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 computer game machines.

Graphics adventure games are computer games that incorporate computer graphics, not just text. Graphics-based is not an accurate term since an adventure game may employ graphics but still not be graphics-based. In addition, graphic (no "s") is not an accurate term.

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.

The following chronological list does not purport to be complete: it has been posted for self-reference purposes that I may track my progress.

I have omitted isometric adventure games such as those from the likes of Ultimate Play the Game. The reason is that isometric adventure games focus more on arcade-action and timing; they have little in the way of dialogue; that is, they constitute their own 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, 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.

Most point and click adventure games feature inventories. Items listed or pictured in inventories can be applied to objects or actors on the playfield. In some cases items can also be combined to produce a different item.

Point and click adventure games can employ contiguous flip-screen exploration, screen-scrolling or a combination thereof.

The most famous developers of graphics adventure games are Sierra On-Line, LucasFilm / LucasArts and Delphine Software International. Of these, the LucasFilm / LucasArts 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 output as Sierra scribble-slop spam.

Almost all historically significant graphics adventure games displayed in 16-color EGA 320x200 or 256-color VGA 320x200.

As declared and explained in Best cRPGs, the point and click adventure game was rendered redundant with the advent of Interplay's Fallout of 1997.

Mystery House 1980 Apple 2 On-Line Systems

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.