Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What was the first adventure game?
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving.[1] The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games (text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult.[2] Colossal Cave Adventure is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include Zork, King's Quest, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Myst.
"Adventure" also inspired the development of online multiplayer games like MUDs, the precursors of the modern-day MMORPG. The Atari 2600 video game "Adventure" was an attempt to create a graphical version of "Adventure", and itself became the first known example of an action-adventure game, and introduced the fantasy genre to video game consoles. The "Carmen Sandiego" series, one of the first educational games, was inspired by transforming the caverns of "Colossal Cave Adventure" into a globe-spanning clue-and-treasure hunt.
Their first new release was a donationware adventure game called "Ben There, Dan That!", released in 2008. It was widely praised by the adventure game community and downloaded 50,000 times but brought in only "a couple of hundred quid" due to its donation model. Marshall self-funded the games development, telling the BBC in 2010 "What I do keeps me fed and warm. I'm not sure I get to lead the most extravagant lifestyle, or how my earnings compare to people working in the mainstream games industry." Marshall later said of the game "I didn’t think people would really pay money for it ... I think that was a bit naive, in retrospect. It’s well worth a couple of quid, and I do regret not charging for it initially. You can always move the price down, you can’t really move it up." A 2011 updated edition of the game, which added a soundtrack and other features, was sold on a "pay what you want" model, with a minimum price.
Adventure board games often integrate various role-playing game mechanics, such as experience points and character creation into the board game format. The origins of these two types of game are related. In the early 1970s, Dave Arneson introduced his role-playing game, Blackmoor, to a group of players. One of those players, Gary Gygax, collaborated with Arneson to create "Dungeons & Dragons" (1974). Another member of that gaming group, Dave Meggary, translated the experience into the board game, "Dungeon!" (1975), the first adventure board game. In fact, the term "adventure gaming" in the 1970s referred to what later became known as tabletop role-playing games, and only later became associated with board games.
Adventure Island II is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Now Production and published by Hudson Soft that was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in . It is the sequel to "Adventure Island" and the second game in the series for the NES. While the first game was an adaptation of Sega's "Wonder Boy" arcade game, "Adventure Island II" is an original work, as were all the subsequent "Adventure Island" games. A portable version was also released for the Game Boy in titled Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima II or Adventure Island outside of Japan.
"Eurogamer" ranked the game second on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017", while "GamesRadar+" ranked it fifth on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017. In "Game Informer"s Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, the game came at fourth place for "Best Adventure Game" with just 10% of the votes, about 4% behind "". The same website also gave it the award of "Best Adventure Game" in their Best of 2017 Awards, and of "Best Narrative" and "Adventure Game of the Year" in their 2017 Adventure Game of the Year Awards. EGMNow ranked the game at #25 in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017, while "Polygon" ranked it 13th on their list of the 50 best games of 2017.
Exactly when a game stops being an adventure game and becomes an action game is a matter of interpretation. There are quite a few disagreements in the community and in the media over what actually constitutes an action-adventure game. One definition of the term "action adventure" may be '"An action/adventure game is a game that has enough action in it not to be called an adventure game, but not enough action to be called an action game." In some cases an action game with puzzles will be classified as an action-adventure game, but if these puzzles are quite simple they might be classified as an action game. Others see action games as a pure genre, while an action-adventure is an action game that includes situational problem-solving. Adventure gamers may also be purists, rejecting any game that makes use of physical challenges or time pressure. Regardless, the action-adventure label is prominent in articles over the internet and media. The term "action-adventure" is usually substituted for a particular subgenre due to its wide scope.
Arneson wrote up the Blackmoor setting for Judges Guild in "The First Fantasy Campaign" (1977). In 1979 Arneson and Richard L. Snider, an original "Blackmoor" player, co-authored "Adventures in Fantasy", a role-playing game that attempted to recapture the "original spirit of the Role Playing Fantasy Game" that Arneson had envisioned in the early 1970s, instead of what "D&D" had become. In the early 1980s he established his own game company, Adventure Games – staffed largely by Arneson's friends, most of whom were also members of a Civil War reenactment group – that produced the miniatures games "Harpoon" (1981) and "Johnny Reb" (1983), as well as a new edition of his own "Adventures in Fantasy" role-playing game (1981). The company also put out about a half-dozen Tékumel related books, due to Arneson's friendship with M. A. R. Barker. Adventure Games was profitable, but Arneson found the workload to be excessive and finally sold the company to Flying Buffalo. Flying Buffalo picked up the rights to Adventure Games in 1985; because Arneson owned a portion of Flying Buffalo, he let them take care of the rest of the company's stock and IP when he shut the company down.
James Wallis was able to publish his game "The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen" in 1998, the first of what would later be called the company's "New Style" RPGs.
"Colossal Cave Adventure" is the first known work of interactive fiction and, as the first text adventure game, is considered the precursor for the adventure game genre. "Colossal Cave Adventure" also contributed towards the role playing and roguelike genres.
Brett Weiss cites "Superman" (1979) as an action-adventure game, with "Retro Gamer" crediting it as the "first to utilize multiple screens as playing area". Mark J.P. Wolf credits "Adventure" (1980) as the earliest-known action-adventure game, was an adaptation of text-based adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure" for the Atari 2600, with the player having the ability to fight in combat like in an action game. "Castle Wolfenstein" (1981) was another early action-adventure game. Allgame also claimed the following titles released prior to 1982 were action-adventure games: "Rescue at Rigel" (1980), "Quest for the Rings" (1981), and "Venture" (1981).
In February 2017, EN Publishing announced the new "Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Tabletop Adventure Game" using the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN) roleplaying game system. The first releases will be the "Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD" core rulebook, and "The Robot Wars" adventure/sourcebook.
Upon its release the game earned a handful of Mixed-to-Negative reviews. "Nintendo Power" gave the game a 3.6 out of 5 stating the positive side as "Bill & Ted fans won't be disappointed by the video versions of the dudes from San Dimas" but also points "It isn't easy finding items, which means you'll spend ages wandering around, and that's frustrating." "Game Player's Strategy Guide" states "It's a change of pace from the usual role playing adventure, with a refreshing - if somewhat overbearing - humor." GamePro states "What could have been a truly excellent video game adventure wound up as a mildly entertaining video-jaunt." "Video Games & Computer Entertainment" states "The verbose Bill and Ted themselves would likely describe this adventure of theirs as being 'bogus,' but what we get can be best called average."" 
"Adventures of Mana" is a remake of the 1991 Game Boy game "Final Fantasy Adventure", which was the first entry in the "Mana" series. It is the second remake of "Final Fantasy Adventure", the first being the Game Boy Advance game "Sword of Mana", which had removed the connections to the "Final Fantasy" series in favor of being more connected to the rest of the "Mana" series. According to "Adventures of Mana"s producer, Masaru Oyamada, the development team focused on not upsetting what had made the original game good, while adding things that had not been possible to do in the original version due to hardware limitations; they also aimed to make the game more comfortable and intuitive to play: for instance, switching armor and weapons and using items and magic was made easier, and shortcut commands were added. The game borrows some elements from the original Game Boy version, and some from "Sword of Mana". For example, the first remake introduced the ability to play as the heroine, but "Adventures of Mana", like the original, only has a male playable character; conversely "Adventures of Mana"s battle system, user interface and sword attack are based on "Sword of Mana"s rather than the original's. Kenji Ito, the composer for "Final Fantasy Adventure", returned to create updated and more dramatic rearrangements for the remake.
One of the first action-adventure games was the Atari 2600 game "Adventure" (1980). It was directly inspired by the original text adventure, "Colossal Cave Adventure". In the process of adapting a text game to a console with only a joystick for control, designer Warren Robinett created an action-adventure game by incorporating action arcade game elements.
On July 10, the birthday of Nikola Tesla, it was announced that the official title would be "Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure", and a teaser trailer was unveiled. On August 27, 2013, it was revealed that Atlus would be publishing, supporting Big Finish with distribution, marketing, and quality assurance. On May 7, 2014 it was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X through GOG.com and Steam. In a video update on February 26, 2014, Chris Jones explained that the scope of the game had expanded far beyond what was initially planned, describing it as "two full-length "Tex Murphy" adventure games in one." He also revealed that the game would run at 2K resolution, a possible first for game FMV.
Along with "Tails' Skypatrol", the game is one of two on the Game Gear to star Tails in a solo role. "Tails Adventure" received mixed reviews, with critics finding the game unoriginal and too slow-paced compared to previous "Sonic" offerings. Retrospective reviews commended the game for trying something different and compared the gameplay to the "Metroid" series, but disliked what they felt was repetitive backtracking. "Tails Adventure" was included in "Sonic Adventure DX" (2003), "Sonic Gems Collection" (2005), and re-released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2013.
While most adventure games typically do not include any time-based interactivity by the player, action-adventure games are a hybrid of action games with adventure games that often require to the player to react quickly to events as they occur on screen.[16] The action-adventure genre is broad, spanning many different subgenres, but typically these games utilize strong storytelling and puzzle-solving mechanics of adventure games among the action-oriented gameplay concepts. The foremost title in this genre was Adventure, a graphic home console game developed based on the text-based Colossal Cave Adventure,[15] while the first The Legend of Zelda brought the action-adventure concept to a broader audience.
Reception by the gaming press to the English language release has been mixed. PC version received an aggregated score of 72 on Metacritic and 75% on GameRankings. Xbox 360 version received an aggregated score of 66% on GameRankings. Zen Review commented that, "While it does pale in comparison to what was one of the pinnacle[s] of adventure gaming [Gabriel Knight], for being such a refined product of well-told story and carefully crafted multimedia experience, it has been well worth the decade-long wait for the fans of Jensen's work." Adventure Classic Gaming stated that, "for the rest of gamers who opt to evaluate this game on its own merits, Gray Matter is a game that can easily measure up against the best of what the genre can offer. Gray Matter succeeds not because of its pedigree but because of what it can deliver." Most of the criticisms of the game are directed at the quality of the cut scenes, which are considered out of keeping with the quality of the rendered graphics. Official Xbox Magazine UK gave the game an unfavorable review, criticizing the clunky interference and "patronizing" depiction of England. "The A.V. Club" gave it an A- rating, praising the puzzles and writing and calling it "the best traditional adventure game in a decade."
As the first action-adventure video game and first console fantasy game, "Adventure" established its namesake genre on video game consoles. In addition to being the first graphical adventure game on the Atari 2600 console, it is the first video game to contain a widely known Easter egg, and the first to allow a player to use multiple, portable, on-screen items while exploring an open-ended environment, making it one of the first examples, even as small and primitive as it is, of an open world game. The game has been voted the best Atari 2600 game in numerous polls, and has been noted as a significant step in the advancement of home video games. "GamePro" ranked it as the 28th most important video game of all time in 2007. In 2010, "1UP.com" listed it as one of the most important games ever made in its "The Essential 50" feature. "Entertainment Weekly" named "Adventure" as one of the top 10 games for the Atari 2600.
In 1989, while designing the first Monkey Island game, Ron Gilbert wrote an article titled Why Adventure Games Suck outlining what he perceived to be design flaws in adventure games of the time.
Toy subsequently enrolled in computer science at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in the late 1970s. Working first on UCSC's PDP-11 and then its VAX-11, Toy began exploring what games were available over ARPANET, the predecessor of the current Internet. One game that intrigued him was "Colossal Cave Adventure" (also known as "Adventure") (1976) by William Crowther and Don Woods. "Adventure", considered the first text-based adventure game, challenged the player to explore a cave system through descriptions given by the computer and commands issued by the player. Toy was impressed by the game and started writing his own.
The adventure game genre was selected to offer the public a product that would not have existed without their support, and help to distinguish the project from the developer's publisher-financed work. Schafer, a veteran of LucasArts, has long been associated with adventure games, a genre that has long been stigmatized as commercially niche, particularly since the release of Schafer's own "Grim Fandango". In his pitch to the public, Schafer argued that funding for such a project would be very difficult to come by, stating "If I were to go to a publisher right now and pitch an adventure game, they'd laugh in my face." Ron Gilbert, another ex-LucasArts adventure game designer at Double Fine, has long expressed this sentiment, writing in his personal blog, "From first-hand experience, I can tell you that if you even utter the words "adventure game" in a meeting with a publisher you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave. You'd get a better reaction by announcing that you have the plague." Schafer explained that the game will not be "museum" or "nostalgia" work, but instead "It's going to be fresh and feel modern and feel like what the next game would have been if I'd made one straight after "Grim Fandango"".
Fade is a point-and-click adventure game developed by the Fade Team and released for the Windows Mobile Professional platform in 2001. The game was critically acclaimed as the first large-scale adventure game for the platform. It is most often compared to "Myst", the first immersive graphic adventure games for the PC, and the games in the "Zork" series.
Released nearly 8 months after the first two "Zelda" CD-i games, "Zelda's Adventure" uses a different game engine from . Whereas the first two CD-i games were patterned on the side-scrolling "", "Zelda's Adventure" took the top-down "The Legend of Zelda", "", and "" as its models. "Zelda's Adventure" is the only "Legend of Zelda" game to feature live-action cutscenes. Reception for the game was poor, and whereas some critics have given more nuanced reviews of the first two games, modern criticism for "Zelda's Adventure" is unanimously negative.