# Memorable computer games you've never completed. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755 "2005-11-19T02:07:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/21 "2005-11-19T06:53:15Z")
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream- A friend and I played the hell out of it together… I seem to recall we got stuck at some point that involved putting a heart on the end of the spear at the tip of a plane and talking to a dog… I have no clue, this was earily 11 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/22 "2005-11-19T07:05:22Z")
Black & White and Black & White: Creature Isle. I’m starting to think that I’m never going to complete a particular Blades of Avernum scenario, but I don’t want to restart it. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/23 "2005-11-19T08:10:02Z")
**Grim Fandango** _sigh_ I got to the second year and just never went any further. Seemed like a clever game, though. **Half Life** , But I’m not very bothered about that. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/24 "2005-11-19T08:21:46Z")
Never finished the original Mario Bros. Never finished _King’s Quest_ Never finished the NES _Hunt for Red October_—because the final (?) level switched to a side-scrolling shooter format, with a time limit, no instructions on what to do, and no warning in the manual. I stayed up till MIDNIGHT playing that game as a kid—on Christmas, as I remember—and all for naught. Still pisses me off. :mad: Never cracked the final mystery in _Eagle Eye Mysteries in London_—er, actually, since you didn’t have to solve the mysteries on order, I _did_ finish the “final chapter” one, but not one of the earlier ones. Didn’t finish _Oregon Trail_ until this spring. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/25 "2005-11-19T08:49:25Z")
_Loom_. I got as far as the dragon’s cave, and I figured out to turn the gold to straw and burn it to scare the dragon away. But I couldn’t figure out any way out of the cave. And I was only borrowing the game, and had to give it back eventually. _Zork 2_. I can make a start, getting two treasures (the money and the portrait of the banker). But I’ven’t any idea what do _do_ with them (no trophy case!), and I can’t figure out how to go anywhere else. I _think_ the next step would be in the crystal maze with the baseball bat, but it has me stumped. At least the Maze of Twisty Passages, All Alike was static. And no, please **don’t** tell me how to get through it. Every year or so, I figure out something in that game, and make a little more progress. Oh, and one of the first computer games I ever had, _Jungle Hunt_ on the Atari. The vines were easy enough, and I could get through the water with my eyes shut (the gators alternated right-middle-right-middle, and so on). On a good day, I could make it through the boulder field (though the big meatball-looking ones often got me). But I could never, ever make it past even the first cannibal. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/26 "2005-11-19T09:03:34Z")
I finished Myst but with much help from others. I would be working on Riven but I was stuck in about the same place for several weeks, plus I’m not sure where the discs (all _five_ of them) are right now. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/27 "2005-11-19T09:38:18Z")
…another **Half Life** half player…got as far as the last level, did most of the jumping puzzles, then my computer died, somehow lost the saved games and my sound and my CD Rom Drive, and I never went back to it… ☹ Brilliant game though. My mate refused to finish Final Fantasy Seven. He thought that if he didn’t finish it, Aerius would come back to life… ☹ He took her death harder than me! ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/28 "2005-11-19T14:37:02Z")
Another vote for _Black and White_. I played for all of an hour, and on the first level after the tutorial got so fed up with it (I hate the interface in that game. I like that it’s completely mouse-based, but it’s clunky) I quit. Finally sold it to a friend for five bucks. I’m another ‘pretty much anything I’ve ever played’ girl. Of all the Final Fantasy games I’ve played (which is pretty much all of them) the closest I’ve come is FFIX, where I’m close to the final boss but underlevelled to actually complete it. I need to borrow that again sometime… Aside from those: Neverwinter Nights Chrono Trigger Age of Empires Zeus Super Mario World…Land…whichever one was for the SNES. Golen Sun 2 (I actually finished the first one, mainly for this game, but now I’m totally stuck) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/29 "2005-11-19T14:44:34Z")
Might and Magic I: Secret of the Inner Sanctum Alas, this game plagued me for years. My brother and I enjoyed playing it, but couldn’t finish it. I wondered for _years_ what the secret of the Inner Sanctum was, never being able to find any “guide” or “faq” that answered it. I remember the back of the box saying, “We’d love to tell you, we really would, but we won’t. You have to discover on your own the Secret of the Inner Sanctum.” Only 3-4 years ago did I find a history of Might and Magic online that spoiled it for me, ending my 10+ years of torment. If you want to know, the answer is that: Varn is not a real place but stands for Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle. The king of VARN was replaced by Sheltem, a robot/computer program that runs it. You must defeat it. I can’t tell you how much peace it gave me to learn that after years. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/30 "2005-11-19T15:10:43Z")
My family won an Apple IIGS in a raffle. For those who don’t know it was the ultimate development of the Apple II series. For about 8 months or so it had the most amazing graphics available. It didn’t last long( cause apple threw everything into the Mac shortl after), and one of the few games out for it was called Alien Mind. It was a great game, overhead scroller shoot-em up, with gorgeous graphics for the time. It also had puzzles which for the most part were fairly challenging, but not overly time consuming. Anyway I finally got to a puzzle I couldn’t solve. I tried thousands of answers I figure but never got it. I had to leave the game unfinnished past that point. It wasn’t even a puzzle but a stupid riddle. A couple years ago I looked up the answer on the internet The puzzle “The password is a scale” answer CDEFGABC, I can’t beleive I never thought of that :smack: :smack: :smack: Also magic candle. It was a great game, but you were constantly getting passwords for the end-game. While one of my quests malfunctioned, and I never got the password, so I couldn’t get the very last bit done :mad: ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/31 "2005-11-19T15:14:37Z")
“Colossal Caverns,” circa 1983. I’d eventually get intot he maze, and never could figure my way out. I think this game is mentioned in Tracy Kidder’s book “The Sould of a New Machine.” Guess I’m telling my age, but you did ask… ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/32 "2005-11-19T16:25:25Z")
I beat the ones that have cheat codes. 😉 Other than that, I simply do not have the gaming attention span to do things over and over and over again. Oddly enough, at the same time I say this, I can play UT, halflife or any other FPS online game for hours, and I also played EQ for nearly a year. Set me in front of an action game in which you have to do hand-eye sequences or puzzles that you have to do over and over until you get it JUST right, and I get bored. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/33 "2005-11-19T16:43:14Z")
**Riven**. Got stuck with tram cars, as I recall, and finally gave up on the damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/34 "2005-11-19T20:20:09Z")
Morrowind and GTA: San Andreas. Both were fabulous games, but I never ended it. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/35 "2005-11-19T20:37:23Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > - Sanitarium = Apparently a highly-regarded and hard to find (legally) game, a psychological and dark trip through someone’s psyche, I dug up a copy at the local Frye’s this summer. I had fun picking through the game until I got to a part requiring actual hand-eye coordination and good timing, a fight with crows in a cornfield. Died horribly a number of times confronting the boss in the middle of the field, said forget this and never played it again. That game is marvellous. You really should continue. That bit is annoying (but nowhere near as annoying as another hand-eye coordination sequence closer to the end), but the game is a beauty. I never killed the final demon in _Doom 2_, and I assume anyone who claims they did (without cheating) is a lying bastard. So there. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/36 "2005-11-19T20:44:50Z")
> [@pope\_hentai](#): > > “the fools quest” for the pc… stupid puzzles… You mean _Fool’s Errand_? One of my all time favorite games. Had to buy a cheatbook to beat it, though. > [@Larry Mudd](#): > > The Last Express. I forget where I got stuck on that one. Neat game though. Someday I’m going to have to reinstall it on an old computer and give it another shot. Another game that I never beat, but always wanted to. FWIW, it runs pretty well on a modern machine. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/37 "2005-11-19T21:28:18Z")
American McGee’s Alice. Didn’t even get all that far into it. X-Wing (has anyone beaten this game? I’m still stuck on the first campaign) Wing Commander II, Privateer, and Secret Ops. haven’t beaten any of the addons to the WC games either. Privateer 2: Made it as far as the second CD and died repeatedly. There are lots of others, but those are the only ones that come to mind for me. ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/38 "2005-11-19T22:37:49Z")
Commander Keen I just couldn’t get that poor kid back home. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/39 "2005-11-19T23:08:44Z")
Since console ames have been brought up. Goonies 2 for NES. I even had the player’s guide that told you where everything was. In order to get some item that allowed you to continue the game you had to find the sweet spot in this little room and hit it with your fist icon… I literally spend hours hitting every square pixel of that room and never got the item. I was never able to progress in the game. Spiderman and the X-men: Arcade’s Revenge for SNES I could never beat the Wolverine vs Juggernaut stage. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755/40 "2005-11-19T23:46:44Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > I never killed the final demon in _Doom 2_, and I assume anyone who claims they did (without cheating) is a lying bastard. So there. I did it, but it was tough. It’s doable since you get a full loadout of health,armor, ammo and weapons before you start the final mission. Personally, I thought that the Cyberdemon in Doom was a much better boss then that stupid wall at the end of DOOM2. And you aren’t missing anything. You get another page of text and the game ends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-computer-games-youve-never-completed/331755.md?page=3)