I'm sure this has been asked before but the post about how long will you go before looking at a hint sheet made me wonder what your favorite all time puzzle in an adventure game would be. What are some of your favorites and what was the hardest puzzle that you have ever run up against?

Good Topic, Space...

Ok my favorite puzzles are:

Mixing things..

Put things together in inventory

Sliders.. I know ..I know, but I am some what good at sliders as long as they are not timed

I totally despise anything mathematical...I am not good at math at all...

I also dislike anything that has to do with Egyptian hyroglifics...

I too enjoy inventory based adventure games

My failings and therefore my least liked puzzles are most probably those associated with having to re-build broken alien machines and such like - or cope with maths puzzles that are based on alien or unfamiliar concepts

I've really played just too many games now to be able to pinpoint a favourite or hated individual puzzle

I liked Insult Swordfighting in Secret of Monkey Island.
And I liked the Mystes O' Tyme puzzle in Escape from Monkey Island. I guess I remember these because they stand out as being the best (or most fun) of their particular puzzle type (IMO).

Even though I tend to like mechanical or logical puzzles, I don't seem to remember particular puzzles unless there is something visual about them that is noteworthy. For example the spider puzzle in Obsidian was sort of a programming puzzle, but what I remember most about it was that it involved a giant spiderlike structure. And I liked the puzzles in the Edanna level of Myst III: Exile that involved huge flowers and seed pods and glowing insects, but that was mainly because the whole environment was so magical.

I second Mystes O'Tyme and Edanna in Myst III: Exile.

Hardest puzzle -- any one of the multi-stepped puzzles in Lighthouse. (Shudders at the memory.) I'm still riding that train in my mind.

My favorite puzzles are the multilayered kind where you unearth clues and information that allows you to solve a central puzzle.
Le Serpent Rouge in GK3 was an excellent example, as was all of Riven. The first part of Obsidian was one of the best spacial challenges I've come across. The end 'jewel' in Black Dahlia was another favorite. Pretty much all my worst puzzles have to do with my inability to react quickly enough to solve them, in other words timed dexterity challenges. Ones not so fondly remembered are - the pendulum in GK3, the last part of The Ward, and many parts of Uru.

I love word puzzles, like unscrambling letters or piecing together shredded notes. I also really like slider puzzles, was funny cause at church they have a table with a huge slider puzzle and I had fun trying to figure it out.

All of the puzzles in Voyage (some were random). But, my all time favorite has to be the Ball Puzzle (scales) in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

We've used it to test aspiring programmers. It's amazing how humble they are after taking it

Le Serpent Rouge from GK3 is definitely my favorite puzzle in any adventure game.

I am thrilled to hear other people say that they enjoy sliders (it seems that it is currently a "bad puzzle" among many gamers these days). I love sliders as well and I thought the insult sword fighting was creative as well. I also liked the diving competition in one of the Monkey games, as well as most of Myst III, and 11th hour and 7th Guest. Have very few that I hated...

Another very interesting question. And some interesting answers listing games I have never played.
My all time favourites were the painting puzzles in Echo which, when solved, actually solved a real life (in the game) problem. They weren't hard, but it was a unique idea.
I enjoy any puzzles for which you have to have collected clues and noted things in the game, sometimes much earlier in the game, to be able to solve them. I don't like instant solutions.
Not keen on too many inventory based puzzles nor ones based on action sequences. Uru was a particularly hated game for this reason. Sorry - Uru fans!

The hardest puzzle for me was in Myst in the rocketship. Matching those notes on the piano to the machine was really, really hard!!

The combination puzzle of five parts to reveal the Brotherhood in Discworld was my all time favorite. All of the puzzles in Discworld 2 were very creative. I also liked the moving inventory. My hardest was in Black Daliha.

I love inventory puzzles, especially ones that require making strange item combinations.

I like jigsaw puzzles and their variations. I enjoyed 'getting a blank paper' in Obisidian, for example (I forgot the name of that type of puzzle).
I also love 'traffic jam' puzzles. They're like sliders, only fun.

Mechanical puzzles I will either love or hate:
If I immediately see what I have to do, but the steps for it are the puzzle, then I hate them.
If I have to work out what I have to do by observing and operating the machine, then I love them.

I prefer the logical, mechanical and visual ones.
As long as they aren't timed, I like most of them.

orchgamer,
I had forgot about the MI4 diving competition. The spitting contest in MI was also very tough.
Venus,
I loved the Gabriel Knight games but I thought the computer part of GK3 was too tough for me. The GK games always had the best plots.

For me it is definitely the whole Le Serpent Rouge part in GK3. I love the way in which the puzzles of Le Serpent Rouge are connected to the complex story structure.

i too enjoy sliders,and most of the puzzles in echo were really great fun. also,i enjoyed the puzzles in the da vinci game - there was a little bit of everything.

the only things i don't like are the timed things - my hands just don't work well enough.