Classic Computer Magazine Archive ANTIC VOL. 3, NO. 7 / NOVEMBER 1984

bonus game

ADVENTURE ISLAND

by ROBERT LEE

A fantasy role-playing game with an adventure-type mystery to solve.  This BASIC game requires 32K for cassette and 40K for disk systems, and runs on all Atari computers.  Antic Disk subscribes, RUN "D:ADVNTISL.BAS".

You awaken with a headache and total amnesia.  You don't know where you are or even what your name is.  And what is this strange power you now possess?  Every time you use it, you hear a loud noise!  You would like to move around and find out more, but there's a small problem.  Monsters are everywhere and they're trying to kill you!  Welcome to Adventure Island . . .
  This game combines elements of fantasy role-playing and text adventures.  Discovering your identity is the mystery you must solve.  Meanwhile, you're a fighter seeking treasure, exploring caves, and doing battle with multitudes of monsters.
  If you haven't played fantasy role-playing games such as Ultima and Temple of Apshai before, you should know about the relationship between experience and hit points.  As you travel about in the game, you'll encounter many monsters-at which time you usually have the option of fighting or running.  If you fight and vanquish an enemy, you gain experience points.  However, each time the enemy strikes you, you lose hit points -which indicate how much more damage you can survive.  You die when you have less than one hit point.  Higher experience levels benefit you primarily by increasing your maximum hit points.  A visit to the inn restores your hit points to full level.

GETTING STARTED
Type in the listing, check it with TYPO, and SAVE two copies, one for a backup.  When the game starts, you'll be asked if you want to restart an old game.  The fast time, type [N][RETURN].  Then you're asked for an experience level.  Start with a level of 1. You're likely to be killed right away, but you can always reincarnate your character to restart the game.  When you're killed, if you've earned enough experience points by killing monsters and collecting treasure, you'll automatically advance a level when you restart.
   After you enter your experience level, the program will randomly generate values between 6 and 18 for your character's six traits-the higher the value, the better.  Strength is important for attacking monsters and gaining experience.  Constitution affects your initial number of hit points.  Intuition is useful in finding and examining objects, while intelligence is necessary to locate exits.  Speed determines whether you or the monster gets the first blow, and visage determines the likelihood of your being chased by monsters.
   Here's a list of commands:

N   North
S   South
E   East
W   West
X   Examine everything (look around)
G   Get
D   Drop
I   Inventory and Status
F   Try it!!
A   Attack with sword or thrust with spear
T   Throw spear
FP  Fire poison arrow
FS  Fire silver arrow
ET  Eat
DK  Drink
QT  Quit
SG  Save Game

Any other key, including [RETURN] alone, gives you the above list.

USING COMMANDS
Use Get, Drop, Eat, and Drink commands without an object.  You'll be prompted to enter the object, at which you must type in the exact name, or the program won't recognize the object.  The computer signals you audibly two moves and one move before you must eat and drink.  Beware of every object you see or touch.  Magic items are used just by touching them, and their effects can be subtle.
   When you Attack, the program first checks your inventory for a magic sword, a plain sword, or a spear, in that order.  If you have any of these, an attack is attempted.  Monsters attack only one at a time, even if there are more than one, and you may fight them only one at a time.
   Inventory tells you what you're carrying and how many hit points you've left.  You can carry only ten items at a time, although the amount of gold pieces (gp) you can hold is unlimited.
   Although you're always informed of visible objects and exits when you enter a room, Examine lets you check this again.  Note that this information can change randomly during a game.
   Command F is your secret power-one of the games dark secrets.  You should know what it is by game's end.
   You can save a game on disk or cassette.  Saving on cassette takes about two minutes.  Game storage on disk uses a file called AI.DAT, so make sure you don't have a file with this name already on your disk, or it will be erased.  Happy hunting!

Robert Lee is a medical student who has been programming in BASIC for several years.  His special interest is adventure games.

Listing 1: ADVNTISL.BAS Download