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AG Theme Of The Week #8- Most Impactful Adventure Games
Technically speaking also Dragon’s Lair can be counted as an FMV title. And if I’m not mistaken, the term was used first to describe those kind of laserdisc games. And Dragon’s Lair was released in 1983.
I mentioned that in my post before but I wouldn’t consider Dragon’s Lair an adventure game.
This website has a good list of FMV games released:
http://fmvworld.com/games.html
Technically speaking also Dragon’s Lair can be counted as an FMV title. And if I’m not mistaken, the term was used first to describe those kind of laserdisc games. And Dragon’s Lair was released in 1983.
I wasn’t looking to say UaKM was the first FMV (Access had done that with Tex earlier anyway, and, as you rightly point out, there were FMV and FMV sort of games much earlier) but in the context of the thread was the most impactful of the early FMV games and not Phantasmagoria.
There could also be made an argument that Access, as a games developer, had a major impact on FMV, sound and, as stated earlier in the thread, on 3D environments.
Life is what it is.
wel Bitingwit and Jabod i am not gonna argue with you at all, call it what you want, but what is important here, is that SD had nailed the right theme this week, kudos Soccerdude, its a very productive subject.
and another thing, Sierra in general is is the most Impactful thing over the genre. 
and thats alone makes me so happy, cos i always had known what is/was the real thing.
what? is that a pre-objection
Sierra was extremely important company for games in general. In 1980’s they showed what was possible to do with the tech at hand as well as helped pushing new standards and tech, like soundcards.
You don’t have to like Sierra’s games, but games like King’s Quest I and Mystery House are among titles, that were genuinely pushing the boundaries when they were originally released.
I’d actually put Sierra’s Time Zone on this list as well. It was the biggest game of its time, having 1500 screens in it. Time Zone is one of the first really large, open world games, being released in 1982 for Apple II.
The Graveyard is really the ONLY actual walking simulator. That is literally its only purpose, to simulate the walk of an old woman struggling just to move, knowing that with each step she’s drawing closer to death. There’s no gameplay, no exploration, no story, no narration, nothing—just walking with great effort, feeling the simulated pain and frailty of the old woman.
All the other games that have ridiculously been slapped with that same label have very little to do with The Graveyard. Of the games that have helped popularize that trend, I’d credit Dear Esther and Gone Home as by far the most influential.
SCUMM was a huge step, but I think LucasArt made an even bigger innovation - one that wouldn’t show up in a screenshot. Their design philosophy, an explicit promise in most of their game manuals from Loom onwards, had an impact on pretty much every adventure game since.
Here’s the Loom version::
Our Game Design Philosophy
We believe that you buy games to be entertained, not to be whacked over the head every time you make a mistake. So we don’t bring the game to a screeching halt when you poke your nose into a place you haven’t visited before.
Unlike conventional computer adventures, you won’t find yourself accidentally stepping off a path, or dying because you’ve picked up a sharp object. We think you’d prefer to solve the game’s mysteries by exploring and discovering, not by dying a thousand deaths. We also think you like to spend y our time involved in the story, not typ-ing in synonyms until you stumble upon the computer’s word for a certain object.
And the Curse of Monkey Island version:
OUR GAME DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
We believe that you buy games to be entertained, not tossed overboard every time you make a mistake. So we don’t run you up on the beach and bring the game to a screeching halt when you (in the best pirate fashion) swagger into a place you’ve never been before or devastate your oppo-nent with your lightning wit. Any messes Guybrush gets into are messes you can get him out of.
We do recommend, however, that you save the game on a regular basis because 1) it’s a long game ... you probably should eat at some point, and 2) you may want to go back and see what happened if you had said other things or taken other actions. This is why computer games are so superior to real life!
No dead ends. Any mess you can get into, you can get out of.
Our Game Design Philosophy
Unlike conventional computer adventures, you won’t find yourself accidentally stepping off a path, or dying because you’ve picked up a sharp object. We think you’d prefer to solve the game’s mysteries by exploring and discovering, not by dying a thousand deaths.
I completely agree Phlebas. It is one of the main reasons I find it difficult today to play some of the older Sierra games that I missed. Interesting enough, Maniac Mansion did have death, so they must have learned a lesson after that.
Death itself in adventure games is not horrible if it is well made. For example, both Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Broken Sword had death, but they warned you first (most of the times), and if you died, it was usually your fault. Sometimes (especially in action sequences) death can increase the tension which can make you more engaged.
There are several ways you can circumvent the frustration of dying these days. A system with checkpoints (like most games today) would remove the need for the constant save. In Al Emmo, if you die in a sequence, you are presented with a dialog box to restart right before you died.
On the other hand, dying from stepping off a cliff because you mis-clicked is very frustrating and lame. Even worse is reaching a dead end without you knowing it for consuming an inventory item that you will need down the line.
In Al Emmo, if you die in a sequence, you are presented with a dialog box to restart right before you died.
This is the only way I can handle death/action sequences in general but I realise that’s personal preference.
Dead-ends just seem like poor game-design though; they only serve to frustrate. Are there any positives?
Dead-ends just seem like poor game-design though; they only serve to frustrate. Are there any positives?
Sure: The challenge of finding your way out of a dead end provides extra challenge for puzzle lovers. And gives a game much vaunted “replay value”.
Dead-ends just seem like poor game-design though; they only serve to frustrate. Are there any positives?
Sure: The challenge of finding your way out of a dead end provides extra challenge for puzzle lovers. And gives a game much vaunted “replay value”.
I guess any challenge can ultimately be seen as a problem-solving exercise which is what we all love in some form.
I always considered replay value to be about reliving the entire experience/seeing different endings and not backtracking half an hour to fix an error you made. But I never replay/rewatch/reread anything once I’m done so I could have totally misinterpreted (part of) the attraction.
Dead-ends just seem like poor game-design though; they only serve to frustrate. Are there any positives?
Sure: The challenge of finding your way out of a dead end provides extra challenge for puzzle lovers. And gives a game much vaunted “replay value”.
I guess any challenge can ultimately be seen as a problem-solving exercise which is what we all love in some form.
I always considered replay value to be about reliving the entire experience/seeing different endings and not backtracking half an hour to fix an error you made. But I never replay/rewatch/reread anything once I’m done so I could have totally misinterpreted (part of) the attraction.
Dead ends are the original TellTale ! If you ever read Choose Your Own Adventure books, you could run into dead ends all the time. They are endings, just not always satisfying endings (which is just like games with “alternate endings”).
I was a big fan back in the day, but I only vaguely remember them.
I guess I did technically reread those many times. 
It’s a good point and a way I never thought of looking at it before.
I think Walking Dead belongs on this list. For better or worse, it’s become one of the most imitated archetypes in the genre.
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