Chris Newman wrote: > > The opinions about the answer to this question are probably subjective > but I think it's worth asking: > Was King's Quest 1 really the first quasi-3D adventure game released for > the IBM line? There
If you are defining "quasi-3D adventure game" as the stereotypical "Sierra" game -- meaning, a visible protagonist who moves around the screen, and a limited text parser -- then yes, because it was the first game from Sierra using that system. In normal oldwarez or abandonware circles, my next comment would anger a lot of people, but in this crowd I think I'm amongst peers when I say: Sierra's adventure system simply didn't make any sense whatsoever. In a normal piece of interactive fiction, you type things like "use key to unlock door. open door, then enter." and a lot of niggly stuff was taken care of, like walking over to the door, using the key, opening the door, and walking through it. But in Sierra's "Quest" games, you have to physically maneuver an on-screen avatar over to the door, type "use key to unlock door" anyway, and then maneuver him through the door. I mean, why so complicated? What is the point of making the game much harder to play? Was it an attempt at compensating for the incredibly weak text parser? If you were nowhere near the door on the same screen but typed "use key to unlock door", the game would actually respond "You're not close enough." Excuse me? Why are my actions limited by distance? Hello? My theory is that these types of games survived because they were a novelty. Something pretty was onscreen, and sprites moved behind other sprites giving the illusion of depth, and on certain platforms you had decent music. But overall *any* piece of interactive fiction with graphics is better -- you get to see the graphics, but you don't have to do stupid crap just to "immerse" you in the game. A decent story and flexible parser with multiple outcomes is what immerses you in a story, not moving a little blocky sprite around the screen. Honestly, what is the appeal of Sierra's "Quest" games? Anyone who likes them, please shed some light on the subject. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
