Classic Text Adventure Prompt
A throwback prompt that turns the model into an old-school room-by-room text adventure — simple, coherent, and exactly as deep as that sounds.
- Memory & Continuity2
- Player Agency2
- NPC Fidelity1
- Mechanical Depth1
- Determinism & Fairness3
- Longevity2
- Signature Design2
Classic Text Adventure Prompt, written up by Jon Radoff, asks the model to behave like a 1980s-style text adventure: detailed room descriptions, a persistent map you move through with simple commands, and an inventory the model enforces with basic logic — it won’t let you open a locked chest without the key, for instance. There’s no character sheet and no combat system; the whole game is narrated exploration and object logic.
It holds together well for what it is. The model tracks where you are and what you’re carrying reliably enough for a short session, and the room-by-room structure gives it more shape than a fully freeform prompt. But there’s no world designed underneath it, no stakes beyond exploration, and nothing to come back to once you’ve seen the format.
Written for ChatGPT, but the instructions are plain text — Claude runs it the same way. The faithful 1980s framing is also the limit: a game of rooms and items has little for Mechanical Depth — 1 to measure, and you meet so few people that NPC Fidelity — 1 barely gets tested. Free, paste it in and play. 1.9 out of 5.