The Dig was LucasArts. Sierra hasn't done jack in a long time. They managed to totally eradicate the King's Quest line with VII (cartoony and stupid) and VIII (third person 3D, very poorly-done). It was "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis," and it was so good that many thought it should serve as the basis for a fourth Indy movie.

I don't know that anyone can say what the last "big" adventure game was. Many have become 3D, however, and not surprisingly interest has gone way down.

Adventure Collection
Classic games! Exclusive CD caddy! An incredible compilation package featuring Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1993), Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle (1995), and Sam & Max Hit the Road (1995). Now available in this exclusive LucasArts CD caddy big enough to hold up to 12 of your favorite LucasArts games!

Classic Adventures
A compilation of some of our earliest adventures. Includes: Maniac Mansion (1987), Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Loom (1990), and The Secret of Monkey Island (1990). Single player. Available on 3.5" floppy disks only.

I have this one and it's great.

Wow, i came into this thread just to make a comment about Loom and amazingly enough someone else beat me to it! You are actually the only other person i've "met" who played Loom - none of my friends would play it at the time because they thought the music thing sounded dumb - but Loom was my all-time fav adventure game in this genre.

I think that was one of the first games (along with X-Wing) that I can remember playing where VGA made such a difference and you actually needed a sound card. You can d/l the basic Loom via the underdogs site mentioned earlier, but the sound isn't included for copyright issues -- hence, it's pretty much useless.

Tuan Jim

Adventure games as a whole are a terrible excuse for games. There are some exceptions though. The Longest Journey is one of my favorite games of all-time. I really hope Funcom comes through with a prequel, sequel, or a new but similar game.

Heres that Zach McKracken site if anyone is interested.

The Zach 256 Project

I played most all of the older Infocom games. I consider the all-text adventure game the purest of the genre. Aside from LSL, the first couple King's Quest and Space Quest games, I never played any of the ones with graphics. They all seemed too clunky and contrived.

Anyway, I think the last nail in the coffin for adventure games, was when Blizzard abandoned their Warcraft: Adventures project. If a company like Blizzard can't forsee making a property like Warcraft into a successful adventure game, I don't know who could.

How can a thread go by without a mention of possibly the finest gaming series - Gabriel Knight???

"Day of the Tentacle" and "Sam & Max Hit The Road" are two of my favorite games of all time. Too bad LucasArts has seemingly abandoned the genre...

No I don't miss them because they're still being made . Shemue probably being the biggest one in recent times. Admittedly shemue has some annoying action bits that can be tough to get past.

Chris

The Infocom games are available for the Palm now - which is kinda cool.

I think what killed this genre more than anything else was the internet. Before the internet was widely available, you have to sit there and figure out how to solve a problem. Now, if you're truly lazy and have no restraint, you can look up all the "solutions" to any adventure game puzzle and boom you're done. Ultimately you get to the point where its like "That was no fun".

Playing the Infocom games on the Palm (I have a V) - there is no way to get such solutions when you're not near an internet enabled PC, so you have to tough it out yourself. I've been working through the Sorcerer/Enchanter and Zork series for a while. Great stuff - wonderful writing. Use your imagination!

Psst... one of the pictures at the top is from Loom.

yeah, middle right.

Tuan Jim

GUESS THESE GAMES!!!!

Guess what games these screenshots represent. NO CHEATING PLEASE! These games are some of my favorites adventure games of all time.

Game 1:


Game 2:



Game 3:


Game 4:

Well the Sierra games are fairly easy for me to identify as I used to play them a lot; the ones I didn't play I can still guess since I was familiar with their library of games.

Game 1 is one of the few I didn't play though - I'm guessing it's the Gold Rush game? Can't remember the exact title.
Game 2 I have no idea.
Game 3 is Conquests of the Longbow. The first Sierra game that used digitized audio for sound effects and speech I think.
Game 4 is Laura Bow's first game. Colonel's Bequest.

Yup, the 1st game is "Gold Rush!" - one of my favorite games and a completely underrated classic.

2nd game: I'm not telling yet

3rd game: Yup, it's Conquest of the Longbow. I really enjoyed this title too.
4th game: The Colonel's Bequest, one of Roberta Williams' best creations. It's much spookier (and a much better game in general) than "Phantasmagoria".

Given the vaguely voodoo-like images, I'm guessing that image 2 is Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, but that's probably wrong. The only one I've played so far was several chapters of #2 and the demo of #3 -- hope to pick it up sometime.

Tuan Jim

Nope! It's not Gabriel Knight Though Gabriel Knight is my favorites gaming series, I didn't include it because it's a bit too wel-known.

How about these games as well?

Game 5:


Game 6:

Game 5 - I have no Clue
Game 6 - Pepper's Adventure or something like that, my little sister used to have that game. It was like an educational kids game ar something.

How bout this one:

Game 6 is indeed "Pepper's Adventure in Time". While it is supposedly an "educational game", it is also one of the best mouse-based Sierra adventures. Ben Fraklin as a Dead-head worshipping dude cracked me up!

And your screenshot - it's Harvester, I think. What a terrible game.