Adventure Fun-Pak - ADG Episode 313

[@Lawnie10]

1:05 ooooo, The Thing! What a great premise for a... oh... oh. :(

[@aaronmarko]

I'm going with that these were all developed in house rather than these were just randomly submitted to Apogee for a few reasons. Even back in the 80s, Apogee was really good at crediting people that worked with them. Second, this is one of the two pieces of software Apogee ever released. I find it pretty odd that a brand new software house would just receive software out of the blue to publish. I mean, sure, things were different back then and people are always eager to find someone to distribute their games but, I dunno. Oh yeah, and also, everywhere I've looked online it says that Scott Miller designed Rogue Runner. To me, I feel like it's just kind of a story to make the company sound like it had more interest than it did at the time. "OH YEAH. We've got ALL OF THESE DEVELOPERS JUST LINING UP TO RELEASE GAMES WITH US. But we, uh, we can't tell you who they are." I dunno. Seems kinda suspicious if you ask me!

[@Pixelmusement]

Or for all we know, Scott Miller was remembering things wrong when he wrote the details about this in that readme. In any case, his exact words from the readme in reference to the Fun-Paks: "We've taken the best programs submitted to us by outside game authors and combined them into categories, 4 per disk."

[@lutfimakarim8258]

From the title of the package, I was thinking more on the line of Maniac Mansion, or at least Zork.

[@verysoftwares]

16:34 oof, you died just as you were reaching that extra air. that hurts.

[@Pixelmusement]

There was NO WAY that wasn't making it into the video! :P

[@TheMoogleMaster]

Based on some of the graphics of Raiders of The Lost Mine, the text for example. Makes me think that George Broussard may have worked on them, as it gives me the feel of Pharaoh's Tomb or Monument To Mars.

[@Pixelmusement]

Scott Miller's already responded on Twitter to say he wrote them all himself, but he hasn't yet answered the question of why he also wrote in the readme for the pack that the games came from "outside authors". I'm waiting on an answer to that before I post the details in the video description just so we have a nice and complete picture of how these originated! :B

[@I.____.....__...__]

The font is literally the same one from _Pharaoh's Tomb._ Also, the game itself is reminiscent of _Paganitzu_ That, and the fact that the previous one was very Kroz/ZZT, and the first two were basically just _Missile Command_ and _Hunt the Wumpus_ sound a lot like fan-games of existing stuff. Maybe they were made by Elon Musk, after all, he made _Blastar,_ a _Space Invaders_ clone, as William Shatner said, "a lifelong love of inventing things that already exist".

[@Darkstar2342]

9:00 a dodecahedron can be flattened out (without any lines crossing each other) though, so one could argue that the game world of Hunt the Wumpus actually *is* flat ;-)

[@EdmondDantes224]

Just what we need--a Flat Wumpusworld Conspiracy Theorist! ;)

[@Roobar_Plays]

This might be the first ever review of these Apogee games!

[@Dosgamert]

[@EdmondDantes224]

"The Thing... which has absolutely nothing to do with the works of John Carpenter." Or, presumably, John W. Campbell, the author whose story "Who Goes There?" was what The Thing was based on.

[@Pixelmusement]

Yes, but John Campbell didn't make "The Thing" specifically. ;)

[@EdmondDantes224]

@@Pixelmusement True, though I recall when Linkara covered a comic adaptation he pointed out that a lot of the major concepts were present in the original story.. That comic also gave us Thing Tucker, a recurring green three-eyed thing that would pop up in title cards and in plushie form in his videos.

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

Chronologically, however a post from the Empire of Mike is Always his number one comment

[@antzpantz]

I wonder if Scott Miller (who is active on Twitter daily) can provide any further answers about this game.

[@dsallen7914]

I actually had a physical copy of this at one point in time, although funny enough, it was probably not legitimate. When I was a kid my dad and I went to software shows, which were basically groups of vendors selling all kinds of PC software on floppy and later CD-ROM. They ranged from fully licensed resellers to guys basically selling bootleg copies of both shareware and registered titles on floppies with crudely printed labels. Of course, six-year-old me didn't quite understand the distinction just yet. 🤓

[@Pixelmusement]

The tricky thing is that it's difficult to tell the difference for early shareware, as many times the full games WERE licensed to random distributors who didn't do more than print out basic labels. Shareware was a bit of a mess in the 80s. :P

[@EdmondDantes224]

Some thoughts: -Honestly that thing Forbidden Mine does whenever you get a bonus for picking up that special jewel (demonstrated twice near the beginning of this video) is also kinda hard on the eyes. I had to un-fullscreen for that. -The name "Rogue Runner" somehow makes me think you're being chased by Coyotes. Maybe they're the lost souls of all the ones that never got a meal (though the name "lost souls" makes me think this takes place in the universe of Rumiko Takahashi's Mermaid Saga... or Doom). -Of all things the Forbidden Mine concept reminded me of a Lucky Luke story, even though the title seems like its clearly meant to be a riff on Indiana Jones.

[@dsallen7914]

"Rogue Runner" you would think "cross between Rogue and Lode Runner", but it only bears the slightest resemblance to either of those titles. Rogue for the overhead maze style of play, and Lode Runner for the action/strategy and "digging through walls" elements.

[@NaoPb]

Some of these games seem (at least graphically) similar to other games Apogee would release later. So my bet is these may be made inhouse.

[@Pixelmusement]

That's my bet too, and that they were based on submitted game ideas rather than submitted code. If I ever get a definitive answer on this I'll put the details in the video description. :B

[@ThommyofThenn]

Is quad a thing? Or would it be quartet?

[@Pixelmusement]

Hmm... I mean, by definition "quartet" is more proper, but "quad" still gets the right idea across that there's "four". :B

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@Pixelmusement Thanks! I'm really interested in words and different variants of them. I'm always looking for new ways to use them!

[@aaronmarko]

Both can be used reasonably interchangably. That's the fun thing about English.

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@aaronmarko thank you!

[@tasospodcast8832]

Hey, first?!

[@Pixelmusement]

Congrats on being first! The reward this time around happens to be 14,788 microscopic dust particles! They're so small you'll never notice them AND won't even be able to tell when they're delivered! 8D

[@tasospodcast8832]

@@Pixelmusement LOOOL