I think the pinnacle of the whole genre had to be Laura Bow and the Dagger of Amon Ra. I really wish Sierra would make another Laura Bow game. The first, The Colonel's Bequest, was also quite good.
The first six King's Quest games were also pretty good. The best was probably the 6th. It was all downhill starting with the 7th.
I've played a few other adventure games... Lost in Time, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, Byzantine: The Betrayal, The Legends of Kyrandia, Grim Fandango, The Blackstone Chronicles, and most recently The Longest Journey. The Longest Journey was the first game I've played in a long time that sort of recaptured some of that classic adventure game feel, but it still didn't match up.
I despised games like Myst and The Seventh Guest. I hate pointless puzzles nestled in a (admittedly graphically gorgeous) game that makes no attempt to even pretend it has a plot or a purpose. Quite a few of the games now seem to follow this basic format. Games like Timelapse and Black Dahlia.
I've recently ordered a game called Syberia that's supposed to be a bit like The Longest Journey.
I'm really sad that most games older than 3 years are no longer available, and ones older than that probably can't be played on new computers.
So, this is a thread in which to talk about the rise and fall of PC adventure gaming, talk about old games, suggest new games, generally complain about the dearth of decent adventure games, and worship Laura Bow with me.
http://www.lysator.liu.se/adventure/images/Sierra_On-Line,_Inc/amonra.jpg
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 16 December 2002 07:33 (twenty-three years ago)
― vahid (vahid), Monday, 16 December 2002 07:59 (twenty-three years ago)
― minna (minna), Monday, 16 December 2002 08:18 (twenty-three years ago)
I have managed to turn all of my roomates in Civilization III addicts. Although it is not as bad as turning your little sister onto smack, I am still not sure if I did the right thing. It is habit forming, and if nothing else, time wasting.
― Mike Taylor (mjt), Monday, 16 December 2002 08:23 (twenty-three years ago)
Also search Discworld Noir.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 16 December 2002 10:01 (twenty-three years ago)
What was that?
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 16 December 2002 10:12 (twenty-three years ago)
http://www.lucasarts.com/products/grim/glottis.jpgDON'T TALK KITTY, JUST RUN BABY!!!
― Dan I., Monday, 16 December 2002 10:30 (twenty-three years ago)
As for Laura Bow, it's an old game now, you may have a lot of trouble finding it. But the premise was that you were Laura Bow, a young journalist in the 1920s, who has just gotten a job at a major New York newspaper. She is covering the story of an artifact being stolen from a museum--the dagger of Amon Ra. Most of the game is spent at a high society party at the museum, and as the night goes on people keep turning up dead. It is really the best game I have ever played. The characters are all unique and well thought-out, the music is interesting, the depiction of the museum is creepy and intricate, and it's honestly a tense game. I'd say the only flaw is that of all early Sierra games--it's very easy to die.
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 16 December 2002 10:39 (twenty-three years ago)
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 16 December 2002 10:42 (twenty-three years ago)
Also, http://www.firthworks.com/roger/index.html
― Alan (Alan), Monday, 16 December 2002 10:44 (twenty-three years ago)
― Alan (Alan), Monday, 16 December 2002 10:50 (twenty-three years ago)
― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 16 December 2002 12:06 (twenty-three years ago)
― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 16 December 2002 12:08 (twenty-three years ago)
D'oh! Search: the Broken Sword games.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 16 December 2002 12:41 (twenty-three years ago)
― phil-two, Monday, 16 December 2002 13:02 (twenty-three years ago)
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
Also check out SCUMMVM for running those old adventures on new PCs
http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/
― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Monday, 16 December 2002 13:19 (twenty-three years ago)
i loved monkey island 1 & 2 with passionalso: indy & fate of atlantissam & max, day of tentacle,police quest 1 & 2space quest 3ultima7 was awesome
worst game ever: 7th Guest
― g-kit (g-kit), Monday, 16 December 2002 14:18 (twenty-three years ago)
― Alan (Alan), Monday, 16 December 2002 14:26 (twenty-three years ago)
― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Monday, 16 December 2002 14:28 (twenty-three years ago)
― g-kit (g-kit), Monday, 16 December 2002 14:30 (twenty-three years ago)
― Sarah (starry), Monday, 16 December 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)
― Alan (Alan), Monday, 16 December 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)
Nowadays? I play Warcraft III, and that sucker's enough of a time killer to keep me from testing out any other PC games.
― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 16 December 2002 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 16 December 2002 19:02 (twenty-three years ago)
Is it really true that you have to put the game in "fast" speed to finish one of the King's Quest games? ;)
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Monday, 16 December 2002 20:44 (twenty-three years ago)
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 16 December 2002 23:18 (twenty-three years ago)
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 09:10 (twenty-three years ago)
i'm having that problem with Neverwinter Nights. it's damn fine. but the single player quest that comes with the game is pap. but oooo, it's as addictive as Civ. and i'm not even lying.
― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 09:28 (twenty-three years ago)
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 09:30 (twenty-three years ago)
― Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 09:38 (twenty-three years ago)
Who needs graphics?
― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 10:49 (twenty-three years ago)
― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 11:08 (twenty-three years ago)
― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 11:09 (twenty-three years ago)
― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 11:19 (twenty-three years ago)
― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 11:25 (twenty-three years ago)
ONe of the first things I do when I get a PC of my own is to get all the Kings Quest games. Rar Win 3.1!
― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 17 December 2002 11:34 (twenty-three years ago)
― Amarga (Amarga), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 10:32 (twenty-three years ago)
This is what happens when there's a new game the Myst series:
1) Await it in breathless expectation, perhaps even upgrade my computer hardware.
2) Play it non-stop -- in the dark -- for two days straight.
3) Run out of patience at my lack of progress.
4) Worry that it will become a soulsucking experience if I don't stop soon.
5) Break down and cheat using an online walkthrough. Find out that I had neglected some super-obvious thing or was simply not capable of solving a particular puzzle.
6) Spend the next two-three years wishing I hadn't ruined the purity of my gaming experience.
7) Repeat as necessary.
So there's a new one out called Uru. I bought it on Friday and I'm already at Stage #5. The graphics are, as always, gorgeous and somewhat less grotesque than before, the 3-D environment works pretty well, there are many annoying bugs where I 'fall through' a surface that should entirely solid, and several of the puzzle seem poorly worked-out -- including one puzzle whose solution even the walkthroughs I've read can't adequately reason out, other than it works.
Oh, and now there's an online element where I can play new puzzles continually and forever and ever. Rah and eep.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)
On the original version of that sentence, my mind wandered a bit and when I checked again, it read "a few points where the worst is yet to come". I need to go home and sleep now.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 15 December 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 03:51 (twenty-two years ago)
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 03:56 (twenty-two years ago)
― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 04:57 (twenty-two years ago)
― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 04:59 (twenty-two years ago)
Oh man, it is so fucking sweet...
― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:21 (twenty-two years ago)
― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:22 (twenty-two years ago)
― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:22 (twenty-two years ago)
Remember Code Red? That was incredible.
― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 05:25 (twenty-two years ago)
I suppose that Sierra stuff like Space and Police Quests never got "switched" did they? :(
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)
Abbott, google "maniac mansion deluxe" :-)
― Thomas, Monday, 2 June 2008 19:33 (eighteen years ago)
this won't load with my Firefox browser, i think because of that applet up top.
― Ste, Monday, 2 June 2008 19:38 (eighteen years ago)
What doesn't load? (it works alright on my firefox)
― Thomas, Monday, 2 June 2008 19:42 (eighteen years ago)
Yeah, I can't get this thread to load with Firefox either.
― Melissa W, Monday, 2 June 2008 21:16 (eighteen years ago)
There's some applet posted :
-- Alan (Alan), Tuesday, December 17, 2002 11:08 AM (Tuesday, December 17, 2002 11:08 AM) Bookmark Link
^^here
Firefox just stalls and won't load it.
― Ste, Monday, 2 June 2008 21:42 (eighteen years ago)
old ILX :(
― DG, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:00 (eighteen years ago)
Day of the Tentacle has been remade with awesome graphics and its free. King's Quest 1-2 remade - free Quest For Glory games have been remade - free
just search them out if you want to play an oldie that you never played before cuz the graphics sucked
― CaptainLorax, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:00 (eighteen years ago)
1-3
― CaptainLorax, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:01 (eighteen years ago)
ok not impressed by GISing "day tentacle remake"
― DG, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:03 (eighteen years ago)
downloading KQ3 right now, cheers
― Ste, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:07 (eighteen years ago)
phil, where are you finding games to download? i totally miss these dorky adventure games and want to play one TONIGHT! i think i already have dosbox.
SPECIFICALLY, there was this one game that came packaged with PC's in the mid nineties called ORPHEO'S CURSE that i LOVED. it was so bad. and I never got past the last level. I am totally hankering to play it.
― homosexual II, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:19 (eighteen years ago)
actually this sounds nuts but i wouldnt mind downloading the 7th guest. agreed, it was totally lame but i feel like feeling 12 again. stauf was such a dork.
― homosexual II, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:20 (eighteen years ago)
lots of stuff at http://www.abandonia.com
― DG, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:22 (eighteen years ago)
The music in T7G was excellent. The puzzles were ridiculous, but the cheesy FMV was an awesome reward at the time.
― Nhex, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:25 (eighteen years ago)
more at http://www.the-underdogs.info
― DG, Monday, 2 June 2008 22:30 (eighteen years ago)
Heh, all the nostalgia on this thread prompted me to crack open the VGA remake of Quest for Glory 1. The claymation monsters! The stat-grinding, meant to disguise the fact that winning the game consists of maybe six or seven simple tasks!
The King's Quest remakes CaptainLorax mentioned are good too: http://www.agdinteractive.com/
― reddening, Monday, 2 June 2008 23:01 (eighteen years ago)
anyone ever play B.A.T ? or BAT2, on the Amiga?
I always remember seeing it in magazines and loving the graphic style and futuristic theme. I never played it tho, it won't work on my EMu.
― Ste, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 12:19 (eighteen years ago)
the music for kentilla was, and always will be, awesome (that was c64 tho)
― NI, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 12:53 (eighteen years ago)
and it's not on youtube damnit. are there any sites that play old computer game music in flash or whatever? kentilla was rob hubbard so it must be out there!
― NI, Tuesday, 3 June 2008 12:58 (eighteen years ago)
Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space This might have been what I meant by Day of the Tentacle remake. 3D fan based game. Looks fun.
Awesome games to keep an eye on.. still in beta Broken Sword: The Return of the Templars Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth like the old Fate of Atlantis game
― CaptainLorax, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 21:03 (eighteen years ago)
i saw on some gaming nerd website that there was a new sam + max game!!
― t_g, Monday, 16 June 2008 15:09 (seventeen years ago)
yes, someone said this to me recently too.
― Ste, Monday, 16 June 2008 15:11 (seventeen years ago)
true
― DG, Monday, 16 June 2008 15:15 (seventeen years ago)
so this came out in 2006?? no one tells me anything :(
― t_g, Monday, 16 June 2008 15:35 (seventeen years ago)
n00b
― DG, Monday, 16 June 2008 15:38 (seventeen years ago)
there's sequel series too!
Steve Purcell has control over his "Sam & Max" characters again
― kingfish, Monday, 16 June 2008 22:46 (seventeen years ago)
there's even a free episode, and it's the best episode of season 1:
http://www.telltalegames.com/store/lincolnmustdie (starts a download)
― abanana, Monday, 16 June 2008 23:02 (seventeen years ago)
They actually finished that VGA Quest for Glory II remake!
http://www.agdinteractive.com/homepage/homepage.html
― Nhex, Friday, 29 August 2008 05:58 (seventeen years ago)
Huh, so was the Quest For Glory series basically sequels to Hero's Quest? I recall playing that quite a lot, strangely much considering how little progress I made. I suspect I played it too much like a straight adventure game, while it had a bunch of role playing elements that I hated and didn't really understand. (I played those classic Sierra games a LOT as a kid, running back and forth between the computer, my dad and a dictionary, since I didn't really know English. Was really disappointed when all these companies started with point&click interfaces. In hindsight my favorite adventure games were the first two Monkey Island games though, so I guess I got over it)
Apropos of nothing: the last adventure game I played was Grim Fandango. 'Twas fantastic. Tried the demo of the recent Sam'n'Max thing, but it didn't seem to be much of a game. Might as well have been playing frigging Dragon's Lair, considering how uninvolving it was.
Anyone else play Colonel's Bequest? I see now the original post in this thread has mention of a -sequel-! I had no idea. The game was really quite fun in one way, but got really dull after a while, as I basically started running through all the "hit points" to try to get further. I.e. look through every peephole etc etc. I'm amazed that I got through these games, considering how little of them I really understood. I completed frigging Cruise For A Corpse, for crying out loud! What a sad, awesome childhood.
Childhood shame: looking at the raw code of the game's system files to see if I could find conversational snippets that might give me some idea wtf to do next. I believe the Sierra ones had filenames ending in .001 etc.
― Øystein, Friday, 29 August 2008 10:26 (seventeen years ago)
err, not "code", but rather binaries etc.
Will never forget "Administer field sobriety test".
― Thomas, Friday, 29 August 2008 11:05 (seventeen years ago)
Also, been playing Broken Sword ( the first one) recently and it rocks.
I got my hands on a double pack of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall the other day. Which made me very happy
― treefell, Friday, 29 August 2008 11:08 (seventeen years ago)
Classic Lucasarts adventures are on Steam now. $5 each.
― abanana, Wednesday, 8 July 2009 22:08 (sixteen years ago)
hey did you guys know about this: http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland
― her performance (ie, her pubes) stood out for me (HI DERE), Wednesday, 8 July 2009 22:18 (sixteen years ago)
And also next week they're releasing a talkie remake of the original Secret of Monkey Island!
I downloaded the new Telltale episode yesterday only to have them say my graphics card is too old to run it. Whoever thought "your computer is too old to run Monkey Island" would be a sentence that exists in the English language?
― the devil's runes (reddening), Wednesday, 8 July 2009 23:17 (sixteen years ago)
Back in my day, we lost months of our lives to Wizardry.
http://www.gamethink.net/IMG/gif/appleII_wizardry_1.gif
― Nate Carson, Thursday, 9 July 2009 01:12 (sixteen years ago)
indiana jones and the fate of atlantic played a really significant role in my childhoold (elementary school), partly cause it took me yearssss to beat that game. esp. in team mode, cause there's this one part where you have to push sophia into the knife juggler, and who the hell would think to do that?? the day I figured it out was pretty glorious.
last year when I was living in paris, somehow the game came up in a conversation with one of my bestfriends and it turned out he also played the game as a kid. so one saturday night after seeing this horribleeeee stereotype of a french band, we were feeling sorta 'fuck france' and wanted to act like disgusting americans (even though he was canadian.)
so we got a family sized portion of KFC, went to his apartment, attempted to get drunk on baileys (didn't work) and illegally downloaded IJATFOA and played through the entire thing by memory. well, not the entire thing actually, 98% of the way through, because when we were at the very end part in atlantis, my friend decided we should fight a nazi even though we coulda ran away without a scartch - and he promptly lost the fight. we hadn't saved the game for a longgg while and it was like 5 am, so that was that.
moral of the story: indiana jones and the fate of atlantis is the best game of all time.
― iatee, Thursday, 9 July 2009 02:24 (sixteen years ago)
great story iatee.
has anyone played the new monkey island yet? can't believe i hadn't heard of this before - the reviews have been good too, all around the 8/10 mark. can't wait for this - though i do suspect im expecting too much. it aint 1994 anymore
― NI, Thursday, 9 July 2009 11:35 (sixteen years ago)
^^ This is event of the year imo. I hope they pull it off.
― #/.'#/'@ilikecats (g-kit), Thursday, 9 July 2009 11:59 (sixteen years ago)
I look forward to trying out the Secret of Monkey Island remake, as I never finished the original! I'm also dying to play Tim Schafer's latest, Brutal Legend. Alas, I don't want to by a PS3 or Xbox. I wonder if it'll ever come out on PC? Grim Fandango and Full Throttle are two of my all-time favorites. I've had Psychonauts sitting in an unopened box for over a year, so maybe I should try that to tie me over.
Any other recommendations of similar games? I tried Longest Journey but got bored and didn't get very far. I tried Alice back in the day but am lousy at live-action fighting type stuff.
― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 29 October 2009 23:36 (sixteen years ago)
We can help you out here: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersControllerServlet?boardid=67
Also, Psychonauts is awesome and worth your time.
― kingfish, Thursday, 29 October 2009 23:42 (sixteen years ago)
the remake of monkey island is glorious, absolutely loved replaying it. any news on a remake of the sequel? the end screen suggests so, but would be good to know how long it'll be. from what i remember, MI2 was much longer then that first (about 3x as many floppy disks!), cannot wait!
haven't played that 'new' monkey island series though, anyone know if its worth it?
― NI, Friday, 30 October 2009 12:16 (sixteen years ago)
I played the mini-episode they gave away for Talk Like A Pirate Day and it passed the time fairly enjoyably but something was missing somehow. Whether that's just my nostalgia (and teenage patience for unintuitive puzzles without reaching straight for a walkthrough) or there really was something less charming about the jokes/interface/ability to solve puzzles without matching every inventory item with every item onscreen I'm not really sure.
Might still buy the series, though, as it wasn't BAD and I am glad to see it get resurrected.
― ein fisch schwimmt im wasser · fisch im wasser durstig (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 30 October 2009 12:23 (sixteen years ago)
(Haven't played the remake, that might answer the question)
― ein fisch schwimmt im wasser · fisch im wasser durstig (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 30 October 2009 12:24 (sixteen years ago)
you should play the remake, it's great. if you do, i'd like to know how you think they compare
― NI, Friday, 30 October 2009 12:25 (sixteen years ago)
can someone explain to me WHY you need to find the 7th Guest in the 7th Guest? I explained the plot of this game to my sister, and she asked WHY you needed to find the 7th Guest and I was fucking STUMPED! I mean, why does Stauf care so damn much?
― homosexual II, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:01 (sixteen years ago)
this is a p big spoiler but iirc u are the 7th guest?
― Lamp, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:07 (sixteen years ago)
haha the wikipedia entry explains it better than i can:
As the guests explore the house, they experience illusions (or possibly real supernatural events) that begin to put them on edge. The seventh guest is revealed to be Tad, a young boy who sneaked into the house after being dared by his friends. Furthermore, they learn that Stauf wants one of them to bring Tad to him so that he can steal his soul ...in an apparent pact with the supernatural, it was required that Stauf collect a certain number of souls, and Tad is the last child he needs.
― Lamp, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:15 (sixteen years ago)