Creature Venture

In 1981, Highlands Computer Services released Creature Venture for the Apple II, offering players a unique blend of text adventure and graphical exploration. The game puts players in the role of an heir who must explore their eccentric uncle's spooky mansion to claim their inheritance.

The game stands out from other Apple II adventures of its era by combining high-resolution graphics with text input commands. Players navigate through the mansion's rooms using simple commands like "GO NORTH" or "GET KEY," while the screen displays both text descriptions and visual representations of each location.

The mansion contains numerous puzzles, hidden passages, and peculiar creatures that players must deal with to progress. Players need to collect items, solve riddles, and interact with various objects to unlock new areas and uncover the mansion's secrets. The game's parser understands basic two-word commands common to text adventures of the period.

Creature Venture's graphics, while simple by today's standards, were impressive for 1981. Each room features distinct visual elements drawn in the Apple II's high-resolution graphics mode, with objects clearly visible and interactive. The game uses the machine's 6-color palette effectively to create an eerie atmosphere.

The game's difficulty comes from its puzzle design and inventory management. Players must figure out which items to use in specific situations, often through trial and error. Death is possible, but the game allows players to restart from their last location, making it less punishing than contemporary adventures.

What made Creature Venture notable was its attempt to bridge the gap between text-only adventures like Zork and purely graphical games. This hybrid approach influenced later adventure game design, though the game itself remained relatively obscure compared to titles from larger publishers like Sierra On-Line or Infocom.

The game requires 48K of RAM and runs from a single 5.25-inch floppy disk, typical for Apple II games of its time. While it never received official ports to other platforms or sequels, it represents an interesting experiment in early adventure game design.