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Day of the Tentacle

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Re: Day of the Tentacle

#81

Post by aidenn0 »

protomyth wrote: post #76
aidenn0 wrote: post #14

While Loom will always have a special place in my heart, DotT is possibly the best all-around adventure game from my childhood; particularly considering that the LA games have aged far better than most of the others.

The funny thing about Loom for me is that I remember the situation and people that were playing the game more than the actual game's story. It was a blast playing after school with a group that argued and explored together. I'm not even sure we finished the thing.

Loom just clicked with me for some reason. It was the first adventure game I completed 100% on my own, and I did so fairly quickly.

The other adventure games I had played to that point I was only able to finish by playing in parallel with several friends and when one of us got stuck, we would help each other. Hero's Quest was the first game I completed in this manner (we were stuck on King's Quest until someone downloaded a hint guide from a BBS; that game was primarily difficult because how easy it was to get in an unwinnable state).

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#82

Post by WorldMaker »

schnable wrote: post #78
leibnitz27 wrote: post #64

One of the things that's interesting to me is the resources available at the time - in terms of help. With a game like this now (Say, the excellent Thimbleweed Park - you played it, right?), if you get truly, epically stuck, there's a walk-through no more than a few clicks away. And you'll probably admit defeat and go there after a few hours. When I picked DoTT up (a few seconds after release ;) ), no such thing. You…

They did have hint lines you could call (for a fee!).

Day of the Tentacle even includes its own hint line as a part of a puzzle!

(LucasArts had 1-800-STAR-WARS set up as its hint line. It still plays as an obvious Star Wars joke in the game today, but for kids that were familiar with the hint line it was much more on-the-nose joke about bothering your parents to call for a hint.)

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#83

Post by chrisdfrey »

leibnitz27 wrote: post #64

One of the things that's interesting to me is the resources available at the time - in terms of help. With a game like this now (Say, the excellent Thimbleweed Park - you played it, right?), if you get truly, epically stuck, there's a walk-through no more than a few clicks away. And you'll probably admit defeat and go there after a few hours. When I picked DoTT up (a few seconds after release ;) ), no such thing. You…

The web has had game walkthroughs since I started using it (about 1995). I remember the first walkthrough I looked up was for Space Quest 6.

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#84

Post by jandrese »

theli0nheart wrote: post #72
leibnitz27 wrote: post #64

One of the things that's interesting to me is the resources available at the time - in terms of help. With a game like this now (Say, the excellent Thimbleweed Park - you played it, right?), if you get truly, epically stuck, there's a walk-through no more than a few clicks away. And you'll probably admit defeat and go there after a few hours. When I picked DoTT up (a few seconds after release ;) ), no such thing. You…

> When I picked DoTT up (a few seconds after release ;) ), no such thing. You were in it alone. Maybe there was a magazine write in for hints, and if you were lucky you knew a guy on a BBS, but other than that, you were on your own. That made the puzzles so much sweeter when you got them. Completely agree. Unlike today, there was really no alternative to really thinking "deep" and trying to figure something out on yo…

The flipside is of course that some of those games were near impossible without some kind of hint. The old Hitchhiker's Guide game is the one that comes to mind for me. I read all of the books multiple times as a kid but never got more than halfway through the game. It was just plain cruel to the player.

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#85

Post by kristiandupont »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #71
sebastianconcpt wrote: post #3

I had unforgettable fun with this game. I think only 2 games provided me with so much laugh, this one and The Curse of Monkey Island

Yup, hate how Curse of Monkey Island is almost always forgotten when talking about the series because Gilbert wasn't involved. The game is incredibly beautiful, voice talent flawless and impeccably casted. I wish they had created other adventure games with that iteration of the SCUMM engine.

I loved CoMI as much as the first two games. It seemed to ignore the basic premise of the story which was a hard pill to swallow (still is), but apart from that I found the humor, graphics and everything else to be at least on par.

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#86

Post by theli0nheart »

jandrese wrote: post #84
theli0nheart wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I picked DoTT up (a few seconds after release ;) ), no such thing. You were in it alone. Maybe there was a magazine write in for hints, and if you were lucky you knew a guy on a BBS, but other than that, you were on your own. That made the puzzles so much sweeter when you got them. Completely agree. Unlike today, there was really no alternative to really thinking "deep" and trying to figure something out on yo…

The flipside is of course that some of those games were near impossible without some kind of hint. The old Hitchhiker's Guide game is the one that comes to mind for me. I read all of the books multiple times as a kid but never got more than halfway through the game. It was just plain cruel to the player.

> The flipside is of course that some of those games were near impossible without some kind of hint.

This is true, but it made winning all the more satisfying. :)

Myst comes to mind as another game which was a beast to figure out. Once you did though, you felt like a god.

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#87

Post by dole »

chrisdfrey wrote: post #83
leibnitz27 wrote: post #64

One of the things that's interesting to me is the resources available at the time - in terms of help. With a game like this now (Say, the excellent Thimbleweed Park - you played it, right?), if you get truly, epically stuck, there's a walk-through no more than a few clicks away. And you'll probably admit defeat and go there after a few hours. When I picked DoTT up (a few seconds after release ;) ), no such thing. You…

The web has had game walkthroughs since I started using it (about 1995). I remember the first walkthrough I looked up was for Space Quest 6.

Yeah, walkthroughs whether on the Internet or old dial-ups BBSes, have been around since the invention of the adventure game, or at least the Leisure Suit Larry series.

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#88

Post by Chazprime »

coroxout wrote: post #68
Chazprime wrote: post #65

Man, this takes me back. For me, the two pinnacles of my childhood PC gaming were easily Monkey Island 2 and Day of the Tentacle . I was so thrilled when Ron Gilbert announced his Kickstarter for Thimbleweed Park . Hopefully Disney one day sells him back the rights to Monkey Island, I'd love a true sequel by its creator.

I'd love that too - although I have to say I didn't really like the endings to MI2 or Thimbleweed Park, so I might love it even more if RG writes everything except the ending...

Yeah, the MI2 ending was definitely bizarre, but for me it was an off-the-wall way that made me really interested to see what happens next... Kind of like the ending of Nightmare on Elm Street 2.

Apparently Ron had a final chapter in mind for Monkey Island, but with Disney/Lucas owning the rights, we'll probably never see it. I'm guessing the last chapter might do a bit of retconning on the final moments of Part 2, but no one outside of Ron apparently knows how it ends. :(

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#89

Post by hnick »

chillydawg wrote: post #49
akavel wrote: post #46

To people considering buying it, given so much praise here and in the article, I would like to just ask you to take note of the following quote: > "Of course, there’s no accounting for taste. If you loathe cartoons, perhaps you might not like this game. If you prefer more serious plots or more rigorously cerebral puzzles, perhaps you won’t love it. [...] It remains at the end of the day a slapstick cartoon comedy" Pe…

I think it's probably to do with the fact that many of us here played it when it was first out and were either kids or much younger than we were now. My memory of that game is amazing, but I highly doubt I'd pick it up off the shelf today as my tastes have changed.

After trying The Witness recently, I came to the realisation that I only really enjoy puzzle/adventure games when playing with friends. Probably because I was playing all these old games with friends standing around a PC when I grew up.

Re: Day of the Tentacle

#90

Post by hnick »

agildehaus wrote: post #34
Maro wrote: post #19

Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, floppy disks and dreaming of one day getting a huge 17" CRT monitor on a Pentium, that was my early teenage years.

The Dig was one of my favorites. Conceived by Spielberg with a script by Orson Scott Card of all people.

It was really good but I think it came out at a time where people were moving away from the genre. I don't remember it getting the attention it deserved.
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