I’m stuck at this point. The problem is this: for years and years we had to suffer every mention of an adventure game being accompanied by a phrase somehow relating to adventure games being dead. I mean, I wrote them myself when I was young and stupid. They would go, “The adventure game may be dead, but here’s one last gasp,” or more optimistically, “The adventure game’s not dead, but in a coma,” or whatever. The idiocy of these comments was the frequency. Here’s what happened: adventure games, in their abundance, weren’t very good any more. Apart from the good ones. The point of all this is to say how much I want to respond to the news, that following LucasArts’ releasing classic adventure games on Steam, Activision-Blizzard are putting some classic Sierra adventure games on the download service, by writing, “Adventure games may be dead, but their ghosts are coming back to haunt us.” But I cannot, because I’d be One Of Them. So I won’t.
Hidden amongst that drivel you may have noticed the glimmer of news. Activision have decided to parry LucasArts’ (Oh God, is this going to be a Monkey Island insult fighting reference? Oh please say it isn’t – A Reader) cunning move rejuvenating love and attention when re-releasing some favourite adventure games by doing the same. (Phew, that was close. Although not close to grammar – A Reader).
Today they’ve added (along with Aces of the Galaxy, TimeShift and 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures) the Space Quest and King’s Quest Collection packs. Which is a mixed collection.
My memories of King’s Quest games are an awful lot better than King’s Quest games. The rule tends to be, the earlier the better. But there’s some odd decisions made in this particular box, for instance pretending that King’s Quest VIII didn’t happen, but far stranger, using the pre-VGA versions of games that had since received VGA updates. Anyhow, if you want some super-twee fairytale adventuring, there’s your choice.
Far more interesting, however, is the Space Quest Collection. These are the adventures of hapless space janitor Roger Wilco. The first couple of games are criminally short, but for me the box is all about Space Quest IV. I have a theory that when people start getting dizzy with excitement about LucasArts’ games from 90 to 92, they’re accidentally remembering a lot of what Sierra were doing in that mix. The game packed with details, hundreds of hidden jokes by combining objects incorrectly, and so on – that’s Space Quest IV. It’s astonishing. The volume of gags in that game is just remarkable, with lines written, for instance, for using the mouth icon on just about everything you encounter. It’s also a game that does some wonderful frame-breaking gags, none more smart than travelling back in time to Space Quest I, and its CGA graphics. I have a lot to say about this game, and I will say it somewhere soon. In the meantime, I strongly suggest investing in this pack and checking out what I believe to be one of the most important adventure games ever.
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I bought these from GoGamer on DVD about a year ago, so don’t fret if the Steam version is unavailable in your area.
@dingo
Holy moses! That’s beautiful.
Were those original purchase, or something you’ve acquired?
I didn’t have the money at the time to buy them all, so some I borrowed from friends, and some I just read about.
Alaric: Nowadays I trust steam more than the actual CD. It will be way easier to play HL2 from Steam in 5 years than Bioshock from disc.
I’m excited about the resurgence of adventure games, but I think what killed them in the first place hasn’t changed.
What they allowed people to do was experience fantastically drawn stories with great plots, but at its core all you were doing is clicking “use monkey on steam iron”. Action games couldn’t compete with the visuals, but they could have varied and flexible gameplay. Adventure games are essentially one linear story where you perform simple tasks to unlock the next passage.
But action games got better. Games like Tomb Raider allowed you to play an adventure with a story while also jumping, shooting and solving simple puzzles. Then there’s things like HL and Portal.
The stories and dialogue probably weren’t ever as well written, but adventure games were stuck in a time warp.
I always thought there was room for all types of game to live in harmony, and I’m glad to see them being re-released for a new audience to enjoy, bit when are we going to see adventure games evolve?
Even though I was always more of a Space Quest/Quest for Glory guy, I very much enjoyed the whimsy of King’s Quest VI.
I really enjoyed Space Quest (I can’t remember the number but it was subtitled the Time Rippers or something but I never got past the space mall, for some reason I couldn’t get out of it even though the walk through I had mentioend something about going through the ceiling in the zero gravity rink in the middle it just never worked for me I was stuck playing that chicken game for days until I finally gave up ) and Ques for Glory 2 . Also played and loved each of the 3 Goblin’s games, never tried the new one they released though :( I’m glad tosee these games coming back, maybe I can give that Space quest another shot.
I love Space Quest, but I hate Kings Quest, therefore I treat this news with complete neutrality.
Surely it’s a net positive, with King’s Quest generating indifference?
Unless you hate it so much the possibility of others playing it repulses you.
@Gutter:
“Adventure games died because now players are basically oafs who prefer killing rather than suffering insta-death in the 4th act of a game for mistakes they made in the first act.”
Not really. Punishing players for making mistakes is perfectly fine, and I’d like to see more games doing it. The problem with some adventure games (and Sierra’s are the most infamous for this) is that you can’t progress further not because you did something stupid, but because you missed a well-hidden plot-critical item. Often you don’t even know that the game is unwinnable until you check a walkthrough.
@Hümmelgümpf
Punishment is fine, but it shouldn’t be gamebreaking punishment. Imagine if you got to the end of Half Life 2 and had missed the Gravity Gun. You’d have to find a save (If you had one) and replay hours of the game.
There should always be a way out of a situation at your present time, not “Whoops, you missed a tiny inconsequential detail”. If you have to have something like this in the game, then either signpost it or prevent the player from moving on without it, because it’s not entertaining at all to learn you’re stuck completely.
It can be entertaining if it happens once, but if it happens over and over again it gets to be mind numbing. I never had that problem with Quest for Glory II (I actually beat that game as each class when I Was a kid, now I go back and play it and I can’t figure out the game at all! Just proof I’ve been spoiled by the green arrow of Oblivion lol. I have no idea how I was able to beat this game as a kid. I remember my dad being amazed I could spell Clothes right the first time considering I was and still am a horrible speller. I was just VERY determined to beat that game, I thought there was a slim chance of seeing the cat lady naked lol)
Argh. This is producing a lot of internal conflict. On the one hand, King’s Quest and Space Quest are some of the defining games of my childhood. On the other, usually when I buy things for nostalgia value I never end up playing them, or barely play them and can’t get back into them.
I remember getting the Space Quest 1-6 compilation as a kid. I never did get to see much of SQ6 thanks to a bug around the part where you make Roger analyse that hairy thug’s trimmer clippings. When someone made a <a href="http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Space%20Quest/chapter40.html"Let's Play thread for it years later, I was horribly disillusioned.
I’ve never been a big fan of Sierra games. While the concepts and characters seem interesting to me, the sudden ilogical deaths, the interface… it all feels less polished than a Lucasarts game.
Space Quest IV is your favourite one? I thought it was unfairly hard and never got very far in the game. Maybe there’s a good game for those that are terribly patient.
But I must admit that I found Space Quest V really fun. It definitely works like a crazy parody of sci-fi. I should probably put myself to the challenge of playing Space Quest VI someday, but the stuff mentioned previously keeps me distant to Sierra games.
It was 4 I played. astro chicken away ! I have GOT to get this again. I remember when I origonally played it the game crashed a LOT ontop of me getting stuck in the space mall.
So, do these collections have the original AGI versions of the first games, just the remakes, or both?
@JonFitt:
I collected all of this in the last 10 years.
Quite expensive but it’s worth it I think and maybe my future children will be able to go to college from it. ;)
I really would like a pack that includes Lesiure suit Larry 1-6 and MAYBE Love for Sail, but none of the ones after that. I really enjoyed the first one but the third one is my all time favorite adventure game.
Adventure games are like reading a David Weber novel: The plot is slack-jawed juvenile and you know exactly what’s going to happen — it’s just a matter of how contorted a path you’re forced to follow.
I checked out David Weber just to see what you’re talking about, this guy has some of the worst titles for his books I’ve ever seen “X of Honor x 10″ :P Same person must have helped him whom assited the people who named Steven Segal’s movies or subscribe to the “Title must be 3 words exactly school of thought
Adventure games died because now players are smarter with higher expectations, and recognise god-awful writing and expect some logic and reasoning in puzzles. And I’m a terrible person who probably eats children.
- Roberta Williams
I have to say I really only ever played the Sierra adventure games and I loved them all. I remember the first time I played a demo for one of the Police Quest games. I got to subdue a crazy naked person running around in a lake :P I was hooked at that point lol. (I shot him the first time I believe and lost because aparently shooting an unarmed person is against the law. Real police should be required to play Police Quest before they are allowed to have a gun)
@Hümmelgümpf:
Roberta Williams made Colonel’s Bequest and it’s an INCREDIBLE, nearly MIRACULOUSLY good game.
I also love Larry and Police, they’re wondrously good games.
In any case, all of those games come from diverse makers but they all obey to one or two guidelines, and those guidelines are Ken’s and Roberta’s.
And Space Quest is not my favorite cause it doesn’t have many deadends.
And dead ends is what makes it a game for mature committed folks.
… and my all-time favorite(also among every other genre) is Conquests of the Longbow
K wrote:
“Adventure games died because now players have higher expectations, and recognise god-awful writing and expect the game to treat ‘em like retards, if there’s a puzzle that gets ‘em stuck they piss themselves and cry for a bug problem to the producers. And I’m a terrible person who probably eats children”.
there, fixed your grammar, you’re welcome ;)
Did you see that Russell Crowe is going to play Robin Hood in a new movie coming out? I’m so freaking excited.
I can’t remember how dickish the latter ones were, but Space Quest I wasn’t too bad for unwinnable situations—the only one I can remember is not having the McGuffin. To do this, you have to either completely ignore the room to the left of the one you start in, what with dying scientist literally pointing you to it, or be careless later in the game about leaving it in the drive of a computer (which, IIRC, was even visible in the VGA version, not to mention the fact it leaves your inventory).
SQ will kill you at the drop of the hat, but i) it’s sufficiently funny that you’ll try to find all the deaths ii) you shouldn’t have to go back far in your savegames to avoid it.
Compare this to whichever goddamn Kings Quest had that stupid rickity bridge which could be crossed just enough times for an optimal solution before collapsing and killing you. Wander around and explore the area before making beelines for objectives, or ever double back? You’ve doomed yourself.
Adventure games died for Sierra because our pure gravy business model of running a hint line where we charged you per minute for answers to nonsensical puzzles no sane human could ever solve that we put in most of our games ran dry when the internet came about so I started eating more children whilst salting their dead flesh with my tears of bitterness.
-Roberta Williams
Adventure games died for Sierra because they tried to cross the road.
Space Quest V is where it’s at, for me. Much better than IV: I found IV way, way too punishing, and never really managed to get beyond the first few screens, on account of BEING KILLED BY EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME FOREVER. V, on the other hand, I actually completed, and I had a blast while I was at it.
Also: wherefore art thou, Quests for Glory I-IV? (Noting I did enjoy V, but I would forgo V entirely if someone would actually release, in some kind of commercially available format, a fully-patched version of IV, the game which had, by far, the most potential of all the QfG sequels. Good Lord, it was good fun. When it wasn’t crashing. Fucking marsh.)
am I the only person that stood in the hall way with all the doors picking locks for 2 hours straight training my skill in Quest for Glory II ? (as far as I remember it turned out to be a total waste of time lol)
Curiously, the games don’t seem to currently even be on Steam. Remove for some political reason? Hmmm.
Oh, and of course, this website may well sate your nostalgia without having to shell out any pennies:
http://sarien.net/
I too, am out of Region.
To which I respond: MY CHILDHOOD IS NOT REGION-LIMITED YOU ORRIBLE SACKS OF COCKMILK.
SQIII and IV are probably my most replayed games of all time. However, I already own both collections, so no purchase here.
@Quests:
“And Space Quest is not my favorite cause it doesn’t have many deadends.
And dead ends is what makes it a game for mature committed folks.”
If you really like dead ends then you have way too much spare time on your hands. I wouldn’t mind them so much if adventure games at least had the decency to throw in a game over screen saying that it’s impossible to progress any further without restarting or an alternate ending. Multiple solutions to puzzles would further help reduce the frustration without really taking away any difficulty. QfG did it brilliantly. A thief skilled in magic had a lot of options on his hands. Dead ends, as they are usually implemented, are just a cheap way to icrease the game’s length. They don’t challenge your brain in any way.
Whatever happened to that fan-made sequel to King’s Quest?
Vivendi said “Feck off” so they had to remake the whole game.
If I already own all the Space Quests, is there any reason to buy this pack? These are the same games just bundled with DOSBox right? Though I thnk SQ1 or 2 had some crappy bad sector disk check for authentication?
Theres also a VGA remake of Kings Quest 3 and an upcoming remake of Space Quest 2, both made by Infamous Adventures.
The adventure genre “died” because game design got stuck in an endless loop och creativity deficiency. Kind of like FPSes today.
Add to that publishers refusal to back any project that cannot be projected to sell a gazillion copies.
Great games. I’ve been moving them from old floppies to newer floppies, CD-ROMS, DVDs etc since their release date, so I’m still playing my original version of the games (thanks DOSbox). No need for a double dip here. Love the sarien.net link. I’m going to finish Space Quest 1 and 2 over lunch for the next week or so. Ahh… memories :)
My hope is that all this interest means they will hire the original developers to do new entries in these sagas. Especially Space Quest and Hero’s Quest (Quest for Glory… bah!).
“And dead ends is what makes it a game for mature committed folks.”
I presume that’s committed in the mental institution sense of the word.
P.
Oh dear. I can’t begin to describe how mind-shatteringly awful I’ve found every single one of these Space Quest games.
To me, an adventure game should be about taking your time and being allowed to experiment, receiving amusing, irreverent comments at worst from the protagonists and npcs when you attempt something outside of the actual solutions.
What an adventure game should definitely not do is constantly kill you off until you find the only possible way through a situation.
Having just played through Time Gentlemen Please, which perfectly reflects all the very best aspects of the point and click genre, and which Mr Walker himself agrees is the finest p’n'c er to have been made since Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle et al, I cannot for the life of me understand why he would recommend something as horribly fun-sapping as these Space Quest games.
I wish I’d simply donated the £7.49 I’ve wasted on these to Zombie Cow instead, to ensure that they can continue their brand of adventure game.
The Sierra approach should be left well-buried in the rubble of gaming history. It’s the clearest case of rose-tinted spectacles that I’ve ever witnessed.
Am I the only one that loved Freddie Pharkis Frontier Pharmacist and is desperately hoping to see it make its beautiful way back?
No, you’re definitely not.
But I don’t think it will happen. Anyway, I own this game in the original box, so I don’t need it to have it re-released. But it’s a game that should be available to a new audience.