Jason and Dave welcome classic text adventure author Jonathan Partington to the program. While studying at Cambridge University, he created and contributed to several memorable games including Avon (featured in Episode 12), Crobe, Sangraal, Fyleet, Monsters of Murdac, and Spy Snatcher.

We discuss how Jonathan got hooked into text adventures, how the pipeline between Cambridge mainframe creations and the broader commercial market worked, and the best time of day to play games on official campus computers without getting scolded. And for the first time, we ask a living author which of his games we should play next!

Special thanks to Mark Hardisty for helping connect us with Jonathan.

CORRECTION: The interview mistakenly credits L to Peter Killworth. The game in question was actually GiantKiller.

Jonathan Partington on IFDB

Topologika (The Digital Antiquarian)

Phoenix (mainframe operating system) on IFWiki

Mystic Wood (board game)

Sorcerer's Cave (board game)

Peter Killworth on IFWiki

How To Write Adventure Games by Peter Killworth on MOCAGH

L: A Mathemagical Adventure

Our first three-player episode since the premiere pits Ben, Jason, and Nick against challenges that span millennia! Learn the intricacies of long-lost Earth military law as Joe Justin fights for freedom in Avalon Hill's G.F.S. Sorceress before traveling way back to King Arthur's England in Level 9's Lancelot. Robots, colored objects, and companion knights (so, so many companion knights) stand ready to assist!

Lancelot on Level 9 Memorial

Lancelot on IFDB

Lancelot playable online (BBC Micro)

Lancelot documentation

Lancelot walkthrough (AppleAdventures)

G.F.S. Sorceress documentation

G.F.S. Sorceress walkthrough (AppleAdventures)

Avalon Hill computer titles (MobyGames)

The Visible Zorker

SAM Coupé Adventure Club

Crown of Arturo for Sharp MZ-700

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

Roberta Williams full credits (Mobygames)

Artic Adventures gallery (MOCAGH)

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

PDP-12: HELLORLD!

The Beepy handheld computer

Adventuron

Nick's Cloak of Darkness in AWK

Knytt Stories

The Book of Adventure Games

Tim Gilberts on YouTube

Scott Adams Consulting

Bubble Bonk

Final Pilot

Adventureland XL

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.

Macbeth on MobyGames

Macbeth on MOCAGH

Avon on MobyGames

Avon (Playable online, BBC Micro)

Avon mainframe source code

Topologika Ltd. overview

Topologika on The Digital Antiquarian

Macbeth solution (almost)

The Tempest (1997)

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.

Invention Arts

Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy on archive.org

Rendezvous with Rama on archive.org

Full GET LAMP documentary interview

Ron Martinez MobyGames credits

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 Lurking Horror

Crypt of Medea

The Call of Cthulhu (2005 film)

The Apple II Mockingboard

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

Dithertron

The Coveted Mirror

Ulysses and the Golden Fleece

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)

Swiss Family Robinson playable online (Commodore 64)

August 1983 ad for Valhalla (Sinclair User Magazine)

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.

Colossal Cave

Farewell to Tara by Roberta Williams

Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings by Ken Williams

Sierra Gamers

Mystery House (Hi-Res Adventure #1) playable online