need Mac adventure recommendations for my mom

My mom is 54, and will be retiring in June after 20+ years of teaching. She's always played games like Tetris and Columns and Shanghai but never an adventure game. (My dad's the one who got me into adventures!) Just now she was telling me that she got a new iBook and I mentioned she should try out an adventure when she retires. Her immediate (conditioned) response was "Oh, I don't play adventure games" but when I told her there are a lot of women in their 50s and 60s who "discovered" adventure games after retiring she sounded curious.

So I'm wondering - what would be a good story driven game for her to start with? I don't think she'd like Myst (she has as bad a sense of direction as I do!) She likes mysteries and would probably love the Agatha Christie game that's being developed but I don't think that's coming out for Mac. I'm not really up on my Mac releases. Can anyone suggest some that might be good for her?

It's okay if the game runs in Classic... as long as it actually runs (without tweaking) in Classic.

-emily

ps She likes Law & Order and CSI too... anyone able to comment on quality of the Mac ports of those games?

I am considerably older than your mother; my ibook and I enjoyed Bad Mojo, Alida, The Dig, Nightfall, The Castle Labyrinth of Time, Morpheus, and, if I ever finish it, The Space Bar. The best one, though, was Rhem, and Rhem 2 is due soon. I hope that Lady Kestrel notices your posting, for she is more conversant with tweaking an ibook. If I try to tweak, my ibook ignores me.

You have been busy with those games, Minstrum! I don't actually tweak my iBook, it just has an earlier version of OS 9 than yours does, which does better with some of the older games.

Emily,
It's always hard to pick a game for a newbie. Minstrum has some good ones listed there, but let me look at my list and get back to you.

Thanks Ministrum and LadyK.

I think she'll do better with third person (at least, I do, and she and I are both directionally challenged!) but it seems most (if not all) of the more recent Mac releases are first person games.

I have about 100 Mac adventure games, but have only played about 50. I've listed the ones I've enjoyed the most and which should run fine in Classic. I put an asterisk beside the ones which may be the easiest or most fun for a beginner, and, of course, many of them you can judge because you've played them yourself.

7th Guest, The
Alida
*Beyond Atlantis
Bioscopia
Castle, The (Mac only)
Chemicus
*Connections (has in-game help)
*Dig, The
*Dracula Resurrection
Dracula: The Last Sanctuary
Feeble Files, The (Mac patch available for Classic)
Golden Gate
*Inherit the Earth
*Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
*Labyrinth of Time, The
Lighthouse: The Dark Being
*Morpheus
Myst III: Exile
Myst IV: Revelation
Nightfall
Obsidian
Paris 1313
*Physicus
RealMyst
Rhem
Riddle of the Sphinx
Riddle of the Sphinx 2: The Omega Stone
Riven: The Sequel to Myst
*Safecracker (if she likes puzzles)
Secrets of the Luxor
Space Bar, The
Starship Titanic
*Timelapse
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
*Where

FOV
I think you sold me Timelapse, yikes! I first played it many many years ago on a MAC--if your Mom wants a beautiful, very good, quiet first person game after she gets her feet wet, I highly recommend it. I (in those days) found the last world Atlantis quite tough and my MAC self destructed before I was able to finish the game (hence buying it again now)--she may need a walkthrough for Atlantis or maybe she'll have no problems and show me up good.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'm really concerned about starting her on a first person game, though. I really don't think she'll be able to find her way around. I'm talking BAD sense of direction, getting turned around and having no idea which way to turn to get back where you were. This runs in my family. I just think it'll be too frustrating for her.

I've actually not played most of the games that have been mentioned... are any of these third-person perspective? (Or maybe I'm just biased because third person games are my favorites!)

What about AGON... anyone played these? I just read that the first three episodes have been released for free, and they're available on the Mac...

-emily

AGON is first person. As far as I know, the episodes are not for free -- the download for each episode is also a demo, and after the demo time runs out, you have to pay to play the rest of each episode.

What about King's Quest VII? I played it and enjoyed it very much without playing any of the previous Kings Quests. It's third person, and the most modern of the series (that's pure adventure, anyway).

EDIT: An even better idea -- Torin's Passage. It includes one of the best hint features I've ever seen.

I just happen to have that Mac copy of KQ7 lying around. Unfortunately it doesn't run in Classic. I think because it requires real (not virtual) memory, which Classic doesn't have.

Did Torin's Passage come out for the Mac? I really enjoyed that one myself. I played on the PC though. (It's the same engine / timeframe as KQ7 so might have the same problems in Classic, if it did come out for Mac.)

-emily

ps With AGON I was just thinking if she enjoyed the download great, she could buy the whole thing; if not, nothing lost. But first person again... I guess first person doesn't automatically equal hard to navigate, I just think she'd have a hard time with it.

The Dig and Bad Mojo are 3rd person.
Does she like roaches?

Heh. No.

I have Bad Mojo though, so it would be easy enough to load up for her and see if she likes it.

Unless she has a quirky sense of humor, I don't know that I'd START with Bad Mojo. Even though it's third person, it has a bit of a first person "feel" because you are limited to what a roach could see at any particular moment.

The Dig is an excellent suggestion.

You know, I THOUGHT that Torin's Passage came out for the Mac, but a (not so thorough) search isn't revealing anything about it.

Foiled again.

I just played the demo for the first cahpter of AGON. It might be something she'd enjoy, once she got the hang of the interface. For some reason I find first person easier to deal with in an indoor setting than outdoors, and the demo took place entirely indoors. Not much to it, though.

It's a few months before I'll try to get her to play, anyway, so I still have time to mull this over.

-emily

Emily,
I'm going to try Agon myself shortly, just as soon as I clear out a few other projects.

Becky,
I don't remember seeing anything about Torin's Passage for the Mac, but I could have missed it.

LadyK -- if you didn't see it, then it probably never happened! I think that there were plans for one, but it may never have been ported -- another victim of timing, as the Mac versions became fewer and further between.

That's a great list Lady K - I can't improve on it.

"The Castle" won't suit all - it is more 'adult' then some (depending on your definition of 'adult'.) The ending is well different.

I very much enjoyed "Return To Zork".

Peter,
I'm a bit older than Fov's mom and didn't have any trouble with the subject matter of The Castle, but I think it would be difficult for a beginner, especially that rabafratzen rowing and all the diary page hunting!

???
Sounds like a frozen dessert.

Torin's Passage came out for the Mac, I know because I have it. Other suggestions of third person games for mac:

Journeyman Project 1-3
Kyrandia 1&3 (2 wasn't ported to Mac, go figure)
Darkseed
Darkseed II
Day of the Tentacle
Full Throttle
Gabriel Knight 1&2
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Inherit the Earth
Last Express
Sam and Max Hit the Road

Karin (loves her mac)

Thanks Karin!

You know, I just saw a Mac version of Kyrandia 1 at Goodwill yesterday. I didn't buy it but I could go back. Can anyone tell me if it runs okay in Classic?

I sold my Mac version of GK2 earlier this year. She'd probably like that too. Actually, I can't believe I didn't think of it before! GK2 is one of my favorites and she'd probably enjoy it for the same reasons. And maybe Last Express (I haven't played it yet, but from what I hear about it I think she'd like the story).

Hey FOV
I've been thinking about MAC games for your Mom and was qualifying all the games in my head for an "older newbie(heavy on the older)". Finally I had a little list I was going to add to this topic. Then I reread your message and HECK your mom is only a year older than me. I think you should give her a list of any playable MAC games high on Gameboomers favorites list and let her try any of them--don't let your troubles with first person games get in her way, she should try out a couple of different genres and sub-genres and see what grabs her--don't obsess too much about getting her the perfect game, I know you love games and want her to do the same but it'll just put a lot of pressure on the one choice you've made for her. We, all of us, just stumbled on our first game--what ever it was and then WHAM off we've gone playing and BAAGing and always always

Becky,
Yes, it's a frozen dessert in a deep shade of blue.

Karin,
I have most of those games on your list but haven't played them yet and don't know if they run in classic.

Fov,
Anything made 1995 or before probably will not run well in classic, although I suppose there are exceptions. I played The Messenger on my iBook, which only has 9.1 installed, but Minstrum told me he couldn't get a cursor to appear in classic 9.2. The change over to Unix just doesn't work well with some games.

I'm sorry, I can't be of any help with what runs in classic.
Myself, I'm such a wimp that I still run OS 9.2, even though I have a shining new box with OSX Panther sitting on my shelf.

Unix, uuh, scary!!

Karin

Can't say I blame you... if it's not broken, why fix it?!

OSX is very nice (I use it at work) but I'm not sure I'd be gung ho to upgrade if I knew it would make some older games unusable. Then again, I felt that way about XP originally, too.

Karin,
I've been using OS X on my iMac for a couple of years. It took me a while to get used to it and a few 3rd party programs, such as the classic apple menu, to get me comfortable with it, but I now use it for everything except for 9 games, which I play in a separately bootable non-classic partition. I also have an old and much-used copy of Adobe Photo Deluxe (sort of Photoshop Lite) which only runs in classic.

BTW, if you ever decide to try X and have questions, a good place to ask them is over at MacBoards.

I was prowling around intervac, and saw 'Alice' for mac. Does anyone know if this will run in classic mode? Lady K: I didnt see it on your list, and that makes me nervous about buying it.

Minstrum,
Which Alice game is it? American McGee's Alice is mostly an action game, I think, and Alice: An Interactive Museum is OS 7 and 256 colors, which may not run in classic. I don't have either game, so I can't help you with it. I've heard that the latter is rather difficult to find and tends to be expensive, so if it's a good price, give it a try.

It is American McGee's Alice, but if it is an action game, I may pass on it. I am really on the hunt for new games for my ibook. My last purchase was Bad Mojo in December, so both it and I are starving.

How about Legend of Lotus Spring? Anyone know if it runs in classic? Is the game any good?

I only just heard of this game, but from my brief "once over" it seems like something my mom might like (in spite of the first person perspective).

-emily

Legend is beautiful and very sentimental. Yes, she might like it. It's also one of the easiest adventure games around. Might be just right for a beginner. If your Mom does play it, she should read the manual to get an idea of how to use the interface and map -- it's not hard, but it's not exactly intuitive either. Once you understand the "inventory" it's about as close to a "breeze" as adventures can get.

Thanks, Becky. Since it's a hybrid, I can try it out on my Windows machine before I give it to her.

Fov,
The Legend of Lotus Spring is quite lovely, but it will only recognize the game's version of Quicktime, which I think is QT 3. The newer version will have to be disabled for the duration of the game, and I don't know if it'll run in classic.