Another World

One of the most innovative games in any genre, Out of This World (a.k.a. Another World in Europe) is Eric Chahi?s breakthrough game that masterfully combined action, adventure, and artistic cinematography in ways the PC gaming world had never seen. You will sense that Out of This World is something special right from the start, even before the game proper begins. The introductory sequence reveals that you are Lester, a young physics professor who suddenly finds himself in a strange alien world after a lightning bolt struck the gigantic particle accelerator he was experimenting with.

The game's style and technology are worth mentioning, before I get to the gameplay. Instead of bitmapped or digitized graphics that was all the rage in the early 1990s, designer Eric Chahi instead opted for primitive-looking polygonal graphics to represent the characters... and what an excellent move it was. Polygonal graphics allow for very smooth, realistic character animations that would be impossible to do with digitized graphics (and remember: this was before the age of 3D accelerators). Even die-hard fans of Prince of Persia will admit that Lester moves much more smoothly and realistically than their favorite Arabian prince. An absolute must-have, and a much superior game to spiritual sequels Flashback and Fade to Black.

Captain Blood

Captain Blood was a unique computer game created by Philippe Ulrich and Didier Bouchon in 1988. While it boils down to an adventure game, the
premise involves an intricate story with hidden agendas, communicating with alien races, killing people, and trading information to locate what
you need for survival. Many elements of the programming were also ahead of their time, such as fractal-generated landscapes, fractal-generated
planets, an unpredictable galaxy with over 30,000 planets to visit, and an icon-based language system. The original version was released for the Atari ST, but Captain Blood's popularity in Europe was so high that it was ported to every computing platform of its time (in addition to receiving several awards).

Colonel's Bequest

This is Roberta Williams's first murder mystery (her first thriller if you will) and I have to admit, it is good. A creepy old mansion, a dying millionaire and lots of relatives. You play Laura Bow, a young university student. Laura's friend - Lillian - invites her to her uncle's mansion for the weekend. It seems that her uncle, an old millionaire named Colonel Henri Dijon, is dying. He invited his relatives to his house to announce that each and every one of them is getting a fair share of his fortune. His money is to be divided equally among his family, his trustees and his servants. Not everybody in the family is happy with this decision. Everybody's got their opinions about the others and there's much friction under the surface. And then horrible accidents happen!. Slowly but surely people start disappearing and it's always Laura that finds the bodies. Nobody believes her, so she has to investigate on her own before somebody kills everyone in the mansion.

Hugo's House of Horrors

Shareware game, contemporary to te original Sierra games. You play the role of Hugo who sets foot in a Haunted House to rescue his fiance Penelope. A typing game, eg. Open door, get key etc, but features good graphics and animations. There are plenty of puzzles to solve and monsters to deal with. It is not as easy as it sounds, and you will require some general knowledge...have you read Tolkien's works lately?

The King's Quest Adventure Games

The beginning in what was to become one of the greatest adventure games in the computer industry. Kings Quest 1 : Quest For The Crown was first released in 1984 and commissioned by IBM as a showpiece for their creation, and was the first game to support EGA colour cards. Story line: The King of Daventry is nearing the end of his life. Tragically, he has no heir to carry on the royal line, and he worries that his kingdom will be left without a leader. Daventry is already a shadow of its former glory, as the three treasures of the realm have been lost to the ages. And so the king summons his bravest knight, Sir Graham, and sets him on the quest - return all three of the lost treasures, and the throne will be his. Not an easy task, but the recovery of the Mirror, the Chest of Gold, and the Shield will take Sir Graham through mythical perils and magical dangers, and forge a new kingdom from the ruins of the old! All through 7+ sequels!

Leisure Suite Larry 1

In this beginning of one of Sierra's most popular saga, don a leisure suit and become Larry, the most unfortunate lover-wannabe in the world. Puzzles, although all of them revolve around getting to "score" with women, are ingenious. Some side-splitting humor abounds in this game as well-- try calling Sierra hint line on the phone :)

LucasArts Adventure Games

LusaArts took a radical twist from the then established Sierra games, with Monkey Island 1, where the player, a young pirate wannabe, called Giybrush Threepwood, could no longer die (or made it harder for him to do so). Grim Fandango, Indiana Jones, Day of the Tentacle (Maniac Mansion sequel), Full Throttle, The Dig, Loom and more classics contributed to the success of the adventure game feve, pre-dating the advent of RTSs and 3D FPS games.

Man Hunter 1 & 2

Manhunter 1 and 2 are two Sierra cult classics with a no-typing interface. As a manhunter working for orb-shaped aliens, find and join the underground movement to free the earth from slavery. Sleuthing skills (e.g. tracking down suspects and deducing their names) are integrated with lots of action sequences. Manhunter 2 has less frustrating arcade sequences (and fewer mazes). Solid underdogs, but not for the faint of heart or anyone who is reflexes-impaired.

Police Quest 1 & 2

Another classic Sierra adventure series, which challenged the detective insitinct of many gamers.

Quest for Glory 1 - So you want to be a hero? (Remake)

Quest for Glory, a computer role-playing game series designed by Corey and Lori Cole, which combined good humor, good puzzles , and really bad puns with memorable characters, became one of the most enjoyable series in the Sierra stable.

The enjoyment is enhanced by the player's ability to choose his character's carreer path from among the three traditional RPG backgrounds, fighter, spellcaster adn thief.

Further variation was added by the ability to customize the Hero's abilities, including the option of selecting skills normally reserved for another job class. Each career path had its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as its own unique quests and scenarios. Each class also had its own unique way to solve various in-game puzzles, which encouraged replay. For instance, only the Thief would see what the inside of the Thieves' Guild looks like, and generally only a Magic User could play Mages' Maze against the wizard Erasmus.

Over the past years ther have been released many VGA remakes of similar games, both by Sierra and fans of the genre.

Space Quest Adventure Games

Well, very basically, Space Quest is the brainchild of two guys from the
galaxy Andromeda, whose names are frequently mistaken for Scott Murphy and
Mark Crowe (see SQ FAQ). Space Quest is about a space janitor, named Roger Wilco, who first appeared in Space Quest 1: The Sarien Encounter, back in october
1986 (release dates, see 2.4). The game sported "beautiful" low-res graphics,
using the then newly-introduced EGA-card and parser interface. By todays standards, the game looks sort of primitive, but back then in 1986 the game reviewers gave Space Quest top reviews. So far, six Space Quest games have been released, and "The Sarien Encounter" was re-released in 1991 with new VGA-graphics and sound card support. Various remakes are also available.