> SUBMIT ENTRY INTO AVATAR CONTEST (Adventure Games!)

[Zulu Romeo]

Thanks again for the votes in the last avatar contest everyone.

This week will be something a little different. Let's set the scene:

You are sitting in front of a computer, connected to the Internet, and logged into your favourite online forum. On the screen is a brand new forum thread highlighting the latest avatar contest. There is an exit behind you leading to the rest of the world.

> OPEN THREAD

You click on the thread and start to read it. You learn that the theme of the contest is all about computer adventure games.

> READ MORE

The forum thread describes that the theme is about "the adventure games of old, where you have an inventory, an unfamiliar (sometimes fantasy) setting, a set of instructions to use, and directions to travel in, sometimes with exits." You realise that such adventure games require your wits, some lateral thinking, and a bit of courage in order to succeed.

> YAWN

Just as boredom starts to creep into your mind, you scroll down the thread more, and something catches your eye.

The thread continues: "The contest theme is not restricted to text adventures - there is also the wide world of the point-and-click adventure subgenre, which provided a graphical interface and amusing graphics, sound and voices to breathe life into the story world, and these are not only accepted but encouraged in this contest."

Your interest rises, to the point that you consider taking part.

> INV

I don't understand what you are trying to say.

> INVENTORY

That is correct. You have an inventory.

> EXAMINE MY INVENTORY PLEASE

That's better.

You have:

Your computer system including keyboard and mouse
Internet access
Your design software or equivalent for creating computer images
Your memories
Your imagination (infinite)
A sandwich
A hot beverage
A spellbook

> READ FINAL PART OF THE POST

"The closing date for applications is late this Saturday."

You ponder on this for a moment. Do you make an early start, or decide to leave things for later?

> SWITCH OFF COMPUTER

You switch off the computer.

You are sitting in darkness. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

So anyway, the theme this week is the computer Adventure Game: graphical point-and-click, text-based, or other similar types. If you can convince me to include your favourite action-adventure game, I might consider it too. However, I don't think RPG-adventure games will be allowed this time (we've had a RPG contest fairly recently).

I'll allow entries for the contest until late on Saturday night, then set up the poll.

 

[Jadzia]

Nice. I think I will have a go.

>EXAMINE ROOM

YOU ARE IN YOUR ROOM IN MAGDALEN 
COLLEGE, OXFORD. BOOKS LINE THE WALLS, 
ABOVE CUPBOARDS. THERE IS A TELEVISION. 
NEXT TO THE PHONE ON YOUR DESK IS A 
FOLDER, WHICH YOU ARE READING.
>

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Time to lead by example:

It's Manny Calavera, the protagonist of one of my favourite adventure games, Grim Fandango from LucasArts.

 

[captcalhoun]

 

[Jadzia]

This is the Amiga game 'Snoopy and Peanuts', a graphical adventure game, developed by "The Edge" in 1989.

This particular screenshot shows one part of the game being solved: Using the umbrella to pass under the cloud to collect the football.

 

[Waylander]

I'm showing my age here

 

[Evil Twin]

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

So many fond memories of this game from my youth. I just try to repress that damn microscope puzzle:

 

[Owain Taggart]

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[Skywalker]

George Stobbart (two B's, two T's ) from the Broken Sword series.

 

[Jadzia]

^Does he have a brother called Eddie?

 

[Niorah]

Here's mine, it's Gabriel Knight.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

It's been a fair number of hours and already some excellent entries so far!

Still open for entries.

 

[SPCTRE]

George Stobbart (two B's, two T's ) from the Broken Sword series.

Aw man, Broken Sword. Good times, I remember playing the first one on PSX.

 

[Skywalker]

The first one I actually played was The Sleeping Dragon on Xbox. I loved the game, but I couldn't find any copies of the first two games. Then I played The Angel of Death (Secrets of the Ark in the US ) when that came out for the PC, and I kept digging for copies of the first two games before finally finding them on the Amazon Marketplace. Great games. I hope they make another, but adventure games don't seem to be en vogue nowadays.

 

[Owain Taggart]

No, they don't, unfortunately. But they're still made by independent devs. I remember playing a really well made Stargate adventure game that was available for free.

http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=detail&id=634

 

[Zulu Romeo]

OK, everyone, the poll goes up on Saturday night. If you still want to enter the contest, you have a little bit over 24 hours to get your entries in.

There have been some great entries, but there are still plenty of others that you can go for...

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I'm going to defer posting of the polling thread this time, as I've come down with a recurrence of a pretty bad illness this weekend.

If anyone else would like to post the poll in my stead, give it a few hours then please go ahead.

Good luck, everyone.

 

[Aragorn]