/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.9947810]

What's a good beginner Sierra adventure game?

[Anonymous No.9947829]

>>9947810
Probably Kings quest 5 or 6. They have relatively simple interfaces, and while you often will get killed a lot, they have fewer than their older ones of "step in wrong spot and DIE" mechanics that their earlier games did. You still will have to deal with their rather bizarre logic though.

[Anonymous No.9947838]

>>9947810
Perrils of Rosella

[Anonymous No.9947841]

>>9947810
Don't Sierra games have those bullshit moments where you can accidentally make the game unbeatable an hour before realizing it?

[Anonymous No.9947852]

>>9947810
Pic related probably one of their best to start with. Except for the stupid gnome puzzle.

If you like point and click you could play Space Quest 1 VGA, that's pretty cool.

[Anonymous No.9947867]

Quest for Glory I VGA. (it's the remake that came out in 1994)
I'd also recommend part IV Shadows of Darkness

[Anonymous No.9947874]

>>9947841
Yep.
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness - if you don't talk to the Domovoi character who shows up during the first few nights he'll disappear and you won't be able to complete a mandatory quest and therefore won't be able to complete the game.

[Anonymous No.9947875]

>>9947841
Not all of them, but some of them do, yes.

[Anonymous No.9947886]

quest for glory 1 or kings quest 6.
the person who said kings quest 5 is mean

[Anonymous No.9947889]

>>9947810
Mixed Up Mother Goose

[Anonymous No.9947895]

>>9947810
Space Quest 1. The puzzles aren't super difficult and follow a set narrative, and while you'll definitely both die and hit unsolvable situations that force you to reload, puzzles are designed to make it easy to figure out more or less what you should've done, so there's very little running around like a headless chicken having no idea what to do.

Very good game, and the one I always recommend for beginners.

[Anonymous No.9947904]

>>9947829
>>9947886
>look up King's Quest 5
>you have to throw a shoe at a cat chasing a mouse at some point in the game
>you only have one chance and the game doesn't tell you it's important
>you can keep playing and not know you can't beat the game
What kind of bullshit is this?

[Anonymous No.9947916]

>>9947904
Back then it was common to just start the game over and dick around trying new things, sometimes stumbling over new stuff you hadn't seen before. These games were supposed to last.

[Anonymous No.9947925]

>>9947904
Actually, the game does indicate to you that something important and time sensitive is happening. When you go to that area, your cursor will turn into a little crown, which the manual tells you means "DO SOMETHING NOW. IT"S IMPORTANT."

[Anonymous No.9947954]

At this point 99% of people playing KQ5 for the first time knows about that damn cat through cultural osmosis anyway.

[Anonymous No.9947959]

>Torin's Passage
Made for children. No dead ends or deaths. Built in hint system.
>Ecoquest 1 & 2
Another series made for children. No dead ends or deaths.
>King's Quest VII
No dead ends or deaths. Relatively simple puzzles.
>Leisure Suit Larry VII
No dead ends or deaths. Puzzles often rely on cartoon logic, but are not hard.
>The Colonel's Bequest (Laura Bow 1)
No dead ends. In fact, you can beat the game without even solving any puzzles, although you will miss a lot. Bullshit deaths however.
>Conquests of the Longbow
No dead ends. Deaths are easily avoided with common sense, and you are given a hint if you do die. Almost no inventory puzzles and what few there are are very simple. Instead the game focuses on minigames and tests of wit. In my opinion the best adventure game that Sierra ever made.
>Gabriel Knight series
No dead ends. Only a few instances where you can die. Some tough albeit clever puzzles (cat hair being a notable exception).
>Quest for Glory series
Adventure-RPG hybrids. Puzzles are generally very simple especially if you play as a fighter. Some dead ends, but you can sequence break past virtually all of them. Bullshit deaths.
>Space Quest V
I think there's only one dead end in the game, but you can die a lot and some of the puzzles are moderately challenging.


Games to avoid are Leisure Suit Larry II, King's Quest V, and Space Quest IV. They have tons of bullshit.

[Anonymous No.9947972]

>>9947959
>KQVII
>No deaths
There are deaths anon, of course they introduced the "try again" feature, so death doesn't have much consequence

[Anonymous No.9947996]

>>9947972
Yes you are right. I don't know why I thought that.

[Anonymous No.9948020]

>>9947810
The Black Cauldron, I mean it's based on a kids movie after all, how mind breakingly difficult could it be?

[Anonymous No.9948029]

>>9947895
OP here, this is actually the game that prompted me to make this thread. I got to the cave lasers only to have no idea what to do. Apparently I had to pixel hunt for glass back at the escape pod.

[Anonymous No.9948041]

>throw baby

[Anonymous No.9948052]

There is an adventure game I played a demo of as a kid that I don't remember its name. It was on a big demo disk in the 90s with stuff like Battle Bugs, Lost Vikings, Goblins, etc.
And what I remember of this adventure game is that it had text commands, like to pick up the sword you walked over to your room at the start and type in Pick Up Sword or Take Sword. And I remember it having fighting.

[Anonymous No.9948063]

>>9947959
>Ecoquest 2
I played the shit out of this, trying to get 100% of the scans on the handheld computer.
Also very nearly became a furry due to the ultra cute bat waifu.

[Anonymous No.9948076]

>>9948029
I'll tell you how I solved that puzzle back in the day, which is probably the intended method too:
>make the logical conclusion that you need to reflect the lasers with a mirror, since that's usually how you handle lasers in video games
>try "use mirror" or "pick up mirror" or whatever to get a confirmation that the game recognizes the word mirror, meaning that's probably the solution and that there's a mirror in an earlier part I could get
>think of the most logical place, it being the shipwreck
>reload an earlier save and search there
>bingo

Pretty standard procedure for these games really. This is how you should be thinking.

[Anonymous No.9948104]

>>9947959
Do you know how to play Ecoquest in modern times? Should I get something like a virtual machine?

[Anonymous No.9948152]

>>9948104
>Install ScummVM.
>Download Ecoquest from some abandonware site like abandonia.
>Unzip the game and point scummvm at the folder where the data files are located.
ezpz. You can also play Eco2 directly on internet archive I believe.

[Anonymous No.9948173]

>>9947875
Can you name some that don't? I'd like to avoid that.

[Anonymous No.9948217]

>>9948173
KIng's Quest 6 is the one that most immediately comes to mind. There are plenty of things that can kill you, but offhand, I can't think of anything that will do so on a delay that prevents you from going back and fixing it.

[Anonymous No.9948258]

>>9947959
>Torin's Passage
>No deaths.
If you play with walkthrough, sure. Otherwise you'll enjoy falling into pits/lava or getting eaten by various fauna with typical snarky summaries.

[Anonymous No.9948272]

>>9947959
>>9948258
> Gabriel Knight series
> No dead ends
In the first one on Gameboy Advance I somehow managed to do locations out of order expected by game and softlocked myself, so walkthrough is advised.

[Anonymous No.9948275]

>>9948272
>Gabriel Knight on GBA
What the fuck?

[Anonymous No.9948307]

>>9948076
Yes, for these games you should literally make a new save for every action you take. There is a limit to the number of save files you are allowed per directories, but you can change directory to permit unlimited saves.

[Anonymous No.9948310]

>>9948041
haldo my brother

[Anonymous No.9948356]

>>9948275
My guess would be he's mixing it up with Broken Sword, which got a fairly popular GBA port that introduced lots of people to the series.

[Anonymous No.9948367]

>>9947959
>>The Colonel's Bequest (Laura Bow 1)
>No dead ends. In fact, you can beat the game without even solving any puzzles, although you will miss a lot. Bullshit deaths however.
I just read a long ass review of this and the guy claimed Laura can point out the killer when she doesn't have any evidence or even know who was murdered. Is that true, cause if so then lol

[Anonymous No.9948371]

>>9948356
Makes sense. Broken Sword and Gabriel Knight are very similar

[Anonymous No.9948379]

>>9947810
KG6, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry VI or Quest for Glory VGA.
>>9947972
>so death doesn't have much consequence
They never did because if your playing a Sirerra game you're saving constantly.

[Anonymous No.9948419]

>>9948367
>I just read a long ass review of this and the guy claimed Laura can point out the killer when she doesn't have any evidence or even know who was murdered. Is that true, cause if so then lol
That doesn't work for the best ending and it doesn't allow you to see all the content.

[Anonymous No.9948420]

>>9947810
Gold Rush was the first one I played. It was on our school computers in 5th grade. Kids were able to beat it.

[Anonymous No.9948424]

>>9948367
>The Colonel's Bequest
There is no other game like it and because of that it can be jank, Laura really did deserve more games.

[Anonymous No.9948649]

>>9947841
Yes, which is why they're fun if you're a well-socialized adolescent and not fun if you're a depressed overweight lonely adult.
>kid: oh no i made the wrong decision! hehe it's fun to start over from the beginning and try again
>you: oh no i made the wrong decision.. all I've invested in life up to this point has been for nothing.. it's too late to start over... what if I fuck up again...

[Anonymous No.9948728]

>>9947810
Gabriel Knight 1 gets my vote (the original with Tim Curry and Mark Hamill)

[Anonymous No.9948738]

>>9947810
Hugo and Penelope Trilogy, then Leisure Suit Larry, then Police Quest, and then and only then, King's Quest

[Anonymous No.9948765]

>>9948738
Hugo is terrible for beginners.

[Anonymous No.9948778]

>>9948765
Hugo is just terrible.

[Anonymous No.9948816]

>>9947810
How beginner? Mixed Up Mother Goose is great for kids to feel accomplished without worrying about failing. Ecoquest is where you can get a story and charm without much pressure. Also designed for kids. Leisure Suit Larry 6 is probably the least punishing one for someone older and doesn't rely much on past story.

If you go through those and want more you can branch into Gabriel Knight, Quest for Glory, and Space Quest. King's Quest and Police Quest are the brutal series that punish you constantly for just trying to play. Avoid until you're certain.

[Anonymous No.9948831]

>>9947904
>>you only have one chance and the game doesn't tell you it's important
>>you can keep playing and not know you can't beat the game
happened to me in real life lmao

[Anonymous No.9948850]

>>9948649
>which is why they're fun if you're a well-socialized adolescent and not fun if you're a depressed overweight lonely adult.
Anon if you think you’re socially well-adjusted for playing 30 year old games that have been forgotten and simultaneously waste your time, I have bad news and a 4chan board for you to post on.

[Anonymous No.9948912]

>>9948850
True, being socially well-adjusted has traditionally meant wasting time getting drunk yelling at sportsball and crying at soap operas.

[Anonymous No.9948952]

>>9947810
I started with Leisure Suit Larry 5. The simple icons and interesting VGA graphics along with the satisfying chime for point-worthy actions drove me forward in playing though the game. It was my introduction to the genre and I was addicted to all the VGA capable games they released afterwards.

[Anonymous No.9949014]

>>9948952
What are you trying to accomplish with your photos? Credposting on an anonymous board is sad.

[Anonymous No.9949021]

>>9949014
I enjoy marble table anon's posts

[Anonymous No.9949026]

>>9948850
obviously hes not talking about a 30 year old game you retard

[Anonymous No.9949028]

>>9949014
I think it's pretty cool

[Anonymous No.9949527]

>>9948850
Do you just have.. no reading comprehension or critical thinking skills whatsoever?

[Anonymous No.9949530]

>>9947810
Peasant's Quest

https://homestarrunner.com/disk4of12

[Anonymous No.9949554]

>>9947904
>hurr durr i dont understand why ppl liked game
How many times do you have to keep asking the same fucking question thread after thread?

In the old days.. we played games.. and had fun.. and if we fucked up.. we started over.. and had fun again. How fucking impossibly hard is that for you to understand? Your psyche is so sick.
>I NEED CONSTANT NOVELTY! CONSTANT ATTENTION TRIGGERING! OH MY GOD I HAVE TO RELOAD? THIS IS UNTHINKABLE! TIME TO SHIT MYSELF AND CRY GIANT CROCODILE TEARS AND HOPE SOMEONE COMFORTS ME LIKE THE VICTIM I AM GETTING TRIGGERED BY THIS GAME THAT CAUSED ME TO FAIL AND HAVE A BAD TIME

Enough of this fucking shit already, you aren't cut out for older games, why are you on this board in the first place? (Rhetorical question, since I imagine that needs to be pointed out to a genius such as yourself too)

[Anonymous No.9949593]

>>9949554
He never said "I don't understand why people liked this game" he called that particular moment bullshit, rightfully so.

[Anonymous No.9949628]

>>9949593
It's not really THAT bullshit >>9947925

[Anonymous No.9949632]

>>9949554
Berta, please

[Anonymous No.9949649]

>>9949628
Now I've never played King's Quest 5, but how far into the game is it before you hit the soft lock if the mouse doesn't get saved?

[Anonymous No.9949724]

>>9949649
Pretty early on

[Anonymous No.9949740]

>>9949724
That's not too bad then. Though it's still a bit of a cruel thing to do to the player. But then again, it's a Sierra game, they like doing that.

[Anonymous No.9949778]

>>9949649
>>9949740
Most of the overreactions to learning about this puzzle tends to come from younger people that have no idea that at the time this game was new, ALL adventure games had "if you don't do x at this point you can't beat the game" elements. It's like even younger kids freaking out at the idea of getting thrown back to the title screen in an action game if they die enough times because the idea of games not having permanent save points is so unfamiliar to them.

[Anonymous No.9949793]

>>9949778
>ALL adventure games had "if you don't do x at this point you can't beat the game" elements.
Monkey Island didn't.

[Anonymous No.9949808]

>>9947904
Did you lose 19 kinutes of your life? Boo hoo. 10 minutes of scratching your gut you'll never get back.

[Anonymous No.9949903]

>>9949793
Monkey Island was one game and it's lack of these elements was incredibly unusual for the time.
It's also "relatively new" as far as adventure games are considered.

[Anonymous No.9949918]

>>9949903
If memory serves right, Loom didn't either. Really though it's like you said: Lucasarts point and clicks were the outliers to other adventure games at the time, once they took off in popularity, the genre started chilling the fuck out.

[Anonymous No.9949931]

>>9949918
The point is that it was a genre standard to the point everyone expected it and nobody had any kind of "what the hell" reaction to it, the same way nobody freaked out if a NES game had limited continues and tossed them back to the title screen when they ran out.

Pointing out random outliers (all from the same dev) isn't changing that.

[Anonymous No.9950112]

>>9949918
>the genre started chilling the fuck out.
There were lots of gamers who didn't like that development though, who thought the games kept getting dumber and dumber. It was similar when Myst was new and kickstarted the trend with myst-likes where all the puzzles were logic puzzles and with few or no lateral thinking puzzles anymore.

[Anonymous No.9950157]

>>9950112
>pic
I laughed.

[Anonymous No.9950210]

>>9950112
I enjoy the slow burn of puzzles and exploring of point and clicks. My problem is the surprise instant deaths and possible softlocks you're not aware of until several hours in.

[Anonymous No.9950234]

>>9950112
Some adventure game fans also hated the move from the parser systems to point & click, in truth there was room for the Myst, Sierra and Lucas style games because no matter what the growth of FPS, RTS and MMOs would make the Adventure genre niche.

[Anonymous No.9950397]

>>9949593
>he never said that specific combination of words
It's the exact same dipshit sentiment.
A complete inability to fathom that something he, in his infantile entitlement considers "bullshit" was in fact not considered a game breaking detail contemporarily.

Thinking on this for some time now, I realized that what really defines you zoomers (and yes, you old emotionally-stunted retards who zoom despite being "gen x" or "millennial" or whatever you call yourself) is that you are TERRIFIED OF RISK.
>Oh my god.. what if I invest time in a game... and it turns out I FAIL?? I can't play games that don't give me the continuous option to keep winning without setbacks from start to finish! I'm going to have a bad time, I can't handle that!

I spent a lot of time playing Sierra games as a kid and I can absolutely promise you not one of my friends or I EVER cared that you could get stuck or "softlocked". This whole "aargh they were frustrating and bad and we didn't like them!!" is the same modern youtube basement eceleb mentality that brought you that eternal faggot AVGN. They were ADVENTURE games, part of an adventure meant taking wrong turns and getting clobbered, and then going through again and trying to make different choices. No risk, no reward. The less you're able to deviate from the intended course of the story, the more you're just watching a glorified cutscene. Not to mention, you know they still gave you THE TOOLS to deal with this challenge if it bothered you in the form of numerous save files, which if you had any brains at all you utilized. The zoomer mentality is so steeped in "I can never fail because the game will always hold my hand and tell me what to do next" that they don't even know how to make use of the resources available to ensure their success when they exist. Terrified of risk, terrified of personal agency, terrified of having to "start over". I can only imagine how badly that fear affected other aspects of their life to this point.

[Anonymous No.9950408]

>>9950397
Man, you need to settle down with these hypothetical people you're fighting so hard against. But sure, I'll play ball with you.
I don't mind failing and starting over in action games. I just don't think they have a place in slow burn adventure games. I grew up with the Lucasarts games, so I didn't have to deal with the shit Sierra pulled over the years.

[Anonymous No.9950440]

>>9950408
>hypothetical people
You mean the same ones who appear time and time again in every thread? Don't waste my time acting like this complete inability to grasp enjoyment of games in favor of spiteful, resentful shitposting about how they're "bullshit" or "not akshually very good" or "bad design". Don't try to act all cute like this is some imagined pretend problem and not a continual infestation of rotten thinking from people completely divorced from the context of classic gaming.

> I grew up with the Lucasarts games, so I didn't have to deal with the shit Sierra pulled over the years.
So you grew up with handholdy games that don't allow you to fail, and now you have a strong aversion to games that require you to risk your time and decision-making skills at the cost of potential failure and the "punishment" of having to start over, to the point even your phrasing still drips with resentment: "the shit Sierra pulled". Thank you, you exactly proved my point: It's not just a preference, it's an emotional stunting.

[Anonymous No.9950452]

>>9950440
I don't see anyone acting the way you're talking about here in the thread. At this point it's you and me and probably some other Anons watching this back and forth. But if you wanna have a slapfight, you can have it with someone else.

[Anonymous No.9950476]

>>9948765

Yeah, as an 8 year old I didn’t have a whole lot of fun with it. I always got stuck on the part where you had to go into the shed and I would type “jack off” and the game wouldn’t let me advance any further. It was weird because I would type it over and over again, expecting a different result every time but apparently you can’t jack off in sheds?

[Anonymous No.9950484]

>>9950452
You know what, I just went through the thread again and noticed a lot of people remarking on "Sierra" and "bullshit" in the same post. So that one's on me for not scrolling further up and actually paying attention.
I still don't want have a slapfight over this, but I also don't like not acknowledging actual shit that's happened in a thread. That's my bad. I should give some of these games a shot.

[Anonymous No.9950486]

>>9950452
nta but he's completely right, that mentality is clearly present in everyone that bitches about some "bullshit puzzle" they read about that's rarely much more bullshit than other puzzles in other contemporary games. The idea of encountering a puzzle that can't be solved no matter what they try because the solution involves having done something at an earlier point in the game, the idea of reloading old saves and trying different things, the idea of starting a game entirely from scratch... it's all so far removed from current "no challenges accepted" mentality for video games they can't imagine people not having a problem with it.

But people didn't. It's just how games were. Just like how Mario dies when he falls down a hole no matter what powerups he had. Not even zoomers complain about that. Yet. I think.

[Anonymous No.9950491]

>>9950486
Honestly the more I sit and think about his post and the sheer fucking frustration from it. I'm starting to understand: this is no different from people crying about Ninja Gaiden on the NES or Battletoads. Now I feel like an asshole.

You know, speaking of Sierra adventure games, there's one I want to revisit that I stumbled around blindly in as a child but was drawn in by the atmosphere: Shivers. I wonder how much of a pain in the ass it is to get that game to run in modern hardware?

[Anonymous No.9950493]

>>9948765
Hugo is just bad in general. At least it's initially stupidly EASY enough for beginners until "fuck you, tell me the name of Roy Roger's horse or you're not beating the game", but it's badly designed and has nothing really going for it. Short, easy, shitty real time enemy dodging "puzzles" and a brick wall of a pop quiz everyone got stuck on before the internet made it easy to cheat past.

[Anonymous No.9950501]

People bring up tricks that ruin your save and force a reset, but these games aren't that long or slow, right? And it's not like you'll have forgotten any puzzle solution.

[Anonymous No.9950512]

>>9950501
They're very short and quick as long as you just do what you're supposed to. The longevity comes from figuring out what to do.

[Anonymous No.9950618]

To answer OP's question, Leisure Suit Larry 6.
It's pretty forgiving, and is basically just lewd Day of the Tentacle with deaths (which have no actual consequence because try again feature).

[Anonymous No.9950662]

Any SQ7 fans here?

[Anonymous No.9950671]

>>9949918
Lucasarts adventure games never became that popular with the exception of Full Throttle. Sierra murdered them sales-wise.

[Anonymous No.9950849]

>>9950671
This was really strange to learn, they seemed to be everywhere back in the 90s. Before I got online I thought only The Dig and Grim Fandango were flops.

[Anonymous No.9950914]

>>9950112
10/10
Sierra were /ourguys/. Lucasarts reeks of plebbit.

[Anonymous No.9950920]

>>9950112
Sierra was as focused on gameplay as the genre could be, unforgiving if you fucked up somewhere. Deal with it and try again or get filtered. Lucasarts games casualized the genre for mass appeal, you couldn't actually lose, everyone was a winner. Myst was a proto walking sim.

[Anonymous No.9950927]

>>9950914
>asked a super leading bullshit question
>calls the bullshit and half insults the interviewer
Based Roberta.

[Anonymous No.9950961]

>>9948367
Yeah it's funny that's the point it adds to the games charm and this game is oozing with charm.

[Anonymous No.9951029]

>>9950491
>You know, speaking of Sierra adventure games, there's one I want to revisit that I stumbled around blindly in as a child but was drawn in by the atmosphere: Shivers. I wonder how much of a pain in the ass it is to get that game to run in modern hardware?
You can just get the GoG version

[Anonymous No.9951043]

>>9951029
>There's a GoG version
Fuck me. I had no idea. Well time to grab that and get cozy with that kinda spooky game.

[Anonymous No.9951047]

>>9951043
There's a bunch of stuff from Sierra released there, for anything that isn't you can just find the image files and run them through scummvm yourself, or visit a site like The Collection Chamber where they have pre-packaged installers that include the manuals and booklets etc.