[Ursulla]

Which is the most hideous puzzle have you ever encountered in your heroic adventures...?
A puzzle that when you come to think of it will make your shoulders shudder...

Mine is without doubt from Journey to the center of the Earth:
The object of the puzzle is to produce six sounds in a SPECIFIC ORDER. If you make a mistake, you must start over from the beginning. In order to produce the sounds you need to run back and forth between six totems and change something to get another sound but those totems are not very close one to another so you must do a marathon of trial and error ... The puzzle does NOT reset when you leave it....So you must save the game before starting the puzzle...

Until this day no one know the logic behind this puzzle...

[AndreaDraco83]

I think it can be a tie between Dark Seed vanishing liquor bottle and Monkey Island 2's puzzle concerning the "monkey wrench", but only 'cause the Italian version, the only one I played since I was pretty young, completely botched the translation, making the puzzle nearly unsolvable.

Further thinking, anyway, made me remember the puzzle that probably I hated the most, at least in recent history, and thus the one I want to give this "award" to: The Longest Journey's Inflatable Duck - illogical, stretched and just plain horrible.

[Trader]

Mine would have to be Myst on 3DO cd gaming system, there was a part where you had to repeat a musical sequence, I have trouble hearing music notes. I had to use a hand held tape recorder to copy the sounds and play it back when I was at the controls in the spaceship thingy.

[Ascovel]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

I think it can be a tie between Dark Seed vanishing liquor bottle

Could you remind me what was it about?

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by Ascovel

Could you remind me what was it about?

Spoiler:

Near the end of the game, if I don't remember wrong, you'll need a bottle of whiskey, obtainable during the first day in the groceries shop. At later points of the game, even if you can still access the shop, the bottle is gone for good.

Now, as you all know I'm a Sierra fan, but they never had such a dreadful dead-end

[Ascovel]

To be honest almost every action in this game not taken at a specific day led to a dead end. There was even a certain action needed to be taken in the prison cell that made no sense unless you got stuck later on during the third day. Fortunately, the three days cycle was very short so one could easily repeat everything until one got it right.

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

Now, as you all know I'm a Sierra fan, but they never had such a dreadful dead-end

I think you must have forgotten about LSL2. That was much much worse than Darkseed in the dead end aspect.

[Kazmajik]

I nominate The Babel Fish puzzle from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[seanparkerfilms]

Some good suggestions, but honestly, Runaway: A Road Adventure has probably the most poorly designed collection of puzzles I've ever played (granted, I have not played many bad games — I often turn to AdventureGamers for good reviews, and I must say that I completely disagree with their 4 and a half star review for this utter piece of garbage!!! [I won't hate you if you disagree]).

Probably the best example I can think of is dropping a flower pot off the balcony to flip over a trough full of mud to get a wrench that fell in it. (and it isn't easy to tell you're directly above it) — not to mention that doing so makes no sense! The most irritating aspect of it all is the absolute stupidity of the task... he has to do this absolutely crazy obscure method of getting that darn wrench instead of being a man and putting his hand in some mud!

Sigh... I hate that game.

[chapter11studios]

Originally Posted by seanparkerfilms

Some good suggestions, but honestly, Runaway: A Road Adventure has probably the most poorly designed collection of puzzles I've ever played...

AGREED! My distaste for Runaway is legendary. However, I'll nominate the cat fur mustache from GK3. Totally unrealistic in a game that otherwise feels like part of the real world (well, a real world with vampires and whatnot).

[Ascovel]

Originally Posted by chapter11studios

However, I'll nominate the cat fur mustache from GK3. Totally unrealistic in a game that otherwise feels like part of the real world (well, a real world with vampires and whatnot).

I must disagree. This puzzle was unrealistically funny and adventure-gamey and so was a big part of the rest of the game.

[Josho]

Originally Posted by Kazmajik

I nominate The Babel Fish puzzle from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Another Douglas Adams/Infocom puzzle that's nearly, not quite, as wretchedly difficult as the Babel Fish is the Deposit Slip from Bureaucracy. I think it hit my "hideous" button when the satisfaction I got from solving it was completely overshadowed by my relief at having gotten past it.

--Josh

[rtrooney]

Originally Posted by Josho

Another Douglas Adams/Infocom puzzle that's nearly, not quite, as wretchedly difficult as the Babel Fish is the Deposit Slip from Bureaucracy. I think it hit my "hideous" button when the satisfaction I got from solving it was completely overshadowed by my relief at having gotten past it.

--Josh

Was that possibly worse than the 3D Space Quest maze? Don't think so. I still remember it as the worst endgame puzzle ever created.

[Fantasysci5]

It's gotta be that rubber ducky from "The Longest Journey". How the heck were you supposed to come up with that?! Although music puzzles always get me, and the Myst puzzles drive me crazy.

[Keregioz]

Originally Posted by chapter11studios

However, I'll nominate the cat fur mustache from GK3. Totally unrealistic in a game that otherwise feels like part of the real world (well, a real world with vampires and whatnot).

Oh oh! I'm waiting for Andrea's fury to be unleashed upon you at any moment!

Seriously though, however ridiculous that puzzle was, I didn't have any problems solving it. So, I don't have really bad feelings about it.
There are too many puzzles that infuriated me and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of them, however after reading this thread there was one particular in runaway 2 that comes to mind...

Spoiler:

if I remember correctly it involved a bottle of wine which you had to get rid of...and the solution was to use it with the entrance of a room so he would go and leave it there. Really stupid puzzle.

Another one is in secret files: Tunguska, a puzzle you had to solve to get a hold of a lemon....

Spoiler:

I don't remember the details...I think you had to cover up a street sign so a passing truck would trip over and a lemon would fall out of it...

[tsa]

Originally Posted by seanparkerfilms

Some good suggestions, but honestly, Runaway: A Road Adventure has probably the most poorly designed collection of puzzles I've ever played (granted, I have not played many bad games — I often turn to AdventureGamers for good reviews, and I must say that I completely disagree with their 4 and a half star review for this utter piece of garbage!!! [I won't hate you if you disagree]).

Probably the best example I can think of is dropping a flower pot off the balcony to flip over a trough full of mud to get a wrench that fell in it. (and it isn't easy to tell you're directly above it) — not to mention that doing so makes no sense! The most irritating aspect of it all is the absolute stupidity of the task... he has to do this absolutely crazy obscure method of getting that darn wrench instead of being a man and putting his hand in some mud!

Sigh... I hate that game.

I agree. That was not a good game. Brian was so amazingly, utterly stupid I think this professor must have invited him to come to his University so he could study Brian's pea-sized brain or something. Anyways, the puzzle I disliked most in Runaway I (nothing will persuade me to try the other installments) was:

Spoiler:

In the beginning of the game, Brian visits Gina in the hospital. He has to wake her up because the thugs are after them. He sees the sprinkler, he has a working lighter, but it takes him forever to realize he can wake up Gina by getting the sprinkler to spray water on her.

I guess I finished the game because I'm Dutch and I paid for it .

[Guyra]

@Ursulla: Are you sure that's from Journey to the center of the Earth? Because it sounds exactly like a puzzle in the first Myst game, which I played a month ago, or something.

And for a really annoying puzzle, you've got the underground train labyrinth puzzle in the same Myst game as mentioned above - the puzzle which comes right afterwards, even. You have to guess your way through the labyrinth by listening to the sounds made each time you rotate the train to see if you're going towards the right direction - and it sounds much easier than it is.

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by Keregioz

Oh oh! I'm waiting for Andrea's fury to be unleashed upon you at any moment!

Well, if he don't assume that that particular puzzle was created by Jane and that that particular puzzle is responsible for burying the genre, I can live with his judgment. I'm not a fan of it but I'm not ashamed in saying that I found it funny and not difficult at all, like you Keregioz.

Originally Posted by Keregioz

Another one is in secret files: Tunguska, a puzzle you had to solve to get a hold of a lemon...

I don't remember it thorough, but yes, I can remember it was pretty bad.

[Ursulla]

Originally Posted by Guyra

@Ursulla: Are you sure that's from Journey to the center of the Earth? Because it sounds exactly like a puzzle in the first Myst game, which I played a month ago, or something.

And for a really annoying puzzle, you've got the underground train labyrinth puzzle in the same Myst game as mentioned above - the puzzle which comes right afterwards, even. You have to guess your way through the labyrinth by listening to the sounds made each time you rotate the train to see if you're going towards the right direction - and it sounds much easier than it is.

I also played Myst,and believe me this puzzle you described was fun compared to the one from Journey to the Center of the Earth...No one knows the logic behind it!

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Guyra

@Ursulla: Are you sure that's from Journey to the center of the Earth? Because it sounds exactly like a puzzle in the first Myst game, which I played a month ago, or something.

The sound puzzle in Myst was inside the spaceship IIRC.
But I do remember a horrible puzzle in the beginning of Journey to the Center of the Earth: You have to place a number of tiles around a door to open it. I never understood the clues so I had to check the UHS hints where the author of the hints to said game also found them cryptic and apparently had solved the puzzle by pure guesswork. Quite an achievement.

And for a really annoying puzzle, you've got the underground train labyrinth puzzle in the same Myst game as mentioned above - the puzzle which comes right afterwards, even. You have to guess your way through the labyrinth by listening to the sounds made each time you rotate the train to see if you're going towards the right direction - and it sounds much easier than it is.

Each to his/her own. I loved that labyrinth.

[Ursulla]

Originally Posted by Jelena

The sound puzzle in Myst was inside the spaceship IIRC.
But I do remember a horrible puzzle in the beginning of Journey to the Center of the Earth: You have to place a number of tiles around a door to open it. I never understood the clues so I had to check the UHS hints where the author of the hints to said game also found them cryptic and apparently had solved the puzzle by pure guesswork. Quite an achievement.

Hi Jelena
This puzzle you mention is not the one I refer to...There is another one... more hideous later on in the Valley of the Spirits...
That one is straight from Hell...