The Secret of Monkey Island (1990, VGA version)

I apologise for the GIFs, I may have gone slightly overboard with them.

The Secret of Monkey Island is the first in an adventure game series beloved by almost all adventure game fans. I am no exception, and even though I have played through the game many times I was still more than happy to play it again.

Indie Gaming: Broken Age: Part 1 (A review of sorts)

So, I finished Broken Age. Well, I finished the first part anyway. It all ends on a rather huge cliffhanger, but we'll get to that in a moment. SPOILERS AHEAD! (actually the cliffhanger thing is a spoiler I guess, so SPOILERS BEHIND! also, but this being part 1 of 2 the fact there's a cliffhanger shouldn't be surprising).

Continue!

The game is split between two storylines, but of course anyone could realise that they must surely meet at some point. After briefly spending time with both characters (as you can read in my previous post on this subject), I decided to focus on one at a time. I stuck with Shay first, since I'd spent the least amount of time with him so far.

Playing Along: Loom (1990) - Finished!

Well that was quick. As soon as I decided to spend an hour or two with Loom, it was all over. They really did make them short and sweet back in those days, but in this particular case they left it with a huge cliffhanger ending. Anyway, to recap...

Head to the forest, or the city. There is nothing to the left, nor is there anything to interact with on this screen.

I had been stuck at a waterspout, which I couldn't get past. I needed to think a little bit more about how the game works, because all it took was clicking the waterspout to get its pattern and then reversing it. Simple really, but enough to confuse me early on when I was still getting to grips with the interface.

The forest! Nothing to do here but annoy shepherds.

Playing along: Loom (1990) - Introduction

Loom is one of the well-loved series of adventure games from Lucasfilm Games/Lucasarts, and one that I had previously disregarded. My early adventure gaming had been dominated by Sierra, and their popularity obscured everything else. It wasn't until The Secret of Monkey Island (or perhaps LeChuck's Revenge, I can't even remember which one I played first!), before I would finally properly play and enjoy a Lucasarts adventure game.

Ask me about LoomTM

The Last Crusade: All This For A Magic Cup?

So here we stood, near the entrance of the Temple of the Grail, in the Valley of the Crescent Moon. As I was about to admire a nearby sign, up popped Marcus. Where he had been, he wouldn't say, but I'm sure he would serve some sort of purpose. The sign made a grave warning: Though I might treat this as a game, beyond this point I would not be saved! (Or indeed be able to save, although that is more annoyance than hindrance).

On second thoughts, let's not go for the Grail

The temple itself was impressive, and we made our way inside, only to see a the mildly disturbing sight of a decapitated head rolling past. Advancing further, we saw the treacherous Donovan and his aide, Dr. Schneider. Working with the Nazis in order to get his hands on the Grail, he then shot Henry in order to force me to help him. Of course I was going to go in there anyway, but I guess I had no choice now.

The Last Crusade: Up In The Air and On The Road

Leaving the castle by motorcycle was the easy part - now I needed to get to Iskenderun. The first port of call was the nearest airport, to get as far away from Germany as possible. Arriving at the airport, I realised I needed to buy tickets, but was short on cash. There seemed like nothing I could do, but I did notice another person waiting. The guy wouldn't give me any information, except a list of his grandchildren. It was then (too late) I noticed some papers in his jacket pocket.

I admit it, I stole this gentleman's tickets

The Last Crusade: Junior and Senior

So while Marcus Brody goes to sunnier climes, Elsa and I make our way to meet my father. He's being kept in Brunwald Castle, on the Austrian-German border. The Nazi flag next to Berlin lets us know exactly what danger we are getting ourselves into, and upon reaching the castle it certainly looks quite foreboding.

A little too close to Nazi Germany for my liking

Elsa stays in the car, and I optimistically say I'll be a few minutes. On my first attempt through, I decided to let my fists do the talking. I took out the butler who greeted me, and then proceeded to punch my way through the castle. Four fights in, I failed. Knocked unconscious, it was all over, but thankfully I had saved... back in the catacombs. I had made the fatal error of assuming a Lucasarts game wouldn't allow me to lose!

The Last Crusade: Catacombs and Crypts

In my previous posting, I mentioned arriving in some hidden catacombs. These creepy passages are beneath the city of Venice, and although they should probably be flooded, they form an annoyingly long maze instead. The top-down maze is periodically interrupted by rooms with puzzles or items in them, often with rather oblique solutions (after all, this is an adventure game, and they do have their own logic).

The room with the torch

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1990)

To break up all the X-COM posts, and to give me a little rest from killing aliens, I've decided to play along with The Adventure Gamer at the next game on his list: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The game was made originally in 1989 in EGA (16 colours), but I'll be playing the more eye-pleasing VGA version (256 colours).

The game itself follows the film pretty closely, but adds in a lot of extra puzzles and alternative solutions to problems that Indy finds himself in. There's even a little action, with a little fighting mini-game. The game opens after the credits at Barnett College, where Indy occasionally teaches archaeology, when he's not having adventures. After a brief chat with old pal Marcus Brody, you get changed into your suit in the gym.