Every Last Point-&-Click Adventure Game Ever Made, in Excrutiatingly Chronological Order
A definitive and growing list of all third-person, fixed-perspective, puzzle-based adventure games. They're listed in release-date order as much as humanly possible, though the exact release dates of many '80s and '90s games have been lost to history, and Backloggd's dates are in many cases wrong. I even include some titles I don't quite consider proper adventure games but which are popularly thought of as such, like the Quest for Glory games which have combat elements, or the Wadjet Eye games most of which are dialogue/cut-scene fests with little actual puzzle-solving. The soul of the point-&-click is the painterly composition, so I don't include games where the camera follows you around 3D-wise like an action platformer (ever so sorry, Telltale). If you know of a game you think qualifies, chime in in the comments. Following is a brief list of the more notable adventure games I know of that don't currently have entries on Backloggd.
Earthrise: A Guild Investigation (1990) by Interstel
Armaeth (1991) (Short)
Gobliins 2 (1992)
Avvy: Denarius Avaricius Sextus (July 1992) by Thorsoft
An American Tale: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends (1993) (Short)
Lone Eagle: Colombian Encounter (1994) by W.D. Bledsoe DVM
Tom Long: The Time Adventure (1994) by Promotion Software
Donkey Island (May 1994) by Pterodon Software
7 Days and 7 Nights (1994) by Pterodon Software
Lord Avalot d'Argent (1994) by Thorsoft
Time Paradox (1996) by Flair Software
Léto s Oskarem (Summer with Oskar) (1998)
Horké léto (Hot Summer) (1998) by Maxon
Hariboy's Quest (1998)
Horké léto 2: Majer se vrací (1999) by Centauri Productions
Rocky Horror Interactive Show (1999)
Cirque de Zale (2004) by Rebecca Clements
Stargate Adventure (Oct. 2005) by Sektor 13
Meteorhead (Feb. 2008)
The Vacuum (Aug. 2008) by David Proctor (Freeware)
The Tales of Bingwood: Chapter 1 - To Save a Princess (Nov. 2008) (Short)
The Legend of Crystal Valley (March 2009)
Patchwork (Jan. 2013) by Ilyich (Short)
The Bum (April 2013) by Gribbler and Parafia (Freeware)
Broken Windows (2020) by G.O.C. Games
Lucas Mendoza: Amateur Detective (Sep. 2021)
Space Quest: A Son of Xenon (Sep. 2022) by Two Guys Far from Sirius
—
Endless additional hordes of itty-bitty, ultra-independent games can be found at places like adventuregamestudio.co.uk and YouTube channels like Future Vintage Gaming and AGS Showcase. Knock yourself out.
Earthrise: A Guild Investigation (1990) by Interstel
Armaeth (1991) (Short)
Gobliins 2 (1992)
Avvy: Denarius Avaricius Sextus (July 1992) by Thorsoft
An American Tale: The Computer Adventures of Fievel and His Friends (1993) (Short)
Lone Eagle: Colombian Encounter (1994) by W.D. Bledsoe DVM
Tom Long: The Time Adventure (1994) by Promotion Software
Donkey Island (May 1994) by Pterodon Software
7 Days and 7 Nights (1994) by Pterodon Software
Lord Avalot d'Argent (1994) by Thorsoft
Time Paradox (1996) by Flair Software
Léto s Oskarem (Summer with Oskar) (1998)
Horké léto (Hot Summer) (1998) by Maxon
Hariboy's Quest (1998)
Horké léto 2: Majer se vrací (1999) by Centauri Productions
Rocky Horror Interactive Show (1999)
Cirque de Zale (2004) by Rebecca Clements
Stargate Adventure (Oct. 2005) by Sektor 13
Meteorhead (Feb. 2008)
The Vacuum (Aug. 2008) by David Proctor (Freeware)
The Tales of Bingwood: Chapter 1 - To Save a Princess (Nov. 2008) (Short)
The Legend of Crystal Valley (March 2009)
Patchwork (Jan. 2013) by Ilyich (Short)
The Bum (April 2013) by Gribbler and Parafia (Freeware)
Broken Windows (2020) by G.O.C. Games
Lucas Mendoza: Amateur Detective (Sep. 2021)
Space Quest: A Son of Xenon (Sep. 2022) by Two Guys Far from Sirius
—
Endless additional hordes of itty-bitty, ultra-independent games can be found at places like adventuregamestudio.co.uk and YouTube channels like Future Vintage Gaming and AGS Showcase. Knock yourself out.
507 Games
The 4th-greatest adventure game ever made, sez I. Cleverest writing in the whole world. Even so, DAMN those puzzles can be clunky. In this case the Remastered version's actually better than the original: The characters are in better resolution, the game's way less buggy, and the scenery's unaltered.
Dear god why Ron why.
The 5th-greatest adventure game ever made, sez I. If possible, avoid the tolerable but inferior 'Definitive Version', which sucks out a good deal of the original game's charm.
The 6th-greatest adventure game ever made, sez I. Beware the hideous 'Special Edition' version.
Tim, man, what are you doing.
One of the top ten adventure games ever made, sez I. Just incomprehensible that this one's so little-known.
The greatest of all adventure games, indeed of all video games of any kind. Beware the ghastly 'Special Edition' version.
The 3rd-greatest adventure game ever made, sez I. In its offense though, the Three Sheets to the Wind chapter is INCREDIBLY ill-conceived and tedious and the insult jokes are unendurable.
Falls a good ways short of the first three, but a lotta nice environment renders and a TERRIFIC soundtrack. Went way overboard with the anachronisms and goofiness — just give us a pirate story in a pirate world, guys. As with Grim Fandango, lotta fidgetiness with the controls and puzzles; 3D models just aren't a great fit for this medium. LucasArts exits the stage.
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I. Bit on the technical side. Best with the voice option turned off.
Known everywhere but on this website as Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Pretty good Curse-of-Monkey-Island-style backgrounds. Often a bit like walking through hardening cement. Coulda used a bit more personality.
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I. Beware the uglified 'Remastered' version.
Pretty short. Wadjet Eye enters the fray, a developer light on puzzles and inventory and very heavy on dialogue.
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I.
Short. Amanita Design tiptoes into the fray.
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I. No one does 'puzzle' puzzles better than Amanita.
Very dialogue-heavy. Basically a visual novel. Very well-made and spooky
Features what could be the most beautiful prologue imagery in any adventure game.
One of the top ten adventure games ever made, sez I, although it could've used a bit less plot and a little more game (I know there was a peyote-trip sequence that was nixed). The first to use the 'grab'-type verb interface that should've been instantly made the universal standard for all eternity. Beware the uglified 'Remastered' version.
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I.
Apparently quite good by all accounts.
LucasArts' first adventure game and the first in the world to use an actual point-&-click interface.
The 2nd-greatest adventure game ever made, sez I (along with part 2 of course).
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I.
Unusual for Sierra, this one actually has some backgrounds worth looking at.
One of the top twenty adventure games ever made, sez I.
Heavily dialogue-based.
Mostly dialogue.
Westwood Studios enters the fray.
One of the top ten adventure games ever made, sez I.
'Nother rather brilliant adventure game mystery by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw.
The world's first adventure game to be voice-acted — in its Amiga CD32 version in October '92.
The half-wrecked city this opens in has some of the best-looking backgrounds I've ever seen.
Some real purty 3D business goin' on here actually.
Features the first adventure game score that's actually nice to listen to. The game's also a huge rarity in that it involved extensive historical research.
Haven't played yet but looks great.
Some combat elements.
5 Comments
Due to my ignorance about how to reply on this site, I answered @Tendog's question over on one of his lists. Anyone interested can see our conversation here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/tendog/list/flash-point-and-click-escape-games/
Maniac Mansion
LucasArts' first adventure game, the first in the world to use an actual point-&-click interface, and the first in the world not to kill you if you screw up.
Absolutely not, this game is quite happy to kill you off and screw you over via a multitude of ways. Its actually 'The Secret of Monkey Island' which fits the non-kill bit.
LucasArts' first adventure game, the first in the world to use an actual point-&-click interface, and the first in the world not to kill you if you screw up.
Absolutely not, this game is quite happy to kill you off and screw you over via a multitude of ways. Its actually 'The Secret of Monkey Island' which fits the non-kill bit.
@Jamesbuc Boy is my face red. I admit I haven't actually played that one. Now I'm confused; I remember Gilbert talking about how cruel he thought Sierra games were for killing players all the time, and how he wanted to find a different way to design games like this. Are there just considerably fewer possible death traps? And none of the LucasArts games between that and Monkey 1 avoid deaths? (Monkey 1 does technically have that one drowning death.) I've played most of Loom and I didn't think that had any.
Loom I couldnt remember if it did or not but...
- Maniac Mansion - You can outright blow up the house in several ways, die by radioactive microwave water, die from several characters killing you for one reason or another like the hamster incident and theres at least two ways to completely ruin the game if you pick the wrong kids as theres at least one combination that locks off almost every single way to beat the game.
- Zak McKracken - There's a heap of ways to permanently miss items, lose items and generally make the game unwinnable. Most are fair and basically come as a result of doing things stupidly or in the wrong order but theres the odd weird one. Also some deaths here and there not including the copy protection failure.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Several ways to die here, mostly involving letting Nazi's beat Indy up or by falling for certain traps. Also you can punch Hitler and get an instant game over.
Technically there is 'one' way to die in Monkey Island... though its more of a easter egg since it involves standing around underwater for just under ten minutes. Which is a silly thing to do.
- Maniac Mansion - You can outright blow up the house in several ways, die by radioactive microwave water, die from several characters killing you for one reason or another like the hamster incident and theres at least two ways to completely ruin the game if you pick the wrong kids as theres at least one combination that locks off almost every single way to beat the game.
- Zak McKracken - There's a heap of ways to permanently miss items, lose items and generally make the game unwinnable. Most are fair and basically come as a result of doing things stupidly or in the wrong order but theres the odd weird one. Also some deaths here and there not including the copy protection failure.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Several ways to die here, mostly involving letting Nazi's beat Indy up or by falling for certain traps. Also you can punch Hitler and get an instant game over.
Technically there is 'one' way to die in Monkey Island... though its more of a easter egg since it involves standing around underwater for just under ten minutes. Which is a silly thing to do.
tendog
9 months ago