Adventure International releases for the CoCo?

[Archminion]

One of the publishers I've always had an interest in was Scott Adams' Adventure International.

 

I can't seem to find any solid evidence (box or manual scans etc) of any of their games actually been released on the TRS Color Computer though?

 

I have found reviews of Rear Guard, Sea Dragon and one or two others but that's about it.

 

Has anyone seen any of the CoCo releases from AI in the flesh at all?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Archminion

[glurk]

Disclaimer that CoCo was never my "thing" but from a bit of searching, I think his games were released for the Dragon series, but not for the CoCo itself.  I'm not certain on this, however.

[Archminion]

cheers glurk,

 

Thanks for that.

 

I've been thinking the same.

I know many of the game roms are actively available for download but it's possible they were just released some years later?

It was reported that Scott Adams did release everything they had ever published (and possibly many games they hadn't...).

 

I have spoken to him about the CoCo releases as well and he couldn't remember, which is expected after 40 years.

 

I've posted on the FB CoCo collectors page as well and no one there seems to have seen physical releases of any of these games either?

 

What a mystery...

[jhd]

 

Sea Dragon certainly existed -- I had a copy on tape in the 1980s. It was one of the very first games that I encountered with digitized sound; it was quite impressive for the time. I was not aware that it was published by Adventure International.

 

 

 

  

[Archminion]

Thanks for that jhd.

 

The game Airline for the Atari (according to the manual) actually has the TRS-80 and CoCo versions also on the tape.

 

It would be interesting if anyone who owns the Atari version could confirm if this was actually the case

[cwilkson]

I remember playing "The Count" and "Pirate Adventure" on my Coco 2.  They were disk images with printed manuals.  Don't recall if they were legit Coco2 releases or if I purchased them in a garage sale hoard of "stuff".

[Archminion]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Can you remember if the manuals were printed copies of what may have been original manuals or actually typed up and printed documents?

 

Cheers

[cwilkson]

6 hours ago, Archminion said:

Thanks for the reply.

 

Can you remember if the manuals were printed copies of what may have been original manuals or actually typed up and printed documents?

 

Cheers

I have no idea.  Sorry.  It's been a loooong time and I was a 13 year old trying to learn computer stuff on my own in the middle of nowhere.

I played the games enough that I remember bit and pieces pretty well.  Like tying my belt to a sign to climb down a cliff.  But I don't remember the manuals very well.

Might have just been somebody's typewritten notes.

 

[cwilkson]

Actually, I've poked around a bit and found the Pirate Adventure manual online.  Mine was an original manual or a good photo copy of one.

 

The game was released for Coco in 1983 according to this website.  So were a few other Scott Adams games.  The Count (I had it) and Voodoo Castle (maybe had it?) so that's 3 at least.

 

They were all released on cassette for 16k Coco1.  But my copies were on disk.  I don't remember the labels, but it sounds like maybe I had bootlegs. 

[cwilkson]

One more update.  Colorcomputerarchive list them by disk.  All of them.  Hmm.....

[Archminion]

Thanks very much for all the info.

 

I've read that most (if not all) of the AI releases for the CoCo were only released on tape so I wonder if they were just copied to disk for the purpose of uploading or sharing them?

 

I have spoken to Curtis Boyle who runs the colorcomputerarchive site and he can't remember seeing any original AI releases in the flesh at all.

 

There must have been very limited runs of these versions of the games?

 

Please could I have a link to the CoCo Pirate Adventure manual?

 

Thanks again.

[cwilkson]

 

11 hours ago, cwilkson said:

Actually, I've poked around a bit and found the Pirate Adventure manual online.  Mine was an original manual or a good photo copy of one.

 

The game was released for Coco in 1983 according to this website.  So were a few other Scott Adams games.  The Count (I had it) and Voodoo Castle (maybe had it?) so that's 3 at least.

 

They were all released on cassette for 16k Coco1.  But my copies were on disk.  I don't remember the labels, but it sounds like maybe I had bootlegs. 

 

I don't know how to edit previous posts.  But 2 updates to the above:

• The manual I found online was the C16 version.  But I remember the maps in there so I must have had a manual.
• "...this website" refers to http://www.pixelatedarcade.com/

 

One more thing:  Here's a video that I found. 

 

 

 

I must have had that same collection because I remember that DIR listing!

 

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by cwilkson

[cwilkson]

The think the "tying the belt to a sign to climb down" thing was from another game.  Because it was a graphic text adventure.

So it was not Scott Adams' Pirate Adventure.

 

EDIT:  Obsessive searching produced the answer.  It was Blackbeard's Island, from Tom Mix Software.

Edited August 28, 2021 by cwilkson

[Archminion]

Thanks very much for the new info.

 

It is looking likel;y that at least some of the Scott Adams adventure games did make it to the coco...

 

One game I do want to own is Eliminator which is a horizontal shooter. I can't even find any reviews of this one.

 

It's a very good game as well.

 

It's freely available for download but like most of the other AI games. I can't seem to find any physical evidence of it actually been released?

[Archminion]

Well I finally found a CoCo AI release other than Airline. It was right under my nose lol:

 

https://www.mobygames.com/game/trs-80-coco/escape-from-traam/cover-art

 

Like Airline though it still comes as part of a multi-format tape release...

[jhd]

 

I don't recall having seen any multi-format tapes BITD -- either in-person or discussed in magazine reviews.  Did any other company do their releases like this? 

[Archminion]

Up on eBay right now:

 

A complete boxed Adventure International release:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185030796003?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l3160&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=ca259859094e46ee86bf947051d10fcf&bu=43167309256&ut=RU&osub=-1~1&crd=20210904015208&segname=11021&sojTags=ch%3Dch%2Cbu%3Dbu%2Cut%3Dut%2Cosub%3Dosub%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid

 

They do exist! lol

[L. Curtis Boyle]

Adventure International has the Coco listed in both ads (including full page ones like Fire Copter, Sea Dragon, tc.) and their catalogs. Since I had mentioned that I had not seen any original AI games for the Coco back when asked in 2021, I have actually aquired an original tape copy of the Hulk adventure game (currently buried in storage, but I could get it out and take a photo if someone wants to see). Unfortunately the manual was missing,  but it an original tape.

-L. Curtis Boyle-