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Warning! Playing Scumm Games and Classics Can Cause a Serious Adventurer’s Block :)
Someone will have to do the research and the math to end this debate.
I can do those those calculations, no problem .. but then we would have to go into another debate around some titles if they were considered modern of classics , so it would be useless ..
i will just say playing Games like Flight of the Amazon Queen and The Feeble Files lately (which i never had played before) were like the best time of my adventuring time since Sierra’s , when sometimes my heart beat hard while i am playing, a feeling that i thought was connected to age but it was nice be proven wrong .... Greeting Citizens 
Greeting Citizens
If you’re quoting little Feeble, that should be Good cycle, citizens.
Anyway, just for the hell of it, here’s a list of adventures from the most productive year: 1996. No children’s games, no console games, no interactive movies, no hybrids. Judge for yourself.
11th Hour – In the 1st Degree – Ace Ventura – Amber: Journeys Beyond – Azrael’s Tear (action bits) – Bad Mojo – Blue Ice – Braindead 13 (debatable) – Broken Sword 1 – Chronicles of the Sword – Chronomaster – Clandestiny – Congo: Descent into Zinj – Creature Crunch – Crystal Skull – Cyberia 2: Resurrection – D – Devon: Adventures of the Smart Patrol – Discworld 2 – Down in the Dumps – Duckman – Gene Machine – Gord@k – Harvester – Larry 7 – Lighthouse – Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo – Martian Chronicles – Master of Dimensions – Milo: Find the Key to the Universe – Mode – Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail – Mummy: Tomb of the Pharaoh – Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows – Neverhood – Noir: A Shadowy Thriller – Normality – Obsidian - Phantasmagoria 2 – Philip Marlowe: Private Eye – Qin – Rama – The Residents: Bad Day on the Midway – Ripper – Sacred Mirror of Kofun – Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder – Santa Fe Mysteries: Sacred Ground – Secret of the Luxor – SFPD: the Body in the Bay - Spud – Spycraft – Synnergist – Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive - Time Gate – Time Paradox – Timelapse – Titanic: Adventure Out of Time – Toonstruck – Torin’s Passage – Touche: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer – Treasure Quest – Urban Runner (debatable) – Vampire Diaries – Voyeur 2 (debatable) – Zeddas: Servants of Sheol – Zork Nemesis
EDIT: Obsidian added; GK2 (1995) and Companions of Xanth (1993) removed
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
good cycle and Really good effort Fien , but why should you had to be that Grumpy?
Grumpy??
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
Ok fien , My bad ... Sorry
All-Time Top 100 Adventure Games Math
1983-1999 = 58 titles (if we added the original MI 1,2 to the results as they are listed here by their S.E they will be 60)
2000-2012 = 42 titles (same for MI give and take if we eliminated them then the results would be 40)
The Top Ten alone have 7 titles(from the 1983-1999 era) to 3 titles (from the 2000-2012 era)
Here are All-Time Top 100 Adventure Games with their dates
Titanic: Adventure Out Of Time (1998)
Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor (2004)
Space Bar, The (1997)
Runaway: A Twist of Fate (2009)
Gold Rush! (1988)
The Riddle of Master Lu (1995)
Faust (2000)
Toonstruck(1996)
Dig, The (1995)
Feeble Files, The (1997)
Spycraft: The Great Game (1996)
Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time, The (1995)
Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe (1995)
Penumbra: Black Plague (2008)
Dark Fall: The Journal (2002)
Dark Eye, The (1995)
Colonel’s Bequest, The (A Laura Bow Mystery) (1989)
Black Mirror, The (2003)
7th Guest, The (1993)
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (1990)
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2008)
Gemini Rue (2011)
Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist (1993)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009)
Drawn: The Painted Tower (2009)
King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown (1983)
Shadow of the Comet (1993)
Discworld II (1996)
Maniac Mansion (1987)
Leisure Suit Larry 7 (1996)
Amber: Journeys Beyond (1996)
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1995)
Shadow of Destiny (2000)
Pepper’s Adventures in Time (1993)
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon (1997)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215(2007)
Book of Unwritten Tales, The (2011)
Black Dahlia (1998)
Obsidian (1996)
Loom (1990)
Another Code (2005)
Myst III: Exile (2003)
Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1993)
Indigo Prophecy (2005)
MISSING: Since January (2003)
Syberia II (2004)
Samorost 2 (2005)
Return to Mysterious Island (2004)
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006)
Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (1991)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (2008)
Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time, The (1998)
Curse of Monkey Island, The (1997)
Simon the Sorcerer (1993)
Blackstone Chronicles (1998)
Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood (1991)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (2011)
Myst IV: Revelation (2004)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (2010)
Full Throttle (1995)
Stacking (2011)
Sanitarium (1998)
Neverhood, The (1996)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)
L.A. Noire (2011)
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999)
Portal (2007)
Bad Mojo Redux (2004)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2005)
Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993)
Discworld Noir (1999)
Heavy Rain (2010)
Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon (1994)
Police Quest 2: The Vengeance (1988)
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (1993)
Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel, The (1992)
Blade Runner (1997)
Still Life (2005)
Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)
Myst (1993)
Machinarium (2009)
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993)
Syberia (2002)
Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, The (2009)
King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)
Zork Grand Inquisitor (1997)
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
Portal 2 (2011)
Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive (1996)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge - Special Edition (2010)
Last Express, The (1997)
Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Riven: The Sequel to Myst (1997)
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (1996)
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within (1995)
Longest Journey, The (2000)
Grim Fandango (1998)
So, 60 in the first 16 years (average 3.75 per year), 40 in the next 12 (average 3.33 per year).
Like I said, even by the purely subjective standards of our Top 100, there isn’t much difference.
Again, I’m not saying the Golden Age didn’t have some incredible games. Of course it did. But one look at Fien’s list is proof that those years also brought a lot of long-forgotten mediocrity (or worse). Comparing only the best of those years to the worst of today is pretty misleading.
Comparing only the best of those years to the worst of today is pretty misleading.
I am sure the ancient Greeks produced a lot of art and sculptures which were failures. Only the most excellent were retained and remembered. The same will happen with games - only the really good ones will be remembered whether it is 90s or 00s games. The age with the most excellent will reveal the “golden age”.
The “golden age” was not really from 1983-1999. and it’s unfair to compare that period to the 2000s era. If you look around the years 1993-1997 (which I consider the real “golden age”), even in the Top 100 I am sure the percentage of Great Games will be much higher than anywhere else.
But all this depends on whether you agree with the Top 100 in the first place. I don’t think it claims to agree with everyone. Whether you think the golden age was 80s or is now, or there was no golden age at all, that’s all down to personal taste.
All-Time Top 100 Adventure Games Math
1983-1999 = 58 titles (if we added the original MI 1,2 to the results as they are listed here by their S.E they will be 60)
2000-2012 = 42 titles (same for MI give and take if we eliminated them then the results would be 40)
That is too simple Advie. You should make a list of all the games that came out in these eras and then determine what percentage of them are considered classics now. In Fien’s list I count 8 classics in 68 games, which makes 12% of the games released in 1996 classics. I checked for every title if it is in the Top 100 list you showed and then calculated the percentage.
I count 11 classics from the year 1996:
Amber - BS1 - Bad Mojo - Discworld 2 - Larry 7 - Neverhood - Obsidian - Spycraft - Titanic Out of Time - Toonstruck - Tex: Pandora Directive.
Advie and I both made a mistake. I’d forgotten Obsidian and Titanic was released in 1996, not in 1998. Bad Mojo Redux is Bad Mojo with a higher resolution.
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
Companions of Xanth from your list would certainly be another ‘96 classic in my book, if it hadn’t been released in 1993 
But in fact, most of those games on the list from 1996 are great. You’re mad if you think any year after 2000 can match it 
Oops! 
I should have spotted that one. I got the list from Pagoda.com and deleted the children’s games etcetera.
I agree that there were many good adventures made in 1996, not just the classic ones in the Top Hundred. But Jackal is right too. Here are 11 lousy ones to counter the 11 classics: Mirror of Kofun, Devon: Adventures of the Smart Patrol, Chronicles of the Sword, Spud, Vampire Diaries, Treasure Quest, Gord@k, Voyeur 2, Crystal Skull, Down in the Dumps, Milo.
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
The “Golden Era” of adventure games (about up to when Full Throttle was released) was called that for a reason. There most definitely is an argument to be made that the games released then were superior to today’s without the need for rose-tinted glasses.
First and foremost, adventure games were commercially viable. As with any in-demand product this encouraged competition, investment and innovation.
Graphics age as fast as computer hardware but there is a very clear indicator of the drop in production values: voice acting. Some of the best recent adventure games look great (A New Beginning, the gorgeous Chains of Satinav) but the voice acting is fucking awful. Listen to The Dig, listen to Grim Fandango - none of those modern games can compare.
Production isn’t everything though! What about the gameplay? Here’s another indicator: modern iterations of point-and-click classics. Telltale’s Monkey Island games are fun, sure, but still feel like mediocre, formulaic rehashes of the originals. There’s nothing in any of the 5 episodes that’s as memorable as the insult sword fights of Monkey 1 and the games lack the subtle self-awareness that defined the series. They’re enjoyable enough but there’s nothing in there that hasn’t been done before.
So by now you’re ready to argue that Tales of Monkey Island weren’t supposed to be innovative. Fair enough, people play Gemini Rue or ToMI or Telltale’s Sam and Max because they just want an old-school point and click - and that mere channeling of golden era gameplay is precisely what makes them inferior to their forebears.
Then there’s the issue of writing. The genre originated from text adventures and good writing is a crucial element. Even well-received post-Grim Fandango games are plagued with mediocre, poorly translated or even downright offensive writing (black policeman in Still Life I’m looking at you!) Even something as simple as creating a likable protagonist seems difficult. This also comes down to production standards, writing is hard and best left to real writers, and let’s be honest there aren’t many good writers working in video games.
All this isn’t to say there aren’t any good modern adventures but too often compromises have to be made. The story will be good but the animation will suck and the voice acting will be terrible (Chains of Satinav). The setting and graphics will be great but the puzzles the worst sort of illogical wacky crap (Whispered World). And my point is that there was a time when you could enjoy those games without making any compromise.
To end on a positive note: there are a handful of games that have shown innovation on a tight budget and should be commended. Frogware’s Sherlock Holmes series, Culpa Innata, Resonance, although far from perfect there are interesting things in there and the fact that Frogware just released a higher budget adventure game on PC and consoles is encouraging.
To end on a positive note: there are a handful of games that have shown innovation on a tight budget and should be commended. Frogware’s Sherlock Holmes series, Culpa Innata, Resonance, although far from perfect there are interesting things in there and the fact that Frogware just released a higher budget adventure game on PC and consoles is encouraging.
What’s innovative about Frogware’s games, Culpa Innata and Resonance?
Now playing: ——-
Recently finished: don’t remember
Up next: Eh…
Looking forward to: Ithaka of the Clouds; The Last Crown; all the kickstarter adventure games I supported
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