How to Create Adventure Games

I don't know what it was that really brought this book back to my mind. I remember checking it out from the school library when I was in fifth grade, and I loved it. I had played a lot of old retro computer games on my dad's computer -- games like Colossal Cave by William Crowther and Don Woods, and the slew of Adventure International titles. These to me were the ultimate sort of adventure game. It was like reading a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE book, only you got to actually play it and explore and find treasures. I loved it. I bought a used copy of HOW TO CREATE ADVENTURE GAMES and immediately fell back in love with it. Sure, these sorts of games are out-dated with Xbox and the Wii, but, there is just something about a text adventure game that nothing can really beat. This book goes through a sample game, which isn't half-bad, teaching you how to create your own adventure games. It really goes through and explains a ton of different sections, from how to set up maps and objects, to getting nitty gritty with programming the BASIC subroutines. It's all fairly easily read, and with a basic knowledge of programming, most anyone can catch on and get going. The whole reason to have this book though is to get the Adventure Game Skeleton in Appendix B. Christopher Lampton has given the reader a great resource -- you can go in and literally plug in your own map, objects, verb routines, and you can have a working adventure game really quickly. And with the bits of help in the chapters explaining how to add in your own commands, you're pretty much set to go. Definitely a great title for those who grew up -- like me -- on old-school adventure games.