Adventure: Sword with a giant point or giant handle?

[Machine]

So for 40 years or so, I ALWAYS saw the sword in ADVENTURE as a crude sword with a giant point. All my friends thought that also. Someone recently pointed out the giant point is actually a handle/guard. How do you see it?

[CapitanClassic]

Can your dot pick it up from either side? (Never played it back in the day, and too lazy to boot up the emulator)

 

[keithbk]

I grew up thinking it was a giant arrow they called a sword, but when I began making Another Adventure and looked at the actual sprite code, I suddenly realized it was a handled sword limited in its appearance by the pixels in the sprite.

 

[BONEMAN]

5 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

Can your dot pick it up from either side? (Never played it back in the day, and too lazy to boot up the emulator)

 

Yes you can

[BONEMAN]

5 hours ago, keithbk said:

I grew up thinking it was a giant arrow they called a sword, but when I began making Another Adventure and looked at the actual sprite code, I suddenly realized it was a handled sword limited in its appearance by the pixels in the sprite.

 

I used to think it was an arrow too. That's the problem with not having the instructions.

[dark-aleph]

The manual doesn't help. In the only picture of the player carrying the sword they're not holding it from the left or the right - they are carrying it from the TOP. Judging by that, it's a skateboard.

 

As a kid I always picked it up from the arrow end, so I though of that as the handle. But I only held that end because it's the most efficient grip to kill with. Nothing to do with the graphics.

[zzip]

10 hours ago, Machine said:

So for 40 years or so, I ALWAYS saw the sword in ADVENTURE as a crude sword with a giant point. All my friends thought that also. Someone recently pointed out the giant point is actually a handle/guard. How do you see it?

It all depends on if you hold it by the handle or by the blade!

 

I will admit when I first saw adventure, I thought it was a game about fighting ducks with an arrow!

 

Later I did see if you held it a certain way, it looks like a sword.  I'm sure they could have made the sword sprite handle more sword like though

 

[The Usotsuki]

I always took it to be that the arms of the "arrow" were the blade.

[CapitanClassic]

There was a poll 15 years ago. Someone even created a better graphic for the sword.

 

[+wongojack]

I vote arrow

[scrummy]

It's all Arrows and Ducks for me.

[+TrekMD]

It was an arrow for me, so I always held it the wrong way.  LOL

[ZylonBane]

19 hours ago, Machine said:

So for 40 years or so, I ALWAYS saw the sword in ADVENTURE as a crude sword with a giant point.

What exactly do you think swords are shaped like???

[Electric-Dreams]

It's not a sword, it's a spear !

[Machine]

2 hours ago, ZylonBane said:

What exactly do you think swords are shaped like???

 

I think we all know what "real" swords look like....but when you get into early VCS graphics, swords don't exactly look like real swords and Dragons look like giant ducks.

Swords have a point on the business end....  I actually think it might have been drawn that way so it would look OK holding it both ways.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Machine

[Torr]

I gotta say... I NEVER saw the dragons as ducks until I started seeing people say it on the internet.

Never.

 

I still have trouble seeing a duck when I look at it... I get it that there is a long flat bill-like protrusion on the head... but how many ducks have no wings and a long curly tail???

 

Side note, not having instructions, I always thought I was guiding a kangaroo across the road in Freeway!!!

[zzip]

16 minutes ago, Torr said:

I gotta say... I NEVER saw the dragons as ducks until I started seeing people say it on the internet.

Never.

 

I still have trouble seeing a duck when I look at it... I get it that there is a long flat bill-like protrusion on the head... but how many ducks have no wings and a long curly tail???

 

Side note, not having instructions, I always thought I was guiding a kangaroo across the road in Freeway!!!

It looks more like a cartoon duck than a real duck,  especially when it opens its mouth.  It wasn't clear that the curly thing was supposed to be a tail because the proportions of the creature were so weird.

 

I wonder if it's possible to change the sprite to look a little more dragon-like in that game? 

Edited October 8, 2020 by zzip

[cvga]

16 minutes ago, Torr said:

I NEVER saw the dragons as ducks until I started seeing people say it on the internet.

same with me!

 

16 minutes ago, Torr said:

Side note, not having instructions, I always thought I was guiding a kangaroo across the road in Freeway!!!

 

same with me!

[King_Salamon]

I understand the arrow way of thinking but I've always grabbed the 'arrow' by the '<' and used the '-' as the blade to attack with.

 

The duck thing has always been lost on me but in the early 80's you had limited graphics and had to use your imagination.  

[slab0meat]

I always assumed the "point" was the tip of the sword.

 

Do the dragons die if they touch the "normal" side of it (if you're holding it from the pointy end)?

 

Do they only die if they touch the "point"?

 

[zzip]

9 minutes ago, slab0meat said:

Do the dragons die if they touch the "normal" side of it (if you're holding it from the pointy end)?

 

Do they only die if they touch the "point"?

They'll die no matter which end of the sword they touch

 

13 minutes ago, King_Salamon said:

The duck thing has always been lost on me but in the early 80's you had limited graphics and had to use your imagination. 

The first time I saw Adventure was in one of the dept store kiosks, without seeing the box art or anything.  So I had no frame of reference as to what the game was supposed to be.  It just looked like ducks and an arrow.  My first impression was "wow, these graphics are bad" (even for 1981/1982).  Of course it went on to become one of my favorite 2600 games

[King_Salamon]

Just now, zzip said:

 

The first time I saw Adventure was in one of the dept store kiosks, without seeing the box art or anything.  So I had no frame of reference as to what the game was supposed to be.  It just looked like ducks and an arrow.  My first impression was "wow, these graphics are bad" (even for 1981/1982).  Of course it went on to become one of my favorite 2600 games

It's amazing how your imagination can take over your thoughts... for me I only saw the box in a glass case and saw ADVENTURE in the glorious orange box!  I saw the hedge maze and the Dragons and characters and my Dungeons and Dragons thoughts kicked in... I had to have it!

[+Special Teams]

No question it's a sword:

I always saw it as a medieval sword with a curved guard.

[cvga]

I'm freaked out. I ALWAYS only saw this as an arrow with a pointy tip for nearly 40 years and now I CAN'T see it any other way than as a sword with a handle. Too weird.

[zzip]

36 minutes ago, Special Teams said:

I always saw it as a medieval sword with a curved guard.

if they shifted the curve a pixel to the right, it would look more like a handle and less like the point of an arrow.