The History of Graphic Adventure Games: 1984 - 1988
51In this rather ambitious task, the first part of which you are now about to watch, I am trying to list most of the Graphic Adventure games that have been released until now. This list is not going to include either freeware adventure games (I’d probably need a lifetime to include them, even though I’m going to refer to some of the best freewares out there) or text adventures. Especially for the latter, I consider they deserve a very special tribute of their own, for historical reasons to begin with.
To be honest, I’m certain I’m going to omit some adventure games by mistake. What’s more, some games included in this tribute are certainly going to raise some eyebrows – e.g., does the legendary Cinemaware’s title “It came from the desert” belong in our list? So, maybe some of you might reject my choice criteria, regarding the games included in this tribute. I honestly hope, however, that in the end you’re going to enjoy the videos and perhaps find out about some “hidden gems” that you either were unaware of or had just simply forgotten about!
To begin with, we have to go back to the period between 1984 and 1988. Sierra on-line and Lucasfilm games (named Lucasarts a few years later) made their first steps then. Two companies whose games were bound to lay the groundwork for the video game genre today known as “Graphic Adventures”.
In a three-year span (1984-1986) Sierra released its first three chapters of the legendary “King’s Quest series”. The fourth one and beautiful “King’s Quest” (1988) was one of the first video games supporting a sound card – and Sierra’s first game designed on the SCI (Sierra Creative Interpreter).
During the same period, gamers witnessed Larry Laffer, Roger Wilco and Sonny Bonds - the stars of Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest και Police Quest respectively - make their first steps on their computer monitors. Note that of the three aforementioned “Quest” series, «King's Quest» is the only one to have been “reborn” (“Space Quest” ‘s kickstart campaign was a success, however the game’s development is yet to be completed). “Black Cauldron” and “Gold Rush!” were next to follow and, alongside the rather strange “Manhunter I: New York”, they complete the list of Sierra releases for those years.
Lucasfilm Games, adopting a completely different user interface than that of Sierra’s, gave us “Maniac Mansion” and “Zak McKracken”. The first one gave its name to the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) Engine, which was later used for developing the next Lucasfilm adventures (with the exception of “Loom”). In those games, unlikely Sierra's adventures, the commands used by the player to interact with the game’s environment are strictly predefined. Furthermore, the mousepointer “detects” the various hotspots, when it hovers over them. The influence of the two aforementioned games are obvious, even nowadays, on many of the genre’s game. Both were followed by successful remastered versions and sequels – which, however, shall be presented in future videos.
In the meantime, games such as “Shadowgate”, ”Deja-Vu I” and “Uninvited” complete the list of the first ever Graphic Adventure games.. Unfortunately for these games, because of the aforementioned titles’ great reception, they were “condemned” to be forgotten many years later, with the loyal or romantic adventure gamers (or guys responsible for tributes such as the one you’re watching) being the only ones to look for a chance to spend some time with them…
Timestamps:
0:13 : King's Quest I: Quest for the crown (1984)
0:34 : King's Quest II: Romancing the throne (1985)
0:55 : King's Quest III: To heir is human (1986)
1:16 : Space Quest I: The Sarien encounter (1986)
1:39 : The black cauldron (1986)
1:59 : Leisure suit Larry in the land of the lounge lizards (1987)
2:21 : Maniac Mansion (1987)
2:42 : Police Quest I: In pursuit of the Death Angel (1987)
3:06 : Space Quest II: Vohaul's revenge (1987)
3:28 : Neuromancer (1988)
3:48 : Gold Rush! (1988)
4:11 : Emmanuelle: A game of eroticism (1988)
4:32 : King's Quest IV: The perils of Rosella (1988)
4:53 : Deja-Vu I: A nightmare comes true (1988)
5:15 : Dreamzone (1988)
5:36 : Manhunter I: New York (1988)
5:57 : Leisure suit Larry II: Larry goes looking for love (in several wrong places) (1988)
6:18 : Shadowgate (1988)
6:40 : Police Quest II: The vengeance (1988)
7:01 : Uninvited (1988)
7:24 : 20,000 leagues under the sea (1988)
7:43 : Zak McKracken and the alien mindbenders (1988)
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