AI recreates 1981 text adventure as modern web game with graphics

An AI just rebuilt my 43-year-old video game

In late January, I used Anthropic's Claude Code to transform my 1981 text adventure, Arctic Adventure, into a modern web game with graphics. The original was written in TRS-80 Level II BASIC when I was in high school. The new version, Arctic Adventure 2026, is playable online.

I fed the entire original BASIC program listing into Claude with a simple request: convert it for the web and add graphics. Within minutes, it produced a rough but functional draft. This began a weeks-long collaboration between me, the AI, and my teenage self's code.

The long, buggy history of a BASIC game

The game was first published in 1981 in a book called The Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures. A bug introduced after I submitted the code rendered it unwinnable, a fact I only learned years later. The saga sat dormant for decades.

In 2021, I fixed the bugs and put a playable version online at Arctic81.com. The site now hosts that version, a friend's contemporaneous game, a historian's port, and this new AI-assisted edition. What was once a slightly painful memory became a personal project with a small audience.

Why rebuild a forgotten game with AI?

This wasn't about pride. The project served as a perfect laboratory for testing Claude Code. Porting an existing game was far faster than building one from scratch. It let me explore the capabilities and limits of AI-assisted programming, or "vibe-coding," on a familiar foundation.

The core of the 2026 edition remains the locations, objects, and puzzles my high-school brain devised. The logic—or occasional lack thereof—of early text adventures is preserved.

• You can be stranded in the Arctic yet within walking distance of civilization.
• Locations are limited (e.g., a plain with only WEST and SOUTH exits) due to the original 16KB RAM constraint.
• Items appear in illogical ways, true to the genre's early conventions.

Adding modern comforts and clumsy graphics

The new version introduces quality-of-life features the 1981 edition couldn't dream of. It has a robust save system with five slots, an "undo death" option, scrollable history, and a toggle between a graphics-heavy or compact inventory view.

The biggest change is the addition of artwork, which was Claude Code's most challenging task. Its first attempts were rudimentary; a polar bear lacked legs. I had to give specific, scene-by-scene instructions.

Claude generated simple vector drawings, not detailed bitmaps. It struggled with complex objects like chairs, often settling for simpler forms like stools. However, it excelled at animation, leading me to add falling snow, swimming sea life, and spinning slot machine dials.

The strange ethics of AI collaboration

The process forced me to grapple with the nature of creation. I wrote none of the new game's 20,940 lines of JavaScript and CSS. My original BASIC code was just 141 lines. Was this cheating?

I concluded that "vibe-coding" with English prompts is just using an extraordinarily high-level programming language. Claude handled the implementation, but I directed every feature, debugged issues, and refined the art through iterative prompting. It was a collaboration where I was the architect and product manager.

The graphical element also gave me pause, given concerns about AI art. I was somewhat reassured that Claude's drawing abilities were so basic that coaxing usable images from it felt like a creative struggle. The result is a simple, cartoony style that fits the game's vintage spirit.

A 43-year project reaches a new peak

The game is now more accessible than ever. You can play much of it by clicking hyperlinked text and objects, though typing commands remains the core experience. I added simple sound effects and, crucially, a text-only mode for purists.

Claude occasionally surprised me by proactively adding small features or perfectly mimicking my high-school writing style. The collaboration was exhilarating, allowing me to add features almost as fast as I could describe them.

Arctic Adventure 2026 beats with the heart of a 1981 text adventure. But it's wrapped in a new layer of interactivity and visual charm, built through a partnership with an AI and a 43-year-old piece of myself.