Pioneering game developer Scott Adams has been making games for over 40 years, and now he’s donated a sizable collection of games and game development materials to The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
It’s good news for video game history buffs, opening up a possible future where curious devs will be able to visit the museum and see (among other things) the source code of Adams’ trailblazing 1978 text adventure Adventureland.
It’s currently seen as the earliest known commercial adventure game, since Adams paid for a magazine ad to try and juice sales of the game. It sold well enough that he was able to start Adventureland International with his wife Alexis, and the rest is history.
Now a good chunk of that history is in the hands of The Strong because, as Adams wrote in a public statement, “I hope these materials will allow future generations and scholars a glimpse into the early days of the computer gaming industry and my company.”
His donation includes over 130 games, including the earliest copies of Adventureland (sealed in baby bottle liners and stapled with a business card) and its sequels, alongside marketing materials, source code, and even some old hard copies of game code from the games Adams created in high school.
Adams’ donation will join The Strong’s ever-expanding collection of game industry artifacts, which have been sourced from both private collectors and long-serving employees of notable companies like Broderbund,SSI, Blizzard and Interplay.