The State of Adventure Gaming

By Randy Sluganski
August 1999

Scooby Doo Adventure Game Outsells Myst! Scooby Snacks for Everyone!

Don't laugh, we may be reading this headline by the end of this year. Adventure game publishers have never been recognized for their inspired marketing ploys, but that is about to change. Bob Chase, Media Relations Specialist for SouthPeak, informs us that SouthPeak will be inserting coupons for their Scooby-Doo and the Phantom of the Park adventure game in the packaging for Warner Brothers' all-new, feature-length Scooby Doo movie, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost. Lest you snicker, Warner Brothers plans on putting $65 million worth of advertising dollars behind their canine superstar's new video. Why such a huge push? Well, last year's Scooby video, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, was the top-selling children's video of the year. October 5 is the street date for the video--expect the SouthPeak game to follow soon thereafter. Hey Bob, now tell your programmers that if they want SouthPeak's The Wild Wild West adventure game to be a sure-fire hit also, they should put that catchy Will Smith theme song adaptation in the game!

Kudos to Mindscape and South Peak

Thumbs way up to Mindscape for having the chutzpah to purchase the distribution rights for Ring in North America. With adventure game sales as low as they are and Ring not exactly your normal everyday adventure game, Mindscape is indeed taking a big chance on adventure gamers. I hope that their confidence is rewarded with steady sales so they are encouraged to distribute upcoming Cryo titles such as Faust and Atlantis 2. Let's not forget SouthPeak, either. Their acquisition of Rent-A-Hero was indeed a splendid surprise. Now we just need some U.S. publishers willing to take a chance on Curly's Adventure, The Real Neverending Story, WM and The Longest Journey. It's nice to know that not all publishers are as gutless and greedy as Hasbro and GT.

A Shameless Plug

Adventure gamers everywhere are undoubtedly groupies of Mad Magazine and Alfred E. Neuman. Now for the cheap price of only $69.99 retail, you can purchase a seven-CD boxed collection (distributed by Broderbund/Mindscape) that contains every single word, every single page ever printed in Mad Magazine. That's right, that usual gang of idiots from Mad has quit wasting paper and is now wasting CDs. For the unbelievably low price of only $10 per CD, you can be the embarrassed owner of a complete collection of these American classics. Now if only I could figure out how to fold my monitor so I can view the fold-ins! End of shameless plug.

Good Gosh, I Hate Ebay!

Honest! I really do! Unlike UGTZ, Ebay is totally worthless. Remember the good old days when you used to be able to buy a game on the marketplace newsgroups from a fellow gamer? Well, no more. Now it seems like every time you click on a "Grim Fandango FS" posting, up pops a link to an Ebay auction. I actually attempted to use Ebay, but anyone who has will agree with me that not only is it a pain to put in your passwords for any bid you make, but then a day later you receive an email that you have been outbid. Rather than consistently repeat this time-consuming and frustrating process, I have taken the easy route and erased the marketplaces from my newsgroup listings and Ebay from my favorite web sites. If anyone out there agrees with me, then give me a big "Oh, hell yeah!" (I gotta quit watching the WWF!)

What's Up with That Plus Sign?

When we first added the plus sign to the JA logo, it was with the intention of reviewing RPGs and some simulations. Well, since that time, I have happily discovered that there are many areas of adventure gaming that we were ignoring, and as the premiere adventure webzine on the Internet, we were neglecting some of our readers. That is why we have recently added Mac reviews to the site and are in the process of including text adventure reviews. If that is not enough, JA Kids! will soon be branching out on its own! Don't ever let the doomsayers convince you that adventure games are dead: a strong European market, the emergence of adventure games on the Playstation, the new breed of action/adventure games, and the burgeoning "garage" developers are proof of a genre that refuses to die!

PC Gamer Proclaims Adventure Games Dead! Ding Dong--PC Gamer is full of ... 

Yes, that's right. The esteemed PC Gamer has, in their September 1999 issue (it's the issue with the hot picture of Roberta Williams inside), declared us extinct. Michael Wolf, PC Gamer's adventure game "expert," in his monthly Alternate Lives column, has decided that GK3 is the adventure gamer's only hope. He then asks for reader opinions on why the genre is dead. As I am a reader, I emailed the following:

Mike,

Adventure games are far from dead, but have rather been relegated to a niche status.

Take a look at the upcoming releases page on my site and then honestly tell me that adventure games are dead! With the scheduled release of The Real Neverending Story, SImon 3D, Discworld Noir, The Longest Journey, The Quivering, Faust, WM, Rent-A-Hero, etc. I maintain that the adventure game is dead only in the eyes of the American gamer who is too myopic to see beyond anything that is not a "major" release like GK3.

Just because you guys don't review it, does not mean it does not exist. Open yourself up to the plethora of adventure games being published world wide! Some of these games are the best I have ever played, but the mainstream magazines ignore them because they don't have multi-million advertising campaigns behind them.

And finally, shame on you for buying into the fallacy that adventure games are dead. Just Adventure receives over 800,000 hits a month from over 20,000 devoted readers worldwide. If we are deceased, then I must have missed the funeral.

Randy Sluganski
Owner/Editor
Just Adventure
http://www.justadventure.com

Of course, I received no response. Do me and all adventure gamers a favor, if you agree that some of these "major" magazines need to get off their asses and do a little research instead of waiting for everything to be delivered to them hand and foot, then email Mike and share your opinion with him.

Gabriel Knight, Gabriel Knight, Wherefore Art Thou Gabriel Knight?

What light shines in yonder window
It is not I playing Gabriel Knight 3
For this martyr, the fan-anointed "savior of adventuredom"
Has been bumped hither to October
Methinks something smells rotten at Sierra

Hark, I heareth a knocketh at my dooreth
It is a strangely clad warrior with a Federal Express package

Oh lookie! It's a gold master of GK3! Enough of this silliness, I'm outta here until next month.