Adventure Gamers - Forums

Dag - 09 January 2014 10:58 PM

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

Me too Dag, me too. Think it was back in 1984 (for me at least) if my memory serves me correctly. The quote “Thorin sits down and sings about gold” takes me straight back lol.

After that, I guess it was GK2 (as well for me). I’d only just got a PC at that time and had only recently moved to Munich. An English guy I met by chance showed it to me & we spent a few evenings going through it (back in the days before easy internet access ). The writing quality & how it portrayed Munich & surroundings was something quite special for me at that time.

subbi - 10 January 2014 05:58 AM

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?

For me, it’s the game’s over-reliance on random event triggers and a particularly annoying forest maze.  I think I wandered around aimlessly in Longbow more than in any other Sierra game.

Also, Hero’s Quest did a lot of things that Longbow did, and first.  And with much tighter and more developed gameplay mechanics. 

Lambonius - 10 January 2014 01:33 PM

subbi - 10 January 2014 05:58 AM

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?

For me, it’s the game’s over-reliance on random event triggers and a particularly annoying forest maze.  I think I wandered around aimlessly in Longbow more than in any other Sierra game.

Also, Hero’s Quest did a lot of things that Longbow did, and first.  And with much tighter and more developed gameplay mechanics. 

Yes, there you hit a particular low point of the game. There are a few of those random events, especially the problematic ‘catch the pixie’ one. But once you know when and where it does not detract from the enjoyment of playing.

Most of the ‘days’ are really fun, such as the save the widows son’s day.

What I also really like is that you don’t walk around with dozens of inventory items, and being required to construct weird devices or try out endless combinations of items. Rubber-ducky-puzzle anyone?

It’s hard for me to say. I was into adventure games from a pretty early age.

Hugo’s House of Horrors was the first one I had on my own computer at home and really got into, as well as the sequels. I don’t really think it was anything about them in particular other than having an on-screen character to control (I hadn’t yet played any Sierra or Lucas adventures)

But when I got a 486 for my bar mitzvah in September of 1994, I had a whole new world of computer games open up to me that simply wouldn’t before. There were three adventure games I got in the months that followed and I’m not sure I could confidently say what order I played them in. I’m pretty sure it was:

Space Quest IV: The hand-painted backgrounds, the humor… this game blew me away, and I didn’t even have the talkie version—at least not until maybe a year later. Just like the Hugo games, I didn’t beat it for a very long time, getting stuck about 3/4 through, as was my fate with many adventures, but it made me a fan and I started seeking out Sierra adventures after that.

Myst: This one had become a phenomenon almost overnight, and I believe it came out on Windows a few months after I got my new computer. The tone was such a radical departure from what I normally thought of as gaming, and it just seemed so adult and so surreal. I got very immersed in its world, feverishly jotting down notes and trying to piece together the puzzles.

Under a Killing Moon: I had read about this around when I got my new computer, but I didn’t get it just yet. I’m pretty sure I played it a little after Myst, because I remember seeing pictures and assuming it was pre-rendered in the same way. Then I saw the game at a friends house and I went to play it and those environments… the MOVED! I couldn’t believe it was real-time. It looked even better than Doom. I got the game shortly thereafter and got totally sucked in. I’m pretty sure this was the first adventure game I actually finished, thanks in no small part to the built in hints.

TimovieMan - 10 January 2014 06:50 PM

Then there was Space Quest which I absolutely HATED (because it was like Larry but without the funny and with lots and lots of dying).

I’m assuming this was a typo and that you actually meant, “It was like Larry but funnier and with less random deaths.”

As a kid I had both Deja Vu and Shadowgate on the Nintendo.  Apparently they were some of the very first point and click adventure games ever made, but I had no idea what adventure games were at that time.  But I loved the hell out of these games, and spent a lot of time at a friend’s house trying futilely to solve Shadowgate with him.

A couple years after that I played Maniac Mansion on the computer and fell in love with it.  Even though again it was notoriously hard, it was very interesting and there was always something new to discover.  I still didn’t really know this was a genre of its own though.

Then finally, I played King’s Quest 6 one summer when I was visiting relatives of mine and I once again fell in love.  And this time it finally lead me into seeking out more adventure games.

diego - 10 January 2014 01:49 PM

I might not be blown away by it, but having that “morning urge” to play the game as soon you wake up is good enough. .

Danganronpa totally gave me that feeling.  And that is very rare for me nowadays.  Check it out, guys!

It was Mixed-Up Mother Goose for me, if we’re counting that. If not, then The Black Cauldron. Most of the appeal of adventures to me was exploring what at the time were the most beautiful and immersive environments in gaming.

I had some friends who always had a new Sierra game (KQ1 SCI, KQ5 and SQ3 are the ones I remember most from their house), and wished that I had a computer capable of running the newer games.

At around the same time period, I became obsessed with the NES version of Maniac Mansion. Still love that music:

I went through an adventure game drought which felt like forever but was probably around 2 years, until finally 20 years ago this month (January 1994) I purchased a used 386 from a friend of my mom’s for $100 (no monitor). I borrowed money from my mom to buy a monitor for about $120, and I was finally in business. Conquests of Camelot came first, and that might have been all I had until my birthday in March. After that, it was Sierra-fest 1994 for me, and the rest is history (well, it’s beyond the scope of this thread).

it was fantastic reading these replies

Monkey Island 1&2 for me.

Especially LCR. I remember reading the walkthrough for it as a kid in the local computer magazine. I read it dozens of times in the early ‘92, imagining every scene how it could look like, while saving money to buy 11 (used, they were cheaper) floppy disks and go to the local “pirate” (back then it was impossible to buy legal games in Serbia for years to come).

When I finally did it, it was such a joy. Luckily the walkthrough that I’ve read had many errors and omissions, so I still had a lot of fun working out puzzles, but the greatest enjoyment came from the feeling of immersion (especially in the 2nd part) in that beautiful world, freedom of exploration and “teleportation” to that tropical paradise that was such a contrast to the grim reality that surrounded me at that time.

Bogi - 12 January 2014 09:25 PM

I remember reading the walkthrough for it as a kid in the local computer magazine. I read it dozens of times in the early ‘92, imagining every scene how it could look like…

I had a similar experience. I would sit in the bookstore often on Friday nights in ‘92-‘93 reading the walkthroughs from the King’s Quest Companion. I vicariously experienced the games through those walkthroughs and longed to actually play them. When I finally got to play them, I played them following the KQC walkthroughs to the letter, and loved them. I’ve still never played the original versions of 1-6 without walkthroughs. Same with SQ4 and 5 (Space Quest Companion). I do not regret this at all.

Then in the late fall of ‘93 I received that season’s InterAction magazine and read it over and over and over. I was especially drawn to Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist and The Adventures of Willy Beamish. It felt like forever until I finally got my hands on them (it was 5 months tops).