Venture was an arcade game by Exidy. It came out for arcades in 1981 but I know it primarily because it was a launch title for the ColecoVision in 1982, my first console. I think we got it a little later, because I just don’t think I was four, but memory is a weird thing.

Anyway, Venture! You play a little archer guy exploring rooms in a dungeon, killing the monsters that lurk within and stealing their treasures. Pretty standard dungeon experience. The music is pretty catchy and the monster designs are neat, though none of them really do anything interesting aside of jumping around in your way. Except the hallmonsters. They’re little green floaty octopus things that dance around the hallways. If they touch you, you die, just like any other monster. They’re harmless enough otherwise. In the hallways. But if you stay too long in a room (and it is possible — monster corpses linger and can still kill you, so you can easily get trapped), the music will change into a horrible pulsing noise as the nearest hallmonster appears and COMES THROUGH THE WALLS to get you. Scared the crap out of young Stu, lemme tell you. Nightmares! I still wince when I hear it.

But I love the game, an all time favorite, fast, easy to play, doesn’t ask a lot of the player. Shame we don’t know who designed it. This post has photos of both the ColecoVision version and the Atari. The Atari game is inferior but it has better box art.