The Classic Adventurer

The Classic Adventurer is a series of magazines produced in the UK by Mark James Hardisty. Its focus is on classic text adventures and interactive fiction, particularly those with a British or European origin.

The publication is released as a physical print-on-demand 'bookazine' as well as in electronic form; available for free either as a high-quality PDF that matches the print version or a reduced-size format suitable for mobile devices.

The magazine mainly consists of a series of interviews with the authors and publishers of classic adventure games, as well as conversations with those making new interactive fiction today. There are also book reviews and features on games in particular genres.

As well as the many exclusive interviews with important industry figures, the publication is particularly notable for Mark's painstakingly and lovingly recreated versions of artwork from classic game inlays and advertising.

Issue 1

Published in 2018.

Featuring interviews with...

John Jones-Steele of Abersoft.
Mike Austin and Pete Austin of Level 9.
Alberto Riera and Daniel Castaño on Doomsday Lost Echoes.
Veronika Megler programmer of The Hobbit.
Gareth Pitchford of Delbert the Hamster Software.
Trevor Hall on Twin Kingdom Valley.

Issue 1 also includes a review of Twilight Inventory and a feature on the different British home micro implementations of Colossal Caves.

Issue 2

Published in 2018.

Featuring interviews with...

Stefan Vogt on Hibernated 1.
Fergus McNeill of Delta 4.
Tim Gilberts of Gilsoft.
Fergus McNeill on The Big Sleeze.
Thomas A. Christie on The Spectrum of Adventure.
Larry Horsfield of FSF Adventures.

Issue 2 also includes a reviews of Bob Redrup's The Adventure Gamer's Manual, a feature on Gilsoft's Gold Collection, and a look at the community-produced enhanced Spectrum 128K version of The Hobbit.

Issue 3

Published in 2018.

Featuring interviews with...

Issue 3 also includes a feature on Brian Howarth's adventures, a review of Nick Montfort's Twisty Little Passages, and a look at the art of Terry Greer.

Issue 4

Published in 2018.

Featuring interviews with...

Stefan Vogt and Tim Gilberts on recovering DAAD.
Terry Greer on his videogame artwork.
Chris Hester of Adventure Coder.
Charles Cecil of Artic Computing.
Mark Cantrell of Nebula Designs.
Trevor Lever and Peter Jones.
Mark Aldrich, Nick Aldrich and Richard Stevenson.

Issue 4 also includes a feature on 'Whodunnits' and an article on band-related text adventures such as Aural Quest.

Issue 5

Published in 2019.

Featuring interviews with...

Simon Ainsworth on The Greedy Dwarf.
Simon Price and Mike Lewis on the Redhawk games.
Scott Adams of Adventure International.
Jonathan Partington on Peter Killworth.
Andy McDermott on Resistance.
Chris Ainsley on Adventuron.
Mike Woodroffe of Adventure International UK.

Issue 5 also includes a look at the 30th Anniversary remake of The Beast and a feature on Micro Adventurer magazine.

Issue 6

Published in 2019

Featuring interviews with...

Blerkotron on Unhallowed.
Colin Jordan of Axxent Software.
Mike Austin on the recovered "lost" BBC Micro version of Knight Orc.
Dave Hawkins of JimJam Games.
Mike Lewis on The Mystery of Arkham Manor.

Issue 6 also includes a look a "budget" adventure releases and a review of the documentary Get Lamp.

Issue 7

Published in 2019.

Featuring interviews with...

Julie Minamata on The Crimson Diamond.
Shaun McClure on his videogame artwork.
John Blythe of Rucksack Games.
Ben Jones on Mushroom Hunt.
Ian Smith and Shaun McClure on Excalibur - Sword of Kings.

Issue 7 also includes a feature on the Les Howarth and Jenny Tyler type-in books from Usborne.

Issue 8

Published in 2019.

Featuring interviews with...

José Luis Salguero on Revenge - The Servant of Death.
Scott Denyer of Delbert the Hamster Software.
David Hampton on The Seventh Star.
Ian Smith and Shaun McClure on Hit and Alien Research Centre.
Davide Bucci on The Queen's Footsteps.
Hugh Steers of Magnetic Scrolls and Strand Games.
Huw Collingbourne on The Little Book of Adventure Game Programming.

Issue 8 also includes a look at the DAAD technical manual, an in-depth feature on Melbourne House's Sherlock, and a post mortem on Mark's own attempts to make a sequel to The Big Sleeze.

Special Edition (#1)

Published in 2020.

Featuring interviews with...

Garry Cappuccini on Crack City.
Trevor Toms discussing his programming and writing career.
Stefan Vogt on The Curse of Rabenstein.
Clive Gifford on his programming books.
Tony Barber on Valkyrie 17.
Thomas Garner on Scurvy Dogs.
The Beam Software team on The Lord of the Rings games.

The Special Edition also includes a look at the early strategy guide A Guide to Playing The Hobbit, a feature on "very British" games and a quick review of Thomas Garner's Scurvy Dogs.

Issue 9

Published in 2021.

Featuring interviews with...

Jared A. Sorensen on Parsley.
Jas Austin on Sláine.
Kim Topley on Quest and Fantasia Diamond.
Ian Andrew on Sean Ellis' GAC.
Harvey Lodder on The Quest for the Golden Eggcup.
Jimmy Maher on his Digital Antiquarian blog.

Issue 9 also includes a look at the English translation of Bieno Marti's Torreoscura and a feature on John Pickford's game Ghost Town.

Special Edition (#2)

Published in 2023.

Featuring interviews with...

Shaun McClure on his A Guide to ZX Spectrum Adventure Games books.
Marshal Linder on Zyll.
Edward Toovey on his various Taskmaster Software adventure games.
Simon Bulter on Ocean Software's text adventures including The Neverending Story.
Steve DeFrisco and Peter Golden of Imagic on their Bantam-published Sherlock Holmes games.
Ian Murris on The Wizard's Challenge and The Hunt: The Search for Shauna for the BBC Micro.

The issue also briefly takes a look at a new ZX Spectrum text adventure, Donum.

Links

The Classic Adventurer official site.