I’m talking about the ones like (but not!) King’s Quest. The ones where you had to give the clock to the wombat so he would give you the large banana which you would then give to the ape but not before you had dipped it in ice cream. The ones where you had to give the mirror to the dragon, tie the rope to the jar, and smoke out the bees with incense.
Any suggestions? These kind of games don’t seem that popular anymore. I prefer magic and medieval stuff, I don’t want any guns or anything like that. (If I wanted guns I could go play Soldier of Fortune.) If it has to be set in modern times, so be it, but it has to have some mystery or suspense. And please, no scary games. I don’t want to be in an insane asylum or anything.
I only keep in touch with the games scene casually nowadays, and I can’t think of any modern-day examples of the genre. It was really big in the 90s, though - most of the ones I was familiar with back in the day came from two companies - LucasArts and Sierra. From LucasArts, classics of the genre include:
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Monkey Island (all of them - these are brilliantly tongue in cheek. If you haven’t played them, play these first! They rock mightily.)
Full Throttle
Day of the Tentacle
From Sierra come:
the aforementioned King’s Quest
Quest for Glory (includes some arcadey combat, but you can avoid this if you go the stealthy or magicky routes)
Police Quest (Modern day police procedural. Some guns, but usually relatively little actual combat - much like actual police work)
Possibly the best of the modern adventure games was The Longest Journey. It also has a sequel now called Dreamfall. The Discworld games are fun, though the first one was insanely tough, but the solutions do make sense once you see the slantdicular logic of them. Lots of luck making it through without hints.
A thread like this should not go by without mention the definative article on the subject: What Killed Adventure Games? by Old Man Murray
They focus on the Gabriel Knight series, which took the “you had to give the clock to the wombat so he would give you the large banana which you would then give to the ape but not before you had dipped it in ice cream” thing to an absurd extreme. The conclusion on page 3 is as good as any explanation I’ve ever heard.
Syberia is great (I gave it 4.5/5 stars). Syberia 2 is not as great but still good (I didn’t review it, but the other reviewer gave it 3/5 stars, and I agree with that score). Seconding the recommendation for The Longest Journey.
If you like puzzles of the “Confront the plagiarising hippy with an incensed Irish poet/TV presenter in order to sneak upstairs to discover the hidden girlfriend, then blackmail the hippy - by threatening to reveal the girl’s whereabouts to her choleric shotgun-toting pukka sahib father - into giving you a pair of the mysterious former lodger’s undies so that a fortune-teller can perform a reading on them” variety, then Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon is for you.
It came out two or three years ago, and plays out in 3D, but is completely a throwback to the old school of adventure gaming - it’s a kind of light-hearted, wise-cracking detective story/Tomb Raider plot, where you have to unravel a mysterious ancient cult’s plot to overthrow the world by putting the bird’s nest in the hollow stone idol then lighting it with the magnifying glass in order to distract the superstitious guards and escape. The odd “push the crates around to climb on the roof” puzzle crops up, but there are no real arcade elements - it’s a very relaxing game to play, especially with a couple of beers and someone to call out improbable suggestions about how to get the combination to open the safe under the floorboards.
It’s enormously funny - great scripting and character work - and never loses sight of the fact that these games are supposed to be fun; it has a great time taking the piss out of the cliches of the genre, for example outside a pub: “The door was locked. It wasn’t opening time yet.” Besides, it’s the only game I’ve played where when you check your phone for messages you get telemarketers selling soffits.
I have found that DosBox takes care of most of the compatibility problems with older games. After a lot of irritating attempts at work-arounds I’ve dealt with in all these years, including sometimes having to boot my computer in DOS mode, I still didn’t get the stable performance that I get as a matter of course from DOSBox.
All right. I am trying Syberia for the moment, mainly because it was $19.99 at the local CompUsa. Then I shall try some of these other ones. I really want to hunt down Curse of Monkey Island.
Syberia seems OK, but seems a bit serious for my blood…however, I don’t think that will hamper my enjoyment too much.
That Broken Sword one sounds great, Johnny. I will look for it. And The Longest Journey.