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Remembering Adventures Past on Game and Player

Remembering Adventures Past

Ed Kirchgessner  //  April 29, 2010


Is an all-but-forgotten genre the key to PC gaming's survival?

C

hallenging; engaging; thought provoking: adjectives that, sadly, don't apply frequently to the games of today. While most of my middle school classmates were busily mashing buttons on their consoles, I spent the better part of my time basking in the eerie glow of a CRT, enjoying countless adventure classics on my parent's 386 desktop. To finish a game like Hero's Quest carried with it a certain weight — defeating brigands was simple enough, but unraveling the puzzles that led you to Baba Yaga's doorstep took patience and more than a little raw brainpower.



Baba Yaga's hut rendered in lifelike EGA.
This past weekend, a rather nasty chest cold kept me indoors. And even though I didn't have the focus to engage in a marathon session of Modern Warfare 2, I had just enough energy to sit down in front of my meager gaming rig and experience a few PC classics all over again. That old 386 that lived in my parent's basement never quite had the chops to run a game like Myst, but somehow my current desktop made it through the task.

It's a testament to gameplay — no matter how dated the graphics may appear by today's standards, those adventure greats of the early nineties still manage to draw you in. Myst's portrayal of an alternate reality accessed by the written word is no less poetic (or downright beautiful) nearly twenty years after it was first laid to disk. It makes you wonder: whatever happened to men like Robyn and Rand Miller? These designers of Myst brought an artistic touch to the craft of game design the likes of which has rarely been seen since. Certainly, Miyamoto, Ancel and Ueda should be held in equally high regard for their contributions to console gaming, but without the Miller brother's masterpiece, one begins to wonder where video games would be today.



Telltale Games has thrived by converting tried properties into episodic adventures.
Times have changed — as consoles approached the processing power of the average desktop computer, the PC ceased to be host to the sorts of adventure games it played so well. It's both sad and ironic, considering a focus on these sorts of products might have helped better differentiate PC games from their console counterparts. Instead, gamers were "treated" to a never-ending wave of first-person shooters that just (barely) surpassed what was being offered by the likes of Nintendo and Sony.

Today, PC gaming seems to be in its worst state ever. While a few publishers continue to produce the classic adventure games which cater to all of the platform's strengths, the rest seem more concerned with making the console and PC versions of their latest shooters as similar as possible. Can companies like Telltale Games and The Adventure Company carry the torch alone with a push towards digital distribution and episodic content? For the sake gaming's next generation, I certainly hope so.




Michael Ubaldi // April 29, 2010 // 11:03 AM

One explanation could be the somewhat aging model of an adventure game — relatively static representations of environments may not appeal as much when the definition of "immersive" entails convincing sensory stimulation.

But, as for RPGs, to whom the game is an ancestor, the PC continues to support extensive modding of A-list games from the likes of Bethesda and BioWare.

And, of course, the prospect of a solid console MMO remains dubious. So, yes — PCs remain an alternative to the expediency of console gaming, but whether developers and publishers take advantage of that remains to be seen.


Gabe // April 29, 2010 // 12:46 PM

I loved Hero's Quest so much, I about had a heart attack seeing that screenshot. Just this morning I was seriously considering shutting myself in the house for a weekend and replaying that game with all three character types. Saurus Rex! Troll! Antwerp! Razzle Dazzle Root Beer!


Eddie Carrington (aka Brigwyn) // May 2, 2010 // 12:45 AM

Yah know! I've been having this very discussion with several of my colleagues. And I find it interesting how many of them want to say that it's because people have gotten older and don't have the time commitment.

The only problem I have with that is the fact have just about as much time today as I did 20-25 years ago.

Back then I was working fulltime or at the very least going to school and working part time. Yet the games that captured my attention weren't the "arcade" style shoot 'em ups. But the adventure games.

I recently started playing Dragon's Age Origins (no comments on being late to the party, I already know that.) and loved it.

It's not the rich dialogue, killer graphics, or even that Morrigan is super hot. It's the story. So many games today rely on stunning graphics and effects to make up for the lack of story.

Like you said, one of the greatest things about Myst isn't how even by today's standards the graphics are pretty good. But the fact you can lose yourself in the story.

Awesome post! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! :)


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