It's kind of embarrassing, but I formed a local group (3 of us at the moment) of people developing adventure games here in Kansas City. It's mostly taking time as we learn to "build our own". Here is a link to what I think are our better text adventure game series (note: it's what we're learning off of and it will get better, I promise): https://artificers.dev/butteredtoast/
That being said, I do plan on making an text adventure game along similar lines.
I didn't play that until 18 when I bought the King's Quest collection. I think if that had been my first experience, I wouldn't have ventured into the adventure games world at all.
For me, it was the original King's Quest. Like you, my dad was looking at a way to keep my brother and I busy.
If I had to pick just 3, I'd say: Maiden (up the irons!), Megadeth, and Children of Bodom.
I introduced the 8-year-old to backgammon. She found it thrilling! We played 3 games before I had to do some yard work and other tasks as assigned.