Hi, Space Quest Fan!

My very first game was "Wishbringer" by Infocom. It took me weeks to play, and I scribbled out pages and pages of notes and maps. After that, I was hooked and bought practically every new Infocom game that was released. Then I discovered Tex Murphy and Gabriel Knight, and the rest, as they say, is history !

Susan

Great question, Space Quest! Prepare for long post. I don't even remember the name of my first adventure game. It was a text game I played on my stepfather's work computer, and I remember I kept dying and having to reload. I was determined to get past one particular area. Not sure if I ever did.

Then there was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, another text game. It was like playing through a very difficult version of the novel, and I loved it. After that, I remember Alice and Wonderland by Windham Classics and Labyrinth by Lucas Arts (Lucas Film then) on the Commodore 64. I'm not sure if either really qualified as adventure games, as they had "action" elements, but they were a lot of fun. Alice in Wonderland was my favorite of the two. I played it with my mom quite a bit, and we couldn't even save the game, so we kept having to start over from the beginning. We got to know that game very well. When we finally finished, it was a huge accomplishment. It's too bad I can't play that game anymore, as I'd like to.

My first "official" graphic adventure was Maniac Mansion, also for the Commodore 64. I can still play the Windows version of that game on ScummVM. Zak McKracken arrived not long after (also playable on ScummVM and available on GOG ), and those two were my favorites for quite some time.

King's Quest 6 was the first game that blew me away on a story level, and it was the type of evolution I'd been hoping for. Even though it was a basic fairy tale story, there was so much detail in the plot and in all the subplots, which fit together beautifully.

Then I discovered Grim Fandango, then The Longest Journey and finally went back to get the Gabriel Knight games. I'd somehow missed the GK games when they first came out, which is a shame, as I would have loved them at the time. These remain my favorite games today, along with Culpa Innata, The Lost Crown and The Walking Dead, and soon Dreamfall Chapters and Life is Strange will be added to that list as well. It's amazing to see how games continue to grow, in some ways better than others. I continue to replay my old favorites all the time, and I continue to get excited about the new ones as well. Adventure games are such a diverse and fantastic genre.

Syberia. The artwork and graphics had me mezmerized. The beginning of an addiction. Longest Journey and Darkfall Trilogy came next.

Syberia was my first ,thanks to a shopping trip with my brother in law!

He was upgrading diablo ,and I asked if there was anything without fighting. He picked Syberia because it had won game of the year .

Took FOREVER ,because I didn't know about Gameboomers or walkthroughs .I remember being so stunned by the graphics and cutscenes ,and what a great story !

Venus,

Reading your list makes me think that we enjoy the same games.


Reading the posts about Syberia reminded me of how much I loved that game and I can still picture the rain and snow in that game.

I toyed with 7th Guest and Monkey Island 1, but really didn't get into them at first. But Myst was really the first AG that I played from beginning to end in 1995.

Of course, I've been a major 'all things Myst and Myst-like' fan forever, but here's what still amazes me:

The Rand brothers started work on Myst in 1991 -that's 24 years ago! Keep in mind how relatively primitive computer graphics were in the early 90's, not to mention how limited the monitors were. Now skip forward to the present and play the opening scenes of the original Myst on a modern computer set up. Also, if you have them, take a look at Myst, Masterpiece Edition (from 2000) and realMyst.

What strikes me is how well the game compares to present AGs. Of course, the Masterpiece edition has enhanced graphics and music, but it still is essentially the original game simply updated to work better on computers that now had improved graphics and sound cards. The game itself is unchanged.

Point being: What genius was at work for the boys at Cyan to have conceived of and created a game that was not only years ahead of its time, but which (along with Riven) anticipated the possibilities of adventure games far into the future. Personally, I have not come across to this day any AG that has the same level of the combination of original graphics and puzzles of the first 3 Myst games (yes I know that Myst III was a Presto game, but the Millers still assisted, directly and indirectly, in production).

I love Syberia and its sequel as well. Also Still Life and The Moment of Silence, both of which came out around that time.

Space Quest, I remember that we enjoy many of the same games. You have great taste.

Venus.

I forgot about Moment of Silence. That was a good game.

After reading all these posts it makes me want to play these games over again.

I had quite forgotten about Les Manley...Im sure, I have forgot more than I remember...

Wow - this brings me back to my first computer - an IBM 8086 ! My first Adventure game was Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. That was the "hook" then it's all a blur from there. I do know I went through all the Sierra games after that.

I had a friend tell me the other day that his first game was one of the old Sierra Quest for Glory games. I think the fourth one in Mordovia was my favorite.

Another thing I loved about the Sierra games was the ability in Gabriel Knight to play as Gabe and Grace. I also remember that in the Quest games you could pick from several different characters. Very cool.

I can't remember. But I was very impressed because it was one of the first games to use the full motion effect. And by that I mean the game looked just like a show on TV. And I think it also had 3D movement effects....

Space Quest,

My first game was Laura Bow: The Dagger of Amon Ra, a Sierra game. I had just bought my first computer and a friend was playing adventure games, so I tried this one. I had no computer experience, had no idea what I was doing (often still don't ) and thought that I would never get the hang of a mouse but I loved this game! After that, I played most of the King's Quest games and loved them, too.

The only bad thing about the Sierra games was that if you missed something in the beginning,and didn't pick it up, you would get to the end and die. In Laura Bow, I was all the way at the end and rescued, Steve from the coal bin only to have him step on a nail because I had missed picking up his boot earlier in the game. They couldn't escape from the killer! Very frustrating. My friend had the same problem with Police Quest. Still have very fond memories of Laura Bow and wish that they had made more of them.

Hi, sureshot!

My first computer was also an IBM 8086. It had a whopping 640K of RAM, monochrome monitor and 2 5-1/4" floppies, and cost just under $5,000 (including the printer). I was only able to play text adventures, but I have a vivid imagination so one game would keep me engrossed for weeks ! Half the fun was typing in rude comments just to see what the reply was, and the developers were ready for just about anything!

Susan

I seem to remember with Pi-Mania (my first adventure) that if you typed in a swear word, the Pi-Man would take offence and kick you out of the game and back to the entry screen!

Yes, I agree. It was a very "good looking" game for the day but having checked my (ancient) notes, I find I never did complete the game because of the constant "dying".

[ And I'm still not quick enough today, half the time !! ]

my 1st game was Duke Nukem 3D , and the other day just finished all episodes ,what a great game .now on to Broken sword 5..

gatsbygirl,

I didn't know that about the Laura Bow games. I do remember being frustrated at dying over and over in several games. The Police Quest games gave me problems because I could never follow the proper procedure.

Hi, Rushes!

Now that's funny ! I don't remember playing any games that sent players back to the beginning if they typed in any rude comments, but the game developers back then must have had some pretty hilarious brainstorming sessions because they anticipated pretty well every swear word imaginable.

BTW, I had to Google "Pi-Mania" because I have never heard of it before.

Susan

Rushes,

I think it was one of the Lucas Arts games maybe Zak or Maniac Mansion that had the copy protection system and if you entered the wrong code it put you in jail and said " You really should buy a legal version of the game."

Hi Susie07 - I've been called away for a while - Yep - My first 8086 was supplied to the Executives of the Insurance Company I worked for. As a VP - I got an IBM machine set up to terminal into a System 36 IBM Mainframe with an Emulation card to run it as a PC also. They came with Leisure Suit Larry installed and we were ENCOURAGED to play it to get familiar with the PC and its use !!

That was my start - and my home machine cost me $4000.00 !! NO PRINTER....

Tex Murphy The Pandora Directive

First for me was Phantasmagoria. Still have the original 7 disc version and the G.O.G. digital version

Yeah !! A fantastic game !!

Grabgib, I ALSO have the original boxed game, and I can still play it on my "dinosaur" WIN XP computer. I have not purchased the GOG version, however. HAPPY GAMING!
Sandy