Adventure Math (DOS)

Adventure Math

Platform: DOS Year: 1992 Developer: Epic MegaGames

Adventure Math is Epic Games's 7th game and probably only foray in education.

First, you choose addition or subtraction, and a level which determines the maximum number (9 to 99). Then, on every problem, the first- to fifth-grader in you is given the first and last number and has to give the middle number.

If you type 11 wrong answers, it's game over. After 11 correct answers, you can print a report card with your name, date and time, and play a bonus game where you shoot your answer while avoiding weird enemies. Right to the 3 options, a red X, carrot or smiley appears. If you shoot the X, you lose energy. The game ends after 25 answers (correct or not) or when your energy is below zero.

The graphics and Sound Blaster audio were up to par, the programming (in Microsoft QuickBASIC) not so much: The bonus game has sluggish, non-arcade-like controls and is unplayable on fast computers (over 3000 cycles in DOSBox 0.74).

Adventure Math advertises a sequel, Adventure Math Deluxe, featuring multiplication, division, a timer, twice as much music, and more educational products from Epic. So far, only its intro screen and 2 new backgrounds have been found.

Screenshots

Intro. Noble main menu. I can do it! "Correct!" C'mon, just typos! Eeehh...?!

Music

Adventure Math has two different soundtracks, depending on your audio setup, and oddly for different purposes.

On an OPL2, you will hear 5 moody songs. Epic's first musician, Dan Froelich, composed them using a mouse in Visual Composer, and someone converted them, probably using ROL2MIDI.

On a Sound Blaster, you will additionally hear a jingle (Whistle), a narrator, and 5 sound effects, all in 8-bit PCM and mostly at 12048 Hz. In 10% of the wrong answers, the narrator shouts rather than speaks. This is purely random and means nothing (although it may baffle kids). In the bonus game, sound effects uglily disturb each other.

With neither device, you will instead hear jingles (mostly, if not exclusively, public domain compositions) and sound effects on the PC Speaker. They are arranged in QuickBASIC's PLAY and SOUND commands and intermixed with Avery Pack's game code. After Ending plays, quarter notes turn into whole notes - an obvious oversight that was not recorded.

All titles (except 10th Correct, Unused 1 and Unused 2) are based on filenames.

Recording

All songs were recorded from the game on a Pentium 60 Mhz. The ones numbered 101 and onwards were rendered on a Sound Blaster 16 CT1740, the ones numbered 201 on the PC Speaker with a microphone standing in front. The unused songs were played by modifying AMATH.EXE.

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
101	Opener	Dan Froelich	0:08		Download
102	Adventure Math Menu	Dan Froelich	2:22		Download
103	Play	Dan Froelich	3:50		Download
106	Whistle	Dan Froelich	0:00		Download
107	Knight	Dan Froelich	1:57		Download
108	HHJJ	Dan Froelich	2:10		Download

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
201	Opener	Unknown	Unknown	0:04		Download
202	Adventure Math Menu	Unknown	Unknown	0:01		Download
204	10th Correct	Unknown	Unknown	0:02		Download
205	Ending	Daniel Butterfield	Unknown	0:10		Download
209	Unused 1	Traditional	Unknown	0:12		Download
210	Unused 2	Henry C. Work	Unknown	0:18		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Professor Chaos
• Recorder: Professor Chaos
• Game Credits:
  • Music by (Intro): Dan Froelich
  • Music & Sound Effects (Help): Dan Froelich
  • SBVOC.ASM 09-Oct-1991 (C)1991: Cornel Huth
  • FMMUSIC.ASM 09-Oct-1991 (C)1991: Cornel Huth
  • Not Credited Composer: Unknown
  • Not Credited Composer: Daniel Butterfield
  • Not Credited Composer: Traditional
  • Not Credited Composer: Henry C. Work
  • Not Credited Arranger: Unknown
  • Not Credited Vocalist: Unknown
  • Not Credited Programmer: Microsoft

(Sources for Froelich: Intro, Help. Source for Huth: Hidden comments. Source for Microsoft: Code recognition.)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Audio Devices

Music
Sound

Unless you enter /NOSB or /NOADLIB, the game searches for an Ad Lib Music Synthesizer Card or compatible at port 388_hex, and a Sound Blaster at ports 210_hex, 220_hex, 230_hex, 240_hex, 250_hex, 260_hex, DMA 1, and IRQ 2, 3, 5 or 7.

On the setup, you can turn everything off, but not on again.

If you leave any card on, all PC Speaker audio is turned off without notice.

(Source)

Releases

USA Title: Adventure Math Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Epic MegaGames

Links

• mobygames.com/game/dos/adventure-math - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/218899-adventure-math - GameFAQs.
• web.archive.org/web/19980214170548/http://www.epicgames.com:80/amath.htm - Screenshots of Adventure Math Deluxe.