The Retro Adventurers

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 varied career, and a widely varied career since then including pioneering work in NFTs. Ron and Jason discuss the wild experimental days at Electronic Arts, the nature of "post-linear" storytelling and the trade-offs of writing in the Star Trek universe, and Ron's brush with actual immortality. Invention Arts [https://inventionarts.ai/] Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy on archive.org [https://archive.org/details/msdos_Star_Trek_-_The_Promethean_Prophecy_1986] Rendezvous with Rama on archive.org [https://archive.org/details/msdos_Rendezvous_with_Rama_1984] Full GET LAMP documentary interview [https://archive.org/details/GETLAMP-Martinez] Ron Martinez MobyGames credits [https://www.mobygames.com/person/5110/ron-martinez/]

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 [https://www.strangestudies.com/] co-host Chad Fifer about how, when, and why the Lovecraftian school of horror became mainstream entertainment fodder. The Lurking Horror [https://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=lurkinghorror] Crypt of Medea [https://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=medea] The Call of Cthulhu (2005 film) [https://tubitv.com/movies/100027146/the-call-of-cthulhu] The Apple II Mockingboard [http://applevault.com/hardware/sweet_micro_systems/mockingboard/]

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 of the Seven Stones @ TFW8b [https://www.tfw8b.com/product/kingdom-of-the-seven-stones/] Martin Piper's technical analysis [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4NG_Uf0LYQ] Dithertron [https://8bitworkshop.com/dithertron/] The Coveted Mirror [https://www.mobygames.com/game/115841/the-coveted-mirror/] Ulysses and the Golden Fleece [https://www.mobygames.com/game/10343/hi-res-adventure-4-ulysses-and-the-golden-fleece/]

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) [https://zxart.ee/eng/software/games/rpg/valhalla/] Swiss Family Robinson playable online (Commodore 64) [https://archive.org/details/Swiss_Family_Robinson_1992_Windham_Classics_cr_CMM] August 1983 ad for Valhalla (Sinclair User Magazine) [https://archive.org/details/sinclair-user-magazine-017/page/n107/mode/2up]

In this interview episode (cruelly cut short by an impatient harbormaster) we barely scratch the surface of the careers of the legendary power couple of adventure gaming. Jason speaks with Roberta and Ken Williams of On-Line Systems / Sierra On-Line fame. We touch on chapters from the late 1970s to present day, including the first text/graphics adventures on the Apple II to King's Quest and Phantasmagoria, and the new reimagined Colossal Cave published by Cygnus Entertainment. Colossal Cave [https://colossalcave3d.com/] Farewell to Tara by Roberta Williams [https://robertasbook.com/] Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings by Ken Williams [https://kensbook.com/] Sierra Gamers [https://www.sierragamers.com/] Mystery House (Hi-Res Adventure #1) playable online [https://archive.org/details/Hi-Res_Adventure_1_Mystery_House_1980_On-Line_Systems]