Articles

Call to Casting – Replacement Found for Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men Remake

Far be it from me to question the opinions of Tim Schafer, whose last game in 1998 was the now classic Grim Fandango (which, supposedly, never lived up to Lucas Arts sales expectations), so I’ll leave that choice in your hands.

The adventure genre has surely seen better days and will never again enjoy the dominance that it did in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, but some of the core elements of adventure games such as strong plots, puzzles and character development have influenced many other genres and this is part of the reason why the adventure genre will never die. Never.

But for some reason there are certain developers in the gaming industry – and, with all due respect for their past accomplishments, it always seems to be the ones who have not had a successful game in years - who love to sound the death knell.

The April 2005 issue of Computer Games Magazine, besides featuring a positive review of Return to Mysterious Island and an article on Myst V, also has a preview of Tim Schafer’s first new game in seven years, Psychonauts, to be published by Majesco after being dropped by Microsoft.

For some strange reason, the author of the preview in a short interview, asks the following incongruent question – and really, who better to ask then someone who hasn’t made an adventure game in seven years –

CGM - What do you think killed adventure games?

Tim’s response (and as you will read, he takes it at face value that adventure games are dead):

“Well, really, I would say graphics killed adventure games. The second we switched from text to graphic adventures, their days were numbered. When you’re playing a text adventure game, the most amazing worlds and actions are possible, because the budget is always the same. Doesn’t matter what the worlds are. But as soon as you have graphics, then they have to get better and better until it’s just not economically possible to do it anymore.

I can remember the moment I heard about adventure games. Someone told me that there was this type of game that was all text, and you could type in anything you wanted, and do anything you wanted and the game would respond. I thought that was the coolest idea ever, so I got all the Scott Adams game and played them all. Even though you couldn’t do anything, you could actually type in a lot of crazy stuff.

But then when graphics got involved – oh, here I go again – you suddenly couldn’t do anything, you could only do a few things. And so adventures started to get more and more beautiful, but more and more limiting. The interesting thing to me is, even in Grand Theft Auto III, you can really only do a handful of things, what is it people say they love about those games? The freedom! “You can do anything!” they say.”

CGM - They’re recaptured the magic of text adventures?

Tim’s response:

“Yes. I mean, it was a lie with text adventures, too. You couldn’t do anything. It was an illusion.”

Graphics killed adventure games?! Adventure games are dead!? Well, for once, I’m at a loss for words, and the few that do come to mind would probably get me in hot water so I’ll just shut up.

But, if you would like to respond to Tim’s comments, his email address at Doublefine – as provided in the CGM article – is info@doublefine.com. Maybe the developers of the upcoming Dreamfall, Myst V, Still Life, Lost Paradise, Keepsake, Martin Mystere, Around the World in 80 Days, Nancy Drew & The Secret of the Old Clock, Runaway 2, Tony Tough in a Rake’s Progress, Agon, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Vampyre Story, Delaware St. John and others would like to write Tim and commiserate over the death of the genre.

(Neither Doublefine nor Highwater Group, Majesco’s p.r. firm for Psychonauts, have yet to respond to multiple requests to speak to Tim Schafer regarding his remarks in Computer Games Magazine)

Retro Reviews

Adventure games weren’t invented with the inception of Myst you know. In fact, there are literally hundreds of adventure games that existed pre-Myst. These games were usually on floppy disks (though some were on cassettes), had very few sound effects, no voices, cut scenes or full-motion-video. Yet, many of them are still to this day a lot of gamers most beloved adventure experiences.

Just Adventure has been negligent in reviewing many of these games, but that is about to change as our new Retro Gaming Section will not only spotlight reviews and historical perspectives of games like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Psycho and Uninvited but will also feature helpful articles like Boing – How to Play Old Amiga Games on Your PC. Which brings us to . . .

Maybe Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl from Scranton Will There

Now I realize that a lot of you would love to be able to play some of these games in their original form, but can’t as they are out of print or you refuse to download the stripped – and usually illegal - versions available on various abandonware sites and that is where we have a huge surprise in store, for we have found someone in Scranton, PA with a treasure trove of almost 250,000 classic (and some not-so-classic) pc games from the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s stored in a warehouse. All in their original packaging, all unopened, all for sale. I kid you not! I’ll be visiting this warehouse on April 2nd and we will have an article, pictures and purchasing information that will have every adventure collector drooling. In the meantime, you can get a head start by visiting Eli’s Software Encyclopedia. If you don’t see what you want, write to Eli (elit@adelphia.net) as there are literally hundreds of titles not yet listed on his website and don’t forget to mention Just Adventure.

The Dungeon of Shame

You know, we receive a ton of email asking us to revive The Dungeon of Shame.

Well, some.

Okay, I received one email…

And I sent it to myself from a yahoo account.

But that email demanded we host a special Dungeon of Shame week posting new reviews along with the old favorites. So that’s what we plan on doing. Btw, did I tell you that there are over 100 sealed, boxed copies apiece of Dungeon of Shame favorites Silverload and The Scroll stored in that warehouse in Scranton?

It Ain’t News Until We Post the Press Release

Imagine if the front page of your local newspaper was nothing but press releases from corporations or government offices. Has anybody else noticed – and I’m not just referring to other adventure sites – how many gaming websites post press releases as ‘News’ items on their front page? Maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought that press releases were mostly positive announcements written by public relations people to announce their company’s new product, etc. That’s why we post them in our Press Release Area and that’s why we post news articles - i.e. stories we have broken or happenings at other adventure sites - in our scrolling News Ticker on the front page of JA.

Yet lately, more and more gaming web sites seem content to have large portions of their front page taken over by press releases masquerading as news. Of course, publishers and public relations firms aren’t adverse to this and in fact encourage it and we’ve occasionally received inquiries as to why we haven’t posted such-and-such press release in a more prominent spot on our front page. Not that I’m insinuating that some companies seem to ‘misplace’ a lot of email requests for information if you don’t drool over their every press release. Why heck, that would be like, unethical, if publishers were engaging in such practices.

It’s a Mystère to Me

We don’t often recommend that our U.S. readers purchase an adventure game from Europe, but this is an exception. To date, GMX Media in the U.K. is the only place we know of selling the English version of the soon-to-be released Martin Mystère. The adventures of Martin are based on a popular Italian comic strip and have also crossed-over internationally as a popular animated series. But as the series has never caught on in the U.S., it may be some time before a publisher is announced. So if you’re a fan of detective games in the style of Gabriel Knight, then you may want to join Martin and help him solve his first pc mystery.

Since They’re Not Allowed Near Sharp Objects, Their Updates Are Submitted in Crayon

You may have noticed that we now have two exclusive Developer Diaries on our front page – Scratches and Tony Tough in a Rake’s Progress and we have more on the way!

Developer Diaries are a great way for fans to get a peek behind the scenes and into the minds - that really is a scary thought when you are talking about Agustin (Scratches developer) and Stefano (Tony Tough developer) – of the people behind the creative process.

So You Think You Know Adventure Games

While working on a new adventure quiz, I stumbled across Funtrivia, a great site for trivia lovers. There are a few trivia quizzes on the site devoted specifically to adventure games. To save you some searching – and because I’m such a nice guy – we’ve provided links below to the specific quizzes:

Beyond Atlantis

Broken Sword 3

Clock Tower

CSI

King’s Quest VI

King’s Quest VII

Leisure Suit Larry

Lucas Arts Adventures

Monkey Island – 16 Different Quizzes!

Myst - 3 Different Quizzes

Nancy Drew – 3 Different Quizzes!

Shenmue

New People, New Faces – Same Old Smells

Just Adventure would like to welcome two new members to our excellent staff.

First up is Shannon Hall who most recently wrote previews of Still Life and Last Half of Darkness. In her full-time profession, Shannon writes, edits and proofs copy so you know I just love it when I receive one of her articles!

Kirk Latimer – or as I call him, Mr. Latimer - is a published writer and middle school teacher who has been nominated for a few teaching awards. Kirk’s first project for JA will be a review of the rare Gameboy adventure Fish Files and he is currently working on some special projects.