Having gone through a nostalgic trip down 2600 lane, I came across some interesting stuff regarding one of my favourite Atari titles: Adventure. It seems that not only has Adventure had a (pulled)
reboot but has had two (unofficial) sequels. I'm not talking a flash game look-alike or a newly encoded engine to appear like a 2600, but an honest-to-goodness Atari cartridge rom that will play on a vintage 2600, complete with box, manual and an overworld map for you to use.
(+2 internets for those of you who can tell me where the box cover art was
stolen liberated from.)
The Swordquest Series was touted as the official sequel to Adventure, but anyone who has played both games knows that was just cash-in marketing BS. Swordquest is nothing like Adventure in any way, shape or form and while it had it's charms, we wanted the real deal.
Here is a shot from the original Adventure to refresh your memory:
Evil Magician Returns on the other hand is an Adventure sequel that would be made today. That is to say it's more of the same, even lifting existing assets and making modifications to call it new. This isn't a knock on the game, if anything it's a compliment as this is what big businesses do, and get rich. It's familiar while being new, adds new things and makes you remember what you liked about the first game. This title can actually be burned to an eprom and played on a 2600 if you wish, but the easier method is the fantastic
Stella emulator. The graphics are actually updated to look better (it's a 2600 remember) and the fun factor stays intact.
Evil Magician Returns II on the other, other hand is more of an evolution of EMR. With even more advanced graphics (really) EMR2 really just builds on what EMR did. It plays the same but looks better and has more, um, just more. You could skip EMR completely and go to this version, but you'd be missing the steps that made this one better. The forum post has the skinny on everything that has changed, so check it out for more info.
See? Better! Both roms were available as cartridges through the author, but made in limited quantities. Another production run is promised if enough interest is generated but I for one haven't had an Atari in longer than the author has been alive I'd wager.
