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What are some good non-Sierra AGI games?
Hi everyone,
I’ve recently been replaying the Sierra catalog, and this has make me re-realize how much I enjoy text parser AGI style games. Other than the Sierra classics, are there any others that you would recommend? Freeware or not freeware, legitimately old or retro-new, it’s all good.
The Crimson Diamond looks great, but who knows when that’s coming out. Betrayed Alliance also caught my eye (and the upcoming sequel looks absolutely beautiful), but in general this seems like a difficult genre in which to find quality games. I’m sure they are out there, but I’m having a hard time finding them.
This can also be an AGI/text parser game discussion thread.
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First games that come to mind are:
“Enclosure” - EGA graphics and feels like an AGI. The developers released another freeware AGI-style game, called “Hank’s Quest - Victim of Society”. I have no idea if it’s any good.
“Trilby’s Notes” - Part of a series of freeware games, falling somewhere in the middle. It’s also rather dark and creepy.
I’m looking forward to “The Crimson Diamond” as well!
And..
“The Adventures of Maddog Williams in the Dungeons of Duridian” - It has some some minor combat, but it’s not implemented in the general gameplay. It’s very much a parser-based fantasy adventure.
“Enclosure” - EGA graphics and feels like an AGI.
Also the first game that came to my mind despite I played it like centuries ago. All I remember is that it was very atmospheric, like Agatha Christie’s novels mixed with John Carpenter’s The Thing (and Sierra’s early games, of course).
On the other hand, the Hugo shareware trilogy that was very popular during the early 1990s (and which happened to be among my first adventure experiences) is pretty bad. It has its moments, with each game exploring a different genre (horror, mystery, adventure), but poor writing and illogical puzzles make them almost unplayable. Also they are probably not related to AGI.
And I think there was some recent freeware adventure about black people or something that resembled AGI adventures. Tried searching for it, but instead stumbled across a whole catalogue of fan AGI games. Had no idea there were so many of them. I recalled another trilogy I had completely forgot about - very nasty and blasphemous games about Tex McPhilip who wants to be a Pope. Great fun in its own right.
PC means personal computer
“Enclosure” - EGA graphics and feels like an AGI.
Also the first game that came to my mind despite I played it like centuries ago. All I remember is that it was very atmospheric, like Agatha Christie’s novels mixed with John Carpenter’s The Thing (and Sierra’s early games, of course).
On the other hand, the Hugo shareware trilogy that was very popular during the early 1990s (and which happened to be among my first adventure experiences) is pretty bad. It has its moments, with each game exploring a different genre (horror, mystery, adventure), but poor writing and illogical puzzles make them almost unplayable. Also they are probably not related to AGI.
And I think there was some recent freeware adventure about black people or something that resembled AGI adventures. Tried searching for it, but instead stumbled across a whole catalogue of fan AGI games. Had no idea there were so many of them. I recalled another trilogy I had completely forgot about - very nasty and blasphemous games about Tex McPhilip who wants to be a Pope. Great fun in its own right.
Yes, I heard about enclosure on a podcast recently. Looks interesting, although it is supposedly pretty easy.
The Hugo games might have been my first adventure games, too. They were featured on every OVER 600 GAMES ON THIS DISC! shareware compilation ever made back in the early and mid 90’s. I never got anywhere in them—I was good at games as a little kid, but not good at adventure games. Supposedly they are awful, but man, I’d get such a kick out of revisiting them that I just might.
I found that fan games link as well. A few look like legitimate, promising games…most look like time wasters. That’s what inspired me to make this thread, trying to sort the wheat from the chaff.
I had never heard of Tex McPhilip, but I’m always up for a little blasphemy. Will have a look-see.
Thank you!
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I had never heard of Tex McPhilip, but I’m always up for a little blasphemy. Will have a look-see.
I just played the first game a bit (you can enjoy it online at the Internet archive btw), and now I remember how nasty it was. Puzzles involve killing innocent people and animals - oh man, a classic example of the early 2000s freeware adventure game Of course, dark humour and EGA make it not so nasty, but I’m not sure I’d want to play these sort of games today.
The Hugo games might have been my first adventure games, too. They were featured on every OVER 600 GAMES ON THIS DISC! shareware compilation ever made back in the early and mid 90’s. I never got anywhere in them—I was good at games as a little kid, but not good at adventure games.
Me too, never got far into them as a kid and watched some Youtube playthroughs as a grownup. Can’t really blame little me for not solving them.
PC means personal computer
Snail Trek is a relatively new Sierra-like graphic parser game.
The interesting thing about it is that despite its very old-fashioned gameplay, the distribution is structured in a very modern way.
You can play the first chapter for free, and then buy later chapters as DLC if you are interested. There are also some visual override DLCs and such, which are actually quite rare in the adventure genre generally speaking!
If you’re talking about games released during the sierra era, than Accolade’s games “Altered destiny” and “Les manley: search for the king” are probably the closest in look and feel you’re going to find. The Hugo trilogy which came out as shareware (If I’m not mistaken) is also rather reminiscent of Sierra, but feels much more amateurish.
A few more:
URI Quest
Residence 44 Quest
Metropolis
Peasant’s Quest
There’s also the fanmade Space Quest games, which I’m sure every seasoned Sierra fan is aware of.
Metropolis
Peasant’s Quest
Metropolis is a classic, and a must play, imo. Peasant’s Quest is also very good but rather short.
Metropolis
Peasant’s QuestMetropolis is a classic, and a must play, imo. Peasant’s Quest is also very good but rather short.
Metropolis looks like really weird fun. I will add it to the list.
I found a freeware game called Caitlyn’s Journey yesterday and played it for just a few minutes. It’s definitely freeware—or a Daedalic Game—, as betrayed by some obvious lack of editing and proofing of the text, but the art is pretty nice and the game seems like a nice idyllic fantasy adventure game so far. Looking forward to trying more of it eventually.
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I thought the Snail Trek games were pretty fun, and short enough that they didn’t wear out their welcome.
Snail Trek does look cool. I was a little unenthusiastic about the prospect of playing as a snail, but folks here have been saying nice things about it, so I reckon I will give it a try one day.
Gosh darn, after playing almost every adventure game on my hard drive and in my GOG account, the pile of games to play is starting to grow again. (I went several years ‘stocking up’ on games when they were on sale, but being too busy to ever sit down and play any of them. That’s changed recently, and in the past year or so I must have played at least 60 games from start to finish).
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