I've been going through walkthroughs of horror adventures, trying to remember what's in the safes.

You know what? People keeping boring stuff in the safe in a horror adventure.

I'm perhaps approaching this from the wrong angle?

EDIT: Might as well start off with...Safecracker?

No not Safecracker.

And this is one of the worst mazes I've ever had the misfortune to experience. You could call it a "moon maze."

I think there was a maze in Dark Side of the Moon, but I don't remember a safe.
Dogday sticks in my mind as the worstest maze.

Not Dark Side of the Moon, but it is sci-fi and published around the same time.

No dogs that I remember.

Pandora Directive? Had some sci fi-ish elements

Mission Critical?

Journeyman Project 3 came out the same year as Dark Side of the Moon and it had a safe to open AND a difficult maze - but as I just used it as my last "game title to guess" I doubt it's that !!

None of those. It actually came out the year before Dark Side of the Moon according to the Pagoda Game Database.

This game had built-in hints for puzzles -- not inventory puzzles though. The inventory was huge.

It also had evil aliens with pointy heads and knees that bent the wrong way.

That was a good year for science fiction adventures, at least in terms of choosing among odd titles. I'll assume you aren't thinking of Putt Putt Travels through Time. But that still leaves intriguing possibiities.

Between X-Fools and Rob Blanc 2: Planet of the Pasteurized Pestilence? (And this is passing up Blinky just because he's got ghosts to deal with.)

So many choices, none of which I've actually played (except for a bit of Putt Putt)!

I'll go with X-Fools.

How about Space Bar?

None of those. I'm surprised this game is so hard to guess.

The evil aliens had previously tried to "terraform" earth so it would be habitable by their species, but failed. Now they're back and you must stop them. But you start the game locked in a jail cell.

There was a movie by the same name, but I haven't seen it.

Sure sounds like Rama! One of those "easy" games. NOT! I gazed longingly at it for weeks on the store shelf, but every time I looked at reviews I got intimidated and never did buy it.

Pagoda shows it two years before Dark Side of the Moon, I think.

Not RAMA.

Gameboomers doesn't have an "official" review for this game, but there is a Boomer review.

CD swapping was a pain -- you swap back and forth between 3 CD's.

You are in alien form for most of the game, though since it is a first person game you don't see yourself except in cut scenes.

The Arrival!

I just read the Arrival review in the Boomer Reviews forum. I think flotsam's got it!

Of course, I've been wrong many times before.

So what WAS in the safe? Or do I want to know?