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Point-and-Click Adventure-GAF of LucasArts, Sierra, and hair-pulling puzzles

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
Someone in that new Pendulo game thread requested an official adventure game topic, so here we go!

Remember that article from Yahoo posted not too long ago about how the adventure game genre was "dying"? That's a fundamentally ridiculous assertion - it did collapse, but that was well over a decade ago, and if anything, they've been gaining steam for the past few years, fueled by companies like Telltale, indie developers, and the proliferation of SCUMMVM. This thread is about celebrating and discussing them!

What is an adventure game?

"Adventure" is such an awful title for the genre, because it's so ambiguous. It got its name from the first text game, Colossal Cave Adventure, which got shortened to the name Adventure over various upgrades and releases, and the name has just sort of stuck over the past 30+ years. When talking about them in this sort of context, usually it means a game where exploration, puzzle solving, and story telling are prioritized over action or anything involving reflexes. Like anything, you can stretch the definition a bit, but here we're talking specifically about point-and-clicks like the thread title indicates.

Why You Should Play Adventure Games

Everytime I hear someone say that stories in games are and will always be awful, it makes a little more of my hair fall out. Stop playing games with crappy stories then! To find these, you'll usually have to delve into adventure games, which consist of more pure-storytelling than practically any other genre. That doesn't mean every game is brilliant, because there's still plenty of mediocrity, but since they don't necessarily have to center around a "must kill these bad guys!" sentiment, they can focus on things like writing, characterization, and plotting. Thematically, they also tread well beyond typical fantasy and science fiction, with many mystery-driven titles as well.

There's also the sentiment that the genre is archaic, that all they did was cause lots of random deaths, with tons of illogical solutions. There is some truth to that, obviously, but the games that exhibit these flaws are amongst the early entries in the genre from the 80s, and by the mid-90s it had largely outgrown many of these issues. They still exist to some extent (especially when it comes to puzzles) but they are not nearly as obtuse as many would like to suggest, and even the older games are playable (and even worthwhile) as long as you approach them with the correct mindset. Remember that GameFAQs is only a few clicks away. Even though playing an adventure game with a FAQ in-hand at all times is hardly the best way to experience them, there is really no shame in referencing them to get you out of sticky situations, and it's much better than just running around in circles or giving up.

What is SCUMMVM (or, How Do I Play These Games)?

SCUMM stands for "Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion", which was the engine used in most LucasArts games. "VM" means "virtual machine". Essentially it's a program that allows you to play many adventure games on modern platforms very easily. This includes PCs and Macs, and has also been ported to practically everywhere, including the Wii and PSP (if they're modded), the DS (if you have a flashcard...be warned that the system resolution is too low to display them properly so they're awkward to play) or even Android phones. All of LucasArts games except the 3D ones (Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island) are supported. Many of Sierra games are as well, up to the SCI2 games (which includes most of their VGA output but omitting some of the later ones like Quest for Glory 4 and Gabriel Knight). Many other adventure games are also supported as well. It's an amazing program and everyone involved in its creation deserves a gold star and a hearty handshake from the retro gaming community.

Where Can I Get These?

GOG.com has a good chunk of Sierra's library, and Steam has a few LucasArts games, like the Indy titles, Loom and The Dig. Monkey Island 1 and 2 also got remakes. The rest are unavailable, but you can buy copies cheaply online and run them through SCUMMVM. Many others are in rights hell unfortunately (like Legend's games) so purchasing a second hand copy on eBay or Amazon is the only way to go.


A History of the Genre

Infocom

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Although this thread is about point n click adventures, properly understanding them requires taking a look at Infocom. Though they were far from the first company to create text adventures (one of the most popular genres in the early days of computing, mostly due to the simple graphic display), Infocom created the best and most popular, owing to both their strong interpreter for which to parse complicated commands, and the skills of their writers.

While Zork is far and away their most popular series, I've found that, at least the original trilogy, hasn't aged all that well, in both writing and design. Still, there's a huge history that fans have traced throughout all of the games, so there's definitely something to it.

More interesting, I think are games like Leather Goddesses of Phobos (an homage to 50s sci-fi, which is very silly), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (partially designed by Douglas Adams himself, full of lots of silly fourth wall breaking gags and other bits of cleverness, though it's deviously designed), and A Mind Forever voyaging (a piece of political work that was heavy critical of Republican politics of the 1980s. Imagine someone doing that today and see the shitstorm it would cause!)

Zork did get a few graphic adventures later on, though the only one Zork fans can agree is faithful to the text adventures is the last one, Zork Inquisitor.

LucasArts

Though their first adventure game was technically based off the movie Labrynth, their first real claim to fame was Maniac Mansion, which introduced SCUMM, an interface that removed text input in favor of a purely mouse driven cursor. It was not the first game to do so, but it's the most popular and the best implementation of it during this era.

Their games are fairly user friendly, in that there's rarely any way to die or get stuck (although that philosophy predates The Secret of Monkey Island). However, their games are generally still very difficult when it comes to puzzles.

As for their games:

Maniac Mansion

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In the first game, a group of teenagers infiltrate a mansion inhabited by a quack scientist and his crazy family in order to save one of their girlfriends'. It's largely influenced by teen horror movies, and is most likely well known due to its excellent (but unfortunately censored) NES port. Its sequel, Day of the Tentacle, is much more cartoony, as three characters are sent to different points in time (in the past to the American Revolution, and into the future, where the earth is ruled by disembodied tentacles), requiring that you use the different time periods to solve puzzles. It's incredibly well written with some excellent puzzles, and with a great graphic style - probably one of my favorites of all time.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

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Uses the same engine as Maniac Mansion. Never quite picked up popularity compared to its others so it never got a true sequel, outside of a few fan games. It has an amusingly quirky atmosphere but its reliance on mazes and annoying, persistant copy protection hurt it. The best version is the FM Towns release, which has a bit of CD audio music and 256 color graphics, but weirdly, was only released in Japan.

Loom

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Loosely based on Swan Lake, this game puts you in the role of the young cloaked Bobbin Threadbare, a young man cursed with having been "born" from a magical loom, as he discovers his fate. It's very simplistic from a gameplay standpoint, but the writing and world design is top notch. It was set to be a series which never came into fruition, so it feels somewhat short though.

Indiana Jones

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There are two graphical adventures here - one based off of The Last Crusade, and an original game called Fate of Atlantis. Last Crusade offers a unique take on the movie that allows you to take some deviations from the film's narrative, while Fate of Atlantis is a brilliantly written game that could easily stand up with the actual movies (and is better than both Temple of Doom and Crystal Skull, from that standpoint.) Fate of Atlantis also offers three different routes through the game for maximum replayablity.

Monkey Island

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LucasArts' most popular series by far, these focus on a hapless wannabe pirate ludicriously named Guybrush Threepwood as he makes his way through a silly pirate hierarchy, fights an evil undead pirate named LeChuck, and attempts to woo the dashing, substantially more competant Governor Elaine Marley. It was heavily influenced by the Pirates of the Caribbean Disney ride, long before the movie, as well as the book On Stranger Tides, which was later used as an inspiration for the fourth Disney movie, thereby tying them together on some level. The second game has the most infamous twist in adventure gaming history at the ending, which sort of had to be retconned in order for later games to make sense.

Longtime fans tend to put the first two games in a class of its own, since the later games were made by different staff, and got a bit cartoonier as they went along. Personally I think the third game (Curse of Monkey Island) is at least as good as the first two, and the fourth (Escape from Monkey Island) is the weakest, but not bad overall. A fifth game, Tales of Monkey Island, was released more recently by Telltale and will be addressed later in this post.

The first two Monkey Islands were remade and released digitally over the last few years, with enhanced graphics and full voice acting. The first one feels cheap and rushed, with an awful redesigned Guybrush sprite, but the second is substantially better.

Sam & Max Hit the Road

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Based off of an indie comic book drawn and written by Steve Purcell, who was working as an artist for LucasArts at the time, these feature a canine detective named Sam and a crazy rabbit named Max as they solve crimes and get into ridiculous situations. It's all very twisted and sordid, but ridiculously funny. The original comics are great, and can be bought in a collection in book form from Amazon. A TV series was made in the late 90s, somehow, and while it retains its goofiness, it's also toned down a bit for kids.

There were talks for sequels for years, but LucasArts infamously put them to rest in the early 2000s due to "changing market conditions" (i.e. them having no faith in adventure games.) Like Monkey Island, Telltale resurrected this series, which will be addressed later.)

The Dig

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One of the first games to have Steven Spielburg attached to it, this was based off an idea for his 80s TV show, Amazing Stories, that never got produced due to budget issues. It's one of those stories where a group of astronauts tries to stop a meteor from crashing into earth, but goes off in a whole other direction when they discover a transporter to a faraway alien planet. It's considered weaker than LucasArts other games, because it's much more serious with a focus on puzzle solving over characterization and storytelling, but it's not at all bad.

Full Throttle

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The first solo project by Tim Schafer (who had previously worked on the Monkey Island games, as well as Day of the Tentacle), it takes place in a post-apocalytpic-style landscape as biker gangs are subjugted by the whims of an evil corporation promoting mini-vans. Although it seems serious at first, there's actually quite a bit of humor, mostly derived from leading man Ben Throttle. It's very short and easy, and sort of undermined by some badly designed action sequences (using an engine for Rebel Assault, the Star Wars FMV game LucasArts put out around the same time) but otherwise it's a fantastic game.

Grim Fandango

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LucasArts' last original adventure game is also one of its best, as it combines the look of Mexican Day of the Dead calaca dolls with 30s film noir in what's still one of the most aesthetically unique games ever made. It ditches the point-and-click interface for something more similar to Resident Evil (though there's still no action), and while it's clumsy, the fantastic style and amazing writing are enough to elevate it. The second chapter of the game, where the hero loses his way on his journey and sets up a casino in the town of Rubacava, is one of the segments in adventure gaming history.

After the fourth Monkey Island game, LucasArts gave up on adventure gaming and started churning out Star Wars games, which is also where they are today.

Sierra On-Line

Founded in the kitchen of Ken and Roberta Williams, Sierra started as a company called Online Systems, who developed Mystery House, the first text adventure game to use graphics. While crude, they were a huge step forward for the genre, which allowed them to grow. Most of their early games pale in comparison to Infocom's efforts, but they once again innovated with Kings Quest, which united adventure gaming with arcade-style action, where you directly controlled a player onscreen using a keyboard/joystick, as opposed to first person games where you typed everything in. (Most actions were still handled through a text parser though.) They were the most prolific developer of adventure games up until the late 90s, where, like LucasArts, they eventually trailed off. Their demise was largely caused by their sale to a company called CUC International. Scandals at other parts of the large company brought the whole organization financially into the gutter, and changes in management largely screwed up game output, causing many developers to either quit or be laid off. They were eventually sold to Vivendi, who later sold them to Activision.

Kings Quest

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Mostly based around retellings of fairy tales and other bits of folklore and literature, these all focus on the Graham family and their adventures. While they have a nice classical feeling, they are generally not as well written or designed as most of Sierra's other titles. The major exception to this in Kings Quest VI. The seventh game became a rather daft cartoon; the eigth game badly tried to emulate a Zelda-style experience.

Space Quest

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Not merely Kings Quest in space, it eventually grew its own sense of humor, featuring a sardonic narrator, as well as a loose grasp on the fourth wall. The third game had the main character, bumbling janitor Roger Wilco, save the alter egos of the game creators, the Two Guys from Andromeda. The fourth game has Roger travelling through his own (non-existant) sequels. The fifth game is a huge Star Trek parody. There are lots of lame design decisions in each of them, but they're astoundingly funny, especially Gary Owens' (Space Ghost) narration in the fourth game.

Police Quest

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Designed by retired police officer Jim Walls, these highlight "real life" elements of being a cop, like catching speeders and drunk drivers, in addition to the more dramatic elements, like fighting drug rings. They're cheesy and probably not the best of Sierra's series, but the second game is quite good, since the whole thing is a Lethal Weapon-type parody of 80s cop movie cliches. Jim Walls later left, and Sierra slapped on the name of LA commissior Daryl F. Gates on the later games, which were much darker and generally not that great. The fourth one is the last "true" PQ game. The fifth game was Police Quest: SWAT, an atrocious FMC game, while SWAT 2 is an RTS. The third and fourth SWAT games are more similar to Rainbow Six and have nothing to do with the Police Quest series outside of a few references to main character Sonny Bonds.

Leisure Suit Larry

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A remake of the earlier text adventure "Softporn Adventure", this puts you in the shoes of a desperately unhip 70s lounge lizard trying to score. Often associated with porn games, it's actually fairly tame in spite of its reputation, with the focus more being on finding different ways to humiliate the eponymous Larry. The series is split between games where you simply need to hook up with women, and one with more linear plots. Somewhere in the middle they introduced "Passionate Patti", meant to be a female counterpart to Larry, but ultimately she wasn't very interesting. There is no Leisure Suit Larry 4 - the series skips from 3 to 5 for reasons that sort of make sense but are too complicated to into here. I also have a weakness for the second game, which puts you on a boat and eventually takes you to a tropical island where you try to impress a village chief by programming in assembly language, but it's basically "How Many Ways Can We Screw You Over: The Game".

Vivendi tried to resurrect this series twice, first with the minigame fest Magna Cum Laude, and second with the atrocious open world platformer Box Office Bust. Neither are good (in fact, the latter is one of the worst games I've ever played), but the former occasionally provokes a few laughes, even though it's much dirtier than the games that precede it.

Quest for Glory

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A series I always recommend to non-adventure game players, because it sidesteps most of the issues with older adventure games, namely, the ridiculous deaths. Quest for Glory is really an RPG that just happens to use an adventure game interface, and its writing is far beyond any other CRPG at the time, possessing a colorful world largely bereft (or at least satirical of) fantasy tropes with a fantastic sense of humor too. The fifth (and last) game focuses more on RPG elementst han storytelling, and is the weakest of the bunch because of that, but ultimately isn't too bad.

Unfortunately this one isn't available on any DD services for some reason.

Gabriel Knight

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Sort of a blend between Indiana Jones and Anne Rice novels, these put you in the role of serial womanizer Gabriel Knight, a slacker book store owner/wannabe novelist who learns of his family's past as shadow hunters and reforms himself to live up to his legacy. There are three games, focusing on voodoo rituals, the German prince Ludwing (and werewolves), and the Holy Grail (and vampires). The first is a traditional point and click, the second is more of an FMV game, while the third is a weird 3D game. All are varying degrees of pretty good to excellent (disregarding some infamously terrible puzzles like the cat mustache from the third game), mostly due to the extensive research by author Jane Jensen, along with extensively fleshed out side characters and excellent dialogue.

There are tons more other games that would take too long to get into, but there's also two Phantasmagoria games (FMV horror titles), Conquest of Camelot/Longbow (which are "historically accurate" takes on the legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood, respectively), Manhunter (which take place in a post apocalyptic USA with lots of awful arcade segments but a cool atmosphere), Codename Iceman (a spy thriller/sub simulator by the guy who did Police Quest), the Laura Bow games (The Colonel's Bequest and The Dagger of Amon Ra, both mysteries that take places in the 20s), Torin's Passage (an animated adventure by Al Lowe, the creator of Leisure Suit Larry, though largely meant for kid but still with a good sense of humor), Gold Rush (an adventure-like take on Oregon Trail, sort of), The Black Cauldron (re-telling of the Disney movie, very old but probably better than even the Kings Quest games, honestly), and Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, a goofy Western spoof.

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Sierra also owned a few other companies that developed adventure games. Dynamix put out The Adventures of Willy Beamish, Rise of the Dragon and Heart of China, each inspired by Saturday morning cartoons, Blade Runner, and Indiana Jones, respectively. Design-wise they're more open ended than usual but have lots of frustrating dead-ends. They have a distinct charm nonetheless.

There are also a few games from Coktel Vision, a French company who put out...well, very French games. Their most prolific was the Gobliiins series, which were very goofy and cartoony, though their puzzles are focused around "escape the room" type scenarios where you control multiple characters. A new installment, Goblins 4, came out a few years ago. There's also Inca (which reimagines the South Americans as a space faring race fighting against flying Spanish galleons...very trippy), along with The Prophecy (sort of boring), Lost in Time, Bargon Quest, and several others. Their big claim to fame is their trippiness and use of lots of CG and digitized footage before the CD-ROM era.
 

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
Legend Entertainment

Legend tends to get ignored by many adventure game fans even though they probably shouldn't. They're actually the successor of Infocom and many of their games still feel like interactive fiction even when they ditch the text parser. Some of their best:

Eric the Unready

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Actually a full text adventure with small bits of graphics, it's an incredibly funny game that puts you in the role of a dimwitted knight. I'd love to remake this game in AGS just so more people put off by text adventures could get into it, but I'm not sure if it would be worth the time/effort.

Many of their games were based off literary properties, like Companions of Xanth (tied in with the Piers Anthony novel Demons Don't Dream), Shannara, Death Gate and Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (pictured below):

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Callahan's is the best of the bunch, with some fantastic, funny writing from Josh Mandel, who also did a number of games for Sierra. It takes place in sort of a weird version of the Cheers bar, where all of the patrons are aliens and time travelers, and puts you through a number of short story-style scenarios. All of these are worth playing, though Shannara is the weakest.

Alas, the company got integrated into GT Interactive and then Atari, so the rights to all of their game are in limbo. Their last game was Unreal 2, the tepidly received FPS.

OTHER ESSENTIAL GAMES:

Beneath a Steel Sky

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Takes place in a corporate-fueled dystopia, has a great art style and some very silly moments, despite its cyberpunk thematics. Your robot buddy Joey feels like Floyd from the Infocom text adventure Planetfall. His Dalek impression is the first time this Yank had every heard of Dr. Who!

Broken Sword

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Developed by Revolution, the same guys behind Beneath a Steel Sky, this is a series of adventure games vaguely similar to Indiana Jones, in that they're globe spanning treasure/mystery hunts, but with a voice all its own. The first two games use hand-drawn animations and are excellent - the second two are 3D and also not as good. There was a Director's Cut of the first game released a few years ago, but the additions feel extraneous.

The Last Express

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Designed by Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia), this murder mystery takes place on the last run of the Orient Express before it suspends service due to the outbreak of World War I. It's a bit confusing since it runs in real time, so you can very easily miss events, or find yourself doing nothing until the game triggers something, but once you get ahang of how the events flow it's fascinating. The characters are all rotoscoped against gorgeous 3D backgrounds, and while most of it barely qualifies as "animation", it still looks fantastic. It's also a fascinating look at the events that built up to the beginning of the war, making it an excellent piece of historical fiction as well.

The Longest Journey / Dreamfall

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The Longest Journey is a wordy but excellent sci-fi/fantasy title featuring disenchanted college student April Ryan. Unlike most European developed games, the writing and voice acting is excellent, and even though it's a bit long, the universe and characters are genuinaly fantastic. The sequel ditches the point-and-click and puts you in the role of three different characters, including April Ryan from the original. It also removes most puzzle solving in favor of fetch quests, as well as ill-conceived fighting and stealth sections. Still, the story is fantastic, even though it ends up on a helluva cliffhanger, and Norwegian developer Funcom is too busy with stupid MMOs to finish it up properly.

Simon the Sorcerer

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Essentially a British version of Monkey Island, with a snarkier main character and a taste for fantasy lore rather than pirates. The first two are quite good, while the third is an ugly, crappily designed 3D game that still has some decent writing, if you can suffer through the rest of it. (I can't, personally.) Was resurrected a few years back by German developer Silver Style, but these games are trash with awful writing and unfunny humor. The localizers couldn't even bother to give Simon a British accent!

Tex Murphy

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Consisting of five games, the first two (Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum) are technical novelties of the era, utilizing speech and FMV (in the loosest sense of the word) in 286, disk-based games. The third game, Under a Killing Moon, was the series' breakout game, using lots of FMV to flesh out the story of Tex Murphy, a bumbling, down-on-his-luck PI making a living in a post-nuclear devastation San Francisco. It also uses a real-time first person perspective, which was remarkably at the time for an adventure game. The fourth game, The Pandora Directive, is similar, but even larger in scope, and focusing on the Roswell mysteries. Remarkably funny, mostly because it realizies that it's low budget and cheest, and really plays up to them. The fifth game, Overseer, is technically superior to these, but plotwise being a remake of Mean Streets, it's not really up to par with the others.

ICOM Macventures

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Predating Maniac Mansion and SCUMM, these were some of the earliest games to use a fully mouse-based interface since they were integrated into the Macintosh GUI. There are four of these - Deja Vu I & II, Shadowgate, and Uninvited. Most of these (save Deja Vu II) are well known by console gaming audiences due to their NES ports. Shadowgate was also expanded with sequels for the TG-16 CD and Nintendo 64, though they're nothing like the originals, other than the occasionally sardonic humor.

Legend of Kyrandia

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Although Westwood mostly became known for Command and Conquer, their adventure series was also quite decent. The first is a rather bland fantasy title, but the second and third, each featuring different protagonists, grew their own quirky sense of humor. Beautiful graphics on these (even the dated CG renders of the third game) with great music courtesy of Frank Klepacki. The third game would be amazing due to the main character being the Joker-esque Malcom, a former antagonsit, but some annoying mazes and trial-and-error segments make the mid-game difficult to enjoy.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

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Based off the Harlan Ellison short story of the same name, it greatly expands the plot and characterizations of the five humans that are doomed to an eternity of misery thanks to a maniacal super computer. Since Ellison helped in design and writing, it's generally a step above most, although design-wise it has some nonsensical issues, it's pretty glitchy, and the "morality" system makes no real sense.


Myst

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People think that the divide between casual and hardcore gamers is a new thing. Nope! Back when Myst was released, mags like PC Gamer was trashing Myst for being little more than a pretty slideshow wrapped around a few obtuse puzzles. Meanwhile, the game sold gangbusters and was one of the killer-apps for people buying multimedia CD-ROM based computers. Its popularity tapered off a bit after the second installment, Riven, but it still kept going with a faithful fanbase, and eventually morphed into the online game Uru.

There's still a lot of bad blood over this series to this day - many fans blamed Myst for the death of the adventure game genre, due to the glut of rip-offs that flooded the market. While the quality of most of these were poor, missing the point of what made Myst compelling (namely, the art and atmosphere), I think that's a bit of an oversimplification, because there were numerous factors in its downfalls. Although, I have heard stories of studios like Sierra diverting resources away from traditional adventure games to ride on the tails of the Myst phenomenon.

The 7th Guest:

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Predating Myst but similar in concept, this puts you in a role of a ghostly spectre as you explore a haunted house, piece together a mystery involving a toy maker who had sold his soul to the devil, and solve lots of puzzles ripped straight out of Games Magazines. It was huge at the time, though despite the quality of the CG (which, unlike Myst, was animated) it's actually somewhat lazily designed. The developers followed up with an even darker sequel, The 11th Hour, which ended up flopping, then doing a cheapy standalone game called Clandestiny before folding. All three are essentially identical from a gameplay standpoint.

The Journeyman Project

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I'd written these off as Myst clones for years, since they were first person, used CG graphics, and originated on the Mac. But no! Despite the similarity in style, they're actually much more similar to traditional adventure games, with plenty of inventory puzzles and even deaths. The first game actually feels more like a dungeon crawler than anything, given its grid-based movement.

Anyway, these are all time traveling adventures where you go to different areas through various periods in time to fix problems called "anachronisms". The first game was only OK, but the series got better as it went along, and the third one, which takes you through recreations of Incan and Atlantian civilizations, is excellent.

Discworld

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A trilogy based off the Terry Pratchett novels. The first two feature the popular wizard Rincewind as voiced by Eric Idle. The first seems good at first but the puzzles are absurd - the second is better but feels unfinished. The third game, Discworld Noir, features a new character and reimagines everything in a noir-style. It's not as well known (I don't think it got a US release) but it's probably my favorite of the series, as it's quite funny.

Neverhood

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One of the few games based on claymation, it's got a style all its own and an amazingly goofy soundtrack. Its sequel, Skullmonkeys for the PSOne, went the way of a platformer though.
 

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
Recent Games (post-2000):

I'll be honest - I don't really care for the modern adventure game scene much, at least as far as professionals go. To me, the "big" studios are fall into two categories: boring mystery or adventure games with sterile CG backgrounds (if it's from Dreamcatcher, it's probably one of these), or "comical" adventure games that aren't the least bit funny. Outside of Telltale, most of these come from Europe, and if they are translated into English, they usually suffer from low budget localizations with writing that totally fails and even worse voice acting. There are exceptions, which I expect that people who follow the scene more will post about.

Microids:

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Their most popular game is Syberia, designed by Belgian comic book artist Benoit Sokal. Has a large following, and while I dig the themes - largely wistful nostalgia about how the page of the modern world is overshadowing the wonders of old - I find the games too empty, with largely boring puzzles and lame writing. There was supposed to be a third one, but I think Microids has closed.

Pendulo:

A Spanish studio, their game was Objective Uikokahonia, which was an average LucasArts-style game. Their popular series is:

Runaway

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Focusing on a geek named Brian Basco and his stripper girlfriend, these games have some excellent art but some really dire, humorless writing (which is awful for a game that purports to be a comedy) and some extraordinarily illogical puzzles. And most of all, some really annoying characters. What better way to undermine a character's quest for his kidnapped girlfriend by having him hook up with a random barmaid! Or how about the extremely annoying, incredibly racist Asian cariacture! The best the game can come up with a sidekick who looks like Steve Buscemi and occasionally blurts out random words. Has a fanbase, though I couldn't tell you why. I did find that they got better as they went along, though.

The Next BIG Thing

Technically a remake of Hollywood Monsters, an earlier title which was never translated into English, and is a homage to old monster movie flicks. Purportedly it's better than Runaway, but I don't know...


Telltale:

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Founded by some people including some LucasArts vets, they claimed the rights to Sam & Max and have helped bring the adventure game genre back to prominence, both with classic characters as well as licensed tie-ins (Strongbad, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park). They get a lot of flack for their low-tech 3D engine and the "casualizing" their games (to the point in Jurassic Park where it's more of a QTE-fest), but generally the writing and puzzle design is excellent.

They began with episodic games, releasing games in five-to-six episode "seasons", starting with Sam & Max. While these began as short standalone games with vague overarching premises (and weren't all that great honestly), they eventually got into the groove in tying things together better and developing a more consistent sense of humor. There are three seasons of these, with the second and third being genuinely great. They have a tendency to reuse character models too much, and at times they can be too wordy without being funny enough, lacking the snappiness of LucasArts games, but they've also fleshed out the universe far more than the original game, with a unique number of recurring personalities, to the point where it's its own thing.

Same with Tales of Monkey Island, which is essentially the fifth Monkey Island game. It also takes the series into darker and more dramatic territory, highlighting the sense of foreboding from the earlier games (particularly the second one) while still keeping its goofiness.

Daedalic:

whisperworld.jpg


A German studio with some excellent 2D artists, developer of The Whispered World, Edna and Harvey, A New Beginning and numerous others, though most remain in their homeland. I've only played The Whispered World, but they suffer from the same issues as a lot of similar games from Europe, namely, awful localization. They are pretty though. A New Beginning has been noted for its hamfisted treatment of environmental issues.

Some other games:

So Blonde:

soblonde.jpg


Developed by Wizarbox, this features a bubbly, spoiled blond named Sunny, who ends up stranded on a tropical island away from technology. Never been quite sure about this game, since at first glance it seems like it was made for 12 year old girls, but it was written by Steve Ince, who worked on some titles for Revolution, so it might be OK. There was an "alternate timeline" version released on the Wii awhile back, plus there's a spinoff coming soon focusing on one of the secondary characters, Captain Morgane.

Gray Matter:

graymatter-3a.jpg



Designed by Jane Jensen, a vet from the Sierra days, I haven't played much of this tale, which focuses on a young street magician, but from what people have said, as long as you don't expect Gabriel Knight 4, it's a pretty decent game. Excellent soundtrack by Robert Holmes (Jensen's husband, also of the Gabriel Knight games) and his band, The Scarlet Furies.

Hector: Badge of Carnage

hector.jpg


Starting as an iOS game, this series of episodic games from Irish developer Straandlooper is 2D and uses Flash-type animation. It has a classic feel but the sense of humor is much darker and more violent than most of these types of games. Here, you play as a cop who's a bit of an arsehole. Only played a bit of the first game, seems alright but the humor's not my thing.

The Book of Unwritten Tales

unwritten.jpg


Developed by King Art of Germany, this one just recently came out. (Well, actually it was released in 2009, but the English version just came out at the end of 2011.) It's a fantasy spoof, and the reviews I've heard seem to indicate that the translation is actually pretty well done! I'm burnt out on Lord of the Rings parodies though, so I don't know if I'd personally find it all that interesting.

Indie Games:

This is more like it! Chris Jones' Adventure Game Studio (more on that later) has eased the creation of adventure games, leaving the door open for fans to try their hand at their own classic-style games. Obviously most lack the budget of larger titles, being homebrew affairs, but generally their design and writing far exceeds the professional output. Many are free, and others are fairly low priced.

The Chzo Mythos

5das.png


Designed by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw before Zero Punctuation took off, this quadriology of point-and-clicks (and one action-y game) owes a lot to Lovecraft, but is suitably creepy. Each game focuses on a different character at different points in time, all telling the story of a strange masked character.

The Shivah

shivah-1.png


While the concept of a crime-solving rabbi might sound a bit silly, this is actually a damn good (although short) murder mystery with an extremely compelling main character, a main at conflict with his faith.

The Blackwell Legacy

blackwell.png


Four games from Wadjet Eye games focused on a female detective and her ghostly companion. You can switch between the characters, with each having their own skills (one being corporeal, the other...not so much.) I regret to say I haven't really played much of these beyond the most recent one, which was released in late 2011), but they've gotten nothing but praise from those who have. The interplay between the two protagonists seems to be the most amusing aspect.

Gemini Rue

geminirue-1.png


A sci-fi noir story that looks and feels like a lost classic from the 90s, with two storylines focusing on a detective and a prisoner, whose storylines eventually converge. One of the best games of 2011, it's amazing how low res 2D graphics can effectively convey such an atmosphere.

Emerald City Confidential

emeraldcity-1.jpg


The Wizard of Oz (and the entire Oz universe) reimagined into noir-style detective story. It was made for a casual game company so it feels somewhat sanitized and it's EXTREMELY hand-holdy, to the point where it was clearly made for people who'd never played a game before. Quality writing and cool story, nonetheless.

Been There, Dan That!/Time Gentleman, Please!

benthere-1a.png


Ridiculously funny games from two British gents that pay homage to the LucasArts games without ripping them off. Highly recommended, and you can get them both together for $5 off Steam.

Machinarium:

machinarium-4.jpg


Not designed in Adventure Game Studio but rather in Flash, it tells the adorable story of a clunky little robot exploring a fantastic city, trying to find his lost friend. Like a silent movie, there's no dialogue, only thought puzzles and some absolutely fantastic music. There were talks of console ports awhile back, but I don't think they happened. It is available on the iPad 2 though.

Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_-9rjg41M&feature=youtu.be


Anyway, there are tons of indie adventure games out there and I've only scratched the surface of them. Please post any findings of any other decent ones. There was an indie "bake sale" where you got about a dozen games for the price of a donation to charity, but that thread didn't get very far here on NeoGAF.


Adventure Game Studio

A brilliant program which lets you assemble your own adventure games. As long as you have some experience with object oriented programming it's pretty easy to use too. There's a fairly active development community with a forum for posting technical issues, and there are lots of free scripts and add-ons for additional bits of functionality. I've started working on my own, though I'm going to need to find some proper artists eventually!

Other sub-genres

This OP is focusing specifically on these type of adventure games, but there are numerous sub-genres to.

Interactive fiction

A slightly pretentious name for text adventures, usually taking after the template of Infocom. Like with AGS, there's a small but devoted group of fans still making games like these, though I don't know enough about the scene to pick out the best or anything. I can suggest the documentary Get Lamp as an excellent genre history of the genre.

Japanese adventure games/visual novels

Lots of Westerns use these terms interchangably, because Japanese adventure games generally have much less interaction and puzzle solving than their Western counterparts. The main different is - in visual novels, literally all you do is read, and occasionally make a choice. Adventure games at least have some kind of interaction, usually through a menu. These have been gaining popularity of the years thanks to DS games like Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, 999, and others. Older games include Konami's Snatcher and Policenauts, Enix's Portopia, Hudson's Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (which was originally a text adventure and is where my silly avatar comes from) and Nintendo's Famicom Detective Club (and its numerous, numerous clones, the Famicom was littered with them). Some of these have been translated, but many haven't, like Chunsoft's 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de for the Wii/PS3/PSP.

Other resources:

Adventure Gamers - The best adventure game focused site on the web. Some of their reviews are a bit too generous, but still generally a great site. They recently posted a "top 100" best adventure games of all time, as decided on by their staff. Like many of these, some choices are questionable, but it's worth reading regardless if you're looking for something new to play.

Just Adventure and Adventure Classic Gaming aren't as big or updated as often, but still have some fairly decent content.

SCUMMVM - Download the program, also has a forum community.

HG101 Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures- Don't want to be TOO much of a shill, but last year I put out a book focused largely on these types of games. A good chunk of the content is available to read free online (though the book versions have been revised/updated a bit, which haven't entirely been reincorporated into the site), but there are a bunch of stuff currently exclusive to the book, including a number of interviews. Plus it's neat to have a 4 lb book on your shelf with all of this content, I think. A Kindle version is also available for cheaper, but isn't quite as stately/nerdy. Full table of contents here.
 

Roubjon

Member
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Sam & Max: Hit the Road
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle

These three games were my childhood and are still some of my favorite games today. I've beaten them all more times than I can count.

Thanks for making this list, man. Now it will be way easier to get a hold of adventure games I haven't played yet.
 

Seik

Banned
Haha Sam & Max Hit the Road!!!

I totally forgot this game!! I was quite young when I was playing it but it was awesome in my memories! :)
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Nice thread, collected the out of place replies for you here

Nice. GAF needed an OT for adventures.

Space Quest, Gabriel Knight and Quest for Glory were my favorite adventure series. Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango were also amazing efforts from Lucasarts (Tim Schaefer is the man). And Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is pretty damn good too.

Best genre, best thread.

WHY ISN'T THE NEVERHOOD ON GOG YET.
 
The Fairy Circle.
Best Adventure game death ever.

2JEO6.png


You never danced so hard in your entire life (which is now over!).
 
In regards to The Next Big Thing being better than the Runaway games:

Purportedly it's better than Runaway, but I don't know...

I'd say it tops the third game but other two still come out on top. It didn't quite have the memorable characters, locales, and humor as the first two Runaway's but it easily tops those three categories in the third game. The puzzles all around are about the same.
 

Fjordson

Member
Awesome OP. I love adventure games so much. Sure I suck at them, and often get stuck for a long time with almost every one I play, but I always come back for more. It's hard to name a personal favourite. I guess Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis along with Secret of Monkey Island are up there, closely followed by Beneath a Steal Sky.

Gemini Rue

geminirue-1.png


A sci-fi noir story that looks and feels like a lost classic from the 90s, with two storylines focusing on a detective and a prisoner, whose storylines eventually converge. One of the best games of 2011, it's amazing how low res 2D graphics can effectively convey such an atmosphere.
This is one of my favourite adventure games in a long, long time. Amazing game. And mostly made by one guy. Incredible.


I'm about to play through Sanitarium. Picked up during GOG's holiday sale. Looks pretty cool.
 

epmode

Member
Legend Entertainment

Many of their games were based off literary properties, like Companions of Xanth (tied in with the Piers Anthony novel Demons Don't Dream), Shannara, Death Gate and Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (pictured below):

callahan-1.jpg


Callahan's is the best of the bunch, with some fantastic, funny writing from Josh Mandel, who also did a number of games for Sierra. It takes place in sort of a weird version of the Cheers bar, where all of the patrons are aliens and time travelers, and puts you through a number of short story-style scenarios.
I bought Callahan's Crosstime Saloon based on a random GAF post and I don't regret it. Honestly, I'm surprised we don't hear more about it today. Great writing, voice acting and art.
 

Yanksfan

Member
What an amazing thread. I wish KQ had a bit more props, but obviously that is just personal opinion. A wicked journey through my childhood though and it definitely makes me want to replay a lot of these classic games.

Well done OP!
 

jett

D-Member
Ah fantastic thread.

I was SUCH a huge fan of Sierra and Lucasarts back in the day, playing games like Space Quest, Larry and Monkey Island. Back then, I didn't have a PC, I actually played those games on my friend's PC, and I was the only one that knew enough English to translate for everyone. :lol We all had a great time trying to figure out these games together. Yeah, good times...

I loved Sierra's titles for their humor and overall craziness, but LucasArts' were definitely better designed and constructed, and generally avoided cheap roadblocks that lead you to having to load up an earlier save or restart altogether.

I was also a huge fan of Myst, one of the first games I bought for my first PC. This game had such great atmosphere back then, I felt transported into another world. It was a unique experience. I never bothered with the sequels, sadly.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
The original Sam and Max is probably my favorite ever, if not Monkey Island 3.
(By the by, the Sam and Max cartoon is genuinely hilarious, and full of 'how the heck did this get into a kid's show?!' moments.)


I'm reluctant to finish The Longest Journey/Dreamfall without a conclusion waiting for me afterward, based on what I've heard.
 

Sqorgar

Banned
"Adventure" is such an awful title for the genre, because it's so ambiguous.
It's not ambiguous at all. They are called "Adventure" games because the first game of this type, now called "Colossal Cave Adventure", was originally just called "Adventure". So, all the clones that came out after it (such as Zork/Dungeon) were Adventure games. It kind of stuck because early text adventure were actually adventures in the broader sense of the word, so it didn't matter if you were talking Adventure games or adventure games.

Edit: As a personal asides, if you ever want to design an adventure game, you'll want to make a flow chart like this. Ron Gilbert calls them "puzzle dependency charts", but I just call them puzzle trees. I am OBSESSED with them. Ron didn't make this MI2 chart, but said that his chart looked very similar. I have one he did for DeathSpank that is just beautiful to behold. I'm probably alone in this, but I think puzzle trees are the most amazing part of adventure games. Anyway, I collect these things, so if anybody sees any more of them (or decides to make one themselves), let me know!
 
My love of Maniac Mansion and the other Lucasarts games knows no bounds, even the Labyrinth game.

One of my favorite jokes was finally finding chainsaw gas on Mars in Zak McKracken.
 

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
It's not ambiguous at all. They are called "Adventure" games because the first game of this type, now called "Colossal Cave Adventure", was originally just called "Adventure". So, all the clones that came out after it (such as Zork/Dungeon) were Adventure games. It kind of stuck because early text adventure were actually adventures in the broader sense of the word, so it didn't matter if you were talking Adventure games or adventure games.

Yeah, from a historical perspective it makes sense, but to someone unfamiliar with the genre or gaming in general, an "adventure" can be pretty much anything. If people think as Indiana Jones as an adventure movie, it would be logical to assume Uncharted is an adventure game, right? Doesn't really work like that though. I remember growing up people called The Legend of Zelda an "adventure" game because it was just much longer and fairly non-linear compared to other titles of the time.
 

Roubjon

Member
The Fairy Circle.
Best Adventure game death ever.

2JEO6.png


You never danced so hard in your entire life (which is now over!).

YcIb2.png


Whenever you try to beat up the close to invincible Nazi, Fritz, this is what you will undoubtedly see. It's pretty hilarious now, but the thought of Indy actually dying always scared me when I was young. That Atlantean god puking out lava is what it is.
 

Sqorgar

Banned
Yeah, from a historical perspective it makes sense, but to someone unfamiliar with the genre or gaming in general, an "adventure" can be pretty much anything. If people think as Indiana Jones as an adventure movie, it would be logical to assume Uncharted is an adventure game, right? Doesn't really work like that though. I remember growing up people called The Legend of Zelda an "adventure" game because it was just much longer and fairly non-linear compared to other titles of the time.
It's too ingrained in the fabric of gaming to change it now. Besides, I'm not sure if I could come up with a better description of the genre. If you ask me, Zork is much more the adventure than Uncharted ever will be.
 

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
YcIb2.png


Whenever you try to beat up the close to invincible Nazi, Fritz, this is what you will undoubtedly see. It's pretty hilarious now, but the thought of Indy actually dying always scared me when I was young. That Atlantean god puking out lava is what it is.

The one that unnerved me the most was Kings Quest VI:

kq6-6.png


Where you get your ticket and spend eternity in the land of the dead. Then there's a whole alternate quest where you go there when you're still living, but practically everything there will strip the flesh from the bones. It's all really messed up. (the picture is actually from when you go in when you're alive, hence the can-can-ing skeletons)

That and the bad ending to the first Gabriel Knight made me really depressed when I was a kid.
 

Roubjon

Member
The one that unnerved me the most was Kings Quest VI:

kq6-6.png


Where you get your ticket and spend eternity in the land of the dead. Then there's a whole alternate quest where you go there when you're still living, but practically everything there will strip the flesh from the bones. It's all really messed up. (the picture is actually from when you go in when you're alive, hence the can-can-ing skeletons)

That and the bad ending to the first Gabriel Knight made me really depressed when I was a kid.

Another game where I felt the death scenes were troubling was Beneath a Steel Sky. The way you just die instantly at times always freaked me out, like right at the very beginning where you walk down those stairs, get shot, and just fall over.

Then the whole sequence
before the final area. The veins everywhere and that monster thing that grabs you from the hole and sucks you in out of nowhere
was freaky as hell.
 

chiQ

Member
I loved the Discworld games, the Myst games (suck at those), and Toonstruck. Also, Neverhood and Monkey Island.

Did Toonstruck not get a lot of love, generally?
 
Great thread! Perhaps you could mention in the OP that the term "Adventure game" derives from the name of the game that started it all, "Colossal Cave Adventure", more commonly just referred to as "Adventure". And now I'm really itching to play quest for glory again. I should finish my Space Quest series playthrough first though.

ADVENT_--_Will_Crowther%27s_original_version.png


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure
 
i played a lot of these as a kid, but feel like my knowledge of the genre is still incomplete so i try to play a few new ones every year. in the past couple years ive played beneath a steel sky, broken sword 1&2, grim fandango, full throttle, the dig, monkeys island...

you mentioned that the broken sword series was revolution, but so was beneath a steel sky. i think they are a thoroughly underrated adventure game developer because those games have really strong plots and in most cases the puzzles are less abstruse than many of the lucasarts games. i love the lucasarts games but some of the puzzles are ridiculous.


YcIb2.png


Whenever you try to beat up the close to invincible Nazi, Fritz, this is what you will undoubtedly see. It's pretty hilarious now, but the thought of Indy actually dying always scared me when I was young. That Atlantean god puking out lava is what it is.

DAMN YOU!! indiana jones and the fate of atlantis is like my white whale. i never beat it as a kid because there was probably some puzzle i couldnt figure out. then i tried to play it last year and my fucking computer died when i was damn close to the end (past the maze in atlantis) and the repair shop wiped my saves. i just couldnt stomach going back through the early parts of the game again when i got my new computer. i will beat that game some day.
 
man i love this genre. thanks for making this thread. i just want to post more about adventure games.

i was really excited when i thought the ds was going to be home to a slew of rereleases of old adventure games, but was disappointed when that stopped relatively early. i did play the first broken sword that way though. the good news is that the various digital download services have some coverage, and scummvm some more.

ill just keeping posting thoughts and see if anyone wants to chat about any of my opinions.

for example, i think the old 2d games are better than the newer 3d games like those from telltale. i appreciate what telltale has done in reviving the genre, but (and maybe this is the grouchy old man in me) but i just dont think the genre translates that well into 3d. grim fandango and possibly longest journey (havent finished that one) may put the lie to that though...
 

Roubjon

Member
DAMN YOU!! indiana jones and the fate of atlantis is like my white whale. i never beat it as a kid because there was probably some puzzle i couldnt figure out. then i tried to play it last year and my fucking computer died when i was damn close to the end (past the maze in atlantis) and the repair shop wiped my saves. i just couldnt stomach going back through the early parts of the game again when i got my new computer. i will beat that game some day.

Dude, PLAY IT. Just choose a different path than the one you picked originally to make things more fresh. The game is so fucking good.
 

discoalucard

i am a butthurt babby that can only drool in wonder at shiney objects
CTRL-F "EcoQuest"

Come on, am I the only one who played this game? A Sierra classic!

ecoquest1.jpg

Oh yeah, these weren't too bad. I preferred the first, I think Jane Jensen worked on it too.

I neglected to mention Pepper's Adventures in Time in the OP. It was another one of their educational games, but it's quite amusing for all ages too. It takes place in a goofy version of the American Revolution, and there's a "truth" icon which will tell you what's historically accurate and what's just there for goofiness' sake. Really great art too, pity it never took off.
 

Grimmy

Banned
Mere cursory mentions of classics The Colonel's Bequest and Conquests of the Longbow. And NO mentions of my beloved GOLD'S RUSH!

I rage.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Interactive fiction

A slightly pretentious name for text adventures, usually taking after the template of Infocom. Like with AGS, there's a small but devoted group of fans still making games like these, though I don't know enough about the scene to pick out the best or anything. I can suggest the documentary Get Lamp as an excellent genre history of the genre.
I can heartily recommend "Photopia" to anyone even remotely interested in this genre. It leaves a lasting impression, and it's very beginner friendly too.
 
CTRL-F "EcoQuest"

Come on, am I the only one who played this game? A Sierra classic!

ecoquest1.jpg

YESSS ECO quest!!! and the sequel!! both were great games. games were ahead of their time!! being "green" before global warming!

i know this is a bit more RPG, but Superhero League of Hoboken is another AMAZING adventure game, though it's not really SCUMM related.

what about willy beamish and freddy parkas
 
Great thread. I must say that I've never played a Sam & Max game before, where should I start? Is the first one even digitally available anywhere?

I NEED TO REPLAY GRIM FANDANGO AGAIN!! GOG version where?
 
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