The Retro Adventurers

Mar 02 2025 17 ep. 72 mins 67
The Retro Adventurers Podcast artwork

Explore classic text adventure games from legendary publishers and authors including Magnetic Scrolls, Level 9, Infocom, Scott Adams, and Interplay. A podcast for fans of GET LAMP, Eaten By a Grue, The Classic Adventurer, Renga In Blue, and Quest For Clues. Follow us on your favorite podcast app, and keep the conversations going on Facebook and Bluesky.

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Episode 17 - Magazine Roundup #1

Mar 02 2025 113 mins  
Jason, Nick, and the returning Tim Gilberts of Gilsoft dig into the magazines of the 1970s and 1980s that chronicled the rise of text adventures! We look at two of the most significant Stateside issues of the early commercial period, the November 1979 issue of Creative Computing with a full (and unusual) implementation of Colossal Cave Adventure, and the December 1980 BYTE with art

Episode 16 - A Conversation With Jonathan Partington

Jan 27 2025 53 mins  
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 mainf

Episode 15 - Lancelot and G.F.S. Sorceress

Jan 19 2025 75 mins  
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 kni

Episode 14 - The Dark Crystal and Ship of Doom

Jan 09 2025 56 mins  
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 an

Episode 13 - 2024 Year-End Chatisode

Dec 28 2024 159 mins  
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

Episode 12 - Avon and Macbeth

Dec 17 2024 78 mins  
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

Episode 11 - A Conversation with Ron Martinez

Dec 10 2024 69 mins  
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 varie

Episode 10 - The Lurking Horror and Crypt of Medea

Nov 05 2024 91 mins  
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 sch

Episode 9 - A Conversation with Robin Raymond

Oct 24 2024 34 mins  
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

Episode 8 - Valhalla and Swiss Family Robinson

Oct 06 2024 41 mins  
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)