GamesNostalgia

Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac

iten

Best Adventure Games on GamesNostalgia

Since their humble beginnings as text-based narratives, adventure games have come a long way. Over the years, they have evolved and transformed into immersive and visually stunning experiences. Text-based adventure games, or interactive fiction, emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These games relied solely on text descriptions to guide players through a story, allowing them to make choices that would affect the outcome. Computer text adventure games started with Scott Adam's Adventureland, but the most famous one is probably Zork: The Great Underground Empire by Infocom. The company created many other excellent titles, including Starcross and Planetfall, released in 1983.

Sierra On-Line was the first to produce a graphic adventure, with Mystery House, but the first important title was King's Quest, also known as King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown. After this, Sierra continued to create many other great games like Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter and continued for many years, at least until King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride.

In graphic adventure games, the player sees the story on the screen, and the visuals change and reflect his actions, so the graphics are part of the gameplay. Text adventures with pictures are different. In this case, images are just helpful (but not necessary) gameplay elements accompanying the player. Some examples of this genre are Magnetic Scroll's masterpieces The Pawn and Fish!.

Initially, graphic adventures were based on a text parser, just like text adventures, but later they adopted a point-and-click interface. LucasArts legendary titles such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders and Maniac Mansion were the pioneers. Still, the real success arrived with Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis, The Secret of Monkey Island, and many other incredible games.

But the adventure games genre does not include only text adventures and classic graphic adventures. We have many sub-genres, like the adventure-rpg horror titles of Adventure Soft, like Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, first-person puzzle adventure games like Myst, isometric action adventures like Cadaver by Bitmap Brothers, or the ZX Spectrum classic Knight Tyme, or to mention a more recent game, the psychological horror Sanitarium.

In many adventures of the '90s, you can enjoy fantastic hand-drawn animations and terrific 2D graphics; see, for example, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars or Torin's Passage.

There is no scarcity of adventure games out there; it's one of the most beloved genres of computer games. From old classic titles to more modern adventures, you will find enough titles to keep you occupied for years. Happy adventuring!

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers dos

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is an adventure game developed by Sierra On-Line and released in 1993 for MS-DOS. The game was designed by Jane Jensen, who also wrote the compe...

Year: 1993 Genre: Adventure

adventure detective graphic adventure horror mystery point and click

Maniac Mansion amigacommodore-64

Maniac Mansion is a memorable point-and-click graphic adventure created by LucasArts initially for the Commodore 64. Written by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, it's the first adventu...

Year: 1987 Genre: Adventure

adventure c64 original game character switch comedy commodore 64 graphic adventure non-linear point and click scumm time travel verb-based

King's Quest amigados

King's Quest is an adventure game developed by Sierra On-Line and released in 1984, initially for IBM PC compatibles. It was also ported to Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST, and other platforms.

Year: 1984 Genre: Adventure

adventure agi engine fantasy graphic adventure

Space Quest 4 dosamiga

Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers is a humorous graphic adventure created by Sierra On-Line. It is the fourth chapter of the popular Space Quest series; a saga start...

Year: 1992 Genre: Adventure

adventure comedy graphic adventure motion capture point and click science fiction

Loom dosamiga

Loom is a point-and-click fantasy adventure created by LucasArts, released initially in 1990. One of the most popular titles using the SCUMM engine, like Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade and The Secret of Monkey Island.

Year: 1990 Genre: Adventure

adventure fantasy graphic adventure music point and click scumm

Star Trek 25th Anniversary amiga

Star Trek 25th Anniversary is an adventure game and space combat sim based on the Star Trek universe. It was developed and published by Interplay for DOS and Amiga in 1992. Funnily...

Year: 1992 Genre: Adventure

adventure aga graphic adventure point and click science fiction space flight spaceship star trek tv series

Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis dosamiga

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was released in 1992. It was developed and published by LucasArts. The game is a point-and-click adventure. Initially released on MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Amiga, it was later released for FM Towns.

Year: 1992 Genre: Adventure

adventure archaeology detective graphic adventure imuse interwar mystery point and click scumm verb-based

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders amigacommodore-64

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is the second graphic adventure by Lucasfilm Games, after Maniac Mansion, created using the SCUMM engine. The game was developed on a Comm...

Year: 1988 Genre: Adventure

adventure c64 original game comedy commodore 64 graphic adventure point and click science fiction scumm verb-based

It Came from the Desert II amiga

Antheads: It Came from the Desert II is an expansion of the popular adventure created by Cinemaware. It was published one year later the original game, in 1990, for the Amiga only.

Year: 1990 Genre: Adventure

adventure cinematic adventure disaster mission mutants

Hare Raising Havoc amiga

Hare Raising Havoc is a 2D puzzle-platform game released for the Amiga in 1991, developed by BlueSky Software and published by Disney. BlueSky is a studio that created other Disney...

Year: 1991 Genre: Adventure

adventure cartoon comedy disney flip-screen movies puzzle platformer

Simon the Sorcerer amiga

Simon the Sorcerer is a point-and-click adventure game created by Adventuresoft and released in 1993 for the Amiga and MS-DOS. The Amiga AGA version, with 256-colour graphics and c...

Year: 1993 Genre: Adventure

adventure aga fairy tale fantasy graphic adventure mythology point and click

Flight of the Amazon Queen dosamiga

Flight of the Amazon Queen is a point-and-click graphic adventure created by Interactive Binary Illusions and published in 1995 for Amiga and MS-DOS. The Amiga version was written ...

Year: 1995 Genre: Adventure

adventure amiga original game amos freeware graphic adventure point and click scumm

Universe dosamiga

Universe is a graphic adventure game created and published in 1994 by Core Design, specifically for the Amiga, and later ported to MS-DOS as well. The title was designed by Gary Bottomley-Mason and Rolf M.

Year: 1994 Genre: Adventure

adventure amiga cd32 amiga original game graphic adventure point and click science fiction

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark amiga

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a survival horror developed by Horrorsoft and released by Accolade in 1990 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS computers. It is well k...

Year: 1990 Genre: Adventure

adventure adventure-rpg fantasy horror point and click