I love adventure games, almost as much as Scuba loves ZJ’s, if it is possible to love something that much. The first time one of my friends came over to my house and had a copy of Maniac Mansion, my obsession began. LucasArts brought such classics as Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Day of the Tentacle to my computer screen, while Sierra occupied days of my life with Kings Quest, Police Quest, and Rise of the Dragon. Many consider Myst as one of the last hoo-rah’s of the Adventure gaming fad.
Well now it’s back baby! With two of the best, The Secret of Monkey Island and Beneath a Steel Sky just to kick it off. Telltale kept the heart beating strong with Sam & Max and Strong Bad episodic adventures but the true resurrection has begun…. on the iPhone.
The iPhone platform and the Adventure game is a great marriage that I’ve been waiting for like an orphan waiting for a new family. The Apple device definitely exceeds the basic system requirements of most classic adventure games. Considering many of these games were distributed on 1 CD or multiple floppy disks, size should not be an issue. Since the mouse was hot shit technology back in the day most of these games are point and click which a touch screen is practically made for. LucasArts has already got SCUMM to work on iPhones with The Secret of Monkey Island, then they can do it for the rest of their catalog.
So what is left to do? Start porting people! And while you are at, the DS has a pretty good setup for classic adventure games, so let’s get a few more on there. Touch Screen, D-pad, 6 buttons, 2 screens, it’s just waiting for something good… if you can fit it on a DS Cartridge that is. Oh and if you show something like the DS version of Myst, you should stop, just please for the love of god and all that is holy stop, and pecker-slap yourself.
I would pay to play Grim Fandango, Fallout, Full Throttle, and Rise of the Dragon on the train everyday. Maybe Fate of Atlantis would make the commute go a little smoother. Regardless, technology has advanced enough to bring these games to our mobile devices so let it happen. What classic titles are you waiting someone to port to portable?
I’m still waiting for Shenmue 3. But Shenmue would be cool, maybe.
Kieth Carter, I feel like we are brothers or something. Truly, you just listed 10 of my favorite PC games of all time.
I would also kill everyone on this site for a ringtone of Murray quotes.
“The Dig” belongs on that list too. That game had some really great artwork.
Beneath a Steel Sky and Kings Quest 6 are two of my favorite games of all time. The DS actually has a SCUMM emulator already, but it would be nice to see games ported officially.
I loved the adventure games back in the day, but now they just don’t do that much for me. I think it’s really the point and click style of play that feels so dated. If there’s a good way to improve on that control scheme, I’d play the ports and new games more.
Full Throttle was my favorite. I am also trying emulation on my iPhone to play classic console games like Warsong. Unfortunately, the control isnt as smooth as I hope it will be. I guess nothing beats a controller as far as I am concerned.