And so it begins
For those in the know, you can skip to the rules – there is a new and very important one this year. For everyone else, here is a reminder of what this thread is about.
Imagine someone asked you "I want to play adventure games, can you recommend 20 games to play". The purpose of this thread is to provide the answer.
It isn't meant to be a list of the 20 best games of all time. It isn't meant to be Adventure Game 101. It might end up being both those things, but first and foremost it is a list of games that you would recommend to someone else to play.
For that reason, you might not include something that is notoriously difficult to get to run, or which has clunky graphics by today's standard, or has no sound apart from a tinny midi soundtrack. You might not recommend a game that you found awesomely wonderful on the basis that no one else has your particularly strange sense of appreciation (see eg Isabelle, the most awesomest game ever

). You might not recommend every Myst clone you have ever played because even though they are your passion, a whole list of them might be just a little dull.
Or you might - many players have old game rigs and there are numerous programmes that help get old games to run on new machines, who said you need flashy graphics to tell a good story, and perhaps elaborate soundtracks simply cover up the flaws in a bad script. There might be someone out there just like you who doesn't know about your awesome game (see eg Isabelle), and perhaps too many Myst games is actually never enough.
The point is its up to you - if you think a game you have played is worth recommending to someone else to play, you can put it on your list.
So long of course as its an adventure game. And we all know what they are. Bioshock isn't one, however beautifully scripted you think it might be, but Myst is (so is Isabelle). Somewhere in between is a grey area which doesn't matter between friends, which we all are.
There are some rules though:
1. Games in our Hall of Fame are ineligible and votes for them will not be counted. Those games are:
Amerzone
Black Mirror
Dark Fall: The Journal
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
Grim Fandango
Longest Journey
Myst
Riven
Sanitarium
Syberia
Syberia 2
Timelapse
Zork Nemesis
Zork Grand Inqusitor
(to explain, we recently
“retired” a number of games to our Hall of Fame. This was on the basis that they always did well, and we no longer needed to list them to know they were worth playing. It was either that, or continue to expand the number of choices to allow for the ever growing pool of adventure games.
This means you can spread your choices more widely, and we will list the Hall of Fame games alongside this years results when finished).
2. You can recommend a maximum of 20 games. You can choose to recommend less.
3. You cannot recommend a series. If you want to recommend all the Tex Murphy games, that will take 5 seperate recommendations, one for each game.
4. The following episodic adventures will be counted as one game - Sam & Max Season 1, Sam & Max Season 2, Wallace & Grommit, Strong Bad, Casebook, AGON, Tales of Monkey Island, Enter the Story.
5. Uru and its add ons will be counted as one game.
6. BadMojo and the Redux version are one game.
7. Directors cuts and Special Releases (eg Tales of Monkey Island) will be counted as the same game.
8. Adventure games only please (Dark Side games and Casual games get their own lists).
If at all possible, please list in alphabetical order - it makes counting so much easier. In doing so, ignore "the" (so The Lost Crown would be under "L" for Lost)
The thread stays open for about 3 weeks, and I will post updates as we go. Also, avoid editiing your lists after posting because Chief and I count as we go, and may miss a change.
So, batter up!