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First adventure game that really did it for you..

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Joined 2013-01-03

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I did multiple searches and couldn’t find a topic quite like this
—-

tell me about the first time an adventure game really captivated your imagination. It wowed you and left you begging for more.  Perhaps it was unlike any game you’ve played before.. and it’s as though you’re love affair with adventure games began that very second.

Since I’m starting this topic, you may have guessed that I have such a moment to share. This specific memory is frozen in time for me.. how I felt, the wonder, the magic - hard coded in my brain for safe keeping.. and accessed each and every time I begin a new adventure game (even now, 30 years later).

Space Quest II - Vohaul’s Revenge
It was 1988. My friends parents just bought a random game for him to play on the family computer - a 386 I think. Up until then, I guess the closest thing to an adventure game I played was Zelda 1 for NES and Phantasy Star 1 for Sega Master System. Space Quest 2 was an entirely different animal!
We fumbled our way through the DOS interface and finally loaded sq2.exe.
After laughing my ass off at Roger letting go of his broom..the 3rd one he lost that week, game control was transferred to me and that’s when it hit me. I was free to do ANYTHING I wanted!! Or at least, that’s how I remember feeling as a youngster. The text interpreter style really gave me that impression - maybe I couldn’t do ‘anything’, but I sure as hec could try (and perhaps get some witty feedback as a result)!

The point is, I felt a remarkable sense of freedom as I explored and began my adventure.
I never looked back! From that day on, there were ‘games’ and there were ‘adventure games’.

So how about you? What was the first AG that really grabbed you - and what gaming experience did you have up to then? 

     
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Joined 2007-07-22

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GK2. Just looking and holding that hefty 6 disc-box made me tremble.

     

Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale

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Total Posts: 1289

Joined 2012-07-15

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I got exactly that feeling you describe when I played Kings Quest 1 for the first time. I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but somewhere between 1987-89. I had played a text adventure based on The Hobbit before this, but KQ1 was my first “real” graphic adventure, and I’ve been hooked on adventure games ever since. I got the same feeling again with The Secret of Monkey Island, and then again (and this was the last time I felt like this) with The Curse of Monkey Island in 1997. 17 years later, and I’m still searching for a game that can recreate that feeling. Broken Age seems like a possible candidate, but who knows.. maybe I’m too old to feel like that again? What a depressing thought…

     

Duckman: Can you believe it? Five hundred bucks for a parking ticket?
Cornfed Pig: You parked in a handicapped zone.
Duckman: Who cares? Nobody parks there anyway, except for the people who are supposed to park there and, hell, I can outrun them anytime.

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Joined 2012-01-02

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actually it was Larry who did it for me Grin , but seriously! larry 2 was the one or at least the start ,its hard to determine!! , my 1st AG ever was LSL1 didn’t really hook me ,after it was Kings quest 1,2,and 3 they were like the most scariest things I ever encountered in whole life super adrenaline pumpers they were, by the time KQ4 was out I was really craving for more , I guess it was that ,KQ4; the game structure is so amazing ,very difficult *yes it was ,but the huge number of interaction and characters and locations at the game got me good, it had awful deaths tho ,I remember 10s of times I exchange to diskettes just to encounter one death (because I stepped into a sudden death screen) and load a saved game ,swap them back . (10 diskettes for god’s sake) ..

adamnb1 - 09 January 2014 07:40 PM

The text interpreter style really gave me that impression - maybe I couldn’t do ‘anything’, but I sure as hec could try (and perhaps get some witty feedback as a result)!
 

yes that was also the feeling for me then!
King’s QuestIV Kissing Spree Grin Tongue

     
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Joined 2007-07-22

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Advie - 09 January 2014 08:34 PM
adamnb1 - 09 January 2014 07:40 PM

The text interpreter style really gave me that impression - maybe I couldn’t do ‘anything’, but I sure as hec could try (and perhaps get some witty feedback as a result)!
 

yes that was also the feeling for me then!
King’s QuestIV Kissing Spree Grin Tongue


The text/text input adventures give us the freedom which is hard or impossible to recreate with the modern interfaces that took its place. Only some non-text input Legend adventures, Al Emmo or few Daedalic games… have been close at putting some magic into the non-text interface that would get close to the text input games.

     

Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale

Total Posts: 415

Joined 2007-12-29

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Simon the Sorcerer 1 got me hooked and then Gabriel Knight 2. I still wish I could re-live that feeling of immersion that I felt with those games. nothing has ever come close, but, probably because I have played so many games now and those games were a first for me knowing that games like that really existed!  Every day I couldn’t wait to start playing to see what happened next, or what I could figure out. Such fun times.  ahhhh.

     
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Joined 2012-07-15

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Advie - 09 January 2014 08:34 PM

Kings quest 1,2,and 3 they were like the most scariest things I ever encountered in whole life super adrenaline pumpers they were

Hahaha, I agree. I remember especially the evil wizard Mannanan in KQ3 scaring the crap out of me every time he appeared. He was a bit like my dad. When he appeared in my room, I never knew if he was gonna (verbally) kill me for something I did/didn’t do or just order me to do tasks.

     

Duckman: Can you believe it? Five hundred bucks for a parking ticket?
Cornfed Pig: You parked in a handicapped zone.
Duckman: Who cares? Nobody parks there anyway, except for the people who are supposed to park there and, hell, I can outrun them anytime.

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Joined 2006-05-18

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Dag - 09 January 2014 08:19 PM

I got exactly that feeling you describe when I played Kings Quest 1 for the first time. I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but somewhere between 1987-89. I had played a text adventure based on The Hobbit before this…

aaaah, the old text The Hobbit. I didn’t play it but I’ve heard (and read) about it: http://www.filfre.net/2012/11/the-hobbit/

     

“The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired.”
― Harlan Ellison, Stalking the Nightmare

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Total Posts: 70

Joined 2006-05-18

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It’s funny, it’s hard for me to answer the original question because it actually took awhile for me to get into my favorite adventure, Riven. In fact, it took a few years for me to realize how genius it was (my father had bought it just like he did with Myst to show off the computer’s graphics.)

For me, it’d have to be back in the text days, with Scott Adam’s Pirate Adventure, which got me hooked on a computer interactive narrative. Or even Infocom’s Suspect where I was blown away by the ability to TALK to NPCs.

But for graphic adventure?...there was Police Quest, and that was special. Really special. It’s funny the moment I remember the most about playing PQ1 was when Sonny dyes his hair blonde, somehow the fact I could change my character’s hair made the world so real to me.

But the first adventure game that really did it for me is Scott Adam’s “Pirate Adventure.” My family all huddled around out Commodore PET, loaded the game from a cassette tape, and tried to solve the riddles. Special times.

     

“The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired.”
― Harlan Ellison, Stalking the Nightmare

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Joined 2004-01-06

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adamnb1 - 09 January 2014 07:40 PM

tell me about the first time an adventure game really captivated your imagination. It wowed you and left you begging for more.  Perhaps it was unlike any game you’ve played before.. and it’s as though you’re love affair with adventure games began that very second.

Myst—the first adventure game I ever played.
Especially Channelwood. I got completely lost there.
I had no idea what to expect when I bought it. An online friend suggested I play it.
I thought it was great to be able to explore and fiddle with things without anyone shooting at me.

I started playing adventure games later than most people here, long after the King’s Quest and other Sierra Quest Adventures had come and gone. But Myst and other QuickTime-based games were still being sold in the stores, often at reduced price, so that’s what I started out with.

     
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Joined 2012-07-15

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Gonzosports - 09 January 2014 10:34 PM
Dag - 09 January 2014 08:19 PM

I got exactly that feeling you describe when I played Kings Quest 1 for the first time. I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but somewhere between 1987-89. I had played a text adventure based on The Hobbit before this…

aaaah, the old text The Hobbit. I didn’t play it but I’ve heard (and read) about it: http://www.filfre.net/2012/11/the-hobbit/

Yes! That’s the one! Fond memories Smile

     

Duckman: Can you believe it? Five hundred bucks for a parking ticket?
Cornfed Pig: You parked in a handicapped zone.
Duckman: Who cares? Nobody parks there anyway, except for the people who are supposed to park there and, hell, I can outrun them anytime.

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Total Posts: 191

Joined 2004-12-30

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crabapple - 09 January 2014 10:54 PM
adamnb1 - 09 January 2014 07:40 PM

tell me about the first time an adventure game really captivated your imagination. It wowed you and left you begging for more.  Perhaps it was unlike any game you’ve played before.. and it’s as though you’re love affair with adventure games began that very second.

Myst—the first adventure game I ever played.
Especially Channelwood. I got completely lost there.
I had no idea what to expect when I bought it. An online friend suggested I play it.
I thought it was great to be able to explore and fiddle with things without anyone shooting at me.

I started playing adventure games later than most people here, long after the King’s Quest and other Sierra Quest Adventures had come and gone. But Myst and other QuickTime-based games were still being sold in the stores, often at reduced price, so that’s what I started out with.

Crabapple posted my planned response almost word-for-word, including how wonderful it was to poke around and play with stuff without being shot at or being expected to shoot back.

I can only add: Seconded!

     

Warning- People won’t have as much of a sense of humor about you putting an Alka Seltzer in your mouth then staggering into a restaurant while shouting “THE VIRUS HAS MUTATED!” as you’d hope they would.

Consider this: People say “Ewwww!!!” when they hear about a guy having a hairy bum or hairy back, yet every Teddy Bear ever made has had both a hairy bum AND a hairy back and nobody complains about them; In fact, people think Teddy Bears are adorable.

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Joined 2013-03-31

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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  It came bundled with my dad’s new 286 sometime around 1989 or 1990.  Can’t remember which.  That game captivated me like no other, and also single-handedly cemented my Indiana Jones fandom.  Then Fate of Atlantis came along, and I think I hit puberty about 3 years early.

     
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Total Posts: 600

Joined 2011-06-07

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Conquests of the Longbow!

I remember playing it back in ‘92 and it was so much better than any quest from Sierra up to that point. Remember, there was no Gabriel Knight 1 or KQ6 out there yet I believe.

The story was captivating, the gameplay fun….I really liked the blend of adventuring, mild action (archery, fighting) and the somewhat meaningful choices that end up in different game endings.

The music, though it gets sometimes criticized for repetitiveness, is really well done and seamless fits the material and historic context. Naturally, with the MT-32.

The writing of Christy Marx is really fantastic and have not seen better “fitting” work since. I always hoped that someone would remake this one, with higher resolution artwork, voices and symphonic score…but alas.

I’m glad this game is in the Top100 AG of this site, but obviously I would have put it a lot higher…..(somewhere in the top15 as far as I’m concerned)

Is it just me, or is the main reason this game has been overseen by most of the gaming community simply due to it’s “awful” title? Whoever came up with that, surely must be cringing about it now.
I realize that Sierra wanted to have the word “Quest” in all title, but something with at least the name Robin Hood in it, would have been so much better and would have led to a lot more exposure.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.

     
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Joined 2013-03-14

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It would be either King’s Quest 1, Police Quest 1 or Space Quest 1. Before those I had played mostly typipcal action, platformer etc. games you usually got for Amstrad ord Commodore. The Quest series really was a type of games I hadn’t experienced before and despite my english wasn’t very good at the time, me being under 10 and all, I rummaged them all through with a help of walkthroughs and boy, were they sweet.

Way back in the 80’s we had this computer teacher who wanted to educate kids about the joys of PC, so he held these once or twice a week computer clubs. The first hour we usually spent on “proper” computer stuff, like configurating MS-Dos or checking out how word processors and stuff worked. LogoWR was also a hoot.

But the carrot, dangling in the front of us all, was the change of getting our mits on his nice Sierra and Lucasfilm games collection. On the second hour we usually got to play what ever game happened to be free. It was slow process usually, as the computers on the class room didn’t have hardrives, so we had to play the games from the disks. But back then it didn’t matter. The disk swapping was just a minor annoyance, nothing more.

     
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Total Posts: 177

Joined 2006-03-28

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I played some text adventures when I was young and I always really enjoyed them but for me, the game that really made me fall in love with adventure games was the Dagger of Amon Ra. I was in college when it came out and a friend of mine bought it and asked me if I wanted to play it with him. We had so much fun playing it even though we got stuck for so long at the end when the killer her around.

After that experience, I played as many adventure games that I could get my hands on. It may not be the best adventure game ever made but the Dagger of Amon Ra will always hold a special place in my heart.

     

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