Did you get Adventure the month it was released?

[boxpressed]

I never had Adventure as a kid, but I remember anxiously awaiting the release of Asteroids. I remember seeing it advertised well before its release. I think I called the local video game store every couple of days to see if they had received it. Going into that small strip mall store with my Dad, knowing it was finally in stock, is a great memory.

 

What I don't remember is the approximate month/year of release for Asteroids.

[butterburp]

Gosh, "tapes."

 

It's hard to imagine paying $21.95 -- each! -- for those very early games.

 

CPI-based inflation calculator for 1980 to 2019 equivalents:

 

8.88 = 27.35 (Space War, blackjack)

21.95 = 67.61 (bowling, football, golf, Night Driver)

29.99 = 92.39 (space invaders, adventure, Superman)

39.95 = 123.24 (backgammon, chess)

159.00 = 490.49 (console)

 

The Atari Flashback Portable (with its own screen and ALL THE GAMES) is $40 today, which would have been like $12.97 back then.

 

The secret to a certain kind of happiness is to wait 40 years. #patientgamers

 

Thanks for posting these. Being a bit looney, every year or two I play a little game just to remind myself of the value of a dollar, and keep myself from getting too spoiled. Basically, I pretend I'm starting all over with gaming (I'll let myself have the 2600 itself plus Combat - OH WHAT FUN for one player), stash my other games in the closet, then make myself work to "buy" those games back, at their original prices. So I figure out how much weekly take-home pay I'd rake in, back in that day, and budget some percentage of that for games. Then I let myself have a game only when I've "saved" enough to buy it. A Bowling or Circus Atari caliber title might take a week, Space Invaders a week and a half, and Backgammon two weeks (ouch). It's slow going but it's also fun to watch my collection "grow," and it forces me to really earn things, appreciate what I have, and enjoy discovering new goodies in whatever title I'm playing.

 

Of course, a few months later I cave in and go back to having the whole collection, but it's fun while it lasts. Come to think of it, it's been a couple of years so I'm about due to try this again. Yeah, I'm crazy.

[+Random Terrain]

The Adventure section and the rest of the 1980 page has been updated:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-history-1980.html#adventure

[bluejay]

I bought Adventure 40 years too late but my cartridge says (c)1980. Is this a later version of the cart or was the game actually released in 1980? Do some carts say 1979?

Edited November 29, 2020 by bluejay

[4ever2600]

I definitely purchased Adventure when it came out as I remember saving my hard earned money from my summer hustle to pay for it.  I lived in Chicago back then and purchased from one of the electronics stores that the ad was shown for in this exact thread.  Ill never forget having my father drive me to the store to purchase when it was released.   I was 9 years old then so yeah, left quite the memory burned into my mind for all of these decades.  I spent the rest of the summer and fall playing the living hell out of that game until I found the 'secret room' with the worlds first video game easter egg.  It wasn't even published in the Atari Age catalog back then yet so I didn't even realize that it was that big of a deal.  I remember finding it and showing my friends in the neighborhood and we were all saying, "Hey, that's pretty cool".  And then of course we spent the rest of our time purposely getting eaten by the dragon and having the bat pick us up and give us a tour of the realm.  Mapping out the land and trying to figure out what shortcuts led to where including the tops of the castle etc.  Great times my friends, great times...   I also remember entering the Space Invaders high score contest at a local sporting goods store and also the Pac man contest of which I still have a few of the congratulatory forms they gave you for reaching the high score.  But that my friends is for another story...

[+Random Terrain]

Speaking of ads, there are a bunch of embedded ads here that I recently added to the page:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-history-1980.html#adventure

[zzip]

14 hours ago, 4ever2600 said:

I definitely purchased Adventure when it came out as I remember saving my hard earned money from my summer hustle to pay for it.  I lived in Chicago back then and purchased from one of the electronics stores that the ad was shown for in this exact thread.  Ill never forget having my father drive me to the store to purchase when it was released.   I was 9 years old then so yeah, left quite the memory burned into my mind for all of these decades.  I spent the rest of the summer and fall playing the living hell out of that game until I found the 'secret room' with the worlds first video game easter egg.  It wasn't even published in the Atari Age catalog back then yet so I didn't even realize that it was that big of a deal.  I remember finding it and showing my friends in the neighborhood and we were all saying, "Hey, that's pretty cool".  And then of course we spent the rest of our time purposely getting eaten by the dragon and having the bat pick us up and give us a tour of the realm.  Mapping out the land and trying to figure out what shortcuts led to where including the tops of the castle etc.  Great times my friends, great times...

Yeah, Something about Adventure just made us spend a lot of time goofing around with it.    I remember we were obsessed with the bat.  Sometimes you'd find it and it wasn't carrying anything, and we'd make it a challenge to see if we can keep it that way for the entire game,  other times that bat would be found standing in place, until it spotted another item, then it would come to life.  Another challenge: can we keep it motionless the entire game?

 

I had no idea there was an easter egg, I discovered it totally by accident.  I always noticed that one room in the black castle flashed as though it contained an item, but didn't think too much of it.    One day I was messing with the bridge and accidentally picked up what we called 'the dot'.  A new item?  But what is it?  It's invisible except when placed against a wall.   Probably the first thing I did was see what the bat thinks of it,  would he steal it?   In the process I probably noticed how it changed the barrier colors.   Then somehow discovered it allowed me to walk through the right barriers if other items were present.

 

I remember that I was more excited about finding a secret room where we could hide treasures from the bat than I was about the message in it

Edited December 1, 2020 by zzip

[+Random Terrain]

On 2/7/2019 at 12:12 PM, ubersaurus said:

Fun thing - the Plains Dealer ran an ad for Adventure on April 11, 1980 - noting that people can "try the new" game out for themselves. That is, as far as I know, the earliest ad for the game.

 

I just started rechecking and updating the style of the ad links for the 1980 page and there are some Adventure ads from March in the USA:

 

https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-history-1980.html#adventure

 

(I'm adding game prices to each link when available.)

[ubersaurus]

Ah yeah, I found a few ads from March as well and just never updated my post, heh.

[4ever2600]

It was def spring of 1980 not 1979 in any fashion.  I believe it was April but may have popped up in late March depending on who got what when.