August 30th, 2004
Here's something you won't see every day from a curmudgeon like me: A fan letter, and an open one at that!
Attn: Mr. Scott Adams
(the software developer, not the cartoonist)Dear Mr. Adams,
In 1982, I begged and pleaded my parents to buy me a VIC-20 computer. After a while (and probably so that I'd leave them alone) they relented and brought me out to the store to get one, and I had a choice of which free game to take home with me. I considered my options, and decided on your game Adventureland and thus was born my love of computers and the virtual worlds they could create. That love has never really gone away and I continue to work in computer software today as a result of my first experiences with that VIC-20--and your adventure game that I played and eventually solved.
Actually, I was more than a little saddened once I'd completed it, because the magic world of Adventureland was over for me (although I spent a few more weeks working out the most efficient path to complete the adventure!)
Then I saved up my allowance money and bought your other game Mission Impossible, then Pirate Adventure, then The Count ....
It is not an exaggeration to say that your works of interactive fiction have influenced me greatly both personally and professionally--to the point that I have even created a couple of text-based adventure games myself in the ensuing years. The imagination and literacy that went into the creation of the "old-style" adventure games was reflected by the players of these games, who used their own imagination and literacy to bring the worlds alive in their minds. From your imagination to mine, it was a common bond.
* * *
I can hardly believe that it took me this long to think of searching for you in Google! My teenaged feelings of wonder and magic came back as I went through your website (finally getting a chance to see what you look like) and downloading Adventureland et al again after all these years.
Thank you for thinking of starting Adventure International, thank you for sparking my imagination at an impressionable age when I could have found something much less intelligent and creative to occupy my time, and, most of all, thank you for the wonderful humour and creativity that went into those games and the newer games as well.
Yours truly,
Brian M. Porter