The player starts the game in a London flat, and progresses via a bit of magic to Pirates Island.

The magic phrase to reach the island in this game, 'Say Yoho', was the name of a long-running column in SoftSide magazine by Scott Adams.

The BASIC source code for Pirate Adventure was printed in the December 1980 issue of BYTE, with an addendum in April 1981.

[2][4] This enabled others to discover how the engine worked and to create their own adventures using this or a similar design.

The reviewer, Mark Herro, commented on the difficulty of the game: "Supposedly one of the "easier" programs of the series, I'm embarrassed to say that I have yet to find a treasure in Pirate Adventure...