Adventure Game Engines

Novels and Novellas (Non-Game, Text Only. No Choices. From Antiquity)

Tabletop Role-Playing Games (Statistics, Randomness, and Narrative. 1974–)

Choose Your Own Adventure Books (Text and Choices Only, 1979–1998)

Text Adventures (Narrative influenced by Keyboard Commands, 1976–)

Starting with Colossal Cave Adventure.

Mapped Text Adventures

Graphical Adventures (Minimal Narrative, Keyboard Commands, 1980–)

Starting with Hi-Res Adventure #1: Mystery House.

Point-and-Click Adventures (Some Narrative, Clickable Elements in the Scene)

Visual Novels (Narrative & Choices, No Clickable Elements in the Scene)

Role-Playing Games (Statistics, Randomness, and at least some Narrative)

Kinetic Novels (Narrative with supporting Visuals, No Choices. 2004–)

Kinetic Novels are often inaccurately classified with Games or Visual Novels by Westerners.

Note: KineticNovel (without a space) is a trademark for the series put out by the Japanese game publishing company Visual Arts.

By Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels and Dave Lebling.

• #1 - Mystery House (1980)
• #2 - Wizard and the Princess (1980)
• #0 - Mission Asteroid (1980) - Yes, they numbered the third entry #0.
• #3 - Cranston Manor (1981)
• #4 - Ulysses and the Golden Fleece (1981)
• #5 - Time Zone (1982)
• #6 - The Dark Crystal (1983)

The second Hi-Res Adventure (Wizard and the Princess) became the precursor to the King's Quest series.

Portopia was an early Visual Novel.

Hugo's House of Horrors, Hugo II, Whodunit?, and Hugo III, Jungle of Doom!

Inspired by Uninvited.

Sweet Home, the first game in what after a licensing issue would become the Biohazard (Japan) or Resident Evil (USA) series, was the first and only survival horror game on the Famicom.