Point & Click Adventures:
I thought I'd post the following Point & Click adventures as a taster for the games I'll be posting tomorrow and the rest of the week. You do require DOSBox to run them though. If you haven’t already got it you can download it from the following link:
Wizzard of Ozz has posted (as a sticky) details about how to use DOSBox in the Game Discussion forums. All the descritions were copied from abandonia and are not my own work.
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Tex Murphy 1 – Mean Streets: (1.91Mb)
Mean Streets is the first game in the Tex Murphy series, written by Chris Jones and inspired by his original screenplay, The Singing Detective (1987), and the second game by Access Software.
You play Tex Murphy, a detective in San Francisco in the year 2033. A noted doctor has killed himself by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, and his daughter has hired you to investigate his death. With a handful of clues to start and your trusty hover car, your investigation begins.
Speaking of a hover car, get use to the flight-sim cleverly disguised as a method of transportation, because you’ll be seeing it a lot. A LOT. It’s not as bad as it could have been. Sometimes driving, instead of taking advantage of the autopilot, can be a fun diversion from the rest of the game; especially since you can fly with reckless abandon and never worry about splattering yourself across the face of a building, since you just clip straight through objects.
The rest of the game is a mixed bag. On one hand it’s very reminiscent of other adventure games, with a list of options like “take”, “talk”, “use”, and the like. You follow clues from scene to scene, collecting objects, which may be evidence, or may be helpful in another area. That part of it is deep and engrossing, and a lot of fun to do, especially in a few specific scenes that you have to experience to believe. However, it does have a few downsides. The clues you find aren’t copied for you, so you really want pen and paper around for the game, since you never know what may or may not be important. And there are a LOT of clues, usually around five to ten per scene. A quarter of those are red herrings, both the locations and the clues.
Conversations are also a little bit of a chore since you must follow a branching conversation before you’ll get any answers out of anyone. But once you make it though that gauntlet, you have to type in what you want to ask out of your list of “important” objects or clues.Then there’s the combat. That’s right. Combat. Every now and again, too often for some people perhaps, you have to do a side-scrolling run-and-gun against an onslaught of enemies for no reason whatsoever. These aren’t that hard, per se, just an annoying interruption, especially because they feel slapped-on, as if Access thought they wouldn’t be able to sell a future-noir game without some shootouts.
The graphics are interesting. The flight parts are reminiscent of Access’s earlier flight game Echelon, wire-framing and all, though sparsely populated, save for the Golden Gate bridge and other landmarks. The other scenes are blurry and the character animations are a little wooden, but it’s serviceable. Conversations are not really FMV, but it is real people in several still-frame poses with some animation in-between. Voice acting only occurs in certain parts of the conversation, but it’s good enough all around and extremely funny when it wants to be.
All in all, it’s a good, engrossing game. You really get into Tex’s shoes and experience the world around him. Not to say that it doesn’t have its problems, most notably the action sequences and the mediocre graphics, but if you really like adventure and/or detective games, you can easily over-look those few niggles. I give it a 4, which on my scale pretty much means a good game.
When you're presented with the initial screen (a menu), just type '1' to play the game. On the next screen menu, choose '1' again for the best quality graphics.
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Tex Murphy 2 – Martian Memorandum: (6.43Mb)
Martian Memorandum is a lovely point and click adventure game made by Access Software in 1991. It is the 2nd Tex Murphy game, and is based in a bleak future in San Francisco in 2039. If you want a good, well-written detective game, then look no further.
Tex Murphy (your character) is a loveable private investigator who is down on his luck. You are contacted by a rich tycoon named Marshall Alexander who tells you his daughter has been kidnapped, along with ‘something else’ that must remain a secret. You do not yet know what the 'something else' is, but you are hired to find it and Marshall's daughter. Of course, Tex being Tex, nothing is that simple.
You start off in your office. You need to travel to Terraform, talk to Marshall Alexander, and find clues as to what to do next. Just remember - the comlink is your friend (if you can find it). You have to go from place to place, talking to people and getting more information. Make sure you pick up everything you can, as you never know when it might be useful. You will find yourself running backwards and forwards between various places trying to get more clues, and desperate to solve the whole mystery.
There are options along the bottom of the screen (look, open, move, get etc) that you click on to do varies actions. When you talk to people, you get a choice of what to say (Response 1, Response 2 etc), or you can offer items from your inventory, or ask about things. However, it is easy to get 'trapped' in this game. If you choose the wrong dialogue when talking to some one, that person may not give you any more information and you cannot progress in the game. It is also possible to die in this game, so I highly recommend saving frequently using different save-game names. When you want to walk anywhere, make sure none of the options at the bottom are highlighted.
If you get stuck, click on 'HELP'. You are given clues on items in the room, what you can do in that room.The graphics are a nice mixture of drawn backgrounds and real actors, which works really well. When a character is talking, you see a nice animated close up of that person. This adds greatly to the whole appeal of the game.
There is lovely music and sound effects in this game. You can hear Tex's footsteps as he walks around, and you can hear things like the dog barking, thunder and other simple sound effects. Not so good by today's standards, but it seems just right for this game There is also some speech in this game. When you are talking to some one, you actually hear the characters talking to you.
The game is quite hard, and it is easy to find yourself running in circles when you choose the wrong dialogue, but that is just a minor complaint. As long as you save often, you can't go far wrong. The graphics are lovely and the speech is a nice touch. This is a lovely game that every adventure fan (and every Tex fan) will LOVE. I highly recommend it.
Important note:
Remember to save your game often, and use different names to save your game.
If you want to quit the game, press Crtl Q.
If you want to skip the duct-maze in the casino, press Insert O, then click the left arrow.TECHNICAL NOTE:
This game works with Windows XP, and the Dos Command Prompt in Windows XP.
It doesn't seem to work with VDM Sound.
DosBox gives mixed results on various configurations. Use the newest version.
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5 days a Stranger: (1.2MB)
5 Days a Stranger is a point-and-click adventure game that was made in 2003 by Fully Ramblomatic. This game was the first adventure game I ever played and is still one of my favorites.
Cat burglar Trilby got more than he bargained for when he broke into the DeFoe Mansion. He has been locked inside with four other people by an invisible intelligence. One that will do anything to keep them there. Even murder...
The game play is fun and the puzzles can be somewhat difficult. This game was made with an adventure game scripting system called AGS. Definitely a game worth playing.
NOTE: The cut scenes in this game are VERY gory and bloody, so this game is not for the squeamish. Alternatively, you could read the walkthrough before you play the game, so you won't be surprised.Download link for 5 days a Stranger
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Blackstar – Agent of Justice: (1.54Mb)
This game, for me, is a rare and one-of-a-kind adventure as far as story, plot, and theme go. Rather than stick to the same old character and story clichés, you play the role of Blackstar, a Native American who seems to be an underworld Jack-of-all-trades: part detective, part thug, part drug dealer and even handyman; but he still sports a good heart underneath the rough exterior. This adventure is set in a modern Native American community, and being the man you are, almost all you are going to see of it is its seedy night-life from a streetsmart, but still somewhat traditional, Native American perspective.
The Story:
Your day starts out in your apartment just like any other. There have been rumors going around that hookers are vanishing left and right. This doesn't concern you too much, but when your cop buddy Cam leaves a little something for you, this strange mystery comes a little too close to home. What's so cool about this game’s story and character interaction is that it's so real and in-your-face. Rather than the same text boxes everywhere, you will really feel like you're having a face-to-face conversation with the characters. All the dialogues in the game take place from a unique interview-style perspective with an interesting set of subjects to choose from; this feature has become a little tedious by now, but in this game they set the tone and flow of the story perfectly. Every character you meet will not only intrigue you, but also make you even more curious about Blackstar himself. You can get a good idea of his personality, but since the characters only hint and joke about his dealings, you never know exactly what he's been into before your little journey is over. This game has quite a bit of language in it, too (and nudity); by the second episode, this game goes from PG-13 mystery to R-rated thriller, so be prepared for some surprises throughout.
The Puzzles:
OH DEAR LORD! Although very interesting solutions arise from these, they can be very tedious and downright painful at times. I'm only talking about the things that were meant to be puzzles; just figuring out where to go or be next in the game can be a puzzle in itself, since you have full access to most parts of the city throughout the game. The majority of the stuff you can easily solve on your own with a little thinking, but don't be afraid to get a little liberal with the walkthrough if you feel a bit in over your head. The answering machine and phonebook will be your main tools, but they add a lot of confusion, too. Some of the messages you receive won't come into play until much later, which is kind of a pain, and you can't rewind them either, so pay attention or keep some backup saves.
The Graphics:
The art in this game is just wonderful for the time it was produced; the environments have such a cartoony yet artistic look to them. Every area you go to has its own well-drawn look to it that really creates a great sense of atmosphere. The entire town is like one big graffiti pop-art mural. Although the areas are great to look at, a lot of the stand-alone items in the game are a little rough-looking and the faces (especially the women's) are just dreadful at times. Even though the faces are poor, a good sense of character design throughout the game still manages to make it through. It's a shame this series didn't progress; it would have been wonderful to see these characters fully realized with more modern graphics.
The Music:
Edgy MIDI score, or awesome PC-speaker jingles - take your pick! The game has nice mood setting music for either option. The MIDI music adds a really dark and gritty ambience throughout the game, which is really reminiscent of cheesy late 80's crime drama films. The starting music from Blackstar's apartment building is some of the best music I've heard. The rest is good and expect a remix or two of the main tracks during unique situations like towards the end of the game. Even though I like the MIDI stuff, the PC-speaker jingles are what grew on me. Unlike the other music, the speaker stuff sets a still freaky, but lighter vibe with the short, but sweet jingles you will hear when you enter each area. Like most games, though, neither music option offers a unique song for each area; the stuff is spread out a little thin, but doesn't become too annoying and there are still plenty of places in the game that do have their own tunes. I just would have liked to hear more.
The Interface:
This game's interface is just great and adds a ton to the gameplay, story, and atmosphere with a really cool "thinking" feature. To use it, you click on Blackstar's portrait and he will close his eyes and share his thoughts with you; sometimes these will be clues, and other times they will just be interesting comments about the area you are in. As I've said earlier, the way you interact with NPCs is just wonderful and the inventory system couldn't be any easier to use. One other really nice feature that more adventures of the past and present could learn from is the mouse-over feature. Rather than clicking on each individual thing you can simply move Blackstar's hand over it and he will comment on it. Although touching many things will give you a somewhat annoying "leave it alone" response, there are some hilarious jokes and comments that arise from it, so don't be afraid to touch things that don't seem very important.
Overall:
If you’re the type of person that isn't really amused by mature language and themes and would rather play something more tame, then by all means you should, because this game certainly isn't for everyone. However, if you really want to play an original adventure title that takes place from a very rarely seen perspective in this genre (and gaming in general), then this is definitely worth a try and may just be the thing you've been looking for. The game does have its flaws just like any other, but to say this was made mostly by one man and manages to accomplish what it does, makes it a downright urban masterpiece in my book.
Technical Notes:
You have to run the FM.com file in the Blackstar directory before you start the game to make the soundcard music play. Also, if you run this game outside of DOSBox in a regular DOS window, you have to run the FM.com and Blackstar.com in the same MS-DOS prompt session. So basically, don't just click on the FM.com file and then run Blackstar, because it won't do anything; load both files from the same MS-DOS prompt session. This applies to many crack.com files as well.
N.B. The game archive contains both parts of the series!
Download link for Blackstar: Agent of Justice
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