Can somebody PLEASE help me?? I have a lot of games that for a particular reason, I can't locate to play at the moment. The game I can't recall has nice graphics and begins in the desert of Egypt, with a female archeologist and her Jeep. She's stuck there with a local man at night and she has to get into a certain cave that has been excavated, when some others come to take over the site. I love the night scenes of Omega Stone, but this is definitely NOT that game. The woman seems to go back in time to different ancient Egyptian locations performing some kind of rituals. What is the name of this game? Maybe I'll be able to locate it if I know what I'm looking for. Thank you!

Could it be a casual game?

Beyond Atlantis 2/Atlantis 3 - check the wt here???

Definitely the one, MaG !!
I remember it well because the game wouldn't play properly on my "then" computer - crashing right after that intro scene every time I tried it - and I must have tried it at least 30 times !!

[Managed to play it OK on my next machine though ]

You are awesome MaG!

Ana

Not a casual game, but that cave was actually a large tent, I think,and there was a machine that she went back in time in there. She is threatened by one of the heavies and escapes by using the machine or whatever. Can't recall if I even played it on my old XP or not. I do have at least one of those 'Atlantis' games, maybe that was it. I hope so because it's been on my mind for a while. Thank you for your help!

Is it the one MaG linked to? That's the one I would think it was... When traveling back in time to Egypt, do you remember her "psychopomp?" He was her guide...

I knew immediately it was Atlantis 3, in my opinion it is the least interesting of the five in the series. However I too remember an interesting atmosphere in some garden, and I think a walk in some palace in the rain.

I need to play it again, maybe it is more interesting than I gave it credit for. It was just different from the first two, almost unrelated. And the first two are in my top ten list of the greatest adventure games.

If you played the Mac OSX or iPad versions of Atlantis 3, that might explain why you thought it was the "least interesting." The Mac and iPad versions removed most of the puzzles and made gameplay areas much smaller (fewer nodes to explore).

IMO Atlantis 4 (Evolution) was by far the worst of them, with "Halt Deviant!!!" and "game over" every few seconds.

Atlantis Evolution was the closest to the first two, so I did enjoy it more.

I played them all on the PC a long time ago, but yes I bought them all again recently on the Mac and iPad and will be playing them again when I get the time.

If a few puzzles are gone the better, I enjoy them for the atmosphere. But thanks for the info Jenny.

And I said "least interesting", which means it is still high up in my esteem, I love the whole series.

Do you think 5 nodes of exploration provide as much atmosphere as 20?
And it's not just the puzzles they removed from the remaining nodes, it's other interactive objects as well -- things that fleshed out the gameworld. So many objects that you were able to step up to and look at in the PC version -- in the OSX and iPad version they're just incorporated into the background 20 feet away.

Jenny, what is a node of exploration? I think I kind of see your point now.

I just need to play on my Mac, because the retina screen makes a world of difference.

Mmh... I did install Windows on my Mac via Boot Camp and Parallels, Windows never looked so good. I think you have convinced me to re-play the PC versions instead.

Any other series of games with that same issue? Any of the Microïds ones for example?

Dear, dear, I just bought them all again all over again...

I just got back and saw you got the game! I remember the creepy cadaver guy at some point explaining stuff. Thank you so much for helping me. Now, if only I could get into the closet where that game is stored...

I hear you on that.

A node is like a stepping point. In games like the Atlantis games, you move around by taking long steps/jumps from node to node. At each node you can rotate around to look at things. But you can't move to a place between the nodes. The original Myst and Riven also had nodes, only you couldn't rotate around. In contrast, games like RealMyst or MystV don't restrict you to nodes. So if a lot of nodes are removed from a node-based game, that game has a much smaller environment for you to explore, and less opportunity to create an atmosphere.


In the original PC version of Amerzone you were able to through a door on the second floor of the lighthouse and walk around on the balcony area outside. In the remake version the door is just unclickable background decor and you can't get outside there at all. There are also a lot more nodes on your way to the lighthouse in the original version. When I got downstairs past the area with the old computer, there were even more nodes missing -- so many that there was obviously a substantial part of the game missing. At that point I became physically ill at how they'd butchered it and couldn't stand to continue. I'd rather play the original inside an emulator. Interestingly enough, the PC version at GOG seems to be the complete, original version of Amerzone, while their Mac version is the butchered one.

I'm not sure about Syberia, since the remade iPad version is apparently only 1/3 of the PC version of Syberia and they never finished the game. GOG doesn't have the Mac version of Syberia, possibly because they don't want to offer it until they have all 3 parts of the original Syberia.

I haven't tried the Dracula games, Return to Mysterious Island, or The Messenger.

Road to India has been butchered.

Still Life for Mac may be OK. I haven't played far enough into it to be able to say for sure, but so far it seems complete. I didn't notice any excisions early on anyway. However I don't remember it all that well, having only played it once before (and that was several years ago.)


I bought the ones for iPad, not realizing they had so much of the game removed. I also downloaded Mac versions from GOG, since GOG sometimes gives access to both PC and Mac versions.

Could the game have been Timelapse? There was time travel, Egypt, and a tent in that one. You were in search of some smarmy professor (totally ungrateful when you find him in the end...) and you had to go through several worlds to get to him. The music was absolutely awesome and is one of the first adventure games I ever played after Myst.

Nice to see you posting, Mooey; it's been a while.

The website has certainly grown! What an awesome job. It looks great, and has so much more information than before. Kuddos to everyone, and I will try not to stay away so long. It is great to see how the adventure game format/genre has persisted, and that is largely due to websites like this one, and dedicated individuals who understand that there will always be a market for this type of game.

And you even include the "dark side" Ha! Ha!

Thanks Jenny for all this information...

I distinctly remember being blown away by the realism (at the time) of that opening scene in A3.

I was too, it was quite something... it promised a new era.

Just like Moment of Silence did just before the crash in adventure games and an explosion of indie games that got us right back to the 80s.

MooeyG I LOVE Timelapse! I think this computer will even play that one! I KNOW that one is in the dreaded closet on a high shelf. Now, I want to play that one, too! I totally agree with you about the Adventure genre and how GB has kept people interested and informed. I don't know what I would do if there was no Gameboomers!

I remember the game well. Besides the first level which did involve a cave, you escaped from there into the ancient Egypt game with the mummy "psychopomp". I found that the least satisfactory level. Then you had a choice of going to a neolithic world or an Arabian nights world. Both of those were much more satisfactory. Then there was finding your way out of a very spacy place and the finale involved doing in the bad guys and escaping. Not as good as the first two Atlantis games, but I thought better than those that followed.