Scott Adams (game designer)

File:Computer Gaming World issue 2.3 (page 22 Scott Adams) (cropped).jpg

Born in Miami, Florida, Adams had access to an advanced 16-bit computer at home, built by his brother Richard Adams, that gave him a jump on game programming in his leisure time.{{cite web|title=First Graphics Game written on and for a Home Computer|url=http://exoticsciences.com/sa.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028210908/http://exoticsciences.com/sa.htm?i=2|archive-date=2021-10-28|access-date=2021-10-28|website=Exotic Sciences}} Adams wrote a graphical action game similar to Spacewar! on this system in 1975.

Scott Adams was the first person known to create an adventure-style game for personal computers,{{cite web|title=Mackey, Betty, "Adventure fills wizard's world" Orlando Business Journal – 8 October 1985, 8|url=http://exoticsciences.com/ra_scrpbk/comp-longx.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028211054/http://exoticsciences.com/ra_scrpbk/comp-longx.htm?i=1|archive-date=2021-10-28|access-date=2021-10-28|website=Exotic Sciences}} in 1978 on a 16 KB Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I, written in BASIC. Colossal Cave was written two years earlier by Will Crowther, but on a mainframe computer (the PDP-10). These early text adventures recognize two-word commands of the form VERB NOUN. The parser only scans the first three letters of each command, so SCREAM BEAR, SCRATCH BEAR, or SCREW BEAR are treated identically. The games from his company, Adventure International, were subsequently released on most of the major home computers of the day, including TRS-80, Exidy Sorcerer, Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, PET, VIC-20, and ZX Spectrum. Later adventure games added graphics, with the text entry window below an image illustrating the scene.{{cite web|title=CRASH 15 - Scott Adams|url=https://www.crashonline.org.uk/15/adams.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020090722/https://www.crashonline.org.uk/15/adams.htm|archive-date=2021-10-20|access-date=2021-10-28|website=CRASH - The Online Edition}}

Adams's work was influential in adventure gaming. In 1990 Computer Gaming World reported a statement by a "respected designer" that it was impossible to design new and more difficult adventure puzzles, because Adams had already created them all in his early games.{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1990&pub=2&id=75 | title=No Soft Soap About New And Improved Computer Games | magazine=Computer Gaming World | date=October 1990 | accessdate=November 16, 2013 | page=80 | type=editorial}}

Adams and his wife eventually started organizing their own conventions, and opened a chain of computer stores in Orlando. Alexis negotiated the rights to make a video game out of the Buckaroo Banzai sci-fi movie in 1983.

Since the late 1980s, Scott Adams has worked as a senior programmer for AVISTA in Platteville, Wisconsin.http://www.msadams.com/ {{nonspecific|date=July 2022}}

In 2013, Scott Adams released the Bible-based The Inheritance, his first game in over ten years. As in most of his other games, the player is the protagonist of a novel-like story and helps events unfold in a text adventure set. However, this new game also includes sound.{{Cite web |date= |title=The Inheritance - Scott Adams Grand Adventures Bible Adventure #1 - Information and Ordering |url=http://www.msadams.com/inorder.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408091921/http://www.msadams.com/inorder.htm |archive-date=2013-04-08 |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=msadams.com}} In a 2018 interview Adams said he had not been happy with the game as it was released so had withdrawn it from the market whilst it was rewritten.{{cite web|url=https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/scott-adams/|title=Scott Adams (Adventure International) - Interview|date=January 19, 2018|website=Arcade Attack}}

In July 2016, Adams created a new company called Clopas to begin publishing games in a new genre he called "Conversational Adventure Games".{{cite web|url=https://www.msadams.com/wp/home/about-us/our-history/|title=Our History|website=Clopas|language=en-US|access-date=April 25, 2019}} These games were similar to his early text adventure games, except that they now supported full natural language sentences.{{cite web|url=https://www.msadams.com/wp/home/about-us/conversational-adventure-games/|title=Innovations|website=Clopas|language=en-US|access-date=April 25, 2019}} The first game he put out under company was Escape The Gloomer, a game published in collaboration with Soma Games for their Lost Legends of Redwall series.

Adams met Irene Alexandra Schlossberg aka Alexis Schlossberg in 1977 and they married not long after. While at first she only saw his computer obsession as something that prevented them from sharing more time together, already when pregnant with the couple's first child Alexis Adams saw the business potential of personal computer adventure games, and they started their company as co-founders.[https://if50.substack.com/p/1978-pirate-adventure] 50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon Adams would describe how his wife "handles most of the business" as the corporate vice president and general manager of Adventure International, and that she "has been intimately involved in all aspects... from the very beginning".[http://getlamp.com/cast/20070121adams/FILES/crashint.txt] Crash Issue #15 (April 1985)[https://archive.org/details/commodore-power-play-13/page/n75/mode/2up?q=%22wife+alexis%22] Commodore Power Play Issue 13 (1985)[https://archive.org/details/1983-07-anticmagazine/page/n11/mode/2up?q=%22wife+alexis%22] Antic Magazine Volume 2 Number 04 (Adventure Games)[https://archive.org/stream/MicroAdventurer06-Apr84#page/n11/mode/2up] Micro Adventurer Issue 06, Sunshine Books, 1984

The couple decided to build an image of mystery around their company and opted to put Scott's name alone on products. Still Alexis was credited as co-creator on some games' title screens, with one giving her sole billing: Voodoo Castle (1979). In a 1980 interview, Scott credited his wife with using his tools to create 95% of that game by herself.[https://archive.org/details/80-U.S._Volume_IV_Number_2_1981-03_80-Northwest_Publishing_US/page/n9/mode/2up] 80-U.S. - Volume IV Number 2 (1981-03)(80-Northwest Publishing) One character from that game, "Medium Maegen" named after the couple's daughter, may be the first woman with dialogue in a video game, appearing years before most other contenders.

Scott and Alexis divorced not long after the video game crash of 1983. Alexis died in 2008, 51 years old.

Adams later remarried.{{cite web | url=http://www.msadams.com/family.htm | title=Scott Adams Grand Adventures (SAGA) }}

• Adventureland (1978)
• Pirate Adventure (1979)
• Secret Mission (1979){{citation | title=Advertisement | journal=Softside | date=May 1979 | volume=1 | issue=8 | page=47 | url=https://archive.org/stream/softside-magazine-08/SoftSide_08_Vol_1-08_1979-05_Dogstar_Adventure#page/n46/mode/1up }}
• Voodoo Castle (1979){{citation | title=Advertisement | journal=Softside | date=July 1979 | volume=1 | issue=10 | page=63 | url=https://archive.org/stream/softside-magazine-10/SoftSide_10_Vol_1-10_1979-07_All_Star_Baseball#page/n61/mode/2up }} in collaboration with Alexis Adams
• The Count (1979)
• Strange Odyssey (1979){{citation | title=Advertisement | journal=Softside | date=November 1979 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=56–57 | url=https://archive.org/stream/softside-magazine-13/SoftSide_13_Vol_2-01_1979-12_Westward#page/n55/mode/2up }}
• Mystery Fun House (1979)
• Pyramid of Doom (1979){{citation | title=Advertisement | journal=Softside | date=December 1979 | volume=2 | issue=3 | page=38 | url=https://archive.org/stream/softside-magazine-15/SoftSide_15_Vol_2-03_1979-12_Oil_Baron#page/n37/mode/2up }} in collaboration with Alvin Files
• Ghost Town (1980)
• Savage Island, Part I (1981)
• Savage Island, Part II (1981) in collaboration with Russ Wetmore
• Golden Voyage (1981) in collaboration with William Demas
• Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle (1982){{cite web|url=http://www.trs-80.com/wordpress/emulation-scott-adams/software-adventures-13/|title=TRS-80 Software: Scott Adams Adventure 13 – "Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle" | Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Site}}
• Return to Pirate's Isle (1983) exclusively for the TI-99/4A
• Questprobe #1: The Hulk (1984)
• Questprobe #2: Spider-Man (1984)
• Questprobe #3: The Fantastic Four (1984)
• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) in collaboration with Phillip Case

• Scott Adams Scoops (1987){{cite web|url=https://worldofspectrum.org/software|title=World of Spectrum - Scott Adams Scoops|website=World of Spectrum}} collection of earlier games published by U.S. Gold
• Return to Pirate's Island 2 (August 2000)
• The Inheritance (February 14, 2013)
• The Lost Legends of Redwall: Escape the Gloomer (2018)

• Questprobe #4: X-Men{{cite web|url=https://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/Adventure_International/Questprobe.html|title=Questprobe|website=www.lysator.liu.se}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.msadams.com/index.htm|Official website}}
• [http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/129/ Scott Adams interview], Adventure Classic Gaming, 1998
• [http://www.crashonline.org.uk/15/adams.htm 1986 CRASH magazine interview]
• [http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/adams/index.html Academic panel] featuring Scott Adams
• [http://www.if-legends.org/~aimemorial/ Adventure International Memorial]

{{Adventure International}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Scott}}

Category:1952 births

Category:American video game designers

Category:Interactive fiction writers

Category:Living people

Category:Writers from Miami

Category:People from Platteville, Wisconsin

Category:American video game programmers