A list of adventure games

I finally finished some Scott Adams Adventures after almost 25 years.

Savage Island Part I
Mystery Fun House

I had already finished
Pirate Adventure
Adventureland
Strange Odyssey
Mission Impossible
Golden Voyage
Ghost Town

I have yet to solve
Voodoo Castle
The Count
Pyramid of Doom
Sorceror of Claymour Castle
The Marvel ones
and of course Savage Island Part II (you have to beat I first).

Savage Island is by far one of the hardest adventures to play. These games predate the "no dying rule" which became the standard in the early 90's. Some of them are timed and some of them will have random events that will kill you. Fortunately you can always save the games.

These are some of the first games to ever be written for micro-computers (TRS-80 in 1978) and Scott Adams himself makes the claim of "…starting the entire multi billion dollar a year computer game industry".

In fact he was ridiculed by main-frame elitists at the time for announcing he was going to make a Colossal Caverns Adventure type game for the home PC and he proved them wrong. The result the parser's are of the abbreviated two word variety and the adventures are shorter than most games such as Zork and Adventure but they are an enjoyable experience, especially for young bookworms.

Scott Adam's has made these freeware and they are available at his website here: www.msadams.com.

I have found links to online versions that show the later versions with colour graphics too.

This post is dedicated the British band Queen.

Shadows of the comet
Broken Sword (I-II)
Beneath a steel sky
Gabriel Knight I-III

Unfortunately the Discworld Adventures are really hard to get nowadays, and especially for Discworld Noir sellers often want a quite hefty sum.

Besides : Has anyone already mentioned Simon the Sorcerer ? I looooved the first adventure !
I still have a "Swampling" - T-Shirt somewhere here !

What I'd also like to try out is "Amerzone", by the makers of "Syberia".


By the way, me and some other fans should be listed in the credits of Broken Sword 3 …

Simon 1 & 2 were both great. I never found Simon 3D, but I've read it was disappointing!!

I wonder if there's much interest in an Adventure Watch yet. I remember Dhruin telling me he cared little for Adventure games back in the dying days of the dot. I wasn't aware that the editor had abandoned it when I submitted news on Sam & Max.

Originally Posted by Corwin
Simon 1 & 2 were both great. I never found Simon 3D, but I've read it was disappointing!!

Simon 4 has been released in Germany earlier this year.

I didn't realise there was a Simon 4. They don't appear to make the transition to Oz, but then Adventure games other than Monkey and Indiana have always been difficult to find!!

WHAT? Simon 4 is out??? OMG!!! I mus have it!

Yes, it is out.

And Sinom 3D IS disappointing.

But - the sad thing is that they insist on all publishers declining until it became 3D …

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
And Simon 3D IS disappointing.

Hmm. It's not a bad game. Nice puzzles, it's still very funny, but it has bad controll and it's sometimes difficult like hell because of it.

Dungeon Lords comes to my mind. It's somewhat similar.

I'd recommend Realms Of The Haunting to anyone too..great game..oh, and I really fancied the lady who appeared in it as the protagonist's sidekick!

I found it disappointing because of the graphics and the fact that you had to run around in it a LOT.

Those who complain about running around in Keepsake haven't played Simon 3D.

Return to Mysterious Island was excellent; a bit short though. Gabriel Knight 2 was great. Shadowgate. In the freeware department, Curses was a good text adventure. Also, I most recently played through a couple of extremely good games; Scratches and Barrow Hill both highly recommended, but Barrow Hill had some fairly vague puzzles, but was still enjoyable.

I'd love to see a remake of MI, and even MI2 (with a better ending).

Moment of Silence = 10/10!!!

Yes, a very good game - recommendation seconded!

Originally Posted by Corwin
I'd love to see a remake of MI, and even MI2 (with a better ending).

I liked MI2 *because* of that ending.

I still believed that the *ending* was the *only* part that was *real* within the game !


But nevertheless MI1 is still my favourite. Very, very few games have reached such an athmosphere and mood for me.

Originally Posted by nameless hero
Moment of Silence = 10/10!!!

I would also recommend it but only give it 8/10 due to the clumsy implementation of the standard P&C controls. Give Moment of Silence the superb interface of Secret Files: Tunguska and you have an obvious 9 or maybe even a 10. MoS is quite talkative, or phrased positively it takes the needed time to develop characters and the ambitious story.

Secret Files: Tunguska is probably only on the better end of average, objectively speaking, but I still recommend it because it´s a good game and because it´s more or less the only adventure in which the interface does not get into the way. It´s surprising how much of a positive effect this has. Tunguska is a polished game with very solid production values and a fresh scenario. Another positive detail is that the devs patched an alternative ending into the game, after it became clear that Tunguska was a commercial success and the publisher Deep Silver was willing to invest in the franchise.

The Ankh series is also good. As always the humor is hit or miss, but I really enjoyed the first game. They say part 2 is even better.

Jack Keane is the brand new game by Deck 13 (Ankh). The first reviews are even more positive than the ones Ankh received, which means they´re easily in the mid 80s.

IMHO the average quality of the point & click adventures released since the revival started (for the non-Euros here: the turnaround was caused by the surprise hit Runaway in 2002 or so) is higher than it was in the good old LucasArts and Sierra times. Sure, both had their fair share of classics, but I remember months with 3-5 adventure game releases - one more average than the other.
Runaway, Runaway 2, The Westerner, Black Mirror, Sherlock Holmes & The Silver Earring, and many more already mentioned, are all good to very good games. They have weaknesses here and there but are certainly worth playing.

What's sad, is I've never seen any of those on a retail shelf down here. EB, concentrates on Console shooters and little else. (usually one shelf section for PC games- that's ALL PC games)!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
What's sad, is I've never seen any of those on a retail shelf down here. EB, concentrates on Console shooters and little else. (usually one shelf section for PC games- that's ALL PC games)!!

That goes for most places. Australia is the same as USA in that respect. In Europe it's getting to that stage. I find I have to buy games online now otherwise you just can't find them. Same goes for music: You can't get decent music in any music shop anymore (like Yes, ELP and many many more).