Your first adventure game?

[Ladonna]

While looking for a copy of the first adventure game I played, I thought "why not ask the members of the Codex what their first adventure games were?" So here we are.

The first adventure game I played was 'The search for King Solomons mines" A text and graphic adventure that was released locally for the Commodore 64. The only thing I have been able to pull up for it was a gamebase64 page.

http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=6669

 

[Wunderbar]

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I have vague memories of playing a cartridge-based text adventure for either some early console or possibly my VIC-20. It was extremely short, maybe only a 10-15 minute game. However, Planetfall by Infocom on the C64 (circa 1989) was the first one I fully remember. Very enjoyable and I was able to complete it, which unfortunately can't be said for the sequel Stationfall where it seemed more complicated and I ended with my fun being cock-blocked. I may have played Infocom's Suspended between Planetfall & Stationfall and that too stumped me. I don't think the text adventure genre was for me.

First graphic adventure was likely King's Quest V - the MS-DOS CD-ROM version. I think I quit because I couldn't install it to my old Radio Shack Tandy's 286's HDD (which had a 20MB storage capacity... my, we've come a long fucking way, haven't we?) and there were these hideous pauses between animations because the CD-ROM drive was being accessed in the middle of them. To this day, I'm hyper-sensitive to stutters and micro-stutters of any kind.

 

[V_K]

If we're talking proper PC PnC adventures - Discworld 2. I have very fond memories of that game, it did so many things right - the (relatively) open world, the way the game acknowledged when you tried something that was part of the puzzle solution, but in the wrong order. And even with these additional sorta-hints, it managed to be quite challenging without going into bullshit territory. Well, almost - there was one bullshit puzzle at the very end, which needed an NPC that just randomly appeared in a certain location, and all you could do is enter and exit that location repeatedly until he spawned. But otherwise the difficulty was very fair.

But if fringe cases are allowed, The Addams Family on NES is essentially an Adventure masquerading as a platformer. It doesn't have levels - you explore the Addams mansion in a non-linear fashion - and most of progression occurs through inventory-based puzzles.

 

[Maxie]

probably the first pink panther game

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

King’s Quest 2. Somewhat of a miracle I stuck with the genre after that.

 

[Manny]

If I remember correctly, it was the original Larry 1 or Maniac Mansion. I think I played both almost on par really, in a monochromatic AT 286 (or a XT, I’m not sure). At that time, 10 or 11 years old, having played only atari vcs and nes games, even with my rudimentary English, I was really impressed. So, from then on, I just played only graphic adventures (or games somewhat related, like Another World) on PC for various years.

 

[Matalarata]

Blazing Dragons!

Spoiler

One of the first one to ever reach consoles iirc.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

If I remember correctly my first adventure experience was with the shareware version of a rather obscure german point and click game by the name of "Die Sage von Nietoom" (The legend of Nietoom). I think it was in 1995. As far as I can say it was a quite subpar game but I somehow liked the mysterious atmosphere of the old house.

 

[Jvegi]

probably the first pink panther game

Hokus Pokus was published first in Poland. I'm not sure it was my first adventure game, but it's very likely. I might have seen Neverhood before this one, but I have barely touched it.

 

[DraQ]

Proper point-and-click (or parser) adventure?
Probably Władcy Ciemności on c64.

 

[ghostdog]

Probably this one:

 

[Azalin]

Probably this one:

 

[visions]

Alone in the Dark 3 if hybrids count. Found it pretty scary as a kid, particularly the enemies you couldn't kill. Also I sucked at it but it came with saves at established points so you could skip forward by loading a save from a point in the game you never reached yourself.

I also have vague memories of playing some parser based adventure game where you had to pick up women but I think it wasn't Larry.

As far as point and clicks go, Blade Runner maybe. That was also the first one I completed, but that was in my late teens. First played it in my early teens though, I think.

 

[StaticSpine]

 

[Red Hexapus]

This one. Got it for Christmas '96, along with Shivers.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Zork, played on-line.

 

[Darth Roxor]

It would probably be The Hobbit, the text adventure, but I'm not sure it makes sense to mention it given that I was a kid who couldn't understand shit for English so obviously I didn't get very far.

The first one I played for real was either Goblins 3 or Kyrandia 2, not sure which one, but I think it's fair to say that they determined my perception of adventure games forever. Goblins 3 in particular, it's probably my fav AG of all time, and I've revisited it multiple times. Funny thing about Kyrandia though, I haven't played it again until 2 years ago, because all the time I was afraid of shattering my childhood memories of it, but the fears were unfounded. I had as much fun with it 2 years ago as I did twenty-something years ago.

 

[Ladonna]

Maniac Mansion

Man, I love that game. I played it again last year on C64.

 

[Ladonna]

It would probably be The Hobbit

Ha, I still have the disk and cover for that one. It even says on the front "Contains graphics!".

 

[Jason Liang]

I want to say Gabriel Knight, but Leisure Suit Larry V: Passionate Patty Does a Little Undercover Work predates it by 2 years.

Not sure how I got a copy of it when I was 11, but it was probably on sale at Price Club (Costco now). In fact, it's possible that I got both at the same time from a Sierra adventure game bundle.

The first adventure game I ever *saw* and play was King's Quest V, also at Costco. it was running as a tech demo for the IBC PC's on sale. Could not get past the first three screens. It looked amazing.

 

[Humanophage]

I played a bunch before it, but not in a very thorough fashion. The first one that really stuck was Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth (a translated version):

Also Alone in the Dark and Sam & Max Hit the Road were some of the first, and there was Day of the Tentacle on a Macintosh at an English school. Perhaps I even played them before Woodruff, but my English was too poor to really appreciate them.

 

[abnaxus]

 

[Verylittlefishes]

 

[Gregz]

Zork