Adventure Gamers - Forums

I think 3D adventure Total Eclipse (1988) also worked in realtime.

Zifnab - 20 May 2013 04:34 PM

Wouldn’t Azarok’s Tomb (1987) be considered real-time? The seconds went on ticking by while you sat there doing nothing.

Depends on if the actual puzzles/gameplay elements were in any way influenced by the time movement or not.

From the game’s descriptions I found, it doesn’t seem like that was the case.

But I haven’t played it myself.

eriktorbjorn - 21 May 2013 04:54 AM

Border Zone (1987) was real-time too, but Ascovel mentioned the “time manipulation mechanic” in The Last Express, and Border Zone didn’t have that. (Unless you count waiting to advance time, and the option to make the real-time clock run slower.)

Yes, I haven’t played it but it seems like Border Zone is the famous first instance of real time gameplay in an adventure game.

It was a text only game, so Metropolis may still be the first graphic adventure with real time (a more tech than design feat).

Bastich - 21 May 2013 01:43 PM

Did you all not see my post or something? The Hobbit (1982) is much older than the other real-time games being mentioned here and more importantly sold over a million copies. It’s not the earliest real-time adventure game, but given the number of sales, certainly the best contender for most influential in that regard, which is what this thread is about.

Well, the presence of real time in The Hobbit is questionable:

“Unlike other works of interactive fiction, the game was also in real time - if you left the keyboard for too long, events continued without you by automatically entering the “WAIT” command with the response “You wait - time passes”. If you had to leave the keyboard for a short time, there was a “PAUSE” command which would stop all events until a key was pressed.” (quoted from Wikipedia)

That’s no real time IMO. It still advances in turns. You can’t have simultaneous events within The Hobbit.

And while The Last Express is a great game, it isn’t actually a contender for anything because the one thing supposedly new that was mentioned in this thread (e.g. being able to manipulate time in a real-time game), was not adopted to any degree by anyone else, meaning it had no influence on the industry at all.

Oh, it had notable influence in the industry, though not directly via adventure games. It was followed by Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and more recently Braid which is at least in part an adventure game.

Hmm… one interesting thing - I don’t think it’s always possible to equal “being first” and “games that made a difference that was followed”. For example, Maniac Mansion did everything “first” before Monkey Island, but perhaps Monkey Island is more “followed”?

Anyway - I think one of the more “influential” games is also King’s Quest 7! Sure, we’ve had Day of the Tentacle and Sam&Max; before it, but it was with King’s Quest 7 that games really started to look like a full-length animated film. It introduced smart cursor for the first time in Sierra games, and even though one can argue that it simplified exploration it became the staple interface. I believe it was one of the first games that featured up-close inspection of objects you’re carrying.

diego - 21 May 2013 02:01 PM

Hmm… one interesting thing - I don’t think it’s always possible to equal “being first” and “games that made a difference that was followed”. For example, Maniac Mansion did everything “first” before Monkey Island, but perhaps Monkey Island is more “followed”?

No. 1st things that had been presented originally by some People Devs was followed, because of the the good result and the feedback it gave on the industry.
and even i can take you example of Maniac Mansion & Monkey Island to start to think of Confluence of thoughts .. i couldn’t as they were presented by the same Dev.

...who would have thought that a text saying ‘YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING.AROUND YOU IS A FOREST…...etc’ would have created/resulted a genre and an industry ,
we need to give every___ created/started something their credits

I think King’s Quest was the first adventure game with on screen objects, like trees and houses, you could actually walk behind of.