In response to everyone being really hard on the old Sierra games, yeah, they could be pretty unfair. And you could call some of their dead-end situations half-witted or what have you; but ALL adventure games were like that back then. Lucasfilm Games were no exception. It wasn't until Monkey Island 1 came out that we had an adventure game intended for adults in which the player could not die (well, Loom came first, actually). But anyway, at that point there was a minor paradigm-shift within the adventure genre, and a greater proportion of adventure game designers started to rethink the ways in which they punished the player for mistakes. Dead end situations became rare, and completely random deaths became more uncommon on the whole. It's all evolutionary. Sierra was making groundbreaking, top-notch adventure games back then. I wouldn't recommend those old games to younger adventure gamers, but they really paved the way.
Yeah... but still, out of all Sierra games, SQ2 has the most ridicolous dead end, IMO. If you don't open a locker and pick some stuff in the beginning, then you're stuck in the freaking endgame.
On the other hand, THIS teached me to try every possible thing in any possible room in an adventure game, discovering a lot of funny things on the way.
Your point is well-made, Farlander; however, the example isn't completely valid. You can get through SQ2 without opening the locker. Within is contained an athletic supporter and a cubix rube puzzle. You use the cubix rube puzzle with the Labion Terror Beast as it rushes toward you to kill you. However, if you don't have it, you can simply leave the screen and come back, and the beast is gone, having knocked a passage through the rock to the next area.
The athletic support is used to sling a rock at the ape guard to knock him out. Alternatively, you can just sling the rock in the bushes to get his attention (for less points). Lastly you can simply THROW the rock. He leaves his post, leaving the elevator open. You sneak in and move on.
The game really screws you over if you didn't happen to find the glowing gem, however.
Wasn't the mail order form to get the whistle in that locker too? I remember I was stuck becaue I had no whistle in the first place.
It's all evolutionary.
And yeah, that's what I'm saying. So before doodoo starts raging about KQI dwarf, uhm, bullshit let's remember that was the first graphic ANIMATED adventure game which was still experimenting with things and there really were not so many ideas what's good and what's bad in game design. The people at the time still loved the game. But me, personally - not so much, yeah Out of the AGI King's Quests, I love the third one the most.
EDIT: P.S. SoMI has a few (unintentional, yes) dead ends too, you know. And one possible death, yeah.
Sometimes that was one of the things I enjoyed with Sierra Adventure games, knowing there was a risk if I did certain things and had a chance of dying. It made the game interesting and challenging. I still hated the dead end scenarios, but they were definitely worth playing.
Oh come on, the Sierra adventures were completely different in style, atmosphere and design than the LucasArts adventures, but they were still incredibly cool. If you want to smoothly transition into them, start with the first Gabriel Knight game. Save often. King's Quest is good, Quest for Glory is brilliant.
Oh come on, the Sierra adventures were completely different in style, atmosphere and design than the LucasArts adventures, but they were still incredibly cool. If you want to smoothly transition into them, start with the first Gabriel Knight game. Save often. King's Quest is good, Quest for Glory is brilliant.
I might start with Gabriel Knight now, got to check the prices for it and availability and decide if I really want to start with it before Sierra's classic King's Quest games, Quest for Glory costs ALOT of money to buy these days, have you searched it up?:(
And yeah, that's what I'm saying. So before doodoo starts raging about KQI dwarf, uhm, bullshit let's remember that was the first graphic ANIMATED adventure game which was still experimenting with things and there really were not so many ideas what's good and what's bad in game design. The people at the time still loved the game. But me, personally - not so much, yeah Out of the AGI King's Quests, I love the third one the most.
Somebody on ebay is selling the QFG anthology (the first four games, but the fifth one wasn't as good anyway) for $30 at the moment, but it's only a single cd. It's weird that the rest of them are so expensive... Guess I should take good care of mine.
Somebody on ebay is selling the QFG anthology (the first four games, but the fifth one wasn't as good anyway) for $30 at the moment, but it's only a single cd. It's weird that the rest of them are so expensive... Guess I should take good care of mine.
Gabriel Knight is also outrageously expensive for its age. King's Quest is surprisingly fairly priced. Although their are a few fairly priced, mostly without photos on Ebay. I can only imagine what online stores want for them.
If anyone knows where I can get these games for a fair, descent price I'll promise to have a more open mind.
Gabriel Knight is also outrageously expensive for its age. King's Quest is surprisingly fairly priced. Although their are a few fairly priced, mostly without photos on Ebay. I can only imagine what online stores want for them.
If anyone knows where I can get these games for a fair, descent price I'll promise to have a more open mind.
Note: Run the DOS version in DOSBox. If you need to play it in Windows, there are a couple of fan made patches that will allow you to install and play the game in recent Windows (The Windows version of the game is a 16 bit binary for Windows 3.1)
And play the games in order (do not play game 3 and then game 1) and SAVE often!
Why, an original "Full Throttle" German boxset is also worth 40 EUR on Amazon.de. Even if there are cheaper re-releases available (and if there aren't - it's only worse).
If anyone is interested I just found out about the only game I've played in recent years, besides telltale games ;-), that approached the awesomeness that was LucasArts Adventure Gaming: A Vampyre Story by Bill Tiller. Favorite moment in the game: Woman of Low Moral Fiber.
Gabriel Knight is also outrageously expensive for its age. King's Quest is surprisingly fairly priced. Although their are a few fairly priced, mostly without photos on Ebay. I can only imagine what online stores want for them.
If anyone knows where I can get these games for a fair, descent price I'll promise to have a more open mind.
Gabriel Knight I'm not sure about, but it and the sequel, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, are both great games if you can get ahold of them. Haven't tried Gabriel Knight 3.
You can actually buy a download of all the King's Quest games from Direct2Drive.com--I'm not sure if Steam has it but they might too. I'd recommend starting with KQ5, 6, or 7. The first few King's Quests are... unforgiving. I think they're charging $20 for all 7 games, which seems fairly reasonable to me...
If anyone is interested I just found out about the only game I've played in recent years, besides telltale games ;-), that approached the awesomeness that was LucasArts Adventure Gaming: A Vampyre Story by Bill Tiller. Favorite moment in the game: Woman of Low Moral Fiber.
Ah, the distaff counterpart we've waited for ever since we first met the trio in SoMI.
I'm surprised nobody has recommended this yet, but dodoo, you can play the first 3 King's Quest games for free. Remade by AGDI and IA (www.agdinteractive.com and www.infamous-adventures.com) and both are very well done. Graphics are in the style of KQ5/KQ6 (early 90s style). There are also no dead ends in KQ2 (though the game is completely revamped, but the skeletal story remains intact). I can't remember if KQ3 had dead ends or not. IA are also remaking Space Quest II as someone else said. I'm actually one of the composers on the team. And it is shaping up pretty well indeed. Ask Brainiac. He's our resident beta tester. And of course by that I mean prisoner in the beta testing dungeon where we feed him very little and place bets on how long he'll survive down there...
Or if you want to play the originals, you can play almost all Sierra AGI games ever made at www.sarien.net for free online in your browser. The only problem is that there is no sound as yet. But that's the easiest way to play them. They've got King's Quests 1, 2, 3, Space Quests 1, 2, Gold Rush!, Police Quest 1, The Black Cauldron, and Leisure Suit Larry 1.
Or you can buy the King's Quest and Space Quest collections for $19.99 USD each on Steam (if you're not morally opposed to it).
I'm not down with all the Sierra hate here. I'm first and foremost a Sierra adventure fan over LucasArts. King's Quest had some great stories and very fun gameplay. Space Quest has some of the funniest moments in adventure game history and the most brutal deaths ever (which the designers made on purpose to try and make death funny, which they succeeded in). I appreciate Space Quest's dry sarcastic humour more than the humour of any LucasArts or TTG game ever made. Sierra games have their cons just like LA has theirs. They're just different. If you can play the games with an open mind without criticising everything you see you just might enjoy them.
IA are also remaking Space Quest II as someone else said. I'm actually one of the composers on the team. And it is shaping up pretty well indeed. Ask Brainiac. He's our resident beta tester. And of course by that I mean prisoner in the beta testing dungeon where we feed him very little and place bets on how long he'll survive down there...
Not only that, but they play poker with the pool money right at the door to the dungeon and I'm not allowed in the game. Now that's torture.
i've played last crusade and FoA since they came out, and they hold up just as well today. truly some of the finest adventure games ever made. i'd put FoA against ANY monkey island or any other classic.
The Fate of Atlantis is one of my all time favourite adventure games. The Last Crusade is good, but I didn't like it as much.
And while some people don't like old Sierra games, I enjoyed playing those. Sure your mistake could make you go back to a lot earlier save, but then again those games weren't very long in the first place. It's possible to play through KQ1 in hour or two if you know what you must do.
Also I recommend that in SoMI
you'll throw cereals to fire before making Voodoo mix which will take you to the Monkey Island. There's whole closet full of cereal boxes, but you can't use those.
First time I did that I had to reload from the start of the Act II.
Someone needs to play Space Quest with me some time, lol...that site you posted is multiplayer.
Anyways, I want to buy the Space Quest series now, that site you posted has me sold just about. From what I played of Space Quest one it wasn't so bad, King's Quest on the other hand seemed fair too but mention of goblins that randomly appear and rape you, or randomly being frozen is just not that great sounding...however you can save and load your game so I don't see why it's really that big of a deal, right...so what, just load it, lol...right?
I think I'll give these games a chance.I don't really like remakes, I just don't feel right, playing games with updated graphics, it just doesn't feel right.
Someone needs to play Space Quest with me some time, lol...that site you posted is multiplayer.
Anyways, I want to buy the Space Quest series now, that site you posted has me sold just about. From what I played of Space Quest one it wasn't so bad, King's Quest on the other hand seemed fair too but mention of goblins that randomly appear and rape you, or randomly being frozen is just not that great sounding...however you can save and load your game so I don't see why it's really that big of a deal, right...so what, just load it, lol...right?
I think I'll give these games a chance.I don't really like remakes, I just don't feel right, playing games with updated graphics, it just doesn't feel right.
Space Quest series is enjoyable, although interestingly Space Quest 6 (final game of the series) is IMO worst of them all. Because IMHO it's puzzle design is horrible compared to earlier games and I got stuck several times (And even after I had solved the puzzles, I had difficulties to see the logic behind the solutions. Earlier games usually had logical puzzles and common sense was often enough.)
Because IMHO it's puzzle design is horrible compared to earlier games and I got stuck several times (And even after I had solved the puzzles, I had difficulties to see the logic behind the solutions. Earlier games usually had logical puzzles and common sense was often enough.)
Well, there IS a reason to that. Scroll down to "Scott Murphy and Josh Mandel - The Andromeda Slip Up" section.
King's Quest on the other hand seemed fair too but mention of goblins that randomly appear and rape you, or randomly being frozen is just not that great sounding...however you can save and load your game so I don't see why it's really that big of a deal, right...so what, just load it, lol...right?
I really think you (and others) are making to big a problem out of that unforgivingness of old Sierra adventures. Yes, there were bits that were annoying (Curse you, King's Quest IV whale tongue!) but you'd be missing out if you avoided them over such details.
Fate of Atlantis is one of my all time favorite adventure games. It was extremely fun and the plot was excellent. I consider it the true fourth Indy story. Crystal Skull was crap in comparison. I wish they would have adapted this story instead of making that hideous piece of schlock.
KOTCS was based off of 50s movies. FOA was based off a different format. Aside it's the most tame of all the stories because it's a video game with puzzles, it's not live action. Had it been a movie it probably would have had changes made due to the different format and would of had over the top scenes just like the other 2 Indiana Jones movies. (ROTA, not included because it's not as over the top as TOD and LC)
By the way ROTA is a dark comedy action adventure as well as TOD as well as LC and KOTCS...
I really think you (and others) are making to big a problem out of that unforgivingness of old Sierra adventures. Yes, there were bits that were annoying (Curse you, King's Quest IV whale tongue!) but you'd be missing out if you avoided them over such details.
I hated that whale!!! I never finished that game until I used the walkthrough, almost 15 years later! Haha...
Even though I will always prefer LA point and click games, my first gaming experiences were with Sierra. I never finished any of their games aside from King's Quest 2 without a walkthrough but they were still fun!
Anyone here play Police Quest 2 - In Pursuit of the Death Angel? I never did figure out what to do with that stupid drunk. I'd get so frustrated I'd just type the customary "take of clothes" after hundreds of possible solutions then die. LOL
In Pursuit of the Death Angel was the first Police Quest. The second is called "The Vengeance". The drunk needs to be tested for DUI, and you had to arrest him and take him to jail. Early puzzle in the first game, if I remember correctly. One of my favourite Sierra games.
BTW, I read that Police Quest was even used for policemen training. Considering it's game designer WAS a retired policeman, and that there were literally so many ways to **** up (you know, now that I mention it, I don't really remember a dead end situation in PQ, but you still could screw up so badly), I suppose it was a not bad training procedure.
I do like this idea, but I wouldn't want to see Telltale do it right away. I'd prefer them to do an original IP, then perhaps move on to another existing franchise.
A "Fate of Atlantis" remake would be better, I think.
I would play it, but only because it's one of the greatest games ever made. I love that game. I also enjoyed Last Crusade. LOL. In my opinion, I guess I should say that.
After such an awesome game like Fate of Atlantis (big, smart, difficult); shrink to small episodes with obvious puzzles its not the best comeback i could think of.
Comments
Your point is well-made, Farlander; however, the example isn't completely valid. You can get through SQ2 without opening the locker. Within is contained an athletic supporter and a cubix rube puzzle. You use the cubix rube puzzle with the Labion Terror Beast as it rushes toward you to kill you. However, if you don't have it, you can simply leave the screen and come back, and the beast is gone, having knocked a passage through the rock to the next area.
The athletic support is used to sling a rock at the ape guard to knock him out. Alternatively, you can just sling the rock in the bushes to get his attention (for less points). Lastly you can simply THROW the rock. He leaves his post, leaving the elevator open. You sneak in and move on.
The game really screws you over if you didn't happen to find the glowing gem, however.
And yeah, that's what I'm saying. So before doodoo starts raging about KQI dwarf, uhm, bullshit
EDIT: P.S. SoMI has a few (unintentional, yes) dead ends too, you know. And one possible death, yeah.
GRRRRRRR!
I might start with Gabriel Knight now, got to check the prices for it and availability and decide if I really want to start with it before Sierra's classic King's Quest games, Quest for Glory costs ALOT of money to buy these days, have you searched it up?:(
hmmm....
Gabriel Knight is also outrageously expensive for its age. King's Quest is surprisingly fairly priced. Although their are a few fairly priced, mostly without photos on Ebay. I can only imagine what online stores want for them.
If anyone knows where I can get these games for a fair, descent price I'll promise to have a more open mind.
http://catalog.ebay.com/Gabriel-Knight-Sins-Fathers-PC-Games-1995-/54601482?_fifpts=1&_pcatid=2&_refkw=gabriel+knight&_trksid=p3286.c0.m271
Note: Run the DOS version in DOSBox. If you need to play it in Windows, there are a couple of fan made patches that will allow you to install and play the game in recent Windows (The Windows version of the game is a 16 bit binary for Windows 3.1)
And play the games in order (do not play game 3 and then game 1) and SAVE often!
Not to going to lie, I do love me some Space Quest.
Gabriel Knight I'm not sure about, but it and the sequel, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, are both great games if you can get ahold of them. Haven't tried Gabriel Knight 3.
You can actually buy a download of all the King's Quest games from Direct2Drive.com--I'm not sure if Steam has it but they might too. I'd recommend starting with KQ5, 6, or 7. The first few King's Quests are... unforgiving. I think they're charging $20 for all 7 games, which seems fairly reasonable to me...
Ah, the distaff counterpart we've waited for ever since we first met the trio in SoMI.
Or if you want to play the originals, you can play almost all Sierra AGI games ever made at www.sarien.net for free online in your browser. The only problem is that there is no sound as yet. But that's the easiest way to play them. They've got King's Quests 1, 2, 3, Space Quests 1, 2, Gold Rush!, Police Quest 1, The Black Cauldron, and Leisure Suit Larry 1.
Or you can buy the King's Quest and Space Quest collections for $19.99 USD each on Steam (if you're not morally opposed to it).
I'm not down with all the Sierra hate here. I'm first and foremost a Sierra adventure fan over LucasArts. King's Quest had some great stories and very fun gameplay. Space Quest has some of the funniest moments in adventure game history and the most brutal deaths ever (which the designers made on purpose to try and make death funny, which they succeeded in). I appreciate Space Quest's dry sarcastic humour more than the humour of any LucasArts or TTG game ever made. Sierra games have their cons just like LA has theirs. They're just different. If you can play the games with an open mind without criticising everything you see you just might enjoy them.
Not only that, but they play poker with the pool money right at the door to the dungeon and I'm not allowed in the game. Now that's torture.
And while some people don't like old Sierra games, I enjoyed playing those. Sure your mistake could make you go back to a lot earlier save, but then again those games weren't very long in the first place. It's possible to play through KQ1 in hour or two if you know what you must do.
Also I recommend that in SoMI
Anyways, I want to buy the Space Quest series now, that site you posted has me sold just about. From what I played of Space Quest one it wasn't so bad, King's Quest on the other hand seemed fair too but mention of goblins that randomly appear and rape you, or randomly being frozen is just not that great sounding...however you can save and load your game so I don't see why it's really that big of a deal, right...so what, just load it, lol...right?
I think I'll give these games a chance.I don't really like remakes, I just don't feel right, playing games with updated graphics, it just doesn't feel right.
Space Quest series is enjoyable, although interestingly Space Quest 6 (final game of the series) is IMO worst of them all. Because IMHO it's puzzle design is horrible compared to earlier games and I got stuck several times (And even after I had solved the puzzles, I had difficulties to see the logic behind the solutions. Earlier games usually had logical puzzles and common sense was often enough.)
Well, there IS a reason to that. Scroll down to "Scott Murphy and Josh Mandel - The Andromeda Slip Up" section.
I really think you (and others) are making to big a problem out of that unforgivingness of old Sierra adventures. Yes, there were bits that were annoying (Curse you, King's Quest IV whale tongue!) but you'd be missing out if you avoided them over such details.
Exactly my thoughts!
By the way ROTA is a dark comedy action adventure as well as TOD as well as LC and KOTCS...
I hated that whale!!!
Even though I will always prefer LA point and click games, my first gaming experiences were with Sierra. I never finished any of their games aside from King's Quest 2 without a walkthrough but they were still fun!
Anyone here play Police Quest 2 - In Pursuit of the Death Angel? I never did figure out what to do with that stupid drunk. I'd get so frustrated I'd just type the customary "take of clothes" after hundreds of possible solutions then die. LOL
This has a huge fan base, and needs a Telltale Style shot in the arm....
I'm thinking $$$$ are definitely to made and great story telling is what we likes!!
I would play it, but only because it's one of the greatest games ever made. I love that game. I also enjoyed Last Crusade. LOL. In my opinion, I guess I should say that.
After such an awesome game like Fate of Atlantis (big, smart, difficult); shrink to small episodes with obvious puzzles its not the best comeback i could think of.
I don't think Indiana Jones is episode-friendly.