MusicallyInspired

Come on, it's old-school fantasy. Every princess locked in a tower dreamed of a knight (let alone a king!) to come sweep them off their feet. You can't really get too deep with old-school fairy tale fantasy, it's not the point.

Stanely Parable, on the other hand, is quite interactive! I discovered and was a fan of the original free mod a few years ago. Always hoped it would become a full game like Dear Esther did. I still have to get it.

The visuals in that game are gorgeous and the little clues you pick up on with each playthrough are neat. But yeah, prepare to exercise sustaining a constant keypress for pretty much the entire game and nothing else. In the way of gameplay, it's got absolutely none. I'd call it an exploration game, except despite the wide-open feel of the areas, it's fairly on-rails. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was. You can't enjoy it for anything else.

True. But that has absolutely nothing to do with it being "outdated" or not. P&C can easily be just as badly designed. Point & Click is not "better" than a parser. It's easier. But you'll never get everyone to agree that easier is always better. Obviously some most do, judging by the types of adventure games we're seeing nowadays. It did streamline games and open them up to a broader audience, but it also dumbed them down at the same time. Was that better? Again, maybe for some most. But I'll always disagree that just because something got more popular does not mean that its predecessor is now outdated. Myself, I'm not the huge fan of parser games like those who consider it superior to P&C (which is a legitimate opinion for them), but I also see nothing wrong with them. I enjoy both. It's unfortunate that parser games died out because there are some interesting things you can do with a parser interface game deisgn-wise that you just cannot accomplish with a P&C interface. Such is the industry, people are dogmatic about what they've "grown up with" being superior to anything new. Sometimes it's true sometimes it's just blind nostalgia. But really neither are superior or inferior. There are superior and inferior implementations of both, but I pause to call either "outdated" for those reasons.

I'm against the notion that most everything gets outdated. Not everything gets outdated as much as people say they do. 3D graphics were terrible when they first came out, so they were outdated. However people even feel nostalgia for that. Interfaces, however, were made and perfected in their time. There were no mice when parsers were made. Parsers are the most versatile interface there is. That's why we still type when we program rather than "point & click" commands together. Yes, the GUI has overcome the command line interface, but it's still not as powerful as the latter. My point being, it's not a matter of being outdated it's a matter of being unpopular, something people often confuse. And it bugs me. There is nothing wrong at all with a parser anymore than there is anything wrong with 2D graphics. It's just a matter of patience and being willing to align your way of thinking with that of the game designer rather than the designer trying to guess how best the players like to play. It's not like people have lost their patience. The PC gaming population 25+ years ago was much smaller and comprised of very different types of people than today.

ActiVision owns everything related to Space Quest, and if they catch you they probably wouldn't let it slide. That said, if it's just for a mod I dont see the harm or the chances of getting a C&D. If you do you can safely remove it anyway.

No I don't, and yes they do. I've ruined many a classic as a kid by abusing walkthroughs. Never again. I'm a firm believer that all but some of the looniest "moon logic" puzzles have enough clues for you to figure them out. It just requires a level of patience and out-of-the-box thinking that few had the capacity to believe existed as a successful means to an end even back then, let alone nowadays. After learning nearly everything there is to know about the games that I cheated through, I discovered that there was indeed many hints and clues aptly seasoned into the game for every puzzle, as long as you were patient enough and willing to explore everything you see (and in some cases, don't see) on the screen. That's a rare concept especially in today's fast-paced "I don't have the time" society. It's also partially why I'm against adventures on mobile devices. After I played Broken Age and accepted that I was thoroughly disappointed with it, I decided to take another adventure, one that many seemed to have problems with, and complete it entirely on my own. I discovered Deponia was a title that I'd heard many a complaint about (especially regarding "too many hotspots", I don't believe there is such a thing, I also didn't understand that claim as I found the hotspots lacking). I had this game in my Steam library for a while from some bundle or deal, but never sat down with it yet. I played and finished the game in a couple weeks. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that what I was fearing was going to be the end of the game, because I was so used to bad short adventures, turned out to be the end of only the first Act. This helped allay my fears and I continued through the game. By the time I reached the end I felt challenged, accomplished, and thoroughly satisfied. I implore any adventurers out there, take the time to play through a game alone, or with a friend, thoroughly and completely. It's not just the destination, it's the journey. It's right there in the genre label. ADVENTURE. Use hints if you absolutely must, but avoid walkthroughs like the plague that they are. They ruined my experiences with many Sierra and LucasArts games when I was a kid because I thought I wasn't smart enough to solve them on my own. I wasn't just as happy because I cheated through them and got to the end. Beating the game is NOT as important as PLAYING the game and it's not the same experience if you're just following instructions. You're robbing yourself of a much richer experience. THAT is the magic of adventure games. It isn't just in nostalgia, or characters, or story. All of that is meaningless if you aren't working it all out in your head and seeing it unfold the way it was meant to. It's what I believe was truly one of the chief contributers to the adventure's demise. There's a reason they were top of the line. People look back and ask "Were these games really as good as we thought?" because they're looking from that spoiled walkthrough point of view and missing the magic of exploration and discovery, whether they already solved it knowing what to do and forgetting the fresh experience or if they hadn't solved it before and used a walk thru because they didn't have the patience to sit through it properly, both have completely missed the point. ok, rant over.

I watched the first four seasons and at first enjoyed it, but then it became apparent that it wasn't about smart humour, it was about science and geek culture related jokes. I think it's dumbed down and shallow. Most sitcoms are, really, but then there's shows like Seinfeld which are just special. Big Bang is not special. The supposed intelligence of the show isn't utilized to any great degree. It's just the same stories with science wizards rather than average Joe's and it's suprisingly not that different at all. It's a superficial difference. Doesn't add anything.

Of course.

Good Old Adventures was better. I loved all the 'skins'. Never played The Realm, unfortunately.

I always saw it as a continuation of the timeline. I don't mind it being called KQ8. It was the eighth King's Quest game and it was made by Roberta, whether we like it or not. That's good enough for me. I didn't mind the game, though I still need to finish it. I think I got stuck just after the Daventry level. Really should get back to it. Actually, I'd love to see MOE remade in the Skyrim engine. THAT would be sweet. No, it's not really adventure, but if someone pulled it off right it'd at least be a bit more fun. On topic, I don't really remember waiting too long for MOE. I remember hearing about it from the KQ Collector's Series disc and then it came out sometime later, I'm not really sure. Wasn't really waiting. I guess I had more to keep me busy at the time. I remember when my dad finally bought it, though. He really enjoyed it. He loves adventures, but he also loves Tomb Raider-style games. The first 3D Indiana Jones games were another of his favourites.

Yeah, I feel similarly. It would be a sweet bonus to see the Two Guys have at Roger one last time. But it's not needed. The old games are great and always there. Best to keep the main focus ahead. I would never say no to another Space Quest by the Two Guys, though.

@Troels' article quote ...ooookay. His thoughts are misinformed and seem all over the place. You can't even credit the guy for at least articulating his thoughts effectively. I have no idea what he's trying to say or how he came to the conclusions he did. Is there a link?

Those early remakes didn't sell well because the fans (first of all, there were fans) thought it was tainting the classics, akin to colourising b&w movies. It's different now because it's an entirely new generation who has no clue about the series and the best way to introduce them to it is with a remake. The Monkey Island SEs did very well from what I hear. It was too soon back then for remakes, I don't think it is now. I do somewhat agree, though, that at this point people are sick of remakes and reboots. That goes for Hollywood too.

Sierra was dismantled long before ActiVision came along. At one point Vivendi was selling off the IPs, the only one that sold was Leisure Suit Larry to CodeMasters, where it resides to this day. Everything else was crazy expensive. I dont think ActiVision has any plans to sell what's left, though.

See I don't even like drama in sci-fi that's why I never liked DS9. I liked fun sci-fi like Star Trek TOS, TNG, Stargate SG1, and Stargate Atlantis. Hated SGU.

Star Trek is full of mostly humanoids because of Gene Roddenberry's theory of an alien race seeding the galaxy because they found nobody like themselves in their exploration of the universe. This was touched on in the TNG episode The Chase. The idea being that all humanoid life forms in the galaxy originated from a single advanced humanoid species. However, there ARE non-humanoid type aliens in Star Trek as well, such as the Tholians as well as certain species of the Xindi, and a slew of energy-based beings like the Calamarain.

One of the working titles for the game was Innard Space. Would have been much more indicative of what the game would entail. I agree, didn't like the inside-the-body section either.

I think Troels' favorite is SQ1. I found SQ1 to have far more substance than SQ3. It was longer, too. Had a more interesting story. It wasn't a simple game like say KQ1 with a small 3-part treasure hunt. It arguably had the best story and most substantial content of all the early AGI Quest firsts. It felt like a great adventure. A big journey. I hated the Nukem Dukem robots lol. The Alluminum Mallard was awesome, though. Actually, I think the beginning of SQ3 was the better part of the game.

Nah, SQ1 was a great game. Its stride has been since the beginning, in my opinion. Many actually prefer SQ1 over even 3 and 4. It's one of those series that was good right from the start and never had a weak beginning, unlike King's Quest. SQ1 is in my top 3.

Well, I would also picture "Sierra 2.0" as being an unnofficial label, not an actual developer name. Actually, what I thought Paul had originally meant by it was just that all the original developers would be together again developing games. I prefer them apart, though.

That depends on what you mean by user-friendliness. It's no fun if someone's on the playground telling you exactly what to do. ;) (*ahem* Telltale, Double-Fine) What I'd like to see from a "Sierra 2.0" is just people working under one roof (physical or virtual) who get to create the adventure games they want to create the way they want to create them. Of course it'd have to be games I'd like that are full of exploration, possibilities, "illogical" (challenging) puzzles, innumerable "hotspots", and deaths without instant retries and autosaves for me to consider it "Sierra 2.0".

That wasn't created by fans, IIRC. That was official LucasArts promo material. From a magazine, I believe. An art contest sounds sweet, though. Akril would obviously win. Why don't we just dispense with the formalities and give her the prize right now? (that doesn't mean you get out of actually making the artwork, Akril)

Ken Allen has noted that Tsunami Entertainment was created by ex-Sierra employees who tried to recapture the "magic". They discovered it wasn't possible to force. Sierra was a special thing that just happened in an awesome way. Like Star Trek TNG.

Nice sum up, Troels. I agree with those points.