Graphics Adventure Games
This is a chronological list of some of the most notable graphics adventure games to appear on IBM PC MS-DOS and other Western home computer game machines.
Graphics adventure games are adventure games that incorporate graphics, not just text or speech. In graphics adventure games graphics plays a prime role in the portrayl of scenes and situations; often, graphics depict the avatar (as a sprite) as well as the actions of the avatar within a scene, which is a backdrop overlayed by interactable actors and objects. In most graphics adventure games the avatar can be moved about and can interact with the scene by pointing and clicking with a mouse.
Graphics adventure games are contrasted with text-based adventure games such as Zork of 1977. Graphics adventure games may include animated graphics, static images only or a combination thereof.
Graphics adventure games may employ the text parser of text-only adventure games, but they usually feature point and click command and control; that is, they don't require players to input text via the keyboard.
I have omitted isometric adventure games such as those from the likes of UPtG. The reason is that isometric adventure games focus more on arcade-action and timing; they have little in the way of dialogue and descriptions; that is, they constitute their own -- far superior -- genre.
The most famous adventure games are point and click adventure games, which are graphics-based and feature mouse-controlled movement and interaction; that is, the player is pointing the mouse-cursor at icons and at objects or positions on the playfield and then clicking the mouse-button to confirm a selection. For example:
- Click the playfield to move the avatar to that position on the playfield
- Click an actor to have the avatar speak to the actor
- Click the object to have the avatar examine or interact with the object
- Click an icon or command and then click the object, actor or another icon
Point and click adventure games often employ both mouse buttons; the left mouse button may be used for basic operations and the right-mouse button may call up pop-up menus that contain a list of commands, for example.
Point and click adventure games commonly combine exploration with puzzles, dialogues and cutscenes or scripted sequences. They may also feature arcade-action sequences such as combat encounters. Point and click adventure games are a heavily cinematized genre. Almost all point and click adventure games are linearly narrated and contain no stats.
Most point and click adventure games feature inventories. Items listed or pictured in inventories can be applied to objects or actors on the playfield or with other inventoried objects. In some cases items can be combined to produce a different item.
Point and click adventure games can employ contiguous flip-screen exploration, screen-scrolling or a combination thereof.
Most graphics adventure games feature a series of contiguous areas to explore, but most of them do not employ a consistent perspective (such as isometric), instead opting for a mish-mash of pseudo-perspectives with no technical grounding.
In addition, the backdrops of too many graphics adventure games are not hand-drawn from scratch by graphicians, but rather employ digitized imagery that often cheapens the game's appearance. You can easily tell what has been painstakingly drawn from scratch and what has been scanned-in and smoothed over: one image is sharp and every pixel counts whereas the other is a blurry mess with lots of wasted pixels; one looks authentic, the other fake.
Ironically, the biggest contribution made to computer game history by graphics adventure games was in audio, not graphics. Audio-wise, I am referring to AdLib/Roland King's Quest IV of 1988, Distaff Loom of 1990 and iMUSE Monkey Island 2 of 1991.
The biggest contribution made by the genre to computer game graphics was in character animations, which reached their height of cartoon-like quality in 1993. However, cartoon-quality audiovisuals had already been trail-blazed by Dragon's Lair and Space Ace of 1989-90. cf. Computer Game Cinematization.
If we confine ourselves to LucasFilm/Arts, we can also cite writing as a rock-solid contribution to the industry as a whole -- especially character-writing.
The most famous developers of graphics adventure games are Sierra On-Line and LucasFilm/Arts of the United States, and Delphine Software of France. Of those three the LucasFilm/Arts type are by far and away the best. On the other hand, Sierra On-Line were all about quantity over quality; thus, I refer to their prolific output as Sierra scribble-slop spam. Still, Sierra On-Line did indeed release a few great graphics adventure games.
The vast majority of historically significant graphics adventure games displayed in 16-color EGA 320x200 or 256-color VGA 320x200.
Graphics adventure games first employed professional compositions in 1988.
No historically significant point and click adventure games were made after 1996.
As declared and explained in Best cRPGs and Fallout's Place, the point and click adventure game was rendered redundant by Interplay's Fallout of 1997 and yet -- astonishingly -- point and click adventure games continued to be churned out for casual gamers for three decades subsequent.
The following chronological list has been published for self-reference and cross-genre citation purposes.
Mystery House 1980 Apple 2
On-Line Systems released Mystery House for the Apple 2 in May of 1980. Mystery House was the first commercially-released graphical adventure game and one of the first horror computer games; it was the start of Sierra's scribble-slop spam; a computer game that anyone could have programmed, written and drawn -- but On-Line Systems were the first to cobble something together and sell it to people whose idea of fun was typing in compass directions and verb-noun commands.
Mystery House was programmed by Ken Williams and designed by Roberta Williams. Mystery House is a murder-mystery in which players explore a Victorian mansion in search of a murderer. Players explore the mansion by inputting commands into a text parser that interprets 300 words.
Mystery House spawned soulless Sierra scribble-slop spam:
- King's Quest
- Space Quest
- Police Quest
- Quest for Glory
- Conquest
Sierra even renamed Coktel's Goblins 3 to Goblins Quest 3.
No fewer than 20 "unique" Sierra trial-and-error adventure games were released between 1984 and 1992 on IBM PC.
Quest, quest, quest! Spam, spam, spam!
In addition, ports of Sierra games to other systems were lousy low-effort rush-jobs. They rarely bothered to redraw the assets or recompose the music to suit the different chipsets of other computers, but they approved the ports because they wanted their slop to spread far and wide.
I know, how dare a company want to make as much money as possible while putting in as little effort as possible. :)
Sierra used the IBM PC as their master platform from 1984 onwards. Clueless computer game journalism ranted and raved about how amazing Sierra's graphics were -- even going so far as to call Sierra games "3D" when in actual fact they are 2D games -- and yet it wasn't until 1990 that Sierra made an adventure game whose graphics could be compared with Defender of the Crown of 1986.
Labyrinth Commodore 64 1986
The Pawn Amiga 1986
The Guild of Thieves Amiga 1987
Mortville Manor Atari ST 1987
Lankhor of France released Mortville Manor for the Atari ST in 1987. Players assume the role of private detective Jérôme Lange, who is investigating the death of his friend, Julia Defranck. Mortville Manor employs a first-person perspective, mouse-driven control, sampled sounds and synthesized speech. In some cases players can interact directly with the environment. For example, click on a closed door, click open and the door opens -- with a creaking sound effect.
In addition, Mortville Manor features an inventory and supports 26 actions from drop-down menus.
Set in 1950s France, Mortville Manor was conceived by Bernard Grelaud and Bruno Gourier, composed by Jean-Luc Langlois and Beatrice Langlois and drawn by Bernard Grelaud.
Maniac Mansion IBM PC MS-DOS 1988
Zak McKracken IBM PC MS-DOS 1988
Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade IBM PC MS-DOS 1989
Secret of Monkey Island IBM PC MS-DOS 1990
Future Wars IBM PC MS-DOS 1990
Operation Stealth IBM PC MS-DOS 1990
King's Quest 5 IBM PC MS-DOS 1990
Wonderland IBM PC MS-DOS 1990
Maupiti Island Amiga 1990
Lankhor of France released Maupiti Island for the Amiga in 1990. Follow-up to Mortville Manor of 1987, once again players assume the role of private detective Jérôme Lange. Maupiti Island was designed and drawn by Dominique Sablons, scripted by Sylvian Bruchon and composed by André Bescond.
Gobliiins IBM PC MS-DOS 1991
Conquests of the Longbow IBM PC MS-DOS 1991
Cruise for a Corpse IBM PC MS-DOS 1991
King's Quest 6 IBM PC MS-DOS 1992
Inca PC DOS 1992
Coktel Vision released Inca for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1992. Inca is a puzzle-adventure game and space combat simulator.
In Inca players assume the role of the mythical character of prophecy, El Dorado, the Golden Champion, who is tasked with restoring the Incan Empire by reclaiming three jewels: Time, Matter and Energy. El Dorado is assisted in his quest by Huayna Capac.
Adventure game mode features ground exploration and arcade-action combat whereas space simulator mode features Deep Space combat and Canyon combat. The Deep Space combat evokes Wing Commander.
The Tumi Fighter can engage in Deep Space or Canyon combat. The Tumi can turn, accelerate, decelerate and fire plasma bolts, Jaguar missiles and Sun Stars.
PC DOS Inca was distributed on 10x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Inca Installation. The install size is 16.5 megs and consists of 58 files.
Published by Sierra On-Line, PC DOS Inca was created by Pierre Gilhodes, project-led by Richard Eter, composed by Gilles Douieb and programmed by Emmanuel Maguet and Mathieu Marciacq and Andre Thevenin of M.D.O.
PC DOS Inca requires an i80386 20 MHz CPU and 545K of free conventional memory. PC DOS Inca displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. PC DOS Inca audio supports AdLib, Sound Blaster and Pro Audio Spectrum.
Inca 1 Manual: 24 pages. Inca 1 Hint Book: 30 pages.
Batman Returns IBM PC MS-DOS 1992
Spirit of Discovery released Batman Returns for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1992. PC DOS Batman Returns is based on the Tim Burton film of 1992, Batman Returns.
PC DOS Batman Returns was programmed by Ken Simon, composed by Michelle Sorger and drawn by Brian O'Hara, James R. Haldy and Ivaylo Vaklinov, and animated by Karen Dole, Brian O'Hara and Art Avila.
PC DOS Batman Returns is an icon-based, mouse-driven point-and-click adventure game that employs a map-screen, action segments and an interrogation interface.
Batman equips himself and conducts research in his Batcave. He gets around Gotham City via the Batmobile. Batman can move between street and rooftop via wings.
In the Batcave the Caper Crusader can equip himself with Batsuit armor, grapple, gauntlet, rope, lockpick, smoke bomb, knock out gas, scanner and normal, bolo and sonic Batarang. Batman employs such items when exploring and fighting in Gotham City.
Batman Returns displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. Batman Returns audio supports PC Speaker, AdLib, Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro.
Batman Returns was distributed by Konami on 7x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Batman Returns Installation. The install size is 16 megs and consists of 5 files.
Day of the Tentacle PC DOS 1993
Sam and Max PC DOS 1993
LucasArts released Sam and Max Hit the Road for IBM PC MS-DOS in November of 1993. Sam and Max Hit the Road is based on the Sam & Max comic books of 1987 by Steve Purcell.
In Sam and Max players control two detectives of the Freelance Police, Sam and Max, who are investigating the disappearance of a bigfoot that has gone missing from a carnival.
Sam and Max employs an inventory box, three dialogue icons and mouse right-clicking to cycle through six main verb icons. Sam and Max also features an overland map and mini-games.
Sam and Max requires 570K of free conventional memory and can address up to 2 megs of EMS memory. Sam and Max is a v1.95 DOS/4GW Protected Mode Run-time.
Sam and Max displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. Unlike Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max's active drawspace is full-screen. As with DotT, Sam and Max features very high-quality animations, character designs and backdrops.
Sam and Max music supports SoundScape MIDI, AdLib, 4-OP FM, General MIDI and Roland MT-32. Sam and Max digital sound supports SoundScape, Pro Audio Spectrum, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16 and Sound Blaster Pro.
Sam and Max was distributed on 1x CD-ROM or 6x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes and 1x 3.5" 720kB DD diskette.
Sam and Max was directed and produced Sean Clark and Mike Stemmle, designed Sean Clark, Steve Purcell, Collette Michaud and Michael Stemmle, programmed by Sean Clark, Michael Stemmle, Livia Mackin and Jonathan Ackley, and composed by Clint Bajakian, Peter McConnell and Micheal Z. Land.
Crimestompers' Coloring Book: How to Play Sam and Max Hit the Road: 15 pages.
Sam and Max: The Official Hint Book: 52 pages.
BloodNet IBM PC MS-DOS 1993
Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet 1993
Infogrames of France released Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1993.
Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet is based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos of 1928.
In Shadow of the Comet players assume the role of John Parker, a British photographer of Halley's Comet. Shadow of the Comet is set in Illsmouth of New England in 1910.
Shadow of the Comet employs a visual targeting system that cuts down on mouse-over pixel hunting. However, players must hold down the left mouse button in order to move Parker about. In addition, avatar-pathfinding is poor and the digitized backdrops are rough around the edges.
Call of Cthulhu requires an i80286 16 MHz CPU and 560K of free conventional memory.
Call of Cthulhu displays in 256-color VGA 320x200.
Call of Cthulhu music supports AdLib, Sound Blaster, Sound Master and Sound Master II.
Call of Cthulhu sound effects support Sound Blaster (DMA), Sound Blaster (no DMA), Sound Master, Sound Master II, Internal Voice Master, Sound Source and Buzzer (386DX).
Call of Cthulhu was distributed by MicroProse on 5x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskette or 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Shadow of the Comet installation. The install size is 7 megs and consists of 38 files.
Call of Cthulhu was directed by Norbert Cellier, lead-drawn by Yaël Barroz and composed by Philippe Vachey.
Gabriel Knight IBM PC MS-DOS 1993
Sierra On-Line released Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers for IBM PC MS-DOS in December of 1993. Gabriel Knight is a supernatural psychological-mystery adventure game.
In Gabriel Knight players assume the role of horror novelist, bookstore owner and Shadow Hunter, Gabriel Knight, who is investigating and researching The Voodoo Murders in modern-day New Orleans.
Gabriel Knight was designed, directed and written by Jane Jensen, composed by Robert Holmes and lead-programmed by Tom DeSalvo.
Gabriel Knight commands include walk, use, ask, talk, pick up, open/close, operate and move.
Gabriel Knight employs right-clicking and an icon-based inventory and map-screen as well as tape recorder, interrogation and Voodoo/Drum code interfaces. The interrogation interface lists a series of topics that can lead to dialogue with further selections.
Gabriel Knight displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 and employs version 2 of the Sierra Creative Interpreter (SCI2). Gabriel Knight is a Rational Systems DOS/4GW Protected-mode run-time.
Gabriel Knight sound effects support Pro Audio Spectrum/16, Microsoft Windows Sound System, Sound Blaster and ThunderBoard. Gabriel Knight music supports General MIDI Sound Driver, Sound Blaster / AdLib Card, Sound Blaster AdLib Substitute, Sound Blaster Pro, Pro Audio Spectrum, PC Internal Speaker and Roland MT-32, MT-100, LAPC-1 and CM-32L.
Gabriel Knight was distributed on 11x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Sierra On-Line Game Install/Setup Program v3.670. The install size of v1.0 is 16 megs and consists of 123 files.
Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers - Graphic Novel: 18 pages
Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers - Hint Book: 120 pages
Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers - Technical Manual: 42 pages
Inca 2 PC DOS 1993
Coktel Vision released Inca 2: Wiracocha aka Inca 2: Nations of Immortality for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1993. Inca 2 is a puzzle-adventure game and space combat simulator.
PC DOS Inca 2 was distributed on 10x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Installation of Inca 2. The install size is 16.3 megs and consists of 19 files.
PC DOS Inca 2 displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. PC DOS Inca 2 audio supports PC Internal Speaker, AdLib, Sound Blaster and MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16. PC DOS Inca 2 requires 400K of free conventional memory and 3 megs of XMS memory.
PC DOS Inca 2 employs v3.0 of Phar Lap's 286 DOS-Extender by Phar Lap Software.
Inca 2 Manual: 33 pages. Inca 2 Hint Book: 44 pages.
Beneath a Steel Sky IBM PC MS-DOS 1994
Dragonsphere IBM PC MS-DOS 1994
MPS Labs released Dragonsphere for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in January of 1994. Dragonsphere is technically notable for its intuitive interface, parallax screen-scrolling and rotoscoped sprite animations.
Dragonsphere is a medieval-fantasy adventure game. In Dragonsphere players assume the role of King Callash as he travels the Kingdom of Gran Callahach in search of the evil Sorcerer, Sanwe.
Dragonsphere requires an i80386 CPU, 575K of free conventional memory and 800K of EMS memory (1.8 megs of EMS is recommended).
Dragonsphere features toggleable text boxes and three scrolling and room-fade settings.
Dragonsphere displays in 256-color VGA 320x200. Dragonsphere features rotoscoped animated sprites with drop-shadows and smooth screen-scrolling, sometimes in parallax.
Dragonsphere music supports AdLib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Roland MT-32, Roland LAPC-I, Roland CM-32L and General MIDI.
Dragonsphere digital audio supports Covox Sound Master, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Pro Audio Spectrum Plus/16 and Gold Sound Standard.
Music, speech and sound effects are toggleable.
Dragonsphere was distributed by MicroProse on 7x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via MicroProse Hard Disk Installation Utility by Brian Reynolds. The install size is 12 megs and consists of 48 files.
Dragonsphere was designed and written by Douglas Kaufman, produced by Matt Gruson, lead- programmed by Paul Lahaise, lead-drawn by Michael Gibson, lead-animated by Charles Shenton and composed by Michael Bross.
Dragonsphere's MicroProse Adventure System (MADS) was programmed by Brian Reynolds and designed by Matt Gruson and Brian Reynolds.
Legend of Kyrandia 3 IBM PC MS-DOS 1994
Flight of the Amazon Queen Amiga 1995
Interactive Binary Illusions released Flight of the Amazon Queen for the Amiga in 1995.
In Flight of the Amazon Queen players assume the role of pilot-for-hire, Joe King, who crash-lands his aircraft in the Amazon Jungle with Hollywood actor, Faye Russel aboard.
Amiga FotAQ requires an A500 clocked 7 MHz and 870K of RAM. Amiga FotAQ was distributed on 11x 3.5" 800kB diskettes and consists of 8 megs of data.
Published by Warner Interactive Entertainment, Amiga Flight of the Amazon Queen was designed and written by Steven Stamatiadis and John Passfield, programmed by John Passfield and Tony Ball, drawn and animated by Steven Stamatiadis and audio-produced by Richard Joseph.
PC DOS Flight of the Amazon Queen was also released in 1995. It was distributed on 6x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 1x CD-ROM. The diskette version of FotAQ extracts and installs to hard disk drive via custom installer. The install size of the diskette version is 22 megs and consists of eight files whereas the CD-ROM version consists of 182 megs and seven files.
PC DOS Flight of the Amazon Queen features an animated intro with voiced dialogue, but only the CD-ROM version features fully-voiced in-game dialogue. In addition, PC DOS FotAQ dialogue selections overlay the active drawspace.
PC DOS FotAQ displays in 256-color VGA 320x200.
PC DOS FotAQ requires an i80368 33 MHz CPU, 580K of free conventional memory and 4 megs of RAM. PC DOS FotAQ audio supports Sound Blaster sound effects and AdLib, Sound Blaster and Roland LAPC-I music.
Full Throttle PC DOS 1995
LucasArts released Full Throttle for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in May of 1995.
In Full Throttle players assume the role of Ben "whatsisname", leader of the Polecats biker gang.
Full Throttle features hardware mouse cursor with "hot" highlighting, a flaming tattoo pop-up for verb commands, right-click inventory pop-up and double-click for instant area-transitioning.
Full Throttle displays in 256-color VGA 320x200.
Full Throttle features extremely high quality art direction, animations, character designs and backdrops as well as a full-screen active drawspace.
Full Throttle audio supports Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 2.0, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE32, Pro Audio Spectrum, SoundScape and Gravis UltraSound.
Full Throttle requires an i80486DX 33 MHz CPU and 8 megs of RAM. Full Throttle is a v1.92 DOS/4GW Protected Mode Run-time.
Full Throttle controls support keyboard, joystick and keyboard and mouse and keyboard.
Full Throttle was was lead-written, lead-designed and project-led by Tim Schafer, lead-programmed by Stephen R. Shaw, lead-drawn by Peter Chan, lead-animated by Larry Ahern and composed by Peter McConnell. Full Throttle features music by The Gone Jackals and voice-acting my Roy Conrad, Mark Hamill and Kath Soucie.
Full Throttle was distributed on 1x CD-ROM and installs to hard disk drive via Full Throttle Installation Menu and iMUSE Sound Card Setup and Configuration Utility.
Broken Sword PC DOS 1996
Revolution Software released Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars aka Circle of Blood for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in 1996.
In Broken Sword players assume the role of Amercian tourist George Stobbart who ends up investigating a cult after he survives the bombing of a café in Paris by an assassin disguised as a clown.
PC DOS Broken Sword requires an i80486DX2 66 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM and VESA 1.2 video card with 1 meg of vRAM. PC DOS Broken Sword displays in 256-color SVGA 640x480. PC DOS Broken Sword is a Rational Systems DOS/4GW Protected-mode run-time.
PC DOS Broken Sword features icon-based control, context-sensitive mouse cursor, extensive rotoscoped animation, some parallax scrolling and separate map screens and phone call screens.
PC DOS Broken Sword was distributed on 2x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Broken Sword installation. The install size is 210 megs and consists of 53 files.
PC DOS Broken Sword audio is configured via the Miles Design Sound Configuration Utility of 1995. Broken Sword digital audio supports Creative Labs Sound Blaster, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro, Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16, Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE, Roland RAP-10, Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum, Gravis UltraSound, New Media Corporation WaveJammer, Ensoniq SoundScape, Microsoft Windows Sound System and ESS Technology ESS688.
PC DOS Broken Sword was directed by Charles Cecil, produced by Steve Ince, lead-programmed by James Long, composed by Barrington Pheloung and written and designed by Charles Cecil, Dave Cummins and Jonathan Howard.
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