How Point & Click Adventure Games Have Evolved
The first Point & Click adventure game I ever played was Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders on my friend’s IBM PC. It was one of the earlier games written by what would later become LucasArts, and whilst it contains many of the same elements that made later games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle so great, you can clearly see the many ways in which their games have evolved over the years. They had yet to formulate their famous philosophy that means you can never die in their games, and when you couple that with the large number of ways in which you could get yourself into situations from which you had no way to proceed (like running out of money on your cash card, or forgetting to pick up that vital item you’d need later) you had to make jolly sure you remembered to save your game regularly.
It encourages me to remember that Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert worked on both Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken before going on to create his masterpiece, since it’s undoubtedly the lessons learnt on those earlier projects that made Monkey Island what it is. My first Bible-teaching Adventure Game may not be perfect, but as long as it doesn’t put me off trying a second or a third then there’s hope yet!
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