have a robotic peripheral that would link in (via rs232 I suppose) and would carry your logic creations out of the computer?

I know it's a little "old school," but have you considered using Rocky's Boots?"
It's been a few years since I used it, but I thought it was a great tool at the time.

Rocky's Boots kicks ass. Extremely clever, very educational, and like everything the author did, way ahead of its time. Created by the Easter Egg inventor and game developer legend Warren Robinett.

I'd love to find an emulator and a copy of it.

Play Rocky's Boots on a PC using an Apple II Emulator.

Rocky's Boots was originally designed for the Apple II computer, but can be run nowadays on a PC using an Apple II emulator (such as AppleWin) and a disk image of Rocky's Boots.

Robot Odyssey was a GREAT game and so educational! And even before I played Robot Odyssey, I played Rocky's Boots. That one was kind of like a MUCH simpler version of R.O. much more focused on basic logic (AND-gates, etc.) than construction, and more younger-kid-oriented.

It would be great if somebody updated these games into a modern form for kids today. It's hard to keep a modern kid's attention on a 4 color "HGR" screen.

You know, when I first saw this, I thought it said "Games Better Than Boobs," and man that was just wrong.

But seriously, I have found myself thinking this very thing over time. I have learned more about history and geography from gaming than I ever did (way back when) in school. For example, SimCity can teach about zoning ordinances: it's not completely accurate, but you start to understand some of the intricacies of zoning and it actually proved helpful when buying a house.

I have one excellent concrete example of this process, too - and I wasn't even aware of it until years later. When I was just a wee little hacker, probably 10 or 11 at the time, I had an Apple ][ and a game called Rocky's Boots that I played an awful lot of. I just thought it was fun, in kind of an odd way. Imagine my surprise when I took my first digital design course in college. "Hey, I know what that funny half-moon shaped thing is!" So, I can say I totally aced all DD courses thanks to computer games.

Ahhh, the good old days! Those of you younger than 35 or so aren't going to remember how much fun it was learning about digital cicuit design on an Apple ][ with Rocky's Boots written by Warren Robinett -- the guy that hid his name in the Atari game Adventure and kicked off the whole easter egg craze.

Ahhh, the good old days! Those of you younger than 35 or so aren't going to remember how much fun it was learning about digital cicuit design on an Apple ][ with Rocky's Boots written by Warren Robinett -- the guy that hid his name in the Atari game Adventure and kicked off the whole easter egg craze.

They only have fifteen electrodes implanted, but it's a start...

Looks like it's nice and high-res so far. Just remember, when you're walking down the street and pick up a square-thingy, just remember how to get the freakin' duck away from you!

The main character in Adventure for the 2600 is quite obviously a female. In fact, I'd venture to say she might be gay since she is kind of butch-y looking.

You found it!
Now, bring the Microdot to the Secret Panel room (directly below the Gold castle), along with 2 other objects.
When the black line on the right of the screen blinks, you can pass through it, revealing the secret message.

Fire up an old Apple ][ emulator and check it out..

Seriously though, starting in ASM is a GREAT way of weeding people out of CS. OTOH, unless you're developing hardware drivers or embedded systems software (or working for NASA), it's pretty much a waste at this point, and it is highly unlikely you can beat a modern compiler for optimized code anyway.

Seriously, I remember teaching RB to 4th-6th graders when I was in HS, and I'd end up playing it myself for hours, 'twas hella fun..

One of the things I remember was a "secret room" that had an Alligator that would consume the various wires and gates . . .

Now that was a great game!

* Wil Wright invents the "software toy" or "sandbox" type of game with SimCity


The invention of the "software toy" is *very* important - but there were earlier examples:

1982 Rock'y Boots

1960's Logo

1960's Eliza and Parry

I'm sure there are earlie examples of interactive, exploratory, non-games.

Rocky's Boots perhaps?

You can read more about it, see screenshots, and even download it, from its creators site here.

You went into a robot and had to 'program' its hardware to do tasks in a maze like setting.

Sure, I can fire up an Apple II emulator and give those games to my kids today, but can blocky graphics and minimal sounds really sustain their interest in this day and age? And yet there's nothing equivalent to those games today... at least not that I know of.

Rocky's Boots did wonders for my understanding of computers, logic, and programming. I would definitely start with Rocky's Boots on an Apple II emulator. There are disk images floating around the net.

OMG, yes! I remember this program. At the time (10yo, I think), I didn't even realize what AND and OR gates were, and I was using them to solve the problems.

It's an excellent program.

Find it and an apple II emulator here.

The author of one of the 2600's greatest titles, Adventure (featuring the world's first easter egg) deserves to come out of his "retirement" for this announcement.

Be sure to read his presentation (sorry, PowerPoint file) to truly appreciate just how awfully limiting the platform was.

The author of one of the 2600's greatest titles, Adventure (featuring the world's first easter egg) deserves to come out of his "retirement" for this announcement.

Be sure to read his presentation (sorry, PowerPoint file) to truly appreciate just how awfully limiting the platform was.

He also says on his site, "To have the right to play the game, you should own an Adventure cartridge."

Yes, and on the site he says this:

To have the right to play the game, you should own an Adventure cartridge. You can buy an Adventure game cartridge (and an Atari 2600 console, if you want) at a web auction site, such as eBay (Top > Computers > Games > Atari). Atari game carts go for a few dollars each, and for $20, you can get an Atari 2600 console and a dozen game carts.

See for yourself on The Adventure Page

I did a little poking around and found a map of the original Atari version, including notes on how to get into the easter egg room. It would seem that this Flash version is somewhat incomplete, both the "microdot" and easter egg (as well as half the mazes) appear to be absent.

Interestingly enough, the creator of Adventure, Warren Robinett apparently also co-created my absolute favorite Apple II game, Rocky's Boots! Ah, the memories of building the ultimate death machine to tackle that little aligator at the end...

I did a little poking around and found a map of the original Atari version, including notes on how to get into the easter egg room. It would seem that this Flash version is somewhat incomplete, both the "microdot" and easter egg (as well as half the mazes) appear to be absent.

Interestingly enough, the creator of Adventure, Warren Robinett apparently also co-created my absolute favorite Apple II game, Rocky's Boots! Ah, the memories of building the ultimate death machine to tackle that little aligator at the end...

I did a little poking around and found a map of the original Atari version, including notes on how to get into the easter egg room. It would seem that this Flash version is somewhat incomplete, both the "microdot" and easter egg (as well as half the mazes) appear to be absent.

Interestingly enough, the creator of Adventure, Warren Robinett apparently also co-created my absolute favorite Apple II game, Rocky's Boots! Ah, the memories of building the ultimate death machine to tackle that little aligator at the end...

The original author of the game, Warren Robinett (who also wrote Rocky's Boots) has it available for download on his website. He has always come across in interviews and the like to be the sort who would be honored that someone enjoyed his game enough to build a version of it in flash.

Peace.

"Rocky's Boots" was a great game. A logic puzzle game, tied into a begining electronics course, all fun. Probably the closest thing recently would be "The Incredible Machine".
BTW, Warren Robinett also wrote the Atari 2600 game "Adventure". You can find it for the PC as Indenture.
The original "Loadrunner" was also great, and had a good level editor you could use to create your own levels.

"Rocky's Boots" was a great game. A logic puzzle game, tied into a begining electronics course, all fun. Probably the closest thing recently would be "The Incredible Machine".
BTW, Warren Robinett also wrote the Atari 2600 game "Adventure". You can find it for the PC as Indenture.
The original "Loadrunner" was also great, and had a good level editor you could use to create your own levels.

My favorites (I had ACS and MCS) were Rocky's Boots and Robot Odyssey.

Those were fun games. :-)

[I personally remember playing that game at school (on our single Apple ][) whenever I could get the chance. It wasn't until years later that I saw those symbols again and realized what the game had really been about!]

[I personally remember playing that game at school (on our single Apple ][) whenever I could get the chance. It wasn't until years later that I saw those symbols again and realized what the game had really been about!]

can be found at Warren Robinett's Adventure here. Arguably the coolest Atari game of all time, it was one of the first games with an easter egg, and a "Zelda" type interface. Dragons, castles, goblets, and a bat, and it all fit in 4K of memory. The most telling thing about this, they paid him $22,000 a year, and they sold 1 million copies of the game, at $20 a pop.

http://www.warrenrobinett.com/adventure/

psxndc

What's cooler than a raccoon running about teaching you how to build circuits? Admittedly it's meant for 8-year olds, but all EE courses should be this amusing...

I second this! I played Rocky's Boots on my Apple //e when I was in college. Even as an EE major I couldn't finish some of the puzzles. (The fact that propogation delay was modelled poorly didn't help at all...)

Cool, Google found this site which has links to Apple emulators and the Rocky's Boots disk image. Time to go kick some... um, brightly colored shapes.