Option Squashing !!

So many Adventure releases are becoming "By Episode" or "From Steam Only" or BOTH
[None of which are my preference.]
That I'm finding my buying options are reducing more and more

Good job my "unplayed" stack remains teeteringly high

Well, you can always buy the games when the episodes are complete, although, if sales aren't good, they won't finish them. And as for Steam, it is the developers favorite. They get paid and the volume is there.

Glad you got a large stack of unplayed to get you through!

Ana

You still have unplayed hard copies?

Yes. I still have unplayed hard copies of several games
Although there are more unplayed downloads.

Some I've had for years and just never got round to playing yet. And some I've picked up more recently at bargain prices. Either "used" from Amazon or "new" from Ebay

As for brand new releases .... I do wait until all episodes of an episodic release are available but I won't buy them from Steam.
[Their Support Department failed me totally and disgustingly and as a result Steam has permanently lost my custom.]

I just wait and hope games I would like to buy are eventually offered DRM Free by GOG or Humble or the developer's own site

I still have a stack of "unplayed" games also, both hard copies and downloads. I have been replacing all of the discs with downloads if they are available though, when I can get them real cheap. I am, however, trying to play the others that are not available for download, if they work in Win 7. I just finished Everlight of Magic and Power on disc.

Unfortunately, I didn't take good enough care of my old computers to keep them running like Mad has.

How old? DOS? Windows 98? Or later?
I've started buying older games from eBay -- especially boxed games with interesting stuff in the box (other than the game itself) -- 2002 or earlier, before disc-based copy "protection" started getting so invasive. Some games have gotten too expensive, but every once in a while I can find something affordable.


I used to do something like that -- not replacing the games so much as getting a second copy from GOG that didn't require a disc in the drive.

But GOG doesn't get old adventure games so much any more, and has ignored most 1st person adventures (you have to buy the Kheops games from dotemu.com or fireflowergames.com ) GOG even ignores new 3rd person adventures like Nelly Cootalot, which has received very positive reviews.

I certainly have more unplayed boxed games than I have played. Way too old to play now on the system I have, but when GOG or someone does a version, its good to get out the old boxed version with all its feelies and other paraphenalia and "play" along.
Got to love them boxes!!

"How old? DOS? Windows 98? Or later?
I've started buying older games from eBay -- especially boxed games with interesting stuff in the box (other than the game itself) -- 2002 or earlier, before disc-based copy "protection" started getting so invasive. Some games have gotten too expensive, but every once in a while I can find something affordable."

No DOS games. I do still replay DOS games from my collection from time to time but I don't have any "never played yet" ones now.

I've two or three Win95/98 games in "proper" boxes and in great condition and with all original contents intact - which I couldn't afford to buy when released but which I've acquired since for not very much cost and which haven't been played yet.

And several WinXP games in boxes or DVD cases which I just haven't found time to play.

Plus LOTS of downloaded games (mostly from GOG or Humble) which again I just haven't had time to play as yet.

All of which is starting to make me wonder what I DO with all my time - as I retired YEARS ago !!!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Got to love them boxes!!"

I SO agree, flotsam !!!!

I have quite a few DOS games I haven't played. Many of them I started but didn't finish for one reason or another (got stuck, too-frustrating dexterity sequence, horrible maze, started another game that was more interesting, wanted to play a game series in sequence and got stuck in the first). Some of my unplayed and/or unfinished DOS games that are in boxes are...

Alien Incident
Alone in the Dark 3 (haven't played and don't own 1&2)
Amazon: Guardians of Eden
Azrael's Tear
Bush Buck: Global Treasure Hunter (not sure it's an adventure)
Chronomaster
City in Trouble Year 2000
Crime City
Curse of Enchantia
The Dame was Loaded
Dragonsphere
Gene Machine
Gold Rush
Heart of China
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Innocent Until Caught
Kingdom: The Far Reaches
Kyrandia 1, 2, and 3
Majestic
Maniac Mansion
Prisoner of Ice
Realms of the Haunting
Relentless
Shadow of the Comet
Shadoan
Silverload
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: A Final Unity
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Willy Beamish

...and then I have some collections Like "Lost Adventures of Legend" where I haven't played everything in the collection. So, quite a lot of DOS games. A few I will probably never finish (Silverload, Azrael's Tear) but most I'd like to get back to some day.

I didn't own a computer in the DOS days, so the games I started with were Windows 95/98 games that were sold in local stores. Later I bought some games online after reading about them and not finding them available in local stores -- for example, Byzantine and Obsidian. I didn't start buying DOS games until I figured out how to configure my computer for sound in DOS mode, which involved buying a DOS-compatible sound card and getting advice on setting up config.sys and autoexec.bat from the adventure newsgroup.

If you graphed my "number of unplayed games" vs year, the line would be sort of a U-shape, with unplayed DOS games and unplayed recent games on the high ends, and few unplayed games from late 1990's to early 2000's.

My first computer was one for "business" use really but after my Husband died, my Son in Law created an on screen menu on it for me which appeared when I switched the machine on - and which listed games he had installed for me to play.
And he gradually added releases he thought I'd be able to manage.
All I had to do, really, was click on the game title and then start playing.
[I knew nothing about how any of it happened and had never played a computer game before - except a golf thing that my late Husband had installed at some time - so there was some "fun" when I inadvertently messed things up - which I inevitably did !! ]

Out of your list of DOS games I can say :

These are some I've played right through - and I still own and replay several of them ....
The Dame was Loaded
Dragonsphere
Gene Machine
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Kingdom: The Far Reaches
Kyrandia 1, 2, and 3
Maniac Mansion
Shadow of the Comet
Shadoan

These are some I attempted but couldn't make it through them to the end of and no longer own ....

Alien Incident
Azrael's Tear
Chronomaster
Curse of Enchantia
Gold Rush
Majestic
Prisoner of Ice
Realms of the Haunting
Silverload
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary

And these I never bought and so never attempted ....

Alone in the Dark 3 (haven't played and don't own 1&2)
Amazon: Guardians of Eden
Bush Buck: Global Treasure Hunter (not sure it's an adventure)
City in Trouble Year 2000
Crime City
Heart of China
Relentless
Star Trek: A Final Unity
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Willy Beamish

[I've done this post in a rush so I'm hoping I haven't made any "list" errors !!]

When I first started playing adventure games around 1999-2000, I'd finish everything, even if I had to follow a walkthrough step by step. Now it's more the other way around, where finishing a game is the exception. I need to go back and finish those DOS and early Windows games that got put on hold back in the early to mid 2000's -- when there was always something "new" coming along that everyone else was playing -- and pushing the older game I'd started onto the back burner.

When I first started there were no readily available walkthroughs - not here in the UK, anyway

Sometimes my Daughter might find one in a specific magazine and when she did it was practically a Red Letter Day

So in the beginning I had to ask her for help (she was already an experienced gamer) and she was very "strict" and only doled out to me the most meagre trickles of a hint

A ploy to get me finding out for myself how to tackle things when I got stuck.
And I got stuck VERY frequently, I can tell you !!

No, it is not an adventure, but it is still a very nice and fun game!
I have it in a box too, and it does not require much time to play, maybe half an hour would be enough to try. It is rather casual edutainment title not unsimilar to 'Carmen San-Diego' series.


Now, these are very expensive boxes
I was lucky to find them on eBay several years ago when everything Lucasfilm-related was much cheaper.
Still did have time to play that EGA version of 'Indiana Jones' yet...

Like Mad, I refuse to have anything to do with Steam. I am still working and don't have much time to play at the moment. I have about 600 boxed games and about 300 odd from GOG. There is some duplication, of course. I should be right when I finally retire.


Cheers, barbarosso

I got those boxes several years ago too. I don't remember them costing that much at the time I bought them.

I started both games, but didn't finish. Indy and the Last Crusade had too many mazes and mazelike areas for me. I was hoping it would be more like Fate of Atlantis when I bought it.
I got stuck in Maniac Mansion. Maybe I didn't have the right combination of characters. It's been a long time since I tried it and I don't remember exactly what the problem was.


I hope they all work for you. Most DOS games work in DOSBox, but the early Windows games that required 3D acceleration can be tricky.

I don't try and play my DOS games anymore, or even many of those early WIN games. I used to have multiple pcs with various configurations, but moved them on when DOSbox etc came along, but my latest pc doesn't even have a cd/dvd drive.
As for things like the Scott Adams games on a variety of platforms, or the Infocom ones on DEC or other systems, they are simply part of the collection.
I will continue to accumulate ones I don't have though, tragic as it might be
Of the games mentioned above, The Dame Was Loaded is certainly one worth playing and The Gene Machine wasn't bad either. Realms of the Haunting is an action/adventure and worth the effort if you lean that way.

At the time, flotsam, Realms of the Haunting was the most scary game I had ever played
And I found it a very difficult game too, because of the "action" accents

It was certainly good in the scary department Mad!