The joy of games

When I’m not busy doing all the other stuff that fills up my day, I like to play adventure games. I can’t shoot, I’m rubbish at kicking and catching so the adventure game is my thing. A much more sedentary but cerebral activity. It is something you can do at your leisure, picking up where you left off and trying that locked door again in the vain hope it has become unlocked since you last played.

So what is an adventure game? The heart of any good adventure game is the puzzles. Marooned on in a desterted city, following the trail of a murderer, deciphering ancient codes or simply getting out of the room, the adventure game requires the player to think, to solve the puzzle and reveal more clues. And that all there is to it. The methods employed my require manipulating a lock, setting levers, talking to a others or collecting objects but they all lead to the solution of puzzles.

The very earliest adventure games were printed. You read a scenario and chose your next move. This took you to another page in the book and a new scenario. The wrong selection often resulted in you killed in some way or ending up back at rthe beginning.

The advent of computers changed all this. You could still die but you had more options. You could type instruction and the computer would respond, usually with ‘you can’t do this right now’. But ask the right question and you could move on.

Then came Myst. A revelation in adventure games – the first real point and click adventure game. The graphics were astounding, the puzzles mind boggling and the story unique. It set the standard and ever since then the the genre has just developed in complexity.

Some games require long conversation with other characters, some require the collection of endless objects. Other games are just one gigantic puzzle. It is this last type that I enjoy the most. I’m not too fussed about the storyline or the graphics as long as the puzzles are fiendish.

Anyway, if this sort of thing takes you fancy then Gameboomers is probably a good place to begin. If you want to discover mare about the games that I enjoyed then here’s my games site..

Hope you find something to keep you amused.