Adventure Quest is the immediate follow-up to Level 9’s game Colossal Adventure.
From the very first release of the game, via the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History. This was hand-assembled in a Ziploc bag with no illustrated cover.
While it wasn’t their first game (“their” being Pete, Mike, and Nick Austin), it was the first to bring them notoriety (eventually), and in the same year it was swiftly followed up by two games to make a trilogy. This was partly made easier because they came up with an “engine” known as A-code (similar to how Infocom had Z-code). Timeline-wise, they were advertising Colossal Adventure in an April magazine while already promising the follow-up by August, a month they managed to hit:
From Computing Today, September 1982. By the rule of magazine publication months this was available in August.
One important detail that I didn’t mention last time is that the three first A-code games (Colossal, Adventure, Dungeon) were dubbed in late 1982 the Middle-Earth Trilogy. Colossal Adventure didn’t include any Tolkien elements but the follow-ups do (see “marching to conquer Middle Earth” from the tape cover). The references were removed from the later Jewels of Darkness version, I assume because copyright issues started to get scary. Well, most of the references; according to the Tolkien Gateway one reference to Amon Sûl was accidentally left in. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
I am sticking with the graphical Atari version for consistency but I will flip over to the 1982 BBC Micro version briefly to show off when the Tolkien comes up.
This time we’re meant to find and defeat the Demon Lord AGALIAREPT in his Black Tower. Switching from a Treasure Hunt plot to a Nemesis plot isn’t that much a shift but it does automatically give an end-game confrontation.
I’m fairly sure the white dot over the door is important, but I’m not sure for what yet. You can take the table but note this game keeps up the four-item inventory limit from Colossal Adventure.
This is based fairly closely in feel off original Adventure in that you start in by building in a forest and can grab some starting items. Going down the stairs leads to darkness.
The overall mood is “Adventure, inverted to be more dismal”. There is a river running to the building but it is described as “clogged by dead vegetation”.
I have yet to be able to interact with the unicorn.
The stream keeps running south to dead land.
If you wander too long, wolves gather and attack.
Other than the starting building items, I’ve seen an onion, a rare orchid out of reach (you can drag over the table to get it) and a stone pinnacle. Climbing the pinnacle gets a meeting with a wizard, who hands over our quest.
This is incidentally a moment that is different in Tolkien-alternate-world, where we are the only hope of Middle Earth.
I think that’s enough for now; it looks like Original Adventure with the darkness cranked up. I will try to map things out and report back if I’ve managed to outwit the wolves next time.
The actual tape from the original version, via the Museum of Computer Game History. I think this may be the first time we’ve had an adventure with such a home-made vibe that the original tape branding is visible.
Renga in Blue 
There are two well-known limitations the wolves have in the game: one is geographical, the other behavioural. I’ll say no more at this time.
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Ah I remember playing this back in 1983. It still holds up well. I particularly enjoyed the underwater section where there is a more than passing resemblance to a sequence in Brand X.