Adventure Games
This page is a tribute to all those great adventure games of yesteryears I've played. That means this page will be mostly, perhaps even exclusively, concerned with creations from LucasArts, so fans of Sierra will have to look elsewhere for their favourites. Pure text adventures are also more or less completely outside my experience, I wasn't old or good enough at English to be able to appreciate them when they were popular, and nowadays they don't hold all that much attraction ...
Prehistoric times
Early adventure game experiences included Space Quest II and various Larry games, games from before the point-and-click era, accompanied by PC-speaker sound effects and music. Some things could only get better from this point!
The Secret of Monkey Island
I clearly remember playing this game over at a friend's house late at night. We didn't get very far or anything, but the mood of the game really stuck. The graphics, music and gameplay all blended together into a game experience I fondly remember. Just tell me, have you ever seen a game with a better fighting system, eh?
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
The first adventure game I ever bought, not a bad choice if you ask me ... Eleven disks made for a decent bit of swapping on my Amiga, but that's a very affordable price for a gaming experience like this. I was sold from the manual onward. Only thing that annoys me slightly nowadays is that I think I shouldn't have taken as much help from different sources as I did. Then again, without them I would probably have gotten more than a bit stuck and perhaps given up altogether, and that wouldn't be too much fun either ... Final word: music!
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Indy 3)
The first few tries at this game was with a pirated version, but without the copy protection, so progress was quite limited ... Later I got hold of the game in a collection (with copy protection) and could get farther into the game. I never liked the fights in this game, or that it was relatively hard to avoid them, but other than that it's a nice game. No Monkey Island of course, but not everyone can be, right?
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Saw different bits pieces, and especially problem solutions, for this game over the years without ever getting to play it properly. Finally got hold of it recently and got through it faster than a greased guybrush. I really liked this idea that you can play it on three different paths, and even have different endings on the same path. There's still some dying left in it, but perhaps you'll have to live with that in an Indy title ...
Day of the Tentacle
Ha ha, funny! Klick the headline for more on this game.
Zak McCracken & the Alien Mindbenders
A really old number, the thing I liked best about this one was probably the "Tum de dum" from the TPC official and the newsreport on the TV. Kind of a strange intro too.
Maniac Mansion
Another real oldie, you clearly notice there's been some development since then ... I like the sequel better, although this one has things going for it too. Like letting you select your group of brave adventurers, thus changing the puzzles and their solutions by having different skills in your team.
Loom
This was a pretty cool one too. No verbs to choose from, everything was done by casting spells which in turn was done by playing tones on your staff. The game also featured classic music and a dragon afraid of fire, something for everyone in short. The graphics may not be up to modern standards, but the mood can't be beaten.
Toonstruck
Wow, a non-LucasArts game! Is the man ill? I wouldn't say so, Toonstruck is really a pretty cool adventure game in a really cool cartoon world. The intro, outro and midway cutscenes may be a tad or two on the long side, but all the rest is pure, wacky adventure gaming with great voice acting and music to boot. That's it! No more Mr. Nice Girl!
As we reach and pass Toonstruck, we are getting dangerously close to modern days and thus approaching the end of the nostalgia section at good speed. So, this text ends here and more recent adventure games, like the great Neverhood, will have to fight with all the other genres over in the games section.
