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We stick with the TRS-80 here, and found another hidden gem, which would hardly lure anyone out from behind the warm stove of millions-of-colors-64-bit-handheld-console-gameplay today. Text adventures.

Yes, those games, where all the magic, all the plot, all the gameplay just happened via white ASCII text on a black CRT screen. If that sounds as interesting as the yesterdays newspaper, skip this one. If on the other hand you remember especially titles like the Adventureland games from Scott Adams, then this one is for you.

Harry McCracken was a proud TRS-80 owner back in the days. And since most if not all 8-bit machines of that era came with a BASIC interpreter, he quickly familiarized himself with the language and began writing games.

The Arctic Adventure is one, that he actually finished. And nearly 40 years later he ported the still existing source into a browser playable game. In addition Harry shares his story and besides the wonderful trip back to the 80s you can play his game directly on the article’s page.

Be careful. Time sink ahead.