Hey people :-)

A few days ago I wanted to show a friend of mine who hates AG and whom I always force to experience yet another one, what I decided to term "the puzzle of puzzles" (later to be described).
This got me thinking, that it could be nice to have a discussion here surrounding the ultimate question:

what is your favourite puzzle to ever have solved?

Yes, a very hard question. And I don't think even the one which I titled as the puzzle of puzzles is the answer. So I decided I'll specify 3 different puzzles that, each in their own way, got me nothing else than bow to the ingeniousness behind them.

So these are my picks, after some wild thinking:

1. The moon room (I think it's called), in Kadish Tolesa, Uru. (second puzzle of the bunch).
The theme of the puzzle was absoulutely beautiful - look for the hidden, the secret. It's design, the scattering of hints, it's integration with the plot and theme of the age, and the general built of it - just blew my mind away. That's the puzzle I termed "puzzle of puzzles" though there might be better :-)

2. Le Serpent Rouge, Gabriel Knight 3.
What can I say? Pure pleasure to solve - immense plot-puzzle integration, brilliant execution - poetic. Simply a work of art.

3. Animals puzzle, Riven. Another masterwork. Solving it forced one to follow the natives' code system, understanding deeper and deeper the delicate plot of the world, and to search for clues scattered all around, in different forms and shapes - that could be collected just with patiance and true understanding. Amazing!


These are my 3. As you can see, the common ground between them is not having generally anything to do with inventory items/pixle hunting (maybe LSR indirectly does) - cause a good puzzle I consider to have only to do with the power of mind, and the amount of integration with the plot (if exists! :-) )

I'd definitely like to see opinions of the other members!

Tomer.

The best one I remember solving was the broken crystal sphere in Zak McKracken where you had to find the digital audio tape and the boom box then record the sound the unbroken sphere made to open the doors of the huge face on Mars.

Monkey Kombat and the diving puzzle from Escape from Monkey Island took me forever to figure out.

The Monkey Island series puzzles. The insult swordplay from the first game was the funniest. The wanted poster and all of the other think outside the box puzzles from LeChuck's Revenge were so much fun. Discworld 1 & 2 also had some great puzzles.

Any puzzle from Day of the Tentacle was marvellously complicated and the "frog in the throat" solution in the first Discworld definitely required lateral thinking

I'm not sure which puzzle made me most proud of my brainpower but the most FUN puzzle I solved took me about 10 hours of which I never got bored or frustrated with it, and that to me made it a great puzzle. I'm referring to the Rainbow Bridge puzzle in Beyond Atlantis.

Intresting choices, and very far from my own

What a good question, and a hard one to answer.
But I do remember. . . getting through Myst without a walkthrough
when it first came out really set my hair on fire.

Tomer there were 2 in URU for me. The one where the creatures jump from one shell to the other in the trees and the final one with the clouds and the swirling colors!

Eee, the swirling colours is probably my least liked puzzle

And it's not Uru btw, it's Myst 4

B I am so impressed. I had trouble with Myst even with the walkthrough.

The one I'm most proud of is solving the math puzzles in Rama with base 12 and base 8, etc. I couldn't figure out how to use the scientific calculator on the computer so worked out each one on paper, very laboriously I must say. Great feeling of accomplishment!

the one i have fond memories of is making oscar's limbs in syberia - that cut scene !
it was the first game i ever played , and i had no idea there were walkthroughs , or that this place existed , so i was playing totally on my own. it took me forever !

The puzzles I enjoy the most are often not the most difficult. For example I liked the Mystes O'Tyme puzzle in Escape From Monkey Island.

Many of my favorite puzzles are built into the game environment and have a visual payoff -- for example the puzzles in Myst: Exile, where you see something remarkable happen when you solve them.

I remember having trouble with the computer puzzle in Gabriel Knight 3 and several of the puzzles in Black Dahlia were very challenging.
I also was proud of being able to figure out some of the Faust puzzles that I almost gave up on.

Le Serpent Rouge was definitely my favorite as well.

Space Quest, I got that Zak McKracken puzzle right away because it was the exact same puzzle they used in Maniac Mansion with the tape recorder and the rusty key in the chandelier. Those games were so much fun.

Venus,

Didn't one of the tentacles show up in Maniac Mansion too?

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the laser puzzle in Still Life.

Well it wasn't a very good puzzle.
You got more relief than joy from solving it, and solving it didn't make you feel any smarter.

Tomer I remembered last night that both puzzles were from Myst Revelation! It's tuff to get old!

Space Quest, both of the tentacles were in Maniac Mansion. That's where they were first introduced.

Jenny, I'm with you. I hated that robot puzzle, and I keep three saved games at the end of it now so I never have to go through it again.

Wow, a question that's a puzzle in itself! I vote this question as a specialty. Just trying to think of 3 answers makes this sort of a puzzle to me!
Sliders are my most favorite puzzles. I know, I'm a mutant, but I can't help it.
#1 The slider puzzle in TIMELAPSE. I think many of us adventure gamers know the one in the pyramid.
#2 Assembling puzzles: the one in PANDORA DIRECTIVE called 'The Three Kings', not hard but really interesting/tied with the assembly puzzle, same game, where you assemble pyramid-like onyx pieces for points.
My number 3 is the slider puzzle using the Mayan calender numbers to open one of the boxes, also in PANDORA DIRECTIVE and this is tied with the laser puzzle in STILL LIFE that just about drove me insane.

The puzzle I liked was in Riddle of Master Lu, after getting into the room below the billiard table. Build a structure to get a jewel, then work out how to leave the room!

Took me ages to suss out.

Wow !! That was SOME complicated puzzle, boomerang, and the first time I played the game I struggled for eons with it because I didn't even know what half the items used in the puzzle were
But what a glorious game it is

I had forgot about Master Lu. That was a great game with very good puzzles.

I just finished playing Lost in Time again. There were any number of creative puzzles in that game. Remember having to build an electromagnet from spare parts? That was a puzzle.

Tomer the hardest puzzle for me and not one I liked but did solve I just played in Tomb Raider (Angel of Darkness). It's the one with the "Red Ghost" that you have to stun before you can grab the painting. It was a great feeling when I did it!