5 ms·

Anybody else fondly remember the earlier Adventure Construction Set from the 1980s? It was similar, though more crude, software but for creating tile based adv

Anybody else fondly remember the earlier Adventure Construction Set from the 1980s? It was similar, though more crude, software but for creating tile based adventure games. I remember breathlessly waiting for it to arrive in the mail one summer when I was a young teen, and then my brother and I spending countless hours creating games for each other to play. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Construction_Set https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Construction_Set

oddthink 8mo ago
I loved that thing. I don't know how many hours I spent on that. I wish I could my kids interested in anything half as creative.
WillAdams 8mo ago
There was also _Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures_: https://www.gogdb.org/product/1432650732 https://www.gogdb.org/product/1432650732 which I greatly enjoyed, and my NWN character, even got a cameo in one fan-made adventure.....
- xoxxala 8mo ago
  I loved those gold box games. Wanted to get into FRUA, but it just didn't work for me and I didn't have a lot of time to really dig into the details. Those game editors are tough to build. I worked on Bard's Tale Construction Set and it had a lot of issues. My claim to fame is filing the bug report that led to cut & paste being added to the scripting editor.
  - WillAdams 8mo ago
    It's a lot easier to use if you just find and download adventures made by other folks --- there were a fair number, but not sure if they're still around (I hope so).
iamflimflam1 8mo ago
There was also STAC for the Atari ST - absolutely loved it. Unfortunately my artistic skills were not up to making anything good. https://www.ifwiki.org/STAC https://www.ifwiki.org/STAC
jmcmichael 8mo ago
Yes! Until I saw the box cover illustration, I had totally forgotten that a high-school friend of mine and I worked months to build a Gauntlet clone on our 64K Apple ][+ machines due to the money it was costing us to play it at local game store/nerd magnet, "Dragon's Lair".
JoeMattie 8mo ago
I seem to remember using one called AGT (adventure game toolkit) that I'd obtained from some sort of mail away floppy shareware service or something. It's wild to think of how much has changed in the last few decades!
mysterydip 8mo ago
I was so excited bringing that box/album cover home from the store. I read the manual through just imagining the games I’d make. When I got home, I put the disk in, and… learned what “minimum system requirements” were, as it wouldn’t run on my PCjr.
DonHopkins 8mo ago
Also Eamon for Apple ][, I played with that a lot! And wrote my own in FORTH too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_(video_game) Good god, 280 Eamon Adventures, last released October 2023, I have a lot of catching up to do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eamon_adventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eamon_adventures Same dragon title screen illustration as Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey:_The_Compleat_Apventure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey:_The_Compleat_Apventur... Also great memories of Richard Garriott's Akalabeth: World of Doom! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom An Adventure I wrote in Logo, released on the C64 Terrapin Logo examples floppy, using the Logo REPL as the parser: https://donhopkins.medium.com/logo-adventure-for-c64-terrapin-logo-4c684a240b53 https://donhopkins.medium.com/logo-adventure-for-c64-terrapi... Now I'm creating adventures in Cursor with MOOLLM and working on compiling them to JavaScript to run in the browser, kind of like The Sims meets LambdaMOO meets Cursor: Adventure MOOLLM Anthropic skill: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills/adventure https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills/adventu... Adventure Compiler design document: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/adventure/ADVENTURE-COMPILER.md https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/adventu... Adventure-4 example microworld: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adventure-4 https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adven... Here's a marathon session playing in Cursor, and making a wish on a monkey's paw for the rest of the monkey: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adventure-4/characters/real-people/don-hopkins/sessions/marathon-session.md https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven... Here's an interview where MOOLLM explains itself, then we go on a wild ride with the Irn Bru snowman, with underground embassy intrigue, Columbo style: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adventure-4/characters/real-people/don-hopkins/sessions/2026-01-28-moollm-interview.md https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven...
- mwigdahl 8mo ago
  Those links really bring back the memories! I messed around with Akalabeth, Eamon, and Adventure Construction set all three back in the day.
socalgal2 8mo ago
What I got into before Adventure Construction Set was Stuart Smith's previous game "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". It let you play upto 17 players (locally). Each player would get their turn, in turn, and do their moves, then pass the controller. A slow character might get to move 3 tiles per turn. A fast character 7 tiles per turn. Each character could go in any direction they wanted, the group didn't have to stick together. I played it with 5 people. Also played it single player. When I got to the end, it challenged you to make it to the end without a single fight. I made it to that end and it had a congrats screen from Stuart Smith.
glimshe 8mo ago
I do... 20 minutes on an Apple II for it to create a random adventure, which I found fascinating. I actually have the original in my collection. The games weren't bad, kind of like a decent hobby indie game from today.
pjmlp 8mo ago
And PAW for the Speccy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Adventure_Writer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Adventure_Writer
golem14 8mo ago
And the racing destruction set, and the pinball construction set. Heady days …
- enricotr 8mo ago
  ...and don't forget S.E.U.C.K.
  - golem14 8mo ago
    Ohhh! I missed that! I guess I was too busy playing mail order monsters ...
klondike_klive 8mo ago
Also Graphical Adventure Creator for the Amstrad CPC. I loved it, but failed to produce even a single adventure. My perfectionist tendencies made sure any progress ground to a halt almost immediately over text, logic or graphics!
- playworker 8mo ago
  My family had a copy of Graphical Adventure Creator too, I similarly failed to produce anything of note but I do remember having a lot of fun playing around with it and trying to design screens. I, rightly or wrongly, attribute my love of computers to playing around on the family CPC, I really want to encourage that in my kids but I don't know what the equivalent is - I'm pretty sure it's not buying them a tablet, Raspberry Pi 500 maybe?
  - mijustin 8mo ago
    Lots of kids still making games with engines like GameMaker Studio! I think lots of kids will start playing around with Claude Code in this way as well.

oddthink 8mo ago

I loved that thing. I don't know how many hours I spent on that. I wish I could my kids interested in anything half as creative.

WillAdams 8mo ago

There was also _Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures_: https://www.gogdb.org/product/1432650732 https://www.gogdb.org/product/1432650732 which I greatly enjoyed, and my NWN character, even got a cameo in one fan-made adventure.....

xoxxala 8mo ago
I loved those gold box games. Wanted to get into FRUA, but it just didn't work for me and I didn't have a lot of time to really dig into the details. Those game editors are tough to build. I worked on Bard's Tale Construction Set and it had a lot of issues. My claim to fame is filing the bug report that led to cut & paste being added to the scripting editor.
- WillAdams 8mo ago
  It's a lot easier to use if you just find and download adventures made by other folks --- there were a fair number, but not sure if they're still around (I hope so).

iamflimflam1 8mo ago

There was also STAC for the Atari ST - absolutely loved it. Unfortunately my artistic skills were not up to making anything good. https://www.ifwiki.org/STAC https://www.ifwiki.org/STAC

jmcmichael 8mo ago

Yes! Until I saw the box cover illustration, I had totally forgotten that a high-school friend of mine and I worked months to build a Gauntlet clone on our 64K Apple ][+ machines due to the money it was costing us to play it at local game store/nerd magnet, "Dragon's Lair".

JoeMattie 8mo ago

I seem to remember using one called AGT (adventure game toolkit) that I'd obtained from some sort of mail away floppy shareware service or something. It's wild to think of how much has changed in the last few decades!

mysterydip 8mo ago

I was so excited bringing that box/album cover home from the store. I read the manual through just imagining the games I’d make. When I got home, I put the disk in, and… learned what “minimum system requirements” were, as it wouldn’t run on my PCjr.

DonHopkins 8mo ago

Also Eamon for Apple ][, I played with that a lot! And wrote my own in FORTH too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_(video_game) Good god, 280 Eamon Adventures, last released October 2023, I have a lot of catching up to do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eamon_adventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eamon_adventures Same dragon title screen illustration as Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey:_The_Compleat_Apventure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey:_The_Compleat_Apventur... Also great memories of Richard Garriott's Akalabeth: World of Doom! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom An Adventure I wrote in Logo, released on the C64 Terrapin Logo examples floppy, using the Logo REPL as the parser: https://donhopkins.medium.com/logo-adventure-for-c64-terrapin-logo-4c684a240b53 https://donhopkins.medium.com/logo-adventure-for-c64-terrapi... Now I'm creating adventures in Cursor with MOOLLM and working on compiling them to JavaScript to run in the browser, kind of like The Sims meets LambdaMOO meets Cursor: Adventure MOOLLM Anthropic skill: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills/adventure https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills/adventu... Adventure Compiler design document: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/adventure/ADVENTURE-COMPILER.md https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/adventu... Adventure-4 example microworld: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adventure-4 https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adven... Here's a marathon session playing in Cursor, and making a wish on a monkey's paw for the rest of the monkey: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adventure-4/characters/real-people/don-hopkins/sessions/marathon-session.md https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven... Here's an interview where MOOLLM explains itself, then we go on a wild ride with the Irn Bru snowman, with underground embassy intrigue, Columbo style: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adventure-4/characters/real-people/don-hopkins/sessions/2026-01-28-moollm-interview.md https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven...

mwigdahl 8mo ago
Those links really bring back the memories! I messed around with Akalabeth, Eamon, and Adventure Construction set all three back in the day.

socalgal2 8mo ago

What I got into before Adventure Construction Set was Stuart Smith's previous game "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". It let you play upto 17 players (locally). Each player would get their turn, in turn, and do their moves, then pass the controller. A slow character might get to move 3 tiles per turn. A fast character 7 tiles per turn. Each character could go in any direction they wanted, the group didn't have to stick together. I played it with 5 people. Also played it single player. When I got to the end, it challenged you to make it to the end without a single fight. I made it to that end and it had a congrats screen from Stuart Smith.

glimshe 8mo ago

I do... 20 minutes on an Apple II for it to create a random adventure, which I found fascinating. I actually have the original in my collection. The games weren't bad, kind of like a decent hobby indie game from today.

pjmlp 8mo ago

And PAW for the Speccy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Adventure_Writer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Adventure_Writer

golem14 8mo ago

And the racing destruction set, and the pinball construction set. Heady days …

enricotr 8mo ago
...and don't forget S.E.U.C.K.
- golem14 8mo ago
  Ohhh! I missed that! I guess I was too busy playing mail order monsters ...

klondike_klive 8mo ago

Also Graphical Adventure Creator for the Amstrad CPC. I loved it, but failed to produce even a single adventure. My perfectionist tendencies made sure any progress ground to a halt almost immediately over text, logic or graphics!

playworker 8mo ago
My family had a copy of Graphical Adventure Creator too, I similarly failed to produce anything of note but I do remember having a lot of fun playing around with it and trying to design screens. I, rightly or wrongly, attribute my love of computers to playing around on the family CPC, I really want to encourage that in my kids but I don't know what the equivalent is - I'm pretty sure it's not buying them a tablet, Raspberry Pi 500 maybe?
- mijustin 8mo ago
  Lots of kids still making games with engines like GameMaker Studio! I think lots of kids will start playing around with Claude Code in this way as well.