Poll of the Day > What would you say are the best/most important/influential OLD adventure games

(+) Yeah! (+)

The general era I'm thinking of is early Sierra, the macventure games, NES stuff like Nightshade, Maniac Mansion, Hugo House of Horrors

There's a SOFT cutoff of 1991, with the release of Monkey Island, but it's a soft cutoff... I don't care if you go past it much, (since I also want to include Out of This World)
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Myst
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glad you said soft cutoff because The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall

decent pc graphics for 1996, still to date one of the largest open worlds in gaming, near complete freedom on how your character looks, their stats, race, abilities might as well be a fucking DnD character creator.

really without Daggerfall paving the way games like Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, The Witcher even the recently released Outer Worlds wouldnt be as good as they are.

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MachoPony posted...

glad you said soft cutoff because The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall

That's not really an adventure game, though.

Anyways, the three giants of the industry will always be King's Quest, Secret of Monkey Island, and Myst. All three of those were hugely influential in their own ways.

In terms of best, I'd say it's a toss-up between Myst and King's Quest VI (far and away the best of the King's Quest games).

Most important... well, Mystery House probably deserves some consideration, being the first graphical adventure game, but I'd still give the nod to Myst. Though passe by modern standards, it was hugely influential from a storytelling perspective at the time of its release and gave a glimpse of what the future of gaming represented.
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Pac-Man 2
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The 7th Guest
The 11th Hour
HHGG
The early Leisure Suit Larry games
Full Throttle
All of the early Monkey Island games.
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Games like that? I really love the Broken Sword Point'n'Click games ever since I played the GBA ports.
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My usual list would be Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Quest for Glory for early Sierra, and Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Loom, The Dig, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, and Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis from LucasArts.

I'd also throw Gabriel Knight, Broken Sword, Myst, and 7th Guest in as other games/series that are worth a look. As well the "MacVenture" games like Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited.

I might be forgetting a few, plus there were at least a few I played and enjoyed but wouldn't necessarily call "great" or "influential" (like The Dark Half or the Spellcasting 101 series), but I feel like that's most of the really important ones.

I might throw Longest Journey/Dreamfall into the mix for the later end of that spectrum, and maybe the Syberia games. And the Discworld games.
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Oregon trail
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When was prince of Persia? Feel that one was pretty big.

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pedro45 posted...

When was prince of Persia? Feel that one was pretty big.

It's not really an adventure game. It's always been more of a platforming beat 'em up.
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Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Myst

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>Daggerfall not an adventure game

good joke

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MachoPony posted...

>Daggerfall not an adventure game

good joke

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
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what's not to understand about a game where you explore and "Adventure" through one of the largest open worlds ever constructed in gaming (True fact) finding hidden secrets, gathering loot, battling monsters and so forth?

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

I think we're thinking the same thing but about you.
You're kinda splitting hairs by saying it's not adventure when it's a subgenre at the very least. Platforming is adventure...you'd be crazy to say Crash Bandicoot is not an adventure game.

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Mainly the point-and-click adventure games were awesome.
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Even if Lok worded it poorly, the examples make the type of game meant very clear.
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pedro45 posted...

you'd be crazy to say Crash Bandicoot is not an adventure game.

...there is no adventure when you're literally locked in a track. I mean you can go forward or backwards. That's about it.
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MachoPony posted...

what's not to understand about a game where you explore and "Adventure" through one of the largest open worlds ever constructed in gaming (True fact) finding hidden secrets, gathering loot, battling monsters and so forth?

So I was right, you don't actually understand what that word means.



pedro45 posted...

I think we're thinking the same thing but about you.
You're kinda splitting hairs by saying it's not adventure when it's a subgenre at the very least. Platforming is adventure...you'd be crazy to say Crash Bandicoot is not an adventure game.

I'm not sure who you think you're replying to, because I literally never said a single thing about Crash Bandicoot or "platforming", nor did anyone I replied to.

I was just pointing out that Morrowind, which has nearly all of the mechanical hallmarks of an RPG, which its developers have always referred to as an RPG, which this site refers to as an RPG, and which pretty much every sane and self-aware human being on the face of the Earth calls an RPG, really isn't an adventure game by any definition of the term "Adventure". Other than "Hey, you're having an adventure!" Which isn't even remotely what the term "Adventure" means in a genre sense.

But you're still wrong regardless, because "Adventure" IS a specific genre, and Crash Bandicoot doesn't really have any of its definining characteristics either. At best, it can fit into "Action-Adventure" due to its puzzling elements, but in spite of the similar names, "Adventure" and "Action-Adventure" are actually two distinct and different genres that aren't really related to each other.

Games like the original Tomb Raider are pushing the boundaries of what is generally considered an "action-adventure platformer", and Crash is a lot more pure platformer than that.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I was just pointing out that Morrowind, which has nearly all of the mechanical hallmarks of an RPG, which its developers have always referred to as an RPG, which this site refers to as an RPG, and which pretty much every sane and self-aware human being on the face of the Earth calls an RPG, really isn't an adventure game by any definition of the term "Adventure".

You roleplay a character on an adventure.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Other than "Hey, you're having an adventure!" Which isn't even remotely what the term "Adventure" means in a genre sense.

It is tho. If the game is significantly about an adventure you have, it's an adventure game.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

in spite of the similar names, "Adventure" and "Action-Adventure" are actually two distinct and different genres that aren't really related to each other.

That shows how you don't know what adventure is. It's rather telling that you felt the need to hyphenate it but I've never seen that done prior. It's as though "action-adventure" isn't a genre, just games are often both "action" and "adventure" at the same time.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

You roleplay a character on an adventure.

Literally not what the word means in a genre sense.



Kyuubi4269 posted...

It is tho. If the game is significantly about an adventure you have, it's an adventure game.

Still blatantly wrong.

Also, for funsies? What defines a "roleplaying game" isn't "Well, you're playing a role" either. Otherwise every video game ever made other than stuff like Tetris would be RPGs, and the term would be completely useless as an indicator of genre.

Just like most video games ever made would fall under "You're having an adventure", which is why it's useless as a term of classification (and thus, why it's not the defining trait of the genre).



Kyuubi4269 posted...

That shows how you don't know what adventure is. It's rather telling that you felt the need to hyphenate it but I've never seen that done prior. It's as though "action-adventure" isn't a genre, just games are often both "action" and "adventure" at the same time.

So in other words, you've never once looked at genre tags on this very site, let alone anywhere else, or bothered to ever actually read descriptions of what video game genre classifications mean, at any point over the last 40 years or so.

If nothing else, it helps explain why you have absolutely no idea what you're attempting to talk about.

Thanks for the heads up on that, though. I can now proceed to safely ignore you on this topic from now on.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Literally not what the word means in a genre sense.

There is no genre sense of the word. If adventure does not define the thing, that is not its genre.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Also, for funsies? What defines a "roleplaying game" isn't "Well, you're playing a role" either. Otherwise every video game ever made other than stuff like Tetris would be RPGs, and the term would be completely useless as an indicator of genre.

An RPG is primarily about playing the role. Even when you are controlling a character, if you're primarily taking the character on an adventure, or progressing a storyline, you are not playing an RPG.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Just like most video games ever made would fall under "You're having an adventure", which is why it's useless as a term of classification (and thus, why it's not the defining trait of the genre).

You can call a load of games a CoD clone because they are, similarly every game where you're primarily on an adventure is an adventure game, no matter how numerous. They can be other things, but those just happen to be ubiquitous. Basically every other game on PS3/360 was a shooter so the term became useless, but they still were shooters.
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Lol kyuubi went up against PO and got POwned.

@EvilMegas
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

There is no genre sense of the word. If adventure does not define the thing, that is not its genre.

Wow, you don't even seem to understand how the concept of "genre" works either.

You've got a LOT of studying to do before I bother trying to argue any of this with you again. At this point it's like a nuclear physicist trying to debate quantum theory with a kindergartner. And presumably both of them have better things to be doing with their time (me metaphorically thinking about quantum physics, you... metaphorically eating paste, I guess).
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Kyuubi4269 posted...

There is no genre sense of the word. If adventure does not define the thing, that is not its genre.

Man, you don't even seem to understand what the word "genre" means either.

You've got a LOT of studying to do because I bother trying to argue any of this with you again. At this point it's like a nuclear physicist trying to debate quantum theory with a kindergartner. And presumably both of them have better things to be doing with their time you... (me metaphorically thinking about quantum physics, you... metaphorically eating paste, I guess).

I like how instead of making an argument, you just got mad lol
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Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

I like how instead of making an argument, you just got mad lol

You've never really seen me mad. You haven't been here long enough.

"Arrogantly and insultingly dismissive of ignorance" is another thing entirely.

But at this point you're just being a shitty troll anyway.
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Google says the difference between and adventure game and an RPG is that in an RPG, you control your characters. But in an adventure game, you control the character. So, if that's true, that would make games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 RPGs. I mean, that's what I considered them, anyway... But still...

Though, I think there's a little more. And some other differences, but yeah...
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SunWuKung420 posted...

got POwned

the saddest part of this is you're not saying this jokingly or with irony. you're legitimately this lame, ok?
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I know I said there was a soft cutoff of about 1991, but that doesn't mean the adventure resurgence of 1997 ... :/
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This excludes stuff like Ultima?
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Zork was pretty influential, but probably not for the reasons you are thinking.

The game engine (Z-machine) was one of the first to be built with multi-platform in mind. Before that it was super expensive to make a game for more then one system (and we are not talking about something like today where you only have a handful of platforms, there were dozens back then). Infocom basically made one of the first virtual machines that were super cheap to make for a computer system, but were able to play their games so that they only had to make one version of the game that could run against the virtual machine. It was pretty revolutionary, and is the same concept used by most modern game engines to make games that can run on all platforms with very little effort.
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I was gonna say Myst when you first posted this except for the cutoff.

I don't think I played anything that would be considered an "influential" adventure game back then, if there even are any.

The two main ones I played through were Police Quest 1 and Robin Hood: Conquests of the Longbow (both Sierra). I've always heard of all the other ones, but never really encountered them until the recent Monkey Island remakes.

Dikitain posted...

Zork was pretty influential, but probably not for the reasons you are thinking.

I played the Kingdom of Kroz games, which was named after Zork, but never managed to play any Zork game. (Also played ZZT a little bit which is related to Kroz).
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I mean if you really, really want to go deep...forget graphical adventures. Dig into classic text adventures riddled with fridge logic and puzzles that only made sense after having failed them...
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I'm actually surprised there is no Zelda mentions. I always considered Zelda to be the quintessential adventure game.

BlackScythe0 posted...

I'm actually surprised there is no Zelda mentions. I always considered Zelda to be the quintessential adventure game.

I guess it is sort of a puzzle-adventure game...
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BlackScythe0 posted...

I'm actually surprised there is no Zelda mentions. I always considered Zelda to be the quintessential adventure game.

Well, it certainly inspired some titles.
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You've probably already seen it, but someone re-uploaded the all your history documentary about adventure games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LENBu-ir78U

this video might also help people who seem to think action rpg games are adventure games
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