Adventure Gamers - Forums

First of all, hello world!  My name is Zach, and this is my first post here.  Hopefully I’ll be able to stick around here and, well, mingle?

Anyway, before I start, I’d like to maybe explain what pulp is.  Generally, it’s a fast-paced style of storytelling with usually a retro atmosphere—Indiana Jones, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and the Rocketeer are all really good examples, as is the Uncharted series of video games.  But the Golden Age of pulp fiction also starred proto-superheroes like Doc Savage and the Shadow, most of Lovecraft’s works, Conan the Barbarian, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and a ton of private detectives like Sam Spade and Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.  All in all, pulp can cover a broad range of styles and genres, but the cheesy retro ambiance and general mystery and intrigue is usually still there besides.

So all that said, I’m always on the prowl for adventure games in the vein of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Tex Murphy or Grim Fandango (which was the first adventure game I ever played as I was just too young to get really involved in the “Golden Age” of adventure games, barring maybe the equally-strange and art deco Starship Titanic).  Thing is, there just seems to be a shortage of them.  I’ve found one called Lost Horizon, a good old point-and-click which I believe you can find on Steam, inspired by the novel of the same name.  It’s a German work—there’s a not-too-bad English translation going for it though—set in 1936 Shanghai, involving British troops and German Nazis and all that good stuff.  You play a down-on-his-luck pilot in a leather jacket, and like LucasArts adventure games of yore, you just can’t die.  Well, I haven’t been able to so far!  Oh, and there’s lost cities and kids you just can’t get fishing poles away from.

But I’m certain there’s more out there!  I’d love to see and play any sort of adventure in the vein of pulp adventure like Indiana Jones or just plain old hardboiled detective fiction, and I’m sure others would agree with me.

Thanks a bunch in advance for whatever you can find, and I’ll see you around!  = )

Wow, thanks a bunch!  I had only heard of Broken Sword and Gabriel Knight before.  I’ll have to give all of these a look-see.  = )

Hopkins FBI would probably fit in here somewhere. It’s an incredibly sleazy and dark game like those old pulpy crime novels. Snatcher for the SEGA CD is another game that edges towards pulp, but I still consider it cyberpunk first.

Again, thanks a bunch, guys!  Normally I make a thread as a new member and it gets like three replies before falling into the aether, never to be seen or mentioned again.  It’s neat to see that even my first thread here has a bit of longevity to it.  = )  On top of that, there are a bunch of great suggestions for games here that I might really enjoy—I just gotta find ‘em!  So thanks a bunch for that, too.

Anyway, I definitely need to give Hopkins FBI a play, as well as Heart of China, Amazon: Guardians of Eden and Flight of the Amazon Queen.  Oh, and Anachronox, definitely.  =D I’ve been trying to find time to play it for a while, now.

So, again, thanks a bunch for the suggestions, all!

Rex Nebular And The Cosmic Gender Bender is quite pulpy: http://www.mobygames.com/game/rex-nebular-and-the-cosmic-gender-bender