Adventureland

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Scott Adams

Adventureland is a text-based adventure game that was released on just about every home computer in the 70s and 80s. It's an odd little game that doesn't really seem to have a plot except that you're searching for thirteen lost artifacts in a fantasy world. The game is entirely text (though it was re-released in 1982 with graphics for the player to see objects and scenery) so, having a good imagination can be helpful…and so can drawing a map for yourself so you know where you came from as you journey on. Everything in this game is either done with one word or two words. For example if you wanted to head north, you could either say "GO NORTH" or simply "NORTH." The game claims that it can recognize 120 words, but it can't really. It only takes the first three letters into account…so instead of "CLIMB TREE," you could type "CLI TRE" and the game would interpret it as "CLIMB TREE." Unfortunately, recognizing words in this way also means that the game sometimes misidentifies what you type in. Anyway, like I mentioned at the start, there is not story here to keep you hooked and make you want to advance…it's simply a treasure hunt to find the thirteen artifacts. Adventureland will likely entertain you to a degree if you play it…like when you decide to throw an axe at a sleeping dragon…and there's a reason it was popular enough to port to so many various computer systems, but it's not quite as good as other text-based adventure games like Zork. The Commodore PET version of Adventureland isn't as impressive as the Apple II version...while it's technically the same game, the Apple II version showed more text on-screen, while this version tends to clear out the screen  regularly. Some people may find the PET version a little more organized and easier to read, but I, personally, liked having more text on-screen so my poor memory would have some aid in regards to what I had done in my last few commands. Still, no matter what computer you play it on, the original, text-based version of Adventureland is basically the same game regardless.

Review added: 03/04/2026