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Forums - Gaming Discussion - The Discussion Thread: The Greatest Games Event 2017 - FINISH YOUR LISTS

Mnementh said:

#48: Once there was a great gaming series that dominated a specific genre of gaming. The company doing the series was associated with this genre. But then videogaming changed - with the introduction of graphics. My game 48 is an attempt to revive the series in this new environment.

The_Liquid_Laser said:
Mnementh said:

#48: You're eaten by a Grue.

#48 is Zork, or some remastered version of Zork

As Liquid Laser guessed correctly, my game #48 is from the Zork-series. It is Return to Zork, a game that tried to revive the series after years of hiatus.

First I probably should tell something about the history of the series. In early days of computing, many of the computers had no graphical output, only text. But these already reached some people. And these people wanted to game too. Inspired from the first ever adventure game (one of the games named conveniently Adventure) three programmers started to work on their own adventure game in 1977. Zork became popular and was ported to many machines. That lead to the formation of the company Infocom that sold Zork and developed more text-adventures, including sequels to Zork. The Infocom adventures turned out very successful and basically textadventure was equalled with Infocom. Here is a look at the original Zork:

But the world changed. People bought more and more computers in only the IBM PC platform, so that Infocoms ability to port it to every platform under the sun became irrelevant. Computers started to have simple graphic cards and game makers utillized them. Infocom struggled in the environment. They even made advertisement, that the best gaming is text-based:

That all was for naught, the company was in problems and in the end Activision took them over. And in the Activision time this game came out. This was many years after the last Zork, so things had changed a lot. In the meantime computers had CD-drives that allowed for enormous (for that time) data to be saved. Some games tried somethign new, they mixed video-clips made with real actors with stuff layed over that to create a game. Activision was going the same route for Return to Zork.

So, if you look at this image, the guy is an actor, while the surroundings are graphic:

While many of these games were pretty bad, because the parts didn't mesh very well, I personally think it worked good for this game. Seemingly Activision took their time to polish the game.

But the visual presentation is not the only thing that worked. The original Infocom-textadventures were popular, because the puzzles were creative and interesting and the challenge was great, as you could try anything you could come up with and typing it into the game. Return to Zork had no prompt to enter text, but the developers tried to catch some of the possibilities and offered a complex context-based popup-menu with options what you could do. And this could be a lot. Talking to other people was also interesting, as you could ask them for each item in your possession. As you could make photographs and ask about them, that included basically everything in the game.

For me this game worked so well. The adventure was thrilling, the puzzles, the interaction were challenging and interesting while not frustrating, the game oozed charme. If you want to try it today, gog offers the game. It also runs with ScummVm, so you could play it on different platforms.

Wikipedia, MobyGames, OGDB, IGDB

This video shows the start of the game. The text with the white house and the mailbox is a reference to earlier Zork-titles.

Last edited by Mnementh - on 16 November 2017

3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

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mZuzek said:
Mnementh said:

Oh, then it must be Metroid.

Rings any bells? No?

Anyway I already guessed that one, it was Mega Man 2.

Yeah, I thought recent years might exclude 2017. But in any case, I guessed wrong.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

Mnementh said:
Darashiva said:

And now the hints for the next three games:
#47: The first game in the now two part series that got its second installment this year. It was also a sequel to a game with a completely different name. The man responsible for both often appears in public with a mask covering his head.

#46: An NES action platformer, often considered among the best in the series. Its developer has somewhat neglected the series in recent years.

#45: Building memories inside a dying man's mind.

#47: Nier?

Correct, but you were beat to the right answer by ARamdomGamer.



Platina said:
#47
Peace is faltering
The hidden mastermind
seeks for complete destruction
Dragons caught in between

I'm gonna go out on a Limb and say Radiant Dawn even though I don't think it is



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Platina said:
#47
Peace is faltering
The hidden mastermind
seeks for complete destruction
Dragons caught in between

#48
A simple premise of setting and activating
Trapping your opponents in a trail of fire
This definitely overshadows the story
I guess even the 2nd time isn't enough
For anyone to bother to Touch this mode

#49
Who thought throwing people on a platform
where they fight to push people off,
in a last man standing game
is a good idea? Sounds Crazy for the first time.

47 is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance 

48 is eitehr Bomberman Touch or Bomberman Land Touch

49 is Super Smash Bros Melee.



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#47 was CoD Black Ops 2

#46 is a popular indie game that recently got a sequel.



Bet with bluedawgs: I say Switch will outsell PS4 in 2018, he says PS4 will outsell Switch. He's now permabanned, but the bet will remain in my sig.

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#46. A game compilation of bite-sized adventures, that only get even more intense. This enhanced version will have you fight your long nemesis with some badass music, and people who say this game is "too kiddy and easy" probably couldn't last 10 seconds in the game's endgame bosh rush.

#45: Nothing like stamping documents just to be able to keep your family alive. Things seem normal for your regular ol' protagonist that desperately needs money, but you may run into a mysterious group that is either insignificant as the next customer, the key to being able to get out of poverty, or your cold and brutal death.



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."

Ultrashroomz said:

#46. A game compilation of bite-sized adventures, that only get even more intense. This enhanced version will have you fight your long nemesis with some badass music, and people who say this game is "too kiddy and easy" probably couldn't last 10 seconds in the game's endgame bosh rush.

#45: Nothing like stamping documents just to be able to keep your family alive. Things seem normal for your regular ol' protagonist that desperately needs money, but you may run into a mysterious group that is either insignificant as the next customer, the key to being able to get out of poverty, or your cold and brutal death.

#45: Papers please?



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

Mnementh said:
Ultrashroomz said:

#46. A game compilation of bite-sized adventures, that only get even more intense. This enhanced version will have you fight your long nemesis with some badass music, and people who say this game is "too kiddy and easy" probably couldn't last 10 seconds in the game's endgame bosh rush.

#45: Nothing like stamping documents just to be able to keep your family alive. Things seem normal for your regular ol' protagonist that desperately needs money, but you may run into a mysterious group that is either insignificant as the next customer, the key to being able to get out of poverty, or your cold and brutal death.

#45: Papers please?

ye



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."

#47 Majora's Mask

 

 

The best out of the four Zeldas that came between Ocarina and Breath of the Wild. At the time the intricate time travel based puzzles, and mask transformations went unappreciated. But now looking back, the main city was a crisscrossing network of expertly laid out quests, and the transformations really helped it to stand out among other Zelda titles. The original plot and darker tone went a long way as well. IMO Zelda stopped evolving for nearly twenty years after Ocarina of Time. This was made in a year though, and did the most to move the series forward. 

 

Hint for #46

Last edited by Cerebralbore101 - on 15 November 2017