Adventure Gamers - Forums

The golden age of adventure games has to be the 90s (92,93 - 97,98) , the peak of adventure games. The cd-rom era - like FMV games , adventure games declined towards the end of the 90s which also concided with the rise of the consoles. There are still games like the Myst sequels being produced.
However , the 90s were the days when people await the next adventure game offerings from the likes of Lucasarts , Sierra , Legend etc.

I tend to agree with the ramp and peak idea.  The graph that was posted earlier (That looked like Sierra Half-Dome) I think hit it pretty well.  We will always have our differences, but I think that graph pretty much nailed it.

Bt

Iznogood - 21 February 2014 04:51 AM

Detective Mosely - 20 February 2014 03:59 PM

It takes a hell of a lot of insane troll logic to make the argument that classical music is to pop music is like gladiator fights are to adventure games.

So now the troll card gets played, how… very… cheap

But I guess this is my own fault.
After concluding that no consensus could be reach on the issue here in this forum, I was actually stupid enough to try and do something positive about it, and come up with a definition of what the Golden Age actually was, in order to facilitate a consensus of when it happened.
I really should have know better and just shut up.

Sorry, you misunderstood my tone and intent.  My post was tongue-in-cheek.  And I wasn’t calling you a troll.  Insane troll logic is its own thing:  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsaneTrollLogic

And yes, comparing Gladiator battles to adventure games is a fine example. 

Iznogood - 22 February 2014 04:31 AM

Detective Mosely - 21 February 2014 04:09 PM

And yes, comparing Gladiator battles to adventure games is a fine example. 

Yes it was blatantly illogical, and yes it was deliberate on the part of the writer (me).
But that was also exactly the point I was trying to make, that Oscar’s statement in the previous post was blatantly illogical. A point which I’m afraid most people missed, probably because I didn’t phrase it very well.

No, it was because you failed to demonstrate it.

You asked the question why should classical and pop be in the same hat - wall, why should text adventures and graphic adventures be in the same hat? What about handheld and 3D adventures? All totally different types of adventure game. We call the 90s the golden age because the AGs of that time were the most popular and numerous - like pop music.

Iznogood - 21 February 2014 04:51 AM

After concluding that no consensus could be reach on the issue here in this forum,

But we did reach a consensus in this thread. I’ve seen no one claiming that the golden age was in 2000-2005

So I think we can safely say that we all agree the golden age was before 2000.

For my part, I’d say the golden age of point and click adventure games (not IF) started with monkey island and king quest 5 and finished in 98 with the Last Express and Grim Fandango.

lol that chart is great. half dome!!

interesting direction the thread has taken. just wanted to chime in that i think the 90s overall was a much better age than the 2010s or the 2000s. the video games, the science fiction, the television and especially the popular music was much more inspiring than much anything going on today.  there are exceptions, always, but for the most part i just think it was a better era.

as for adventure games, 93 seems about right for the peak i suppose. as i posted earlier i think 90 with the introduction of vga graphics is what is most memorable to me but i agree with what others said about how it takes a few years to build up to peak ‘golden age’.

i still stand by kq5 vs monkey island as the ultimate classic adventures.

As an Interactive Fiction geek, I just want to point out that the golden age of IF—or text adventures, whatever—was not 1980-1986/87. If we go by Karlok’s (I think) accurate characterisation of a golden age—‘abundance, innovation, experimentation’—I would say the golden age was most definitely 1995-2003. Maybe 1995-2000, but to omit the plethora of classics released in the severed three years, such as Slouching Towards Bedlam and Savoir-Faire, seems almost sacrilegious. 1980-1986 is really the golden age of Infocom, not IF as a whole. Unless, of course, you think IF has never progressed past Infocom, which I clearly don’t. Anyway, that’s just a point I felt the urge to make; I’m sure quite few actually care as much.

I also absolutely have to challenge this:

syn - 22 February 2014 03:54 PM

just wanted to chime in that i think the 90s overall was a much better age than the 2010s or the 2000s. the video games, the science fiction, the television and especially the popular music was much more inspiring [emphasis added] than much anything going on today. there are exceptions, always, but for the most part i just think it was a better era.

From 2010 onwards we’ve seen some of the most ‘inspiring’ adventure games ever: Kentucky Route Zero, Gemini Rue, Portal 2, Gone Home, The Sea Will Claim Everything, The Walking Dead, to name but a few. The current era is definitely more than a renaissance, even if not quite a ‘golden age’. I do have to agree, though, that for pop music the 90s was so much better. But the bar has never been set particularly high…

Steven28 - 22 February 2014 04:30 PM

I also absolutely have to challenge this:

syn - 22 February 2014 03:54 PM

just wanted to chime in that i think the 90s overall was a much better age than the 2010s or the 2000s. the video games, the science fiction, the television and especially the popular music was much more inspiring [emphasis added] than much anything going on today. there are exceptions, always, but for the most part i just think it was a better era.

From 2010 onwards we’ve seen some of the most ‘inspiring’ adventure games ever: Kentucky Route Zero, Gemini Rue, Portal 2, Gone Home, The Sea Will Claim Everything, The Walking Dead, to name but a few. The current era is definitely more than a renaissance, even if not quite a ‘golden age’. I do have to agree, though, that for pop music the 90s was so much better. But the bar has never been set particularly high…

I couldn’t disagree more, for most of these games we can even argue if they are adventure games at all, let alone consider them a renaissance of the genre.

Steven28 - 22 February 2014 04:30 PM

From 2010 onwards we’ve seen some of the most ‘inspiring’ adventure games ever: Kentucky Route Zero, Gemini Rue, Portal 2, Gone Home, The Sea Will Claim Everything, The Walking Dead, to name but a few.

The Walking Dead?!  Don’t you know that puzzle difficulty is the only thing that matters, and that things like plot, characters, and a good atmosphere are meaningless?!?!?!  That game was made for idiots and will bring about the start of the Adventure Game Dark Ages!

(Just saying it before Lambonius gets the chance to )

diego - 22 February 2014 04:52 PM

syn - 22 February 2014 03:54 PM

interesting direction the thread has taken.

Gladiators and music? Absolutely!

It should be made into law: “As an online discussion about The Golden Age of adventure games grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Gladiators or Music approaches 1.”

This site really needs a like button.