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[DDayton]

I never quite understood why so many GAFfers appear to love DotT more than the original Maniac Mansion. MM seems like the better game in nearly every way; DotT merely had better graphics and voice acting. DotT is fairly linear and doesn't offer multiple solutions, whereas Maniac Mansion seems to be one of the few "point and click" adventure games with a variety of ways to complete the adventure.

I really need to play through Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders at some point... I've never bothered to get through more than the first 20 or so minutes of it.

 

[ToxicAdam]

I actually prefer Zak McKracken over MM. It's hilarious.

The only downside to the game was at the end. The puzzles were kind of annoying and the constant switching between the three characters got a little tedious towards the end.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Seems, it doesn't though.

Really? The "gameplay trailer" looked a bit worrying.

 

[MarkMan]

I absolutely LOVE King's Quest series of games from Sierra...(except the Mask of Eternity! lol!)... Also loved Broken Sword series...

Has anyone played the GBA one? Awesome one to play on the go... brought back some memories.

 

[Manaka]

I'm replaying a whole lot of Lucasarts adventures - right now Full Throttle
Despite almost only playing RPGs nowadays I still have to replay most of my personal favorites every year ^^
I probably completed the 4 Monkey Islands, Loom, Sam & Max, etc. around 4 times each and still love them!

One game I enjoyed (and also went through again last year) which hasn't been mentioned yet is Beneath a Steel Sky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_a_Steel_Sky
As far as I know it's freeware now so everyone should play it!

 

[maxmars]

One game I enjoyed (and also went through again last year) which hasn't been mentioned yet is Beneath a Steel Sky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_a_Steel_Sky
As far as I know it's freeware now so everyone should play it!

You can even find it as a pre-installed package for many Linux distros.

 

[Fox_Paradox]

and you can download the cd-version for free, as it became abandonware 2 years ago.

 

[Jefklak]

Wrong, freeware, not abandonware, and that was 3 years ago

In August 2003, the game was released as freeware and support for it was added to ScummVM, allowing it to be played on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows CE and other compatible operating systems and platforms. The data files for both the disk and CD version are available from the ScummVM website. The files on the ScummVM website do not include the original program executables since they are not needed by ScummVM. Though not included, these executable files are also legally distributable now.

 

[Particle Physicist]

this is an awesome thread..

 

[FFChris]

Point and Click games...those were the days...

I had Monkey Island on the Amiga, and I left the machine on for literally days because I didn't know how to save my progress (I was only about 9 years old) such a great game.

I'm pretty sure I have played command line Zork as well, though being a kid my uncle had to tell me you find salt in kettles and had to use that on the giant slug...

Broken Sword series was great as well, and Diskworld, although it was a little taxing on me feeble, childlike mind.

 

[Zweisy1]

I had Monkey Island on the Amiga.

Me too.. Also had Monkey Island 2 on the Amiga. Didn't have a hard disk either at the time so I had to plenty of disk swapping since the game came out on about dozen floppy disks. Still, I enjoyed it enough for it to my favourite adventure game of all time. Probably played through it 50 times by now on both Amiga and PC.

 

[quetz67]

Point and Click games...those were the days...

Actually there are lots coming out lately, I have seen Runaway 2, an Agatha Christie one and 2 more I dont remember on the shelves here in germany. Nothing like the old Lucasarts stuff but at least we have the new Sam&Max

 

[Kabouter]

Really? The "gameplay trailer" looked a bit worrying.

Trust me, I've played through the entire game, there's not a single action sequence there.
All puzzles.

 

[Kabouter]

Actually there are lots coming out lately, I have seen Runaway 2, an Agatha Christie one and 2 more I dont remember on the shelves here in germany. Nothing like the old Lucasarts stuff but at least we have the new Sam&Max

Germany is actually where a lot of good adventures are coming from these days.
Still love The Moment of Silence, my favourite modern adventure actually. And the developers of that are working on a new game due either this year or next year (Overclocked: A Story About Violence).

 

[Manaka]

I also finished Tunguska a few weeks ago and it really isn't bad at all - some of the puzzles are extremely nice and interesting, but overall I thought it was rather easy.

Just remembered the two Ankh games (released 2005 and 2006). I haven't started them yet but my brother said they are both quite enjoyable.

 

[Borys]

Germany is actually where a lot of good adventures are coming from these days.
Still love The Moment of Silence, my favourite modern adventure actually. And the developers of that are working on a new game due either this year or next year (Overclocked: A Story About Violence).

TMOS is my favourite adventure, ever.

I was hypnotized when I got that, I fell in love with the setting especially the main guy's house and his work place , I loved the music. Game was great, not too easy, not too hard. The ending sucked, though I liked the last location (the big dome on Alaska).

Before TMOS my faveourite adventure game was Sanitarium, before that - The Longest Journey.

TMOS is great *IF* you like sci-fi settings.

 

[Fady K]

This thread rocks...brings back so many memories.

Most recent one I played was Still Life, any one play it here?

 

[Bildi]

Most recent one I played was Still Life, any one play it here?

I haven't finished it but I am quite enjoying it. I'm enjoying the puzzles, either they click with me or they don't, so either I get it pretty quick or I'm stuck for ages. That cooking one was a bitch - I don't bake much in real life. :lol

I also have Farenheit / Indigo Prophecy sitting on the shelf. It seems quite enjoyable - I've started it twice but keep getting distracted. Dammit, next gen should have held off for a couple of years!

 

[Morbid Angel]

Any news on Vampyre Story? Looks promising.

 

[Kabouter]

TMOS is my favourite adventure, ever.

I was hypnotized when I got that, I fell in love with the setting especially the main guy's house and his work place , I loved the music. Game was great, not too easy, not too hard. The ending sucked, though I liked the last location (the big dome on Alaska).

Before TMOS my faveourite adventure game was Sanitarium, before that - The Longest Journey.

TMOS is great *IF* you like sci-fi settings.

Agree completely.
The world of TMOS is what got me, they created such a believable world. In many games you see a sci-fi world that's completely unrealistic and could never become reality. But with TMOS they created a society that's very believable. Also, it's nice to play a game that actually has a message and wants to convey ideas.

 

[Prime crotch]

Lucas Arts had the best adventure games from MI to Sam & Max, Sierra was also very good, the Larry games were a classic, but I enjoyed Lucas Arts interface a lot more.
I've also recently played and loved Scratches except the pixel searching of some puzzles.

 

[RamzaIsCool]

This thread rocks...brings back so many memories.

Most recent one I played was Still Life, any one play it here?

I have the game, played a hour or so....until I got back to the police station....forgot about it...uninstalled it because I needed the space on my HD....but now I am kinda in the mood to install and play it again.

Great thread, I always liked the click adventures since the days of the first Broken Sword game. Then I avoided the genre until I played the Longest Journey 2 years ago, after completing that I went on a mad searching spree and hunted down most of the click adventures of the last 15 or so years.....completed quite a few of them and loved most of them.

 

[Fallout-NL]

Grim Fandango
LucasArts, 1998; Designer: Tim Schafer

After the success of Full Throttle, Schafer was given free reign on another game. He ended up with Grim Fandango. If Full Throttle is the best adventure game LucasArts put out, Grim Fandango is easily the most ambitious. Combining Mexican Day of the Dead folklore, film noir, art deco, bebop, mariachi, socialist political themes, and more into an inexplicably coherent and engaging world, there is no other game that demonstrates such an unrestrained yet masterfully presented sense of imagination.

Paying homage to classic Hollywood films such as Double Indemnity and Casablanca, Grim Fandango stars Manuel Calavera, travel agent in the Land of the Dead, forced to help other dead souls make their final journey while paying off some unspoken debt accrued during his Earthly life. Not long after the game begins, Manny uncovers--and is caught up in--a complex conspiracy that will lead him all over the world of the afterlife, spanning countless miles and several years.

It's a long game, and it's no pushover, but it's an amazing experience if you can stick with it (which you should). The prerendered backdrops remain gorgeous, and the game is an explosion of disparate styles that somehow gel together far better than they have any right to. As with any Schafer game, the writing is top-notch, and there are plenty of quotable lines.

Grim Fandango is an experience like no other, and one that deserves to be played by any gamer. The keyboard-based control scheme is somewhat finnicky, but if you have a console gamepad available it be much improved.

If I had to pick the last game I would ever play, I guess this would be it. It should also be mentioned that Grim Fandango is like a perfect game version of Casablanca. Even the basic story is the same (People waiting for a way out to the next world or America). Also one of the few games where you really start to feel for the characters.

 

[Fady K]

I haven't finished it but I am quite enjoying it. I'm enjoying the puzzles, either they click with me or they don't, so either I get it pretty quick or I'm stuck for ages. That cooking one was a bitch - I don't bake much in real life. :lol

I also have Farenheit / Indigo Prophecy sitting on the shelf. It seems quite enjoyable - I've started it twice but keep getting distracted. Dammit, next gen should have held off for a couple of years!

Yes...the cooking one was absolutely not for me either! Wait till you get to one of my least favorites that has to do with lock picking

 

[SpoonyBard]

Lucas Arts had the best adventure games from MI to Sam & Max, Sierra was also very good, the Larry games were a classic, but I enjoyed Lucas Arts interface a lot more.
I've also recently played and loved Scratches except the pixel searching of some puzzles.

Yeah, Gabriel Knight 1 was really the only Sierra game that was on the level of Lucasarts games.

 

[Rimshot]

If I had to pick the last game I would ever play, I guess this would be it. It should also be mentioned that Grim Fandango is like a perfect game version of Casablanca. Even the basic story is the same (People waiting for a way out to the next world or America). Also one of the few games where you really start to feel for the characters.

Grim Fandango is up there with the best games ever played for me
Togheter with discworld 1 and kings quest 5-6 etc..

But if I had to choose one last game to play, it would probably be Fallout 2 ^^

 

[Bildi]

Yes...the cooking one was absolutely not for me either! Wait till you get to one of my least favorites that has to do with lock picking

Ah dammit! But that's why I got the game - I like tough puzzles (although the cooking one was pushing it beyond tough into unfair territory I thought). I really ought to put it in again.

I remember when I played Myst - I had not really played any adventure games, mostly NES stuff really. I never found out that you could go up to the tower behind the library. I would get in the elevator and push the button, never realising I had to shut the gate. So I finished the game without it, including figuring out the three digit code on that door in the little house by trial and error. 724 I believe it was.

I just thought that was how you had to play! :lol

 

[Chris Remo]

I never quite understood why so many GAFfers appear to love DotT more than the original Maniac Mansion. MM seems like the better game in nearly every way; DotT merely had better graphics and voice acting. DotT is fairly linear and doesn't offer multiple solutions, whereas Maniac Mansion seems to be one of the few "point and click" adventure games with a variety of ways to complete the adventure.

I really need to play through Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders at some point... I've never bothered to get through more than the first 20 or so minutes of it.

Day of the Tentacle had significantly better writing and characters, and wonderful art design. It doesn't have Maniac Mansion's remarkable nonlinear structure, but it does have some of the best overall puzzle design in the entire genre. MM was revolutionary in many ways (not just in its nonlinearity) but that design choice also led to the game being much less tight than something like DOTT; it's a lot easier to get stuck simply by happening to do the wrong thing, and the game isn't paced as well. That's not to detract from MM. To this day it does things no other adventure game does, and it set the standard for a lot of conventions of the genre that were previously nonexistent (plus it was the reason for the SCUMM system which lasted about a decade), but DOTT surpassed it in other ways.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Man, point and click adventures are the greatest. I can't wait until Hotel Dusk comes out. Phantasmogoria was the first PC game I ever owned (and is still way awesome). Sadly, the only LucasArts point and click I beat was Maniac Mansion. Man, the only PC games I got where adventure games: Phantasmagoria, Dark Seed (came free with cd cases), Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within, Burn:Cycle, Myst, 7th Guest, 11th Hour (even though I didn't get far in either of those), and some others I probably can't think of the moment.

 

[Chris Remo]

Sadly, the only LucasArts point and click I beat was Maniac Mansion.

Get on that! They can all be run perfectly in basically any operating system you can think of thanks to ScummVM ( http://www.scummvm.org ).

Full Throttle is a great one to play, as it's probably the shortest adventure LucasArts ever made, and easily one of the best (the best, in my opinion). Monkey Island 1 and 2 are also fantastic and then you'll know what people are talking about when they discuss the crazy ending of Monkey Island 2.

Actually...just read my posts on the first page. I'd just end up retyping shorter versions of that stuff in this thread anyway.

Man, the only PC games I got where adventure games: Phantasmagoria, Dark Seed (came free with cd cases), Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within, Burn:Cycle, Myst, 7th Guest, 11th Hour (even though I didn't get far in either of those), and some others I probably can't think of the moment.

I wasn't ever really exclusively adventure games on the PC, but adventure games were definitely what got me into gaming (as a gamer rather than just somebody who occasionally played games). I didn't have a console until PS1 so I was PC all the way until then.

 

[Teasel]

quest for glory, a game that mix point & click adventure and RPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory
i never played the first two but i remember the third being a cool game,one of the thing that made it cool is that you chose a class at the beginning and then that class make some part of the game different (for example in 4 you have to raise a tombstone,you can use your strenght if you are a warrior or the levitation spell if you are a wizard but if you were a thief you had to make something else that i can't remember) you could also carry your character within the next game,and the fourthy one had horror undertones
(i still remember being shocked after being trampled by a rhino and my character became a meat puddle )

 

[Chris Remo]

quest for glory, a game that mix point & click adventure and RPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory
i never played the first two but i remember the third being a cool game,one of the thing that made it cool is that you chose a class at the beginning and then that class make some part of the game different (for example in 4 you have to raise a tombstone,you can use your strenght if you are a warrior or the levitation spell if you are a wizard but if you were a thief you had to make something else that i can't remember) you could also carry your character within the next game,and the fourthy one had horror undertones
(i still remember being shocked after being trampled by a rhino and my character became a meat puddle )

The first game is one of my favorite adventure games. I never played any of the rest of the series. I should really do that. It's still the best (hell, one of the only) fusions of RPG and classic adventure that I've played.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Yeah, I will get around to it. I hope the rumors of Grim Fandingo coming to the Wii Virtual Console is true (when I say rumors, I think I might have read from here that it would be awesome if it came to the virtual console).

 

[Chris Remo]

Yeah, I will get around to it. I hope the rumors of Grim Fandingo coming to the Wii Virtual Console is true (when I say rumors, I think I might have read from here that it would be awesome if it came to the virtual console).

Don't bet on it. I'd say that's extremely unlikely. LucasArts loves to act like they never published good games.

 

[Fady K]

Ah dammit! But that's why I got the game - I like tough puzzles (although the cooking one was pushing it beyond tough into unfair territory I thought). I really ought to put it in again.

I remember when I played Myst - I had not really played any adventure games, mostly NES stuff really. I never found out that you could go up to the tower behind the library. I would get in the elevator and push the button, never realising I had to shut the gate. So I finished the game without it, including figuring out the three digit code on that door in the little house by trial and error. 724 I believe it was.

I just thought that was how you had to play! :lol

:lol well, dont worry, there are a few good puzzles left in Still Life till you get to the end. Enjoy.

 

[Bildi]

:lol well, dont worry, there are a few good puzzles left in Still Life till you get to the end. Enjoy.

 

[Illuminati]

Most recent one I played was Still Life, any one play it here?

Still Life rocks because the atmosphere of the game is pretty different then your average adventure game. The setting reminded me of a combination of the movie Seven and the game Parasite Eve. And the cooking puzzle blew by the way, there was also another one in one of those scenes from the past that I can't remember were I think you had to crack a safe or something.

Other great games I have that were not mentioned:
- Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
- Lighthouse
- Gabriel Knight
- Willy Beamish
- Amber: The Journeys Beyond <-This game was messed up
- The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes
And educational games that were actually fun:
- Island of Dr. Brain
- EcoQuest I & II
- Museum Madness

Who knows why Lucas Arts doesn't really make adventure games anymore. I thought their last games, Grim Fandango and Monkey Island 4, were pretty popular and I would assume sold well for an adventure game. Also these type of games can't be that expensive and take a large team to develop as other types of games do.

 

[Kabouter]

:lol well, dont worry, there are a few good puzzles left in Still Life till you get to the end. Enjoy.

I hate the one near the end

Spoiler

with the robot and all those lasers

 

[Chris Remo]

Oh just as a bit of dumb gloating, my avatar is me taken from the feature art of the third of a three-part interview I co-did a couple years back with Ron Gilbert, who created Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, and the SCUMM system, and was basically the father of the modern point-and-click adventure (a big change from the previous more text-based ones).

For those who are interested, here are all three parts:

http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=64

http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=59

http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=207

 

[Pakkidis]

A few months ago someone else started a massive thread about point and click adventures. Anyway here are some more you should check out

Sanitarium- Awesome game with a unique story and atmosphere
Beneath a steel sky-
Gabriel Knights 3
Every lucas arts game

The problem with this genre is the people who like it are the people who grew up with videogames. People who just started playing games in the last decade or so have no idea what they missed.

 

[Kiriku]

So many great games mentioned. Discworld series, Monkey Island, Broken Sword series...I could go on and on.

Nice to see Myst being in there as well. I just can't help but being fascinated by Myst, still to this day. The atmosphere is just so perfect, with the odd locations, the story, the music. And the fact that you're totally alone. The first version I played of Myst was actually the Saturn version. I nowadays own Real Myst for PC, where they remade the entire game in realtime 3D and added another age. It's cool to finally be able to walk around freely, and it still looks damn good even after a few years. I strongly recommend anyone who's into Myst to pick it up.
On a sidenote, I'm strangely tempted to pick up the original Myst for PSP (after a few price-drops).

 

[Illuminati]

For those who are interested, here are all three parts:

http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=64

http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=59

http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=207

That's an awesome interview. I like this one quote:

Chris: "What, to you, are the most encouraging developments in the games industry, and what truly makes your blood boil?" ...in a grumpy fashion?

Ron: Most encouraging developments in the game industry? That's a really tough one. I think the games industry is really in a kind of doldrums. I don't think that there's a... [Gilbert sort of frowns and looks off wistfully into the distance] Yeah, I can't think of anything encouraging right now.

Lol and this is good too:

Ron: I think the problem with those games is, publishers put out a new game and then when it fails, they turn around 180 degrees and run away from it. What they need to do, what Ubisoft needs to do, is do Beyond Good and Evil 2. They should immediately turn around and do that again, because that game got very good reviews, it certainly has—I don't know if I'd call it a cult following—a group of people who really like that. There's something about that game that appealed to people. They should hit it again. They should hit it again.

 

[bycha]

Yeah i loved them in 90s. I've seen the genre dying playin all last great games of ut. I don't know a single genre that just died like that.

Grim Fandango, Broken Sword 1 & 2, Sanitarium, The last Express, Monkey Island etc. Last great adventure game i played was Sanitarium, last good -- Gabriel Knight 3. In this century everything was crap to me, The Longest Journey was good but i stopped playin it in the middle, everything else at start. Only Sam and Max episodes are decent to me, Im so exited about em.

I m pretty sure that in modern world the only way to survive while makin adventure games is episodic content through online distribution. Basic 3d technology so they are as cheap as possible and look quite ok and online distribution for max profit.

 

[ram]

Ah, BURN:CYCLE. Terrible acting, wonderful cyberpunk ride.
Here's a promo video. Long live FMV!

haha - man, i loved this game. not in terms of gameplay (played it on pc), but in terms of atmosphere and the huge budget german voice acting.

those were the times.

also:

one of the weaker adventure games (it was a cryo game afterall), but with absolute fantastic visuals and music: LOST EDEN

 

[Ben Sones]

A few gems that haven't been mentioned yet:

Mission Critical (Legend Entertainment, 1995): Probably my favorite of the Legend games. Great story, great puzzles, and Michael Dorn.

Amber: Journeys Beyond (Hue Forest, 1996): A lesser known game by a husband and wife indie team; one of my favorite adventure games ever. Highly imaginative concept, great story and atmosphere, and the first part of the game is very spooky.

Blade Runner (Westwood, 1997): Fantastic game.

 

[Fox_Paradox]

Wrong, freeware, not abandonware, and that was 3 years ago

I apologize. I wasn't entirely sure about the date and its status. I stand corrected.

 

[fallengorn]

I just got a copy of Indigo Prophecy, and after I free up some space I'll go through it.

Anyone here played the Shivah? I keep meaning to download it but never get around to it.

 

[gutter_trash]

has anyone else played Zak McKraken as well? it was Lucasarts's point in click game that came right after the 1st Maniac Mansion

it was pretty kick ass for back in the day

 

[viralmarketeer]

Other great games I have that were not mentioned:
- Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist
- Willy Beamish
- Island of Dr. Brain
- EcoQuest I & II

I was gonna mention these, but you beat me to it. Great games.

 

[HyperZone<3]

I am very proud to push this thread to its 3rd page.

awesome.