Adventure games, rise and fall

I want to take opportunity of a very interesting article I read few days ago about the history of adventure games genre. We know, beetween 80s and 90s it was a great age for this genre.

Software houses like Sierra and Lucas Arts had great success thanks to epic masterpieces we loved so much. Reading the article I understood how this genre had to adapt to technology and usability, since, from the first attempts of text adventures, it was clear the necessity to make easy for the player interacting with carachter and environment.

But the success was not only due to the machine-human interaction mechanism. The great storyline behind titles such as Monkey Island or Gabriel Knight (just some example) with its comedy or its drama was really important too. However, the genre changed along the years, pushed off the main scen by FPS (First Person Shooter) before, and by casual games later.

I think the genre did not completely disappear, as the article argues, it did mix with action genre, in particular in these last years. Games like Metal Gear Solid or GTA and more recent titles for console have some elements that are in my opinion taken from adventure genre. Of course, we are not speaking about pure puzzle resolution games like an adventure is, but, somehow the genre still live.

The only software house that managed to turn the falling genre into success is Tellatale that buying rigtht for Sam and Max and later for Monkey Island moved the genre to a new concept, with smaller episode and an integration between 3D graphics and environment interaction, making easy and simple to play keeping the storyline smooth and nice like a movie.

Let's have a quick dive in the past with famous quote of those great games:

The Secret of Monkey Island

Guybrush Threepwood? That's the most ridiculous name I’ve ever heard!

Monkey Island 2

Guybrush: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Carpenter: A woodchuck would chuck no amount of wood since a woodchuck can’t chuck wood.
Guybrush: But if a woodchuck could chuck and would chuck some amount of wood, what amount of wood would a woodchuck chuck?
Carpenter: Even if a woodchuck could chuck wood and even if a woodchuck would chuck wood, should a woodchuck chuck wood?
Guybrush: A woodchuck should chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, as long as a woodchuck would chuck wood.
Carpenter: Oh shut up.

Gabriel Knight

Gabriel Knight: What do you know about snakes?
Grace Nakimura: Doing a family tree, Gabriel?

Sam and Max hit the Road

Sam: "If laid out from end to end, the twine would stretch from here to the far side of Jupiter. Also, scientists predict that by 2053 the sheer weight of the ball will push Earth out of its orbit, on a collision course with the sun."
Max: Good thing my life expectancy's only six years.
Sam: Way to take the short view, little buddy.

Simon the Sorcerer

Druid: Afraid, are you?
Simon: Wouldn't YOU be if a lunatic druid wanted to stick a silver dagger through YOUR heart?

Leisure Suit Larry 6

Leisure Suit Larry: I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that!

Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis

Guard: You're trespassing on occupied territory. I've got orders not to let anyone pass.
Indiana Jones: I got a message for Kolonel Kerner. Let me pass.
Guard: I'll deliver it myself. What's the message?
Indiana Jones: Go tell Kerner there's an idiot guarding the door.
Guard: You need a lesson in respect mein herr!

Maniac Mansion

Bernard Bernouli: It's a good thing I brought my pocket protector.

Finally I invite you to read the post if you want to know more about the evolution of adventure games in this last 25 years (read it here).