I started playing advanture games as soon as i could see the world around me... (when i was 6 months old -> i had an eye condition that required surgery etc... but that's not the point)... so... can anyone beat that? oh, and now i'm 16 and a few days ago finished phasant year at computer's high! LOL... watch your back, telltale... a new compy *ahem ahem ahem* ""genius"" is rising!! :D
I learned DOS by waiting for my dad at his job. Searching through the work-computer for games. "what files can i try?" "anything that ends with .com or .exe". I literally tried every com/exe file. My search bore fruits though, I found that cat game which i don't remember the name of, the one where you catch the babies from burning houses, and "Adventure", which I didn't like, mostly from the fact that I didn't speak english. I have no idea how old i was, but probably 7-10.
Some years later I learned english with Sierra-games, the first one being Leisure Suit Larry. In retrospect, I guess that explains a thing or two.. (I'm 29 now). Also it boggles me how my parents could give me some of the words i asked about with a straight face. But I remember they didn't know what a prophylactic was, so I had to figure out that one by myself. Which was no small task. No google or bigtittedmamasitas.com those days.
I learned DOS by waiting for my dad at his job. Searching through the work-computer for games. "what files can i try?" "anything that ends with .com or .exe". I literally tried every com/exe file.
Haha... I did this too. ) Discovered some Zork games that way!
Well, i think the first adventure game i played actually was sam & max: hit the road when i wa about 5 years old, i played with a friend, ofcourse we didn´t understand anything couse we are from sweden, but then later about 2-3 years ago, another friend to me, told me that sam & max 2 was cancelled, at that time i had forgot sam & max and just said, "hey, sam & max i recognise it, and i started google sam & max, and saw the pictures, then my memories came back, that was a wonderful moment!
Me, I started at around age 10 [...]. The first game I played was Leisure Suit Larry 1. )
Same here! B-)
I remember the advanced protection at the beginning of the game that would prevent younger players from playing it: a series of questions that only adults would know the answer to (which was always Alt x -- don't know how we found out about that).
I would've taken you to be much younger, as seen in that one photo of you. And no, I'm not trying to be flirtatious! But to get back on topic, I was also around 8y/o when I started. I'm 34 now. *Ouch*...I'm an old fogie here.
My first computer was a TRS-80(Tandy) Color Computer 2, known as CoCo2. We are talking the age of cassette tapes, program paks, and 5-1/4" disks. The first adventure game I played was probably Bedlam, which was a text adventure. I still have my CoCo2 & CoCo3 with all accessories and programs. I learned to program in BASIC, ASM and used OS/9 on this computer, and typed in hundreds of programs from a magazine called "the Rainbow".
But you probably want to know about my first PC adventure games. They were the Space Quest series and Ultima Underworld. I had a friend in my college dorm that bought a new 386DX, and he was responsible for getting me into PC gaming. Oh and can't forget some of my favorite "adventure-type" games... Lands of Lore, Kyrandia, Blade Runner, etc by Westwood Studios.
i was 6 full throttle was the first i think, or sam and max cant remember
im 16 now :P
was good ol days back then, i cant wait for Sam and max to come out, bone was hilarious, ive only tried the first ep of bone though, gonna get bone ep 2 soon i think
My first computer was a TRS-80(Tandy) Color Computer 2, known as CoCo2. We are talking the age of cassette tapes, program paks, and 5-1/4" disks. The first adventure game I played was probably Bedlam, which was a text adventure. I still have my CoCo2 & CoCo3 with all accessories and programs. I learned to program in BASIC, ASM and used OS/9 on this computer, and typed in hundreds of programs from a magazine called "the Rainbow".
Blimey! - I remember doing those back in the early eighties - We had a magazine called Computer & Video Games which used to have listings for Speccy & Commodore systems every month... I generally had no idea what the hell I was typing in - just followed the code as printed. Another in a long line of diversions I created to avoid learning any kind of social competence.... happy days
Not exactly an adventure game, but the first game with adventure elements I played was Alone in the Dark, which came free with the first PC we bought at home (I was about 14 years old). It was the first game that really absorbed me, making me stay up until late and scary hours.
Then, I bought the Lucasarts Archives Vol. I, which included Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis, among others (what a collection, now that I think!), finishing to turn me into a fan of the genre.
I'm 28 now. Like others have said, I also didn't speak english at the time, but much of the english I know now, I thank it to the adventure games I played in my youth.
Well, I was 6 years old (I'm 22 now),
my cousin had his super 286 while I was still stuck with my good old C64.
It was Indy and the last crusade, I remember it well, it was love at first sight!
There was a REAL story to lead everything, and the characters even talked to each other!
I had never seen some like that before, I didn't know Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken for C64.
It was the first half of 1990, and some months later my cousin told me: "Hey, got to show you a game better than Indy3!". My answer was "No way, that's just not possible! What's its name?". "The secret of Monkey Island.".
I'll let you figure out the rest
That's how I became a proud supporter of graphic adventures.
Wow, it's been not all that long. I guess I've been playing adventure games for a while, had Hugo's House of Horrors years ago, but I didn't really pursue or appreciate them as a genre until I was about sixteen, I suppose. I'm turning nineteen in a couple of days, so yeah, I'm a n00b to the genre. It's quickly become my favorite genre, though I'd like to make several changes to how the formula works. Too many game designers change in such a way that loses the spirit of the old games, and too many leave alone a formula that could use a lot of improving.
Then again, what would a n00b know?
Oh, and sorry for taking over the forum like this. I'm kinda used to a much faster pace.
about 6, and I'm 17 now. i played sam & max a lot during my formative years. because of it, from kindegarten to 10th grade all i wanted to do was make video games, but my interests kind of fell elsewhere after that.
13, Maniac Mansion was my first one on the Commodore 64. I pretty much quit playing when Lucas Arts quit making them. Out of all the Adventure Games I've played only Lucas Arts was ever able to make me laugh.
Let's see...first game I played was on the Commodore 64, it was that one with the mystery on the riverboat (no idea what the name of the game was), and I must have been ten or eleven, I think. First one I finished was probably either Myst or Connections, and I must have been twelve or thirteen (back in '96 or '97). Now I'm twenty-three.
I guess I started to seriously get into video games with Riven. On one of the Riven disks there was a demo for Journeyman Project III, then I got Beyond Atlantis for Christmas (I can remember the sequence, just not the dates). I played Curse of Monkey Island, Escape, and Grim Fandango in high school, but never played MI 1 or 2 until my junior year of college.
And that's officially more information than you wanted to know, I'm sure.
yeah maniac mansion was pretty cool...but i think my first pc adventure game was swiss family robinson on the commador (age 6)...then freenet came into existence...then eco quest...every kings quest... wolfenstein(age 10)...dust myst so on
yeah maniac mansion was pretty cool...but i think my first pc adventure game was swiss family robinson on the commador (age 6)...then freenet came into existence...then eco quest...every kings quest... wolfenstein(age 10)...dust myst so on
Let's see...first game I played was on the Commodore 64, it was that one with the mystery on the riverboat (no idea what the name of the game was), and I must have been ten or eleven, I think.
We got our first computer, a C-128, when I was around 7 years old. But I remember playing (or watching my brother play) "Maniac Mansion" a while earlier on my uncle's C-64 (with a monocromatic green screen), so that's probably my first contact with adventure games. So, after a few years (when MM wasn't scaring me too much anymore) I played it and Zak McKracken on our C-128, really loving it. By that time friends of our family got their first PC, so I was drooling about the "fantastic graphics" that Zak (in EGA) had on that computer. Every time we gave them a visit, I wanted to play on the PC, or - again - watch them play, since most of the games ("Leisure Suite Larry II", "King's Quest 3", "Police Quest") were in English, and I was too young to understand them. I still remember the image of the Grog-machine in "Monkey Island" being something that fascinated me...
I remember that more adventure games came into my life when my brother bought his first Amiga500... I think this was the first time I actually played "Fate of Atlantis" and "Monkey Island". Later, with his first PC (he, being 3 years older, was of course always ahead of me technology-wise) he got the first German talkie-game, which coincidentally was "Sam & Max Hit the Road", and I was absolutely captivated by it. Having my adventure characters actually TALK?!? Awesome!!!
Well, now I'm 25, still loving all those games, though I still haven't played Larry 1 - 3 or the King's Quest games in their entirety, since somehow the point and click of LucasfilmGames/LucasArts appeals more to me than Sierra's text-parser. But now that the point-and-click remakes of KQ 1-3 and Larry 2 (Larry 1 being official) are out, I might give them another shot.
We got an IBM PCjr when I was in 5th grade, so that would be about 12 years old. When you bought it you got three free programs. I begged my Dad to get King's Quest, but he wouldn't. A friend in my Boy Scout troop had it, and I went over to his house all the time to play. We ended up going through the first five before he graduated (he was four years older). We also did Space Quests, LSL, and Hero's Quest, as well as Bard's Tale and the Ultimas. I played some LucasArts stuff later on.
I've first seen Monkey Island on a friend's pc when I was 14 (now I'm 30). He was trying to master the insults sword-fight... and, of course, I completely fell in love.
Shortly after I got my own pc and started to dig for previous LucasArts (well "LucasFilm Games" at the time) adventures: Zak, MM, Indy, Loom. I played also Sierra titles, but not with the same appreciation. As an alternative to Lucas I preferred Delphine ones (Future Wars, Operation Stealth, Cruise for a Corpse... until Another World and Flashback distanced themselves from the adventure classical canon, while still being masterpieces imho ).
I am 21 years old ... with 7 years i get a box with Monkey Island 1+2 ... that was funny ... but to hard for my Age ...
1993 i get "Sam & Max: Hit the Road" and "Day of the Tentacle" ... I love it and because the Speech I dont have to read ...
S&M and DOTT are my favorites also today.
some other People in my age don't know this Games ... but now they will see the new Sam & Max and they will play ... i force them to play
If you understand only pieces of this text,
you must admit that a German release of Sam & Max is necessary!
The Journeyman Project. I was probably 10-ish years old, mid 90's. And then some text adventures and Curse of Monkey Island a few years later. I didn't play Sam and Max until just last year, though.
I remember watching my older brothers play the good old adventure games back in 95-96, and at that time I must have been about 7 years old. I started playing them for myself too, but at that time I didn't really know how to play it all that well. The games that were my definite favorites, were Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max and Monkey Island 2. About a year later, in 1997, I think, Monkey Island 3 was released, and when I purchased and played that for the first time, I really fell in love with it. I think it was the same year I purchased Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, and although it was sort of cheesy, I fell in love with the characters and the storyline. A year or two later the third installment in that series was also released. Gabriel Knight 3: The Blood of the sacred, The Blood of the damned became one of my ultimate favorites immediately.
I was about to say that they don't make games like those anymore, but you guys at Telltale Games do, so I guess there is still hope. I rarely play games at all, because I really can't see what all the fuzz is about regarding WoW, CS and other games like that. I've missed games that are actually funny, but it appears I should miss them no longer. I am reaaally looking forward to getting myself a new graphic card so that I can play the new Sam & Max!
LSL3, on a monochrome laptop my dad brought back from work. I was about 6 or 7 or so, I think. I played all the early Sierras on pirate copies my parents got from friends of friends. I remember I got FPFP and LSL6 brand-new one Christmas though, which must have been 1993. I would have been 8 then. So... pretty young
1993 i get "Sam & Max: Hit the Road" and "Day of the Tentacle" ... I love it and because the Speech I dont have to read ...
I just realized that Hit the Road was the first talkie adventure I ever played. I kinda remember how surprised I was when characters actually started talking.
I think the first adventure games I remember were on the spectrum and amstrad, no graphics as such just type in words and the computer reacts, dont remember what they were called though. I must have been about 8 then the Lucasarts stuff really got me into it though when I was about 12, S&M HTR especially.
I started computer games with 8 years on our company´s computer. It was called "Superbrain" with two big floppy-drives. Two games are still in my mind:
the first was some shoot´em up-game with ascii-symbols. (that one nearly killed the space- and arrow-keys) KLACK - KLICK - KLACK - KLICK ... etc.
The second was some kind of text-based space-adventure.
You just typed, in wich direction you space-ship should travel and then some evil alien of some sort attacked you and by typing in angle, distance and speed you tried to kill him.
Too bad we gave that computer away.. it looked that great, nearly like something wich was taken from the old classic Star trek-Series.
Late we got the first Personal Computer from IBM. There we got graphic ! and a harddisk. Wow ! I mostly played spme Pacman-clone on it.
With our first 286-Computer I started to play "real" games. The first one was flight simulator. My first adventure I played on the C64 of a friend. I think, I was about 12 or 13. It was Maniac Mansion. I loved it. Also, it was still hard to understand english.
It was somewhat hard the first years, even to find new games in germany - just a few companys did sell them and none of them was near to our little city. My first visit to a game-store was like entering the gates of Paradise.
I envied all freinds, who got a Commodore or even an Amiga in that time.
My first monkey Island came a bit later... I think about a few months, after it was released. And - shame on me - it wasn´t an original. Well.. in that time, it took some time and you needed good connections to get new games.
I was about 13 or 14 years old. But i´m not sure anymore.
Im 29 now - it´s all that long agom but not forgotten.
Monkey Island was the first real adventure, I could play at home on my own (or better the company´s) computer. Before i got just that flight-simulator. But Flight Simulator showed me.. hey ! it is possible to play with that thing and not just writing basic-crap-programs.
The first adventure game I ever played was Leisure Suit Larry 1 with Amstrad.
I was about 6 or 7 years old (22 right now) and I didn't understand anything about that game (since english isn't my native language). I thought the whole point of the game was just to walk around. I remember having nightmares of that scary guy in the alley who beats up Larry if you don't get away from there quick. Usually I went to my friend and watched his older brother playing those Sierra oldies. He had the original boxes and I remember that I thought that the cover art of Space Quest 4 was very creepy, scary & disturbing (it's the one with Vohaul getting plumbed).
Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis was the first adventure game I've ever finished (with a walkthrough of course). I didn't understand english but I learnt some words when I played it. I got Lucas Arts Classic Adventures Collection (the one with Monkey Island 1, Indiana Jones 3, Loom, Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken) as christmas present and I fell in love with Monkey Island. (I still have the box, manuals, disks etc!). I completed Indy, Monkey Island 1 and Loom, but I never touched Maniac Mansion after Edna put my character in jail. I thought it was too scary game for me. Zak McKraken was a bit too weird for me, or that's what i thought. Hmm.. I still haven't finished Zak McKraken and Maniac Mansion, maybe I should give them a chance, they can't be THAT scary and weird.
Day of the Tentacle & Sam & Max Hit the Road:
These two games are the greatest adventure games I've ever played.
They were not scary at all and there was lots of visual humor.
I played those two games countless of times with walkthroughs and I still remember every puzzle solution. Sam & Max Hit the Road became my favourite adventure game and that's what it still is. Now I understand the wacky humour and I love it!
1995-2001 I played pretty much every adventure game coming from Sierra or LucasArts and some others I heard would be good (Blade Runner, etc.)
I also stopped using walkthroughs and learnt some more english as I played.
After Grim Fandango & Gabriel Knight 3 I haven't played any of the newer games. Gory Ultra-Violence, 3D, lack of storytelling/humor. These are the major problems of the games nowadays (that's just what I think), so I thought I should just stick with the oldies. Until..
Today:
After Grim Fandango I thought the whole adventure genre was dead & buried.
A little sparkle of hope came from Lucas Arts (Freelance Police) but it got cancelled. Few years later I heard about Telltale games and that the company would make a new Sam & Max game. I was very happy about the news, but I was also worried. The feeling, humour and atmosphere of Hit the Road would be hard to reach and I have this nostalgic thing with Hit the Road. I really hoped that the return of Sam & Max will be successful. I tried the new Sam & Max demo and I thought it was the greatest thing since Sam & Max Hit the Road. I felt the same sensation as I did when I played Sam & Max Hit the Road for the first time 13 years ago. I really hope that Telltale will continue with the same quality and I hope the company will get the credit they deserve for doing such a great job. I will buy the whole season when it's complete. Keep up the good work!
I started playing KQ1, LSL1, PQ1 and SQ1. All the original AGI versions when they just were released so I was about 10 or 11 (I am 32 now). I loved every second of it. I think I learned a lot of english from these games... And I remember playing on a AT with EGA graphics. And no sound card!
I was introduced to Monkey Island until LeChuck's Revenge. Immediately I played Secret of Monkey Island too because I really liked the jokes, the storyline and the fact that you couldn't die! Then I got into the other LucasArst games.
The Quest for Glory (or Heroes Quest when I played it first) series of Sierra is also one of my favorites. I played for hours to get better at everything. and killing all creatures in the forest of QfG1. Great storyline and lots to do, also because of the RPG part in the game...
Later Sierra adventure games like Gabriel Knight and SQ>4, PQ>3, LSL>5 and KQ>5 didn't interest me. I don't know why exactly, probably because the series were going on too long and the gameplay changed during the series.
I think in the older games gameplay and stories mattered more than the graphics because the ability to create extreme realistic graphics just wasn't there.
Lucasarts adventures always remained to capture me. And now the new Sam & Max and Bone, they make me really happy again. Although I am plaing the oldies with help of sarien, freesci and scummvm...
One last note: I think the engine you are using is great and should have been the way Monkey Island 4 should have been created. In 3D but with the point and click interface. Keep up the good work!
I started playing Day of the Tentacle when I was about 7 because a friend of my Mum's had it and it wouldn't work on his computer so he gave me the disk.
Then I installed it, and cheated my way through the whole game thanks to an FAQ! But still thoroughly enjoyed it
Then I found a friend who was into the Monkey Island series and I've been hooked to adventure games ever since! (I'm 16 now)
I started playing adventure games when I was 29. The first one I played was Myst. Maybe I technically started earlier. When I would visit my aunt and uncle, I played Oregon Trail on their computer when I was 10 or so. I had a Vic-20 as a kid but never played adventure games on it and didn't get another personal computer until 1996. I hadn't even heard of Lucas Arts or Sierra until I started posting in forums in 2004.
My parents bought me my first computer (A C-64) in September of 1982 and I've been hooked on computers (Especially Gaming) ever since. I hate to say how old I am now....but in September of 1982, I was '11'...
Comments
Matt...
Some years later I learned english with Sierra-games, the first one being Leisure Suit Larry. In retrospect, I guess that explains a thing or two.. (I'm 29 now). Also it boggles me how my parents could give me some of the words i asked about with a straight face. But I remember they didn't know what a prophylactic was, so I had to figure out that one by myself. Which was no small task. No google or bigtittedmamasitas.com those days.
Haha... I did this too.
Same here! B-)
I remember the advanced protection at the beginning of the game that would prevent younger players from playing it: a series of questions that only adults would know the answer to (which was always Alt x
I would've taken you to be much younger, as seen in that one photo of you. And no, I'm not trying to be flirtatious!
My first computer was a TRS-80(Tandy) Color Computer 2, known as CoCo2. We are talking the age of cassette tapes, program paks, and 5-1/4" disks. The first adventure game I played was probably Bedlam, which was a text adventure. I still have my CoCo2 & CoCo3 with all accessories and programs. I learned to program in BASIC, ASM and used OS/9 on this computer, and typed in hundreds of programs from a magazine called "the Rainbow".
But you probably want to know about my first PC adventure games. They were the Space Quest series and Ultima Underworld. I had a friend in my college dorm that bought a new 386DX, and he was responsible for getting me into PC gaming. Oh and can't forget some of my favorite "adventure-type" games... Lands of Lore, Kyrandia, Blade Runner, etc by Westwood Studios.
im 16 now :P
was good ol days back then, i cant wait for Sam and max to come out, bone was hilarious, ive only tried the first ep of bone though, gonna get bone ep 2 soon i think
Blimey! - I remember doing those back in the early eighties - We had a magazine called Computer & Video Games which used to have listings for Speccy & Commodore systems every month... I generally had no idea what the hell I was typing in - just followed the code as printed. Another in a long line of diversions I created to avoid learning any kind of social competence.... happy days
Hey! - I'll take what I can get!
Then, I bought the Lucasarts Archives Vol. I, which included Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis, among others (what a collection, now that I think!), finishing to turn me into a fan of the genre.
I'm 28 now. Like others have said, I also didn't speak english at the time, but much of the english I know now, I thank it to the adventure games I played in my youth.
my cousin had his super 286 while I was still stuck with my good old C64.
It was Indy and the last crusade, I remember it well, it was love at first sight!
There was a REAL story to lead everything, and the characters even talked to each other!
I had never seen some like that before, I didn't know Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken for C64.
It was the first half of 1990, and some months later my cousin told me: "Hey, got to show you a game better than Indy3!". My answer was "No way, that's just not possible! What's its name?". "The secret of Monkey Island.".
I'll let you figure out the rest
That's how I became a proud supporter of graphic adventures.
Then again, what would a n00b know?
Oh, and sorry for taking over the forum like this. I'm kinda used to a much faster pace.
That would have been back in about 1984, so I would have been about 7.
(For those of you who are slow at maths, that makes me 29
I started when I was a fetus - Everybody loved the fetal gamer!
I guess I started to seriously get into video games with Riven. On one of the Riven disks there was a demo for Journeyman Project III, then I got Beyond Atlantis for Christmas (I can remember the sequence, just not the dates). I played Curse of Monkey Island, Escape, and Grim Fandango in high school, but never played MI 1 or 2 until my junior year of college.
And that's officially more information than you wanted to know, I'm sure.
arghhhhhh !!! and now i am 20
arghhhhhh !!! and now i am 20
Was that Cruise for a Corpse?
I remember that more adventure games came into my life when my brother bought his first Amiga500... I think this was the first time I actually played "Fate of Atlantis" and "Monkey Island". Later, with his first PC (he, being 3 years older, was of course always ahead of me technology-wise) he got the first German talkie-game, which coincidentally was "Sam & Max Hit the Road", and I was absolutely captivated by it. Having my adventure characters actually TALK?!? Awesome!!!
Well, now I'm 25, still loving all those games, though I still haven't played Larry 1 - 3 or the King's Quest games in their entirety, since somehow the point and click of LucasfilmGames/LucasArts appeals more to me than Sierra's text-parser. But now that the point-and-click remakes of KQ 1-3 and Larry 2 (Larry 1 being official) are out, I might give them another shot.
I'm 32 now, so 20 years ago...
Shortly after I got my own pc and started to dig for previous LucasArts (well "LucasFilm Games" at the time) adventures: Zak, MM, Indy, Loom. I played also Sierra titles, but not with the same appreciation. As an alternative to Lucas I preferred Delphine ones (Future Wars, Operation Stealth, Cruise for a Corpse... until Another World and Flashback distanced themselves from the adventure classical canon, while still being masterpieces imho
Try;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_for_a_Corpse
There are a couple of better links if you Google 'Cruise_for_a_Corpse'
However, since allowed you to download the game I thought it safer not to publish them here
1993 i get "Sam & Max: Hit the Road" and "Day of the Tentacle" ... I love it and because the Speech I dont have to read ...
S&M and DOTT are my favorites also today.
some other People in my age don't know this Games ... but now they will see the new Sam & Max and they will play ... i force them to play
If you understand only pieces of this text,
you must admit that a German release of Sam & Max is necessary!
so far
Donar
I was about to say that they don't make games like those anymore, but you guys at Telltale Games do, so I guess there is still hope. I rarely play games at all, because I really can't see what all the fuzz is about regarding WoW, CS and other games like that. I've missed games that are actually funny, but it appears I should miss them no longer. I am reaaally looking forward to getting myself a new graphic card so that I can play the new Sam & Max!
I'm 21 now.
I just realized that Hit the Road was the first talkie adventure I ever played. I kinda remember how surprised I was when characters actually started talking.
--Erwin
Otherwise I think it must have been LucasArts and Monkey Island 2 - I was 11 or 12? All started there
the first was some shoot´em up-game with ascii-symbols. (that one nearly killed the space- and arrow-keys) KLACK - KLICK - KLACK - KLICK ... etc.
The second was some kind of text-based space-adventure.
You just typed, in wich direction you space-ship should travel and then some evil alien of some sort attacked you and by typing in angle, distance and speed you tried to kill him.
Too bad we gave that computer away.. it looked that great, nearly like something wich was taken from the old classic Star trek-Series.
Here you can see it: http://www.tonh.net/museum/superbrain.jpg
Late we got the first Personal Computer from IBM. There we got graphic ! and a harddisk. Wow ! I mostly played spme Pacman-clone on it.
With our first 286-Computer I started to play "real" games. The first one was flight simulator. My first adventure I played on the C64 of a friend. I think, I was about 12 or 13. It was Maniac Mansion. I loved it. Also, it was still hard to understand english.
It was somewhat hard the first years, even to find new games in germany - just a few companys did sell them and none of them was near to our little city. My first visit to a game-store was like entering the gates of Paradise.
I envied all freinds, who got a Commodore or even an Amiga in that time.
My first monkey Island came a bit later... I think about a few months, after it was released. And - shame on me - it wasn´t an original. Well.. in that time, it took some time and you needed good connections to get new games.
I was about 13 or 14 years old. But i´m not sure anymore.
Im 29 now - it´s all that long agom but not forgotten.
Monkey Island was the first real adventure, I could play at home on my own (or better the company´s) computer. Before i got just that flight-simulator. But Flight Simulator showed me.. hey ! it is possible to play with that thing and not just writing basic-crap-programs.
I was about 6 or 7 years old (22 right now) and I didn't understand anything about that game (since english isn't my native language). I thought the whole point of the game was just to walk around. I remember having nightmares of that scary guy in the alley who beats up Larry if you don't get away from there quick. Usually I went to my friend and watched his older brother playing those Sierra oldies. He had the original boxes and I remember that I thought that the cover art of Space Quest 4 was very creepy, scary & disturbing (it's the one with Vohaul getting plumbed).
Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis was the first adventure game I've ever finished (with a walkthrough of course). I didn't understand english but I learnt some words when I played it. I got Lucas Arts Classic Adventures Collection (the one with Monkey Island 1, Indiana Jones 3, Loom, Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken) as christmas present and I fell in love with Monkey Island. (I still have the box, manuals, disks etc!). I completed Indy, Monkey Island 1 and Loom, but I never touched Maniac Mansion after Edna put my character in jail. I thought it was too scary game for me. Zak McKraken was a bit too weird for me, or that's what i thought. Hmm.. I still haven't finished Zak McKraken and Maniac Mansion, maybe I should give them a chance, they can't be THAT scary and weird.
Day of the Tentacle & Sam & Max Hit the Road:
These two games are the greatest adventure games I've ever played.
They were not scary at all and there was lots of visual humor.
I played those two games countless of times with walkthroughs and I still remember every puzzle solution. Sam & Max Hit the Road became my favourite adventure game and that's what it still is. Now I understand the wacky humour and I love it!
1995-2001 I played pretty much every adventure game coming from Sierra or LucasArts and some others I heard would be good (Blade Runner, etc.)
I also stopped using walkthroughs and learnt some more english as I played.
After Grim Fandango & Gabriel Knight 3 I haven't played any of the newer games. Gory Ultra-Violence, 3D, lack of storytelling/humor. These are the major problems of the games nowadays (that's just what I think), so I thought I should just stick with the oldies. Until..
Today:
After Grim Fandango I thought the whole adventure genre was dead & buried.
A little sparkle of hope came from Lucas Arts (Freelance Police) but it got cancelled. Few years later I heard about Telltale games and that the company would make a new Sam & Max game. I was very happy about the news, but I was also worried. The feeling, humour and atmosphere of Hit the Road would be hard to reach and I have this nostalgic thing with Hit the Road. I really hoped that the return of Sam & Max will be successful. I tried the new Sam & Max demo and I thought it was the greatest thing since Sam & Max Hit the Road. I felt the same sensation as I did when I played Sam & Max Hit the Road for the first time 13 years ago. I really hope that Telltale will continue with the same quality and I hope the company will get the credit they deserve for doing such a great job. I will buy the whole season when it's complete. Keep up the good work!
I was introduced to Monkey Island until LeChuck's Revenge. Immediately I played Secret of Monkey Island too because I really liked the jokes, the storyline and the fact that you couldn't die! Then I got into the other LucasArst games.
The Quest for Glory (or Heroes Quest when I played it first) series of Sierra is also one of my favorites. I played for hours to get better at everything. and killing all creatures in the forest of QfG1. Great storyline and lots to do, also because of the RPG part in the game...
Later Sierra adventure games like Gabriel Knight and SQ>4, PQ>3, LSL>5 and KQ>5 didn't interest me. I don't know why exactly, probably because the series were going on too long and the gameplay changed during the series.
I think in the older games gameplay and stories mattered more than the graphics because the ability to create extreme realistic graphics just wasn't there.
Lucasarts adventures always remained to capture me. And now the new Sam & Max and Bone, they make me really happy again. Although I am plaing the oldies with help of sarien, freesci and scummvm...
One last note: I think the engine you are using is great and should have been the way Monkey Island 4 should have been created. In 3D but with the point and click interface. Keep up the good work!
Then I installed it, and cheated my way through the whole game thanks to an FAQ! But still thoroughly enjoyed it
Then I found a friend who was into the Monkey Island series and I've been hooked to adventure games ever since! (I'm 16 now)
Is that old??