[AAlgar]

Greetings, everyone. I'm doing a bit of research for a possible upcoming project, and you people seem like the best group to help me out. (And no, this is not some kind of form letter insisting that YOU, INSERT NAME ARE THE GREATEST GAMING BOARD ON THE INTERNET! I promise.)

What I'm looking for are some of the most cringe-worthy moments from adventure gaming history (specifically from the early 80s to the early 90s) — the worst puzzles, the most ridiculous plot twists, the most maddening interfaces.

I'm not here to provoke creator-bashing or anything like that — saying that Roberta Williams loved to torment us with winding cliffs is not saying that Roberta Williams is a hack. She's not. She's a lovely lady who earned a place next to Jim Henson and George Lucas in my childhood entertainment pantheon. I just hated her $#@! winding cliff sequences.

In the course of researching this possible project, I've been focusing on the big three of classic adventuring: Lucas, Sierra and Infocom. I definitely need to broaden my scope a bit, and that's where you folks come in. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time! Seriously, Adventure Gamers audiences are the greatest audiences in the world!

[JohnGreenArt]

I'm sure someone will mention the ending of Monkey Island 2.

And probably the monkey wrench puzzle.

But not me.

[BigHairyMan]

The city hallways of Quest for Glory 2, the desert in Kings Quest 5....maybe I just hate getting/feeling lost. What about running from the sequel police (in the mall) in Space Quest 4.

[bpfinsa]

* The whole "gotta run back and hide everything from the evil wizard" part of KQ3
* I don't think I was ever able to beat the microscope puzzle in The 7th Guest.
* Any kind of copy Protection that involved matching color pictures on the screen to a black and white instruction book.
* Pretty much all of Stupid Invaders....

[Risingson]

The desert in King's Quest 5 is a good one, but what about the arcade parts in Mean Streets? And the maze in Martian Memorandum? And the pixel-hunting in Countdown when you have to escape from a kind of jail?

I love those three games, btw.

[tsa]

I remember being eaten by a grue many times. And in the Commodore 64 years there were a lot of adventures in which you had to eat food every three steps or so. That was so annoying because I didn't have any food and kept perishing. Annoyances from a later date include the fireball scene in one of the Tex Murphy adventures (I think it was Overseer), and of course the fighting in Dreamfall. And then there is Paradise, but I've already said enough about that game in these forums.

Oh, and then there's The Pawn, also a '64 game. I got rid of the wristband, but I still don't know if I really finished it or if there's more to that game.

You see, most of my annoyances are from long ago. Nowadays, if a game annoys me I just turn my attention elsewhere. Playing is supposed to be fun, after all. Of course this means I have a small collection of games I never finished

[Periglo]

Originally Posted by tsa

and of course the fighting in Dreamfall

People, let's focus. We are being asked for the worst moments in AGs, late 80s-early 90s. However annoying the fighting in Dreamfall, it just cannot be compared with major, major pains in the butt such as...

My vote: clearly, the monkey wrench in MI2. I will never, ever forget that one. In my case it was further aggraviated by translation.

[Risingson]

But people, the Lucasarts were gold compared to:

- Kyrandia and the gem puzzle.
- Cruise for a corpse and the bottle-neck playability.
- EVERY Sierra game and their instant and absurd deaths
- Curse of Enchantia and its 26 different actions.
- Fascination and its dead-ends (and puzzles based on music)
- Shadow of the comet and the picture developing puzzle.
- Eternam and the HORRID backtracking
- Darkseed and its feast of bugs, dead-ends, graphic glitches and voice acting.

Etc.

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by AAlgar

What I'm looking for are some of the most cringe-worthy moments from adventure gaming history (specifically from the early 80s to the early 90s) — the "worst puzzles", "the most ridiculous plot twists", "the most maddening interfaces".

Dont need to searching for these in past ,things that you looking for actually happening now check out titles BS4,Paradise,Al emmo,Runaway and so on..

[Jobabob]

How about the piece of string in monkey island 2! Took me 2 weeks to find that flipping thing!

A lot of sierra games would get my vote, how about the cruise ship in larry 2, if you havent picked up a massive sequence of items right from the start of the game, start again!

Also, every-single-puzzle in operation stealth, especially opening the briefcase at the start, oh i forgot and im 3 hours in. Start again!

[Crapstorm]

Man, there are a lot of contenders for this title. I'll rack my brain for more examples, but here are a few that rush to mind.

* One of the early Scott Addams games (I think it took place in a pyramid) had a key hidden inside a table. There were no clues as to its whereabouts. You had to saw the table open to find it. This was before walkthroughs were widespread, so I imagine 99% of the people who took on that game never got past that point.

* Kings Quest V I recall literally looking for a needle in a haystack in this game. The developers were probably trying to be funny, but Jeez!

* Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Again, they were trying to be funny, but when

Spoiler:

you go back in time at the end of the game and the dog eats you, you have to start over again, FROM THE VERY BEGINNING and feed the dog a sandwich.

[LimpingFish]

Every Myst puzzle. And every puzzle of Myst's b*stard offspring.

[aries323]

If we go back to the very early zork games (like zork 1 and stuff), suddenly in the dark, you could be eaten by --- a grue. Very annoying --- then if you turned on the light, you couldn't see the grue --- since grues --- only exist in the dark.... Very annoying.

Another annoying thing in the early zork games was that the computer sort of talked back to you --- like this: > search rug > I don't understand search.
Sometimes the computer got a little bolder than this, but I can't remember any of the sentences right now.

Then in most of the King's Quest games, there seem to be one or two music puzzles, maybe combined with a timed color puzzle. ( this just to show that retired music teachers should NOT develop games ).

And while we're here ---- the way you could die early and later in the King's Quest games -- well -- lets just say ---- very silly ways --- and very annoying, too...

In Shivers 2, thanks to that irritating sliding safe puzzle near the end, I couldn't finish the game... (still trying, tough). The baker's puzzle and the
infamous egg puzzle in this game as well....

The ending puzzle in Zack Mccracken and the Alien invaders is pretty annoying, too...

I'm sure there's one in Space Quest 6 also, however, luckily, I have forgotten what it is...

And then, there's the goat puzzle in Broken Sword 1 or 2, and the plaster puzzle, I think in,
BS2.

[Gonchi]

Hmmm...

BloodNet - Combat
Dark Half - ... All of it
Noctropolis - Observatory
Gabriel Knight 2 - Cuckoo clock

[tsa]

Originally Posted by LimpingFish

Every Myst puzzle. And every puzzle of Myst's b*stard offspring.

Hehe, I was waiting for a post like this. There seem to be no people who don't have strong feelings about the Myst series.

[SoccerDude28]

Gabriel Knight

Spoiler:

DJ bring sekey madoule

[LeisureSuitedLooney]

The Babel Fish Puzzle in the text adventure Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The number of objects used and steps involved irritated the heck outta me!

[Crapstorm]

Myst deserves at least an honorable mention for the "play the song" puzzle. Not only was it incredibly tedious and nonsensical (why would someone build a rocketship with a musical activation code?), but it spawned a legacy of lame sound puzzles that have been repeated so many times that I just want to randomly shoot things.

[JemyM]

The Submarine and the Dicegame in Codename Iceman.

[AAlgar]

Originally Posted by Gabe

Dont need to searching for these in past ,things that you looking for actually happening now check out titles BS4,Paradise,Al emmo,Runaway and so on..

Oh, I'm sure there's no shortage of frustrating elements nowadays. But the project I'm working on involves a bit of nostalgia for "the golden years."

Great suggestions, everybody. (Though I can't say I agree with them all, it's still good to see what irritates other people.) Keep 'em coming!