An actual adventure game where you die from trying to pick up a sharp object?

[Gaucelm]

Long ago, when I've read the Sam & Max Hit The Road manual, there was a part where they would say something like "don't worry about dying just because you tried to pick up an object that was a bit sharp!". And I feel like I've read this joke a couple times more in other places.

Does anyone remember an adventure game where this happens? Trying to pick up an object, but it being sharp causes the protagonist to die?

I have the feeling that this is a Sierra adventure game, possibly a King's Quest one (although I only finished the first and second ones), because it sounds like the absurd deaths that'd occur (and Monkey Island I did have a fake Sierra parody death), but I have trouble believing something this absurd from such a clumsy protagonist would happen.

[Armageddon]

iirc from an old Lucas Arts interview about Hit The Road they said a playtester got stuck because they wouldn't pickup a knife or something. The playtester had never played video games before, which is usually a pretty good person to test your game. It's always been interesting to me the perspective of people that have never played games. There's so much visual/mechanical language we take for granted as players because 'that's just how games are.' Most normal people think of things in such a real world way when playing for a first time.

[Fitz]

That is so true. But even if you're an avid gamer, there will still be surprises. Before I had my first pc, I only had C-64 and NES -- and arcade games were all I knew. So imagine my puzzlement when I first played Fate of Atlantis. There was the tutorial level that let you ease into the new game mechanics -- but still: talking to people? picking up objects? And it wasn't until a month later or so that a friend told me of this amazing feature called SAVEGAME! So, before that happened, for a few weeks I'd start the game from scratch each day and go over the same locations, mechanically repeating the same actions day after day.

And yeah, it does sound like a thing Sierra would do. I think it was Grundislav who mentioned one instance where you got naked -- as a result of which you died of shame.

[Babar]

Some of the older adventure games were incredibly unfair in certain respects, but I found that they all had a specific weird little ruleset they approximately adhered to.
The only point and click adventure game I remember being able to die from picking something up (that was not obviously dangerous, like a coin in water next to live cables or something) was Space Quest IV's unstable ordinance. That was evil .

[Radiant]

This sounds like either Uninvited or Shadowgate; their author Mindcom was even bigger on the "ha ha you're dead" factor than Sierra was.

That said, it is certainly true that in Sierra games you can die from shame (Police Quest I), being a jerk (Codename: Iceman) and the ever-popular Not Buying A Saurus (Quest for Glory II).

[Trapezoid]

Sierra-style deaths were honestly pretty fun and I wish more games had them, as long as there's an autosave. Walking deads/dead ends can eat it, though.

[Snarky]

I could have sworn there really was a game where you die if you try to pick up some everyday sharp object (a knife or a pair of scissors or something). Of course the Sierra games come immediately to mind (Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Laura Bow are some possibilities), but it might also be an old text adventure (HHGTTG?).

[Radiant]

Near the beginning of Space Quest III, picking up a sharp piece of metal causes Roger to accidentally kill himself with it...

[nihilyst]

No knife here, but in Black Mirror, there is this scene where there's an electric cable hanging from the wall, sparks coming out. I clicked it to check the response the character would give me; and the idiot just grabbed it and got electrocuted. I didn't expect him to do that, as in most modern adventures, you just would have earned a comment about your idiocy.

[Snarky]

Near the beginning of Space Quest III, picking up a sharp piece of metal causes Roger to accidentally kill himself with it...

Ah, that's probably the one I was thinking of! (Only heard about it second-hand or in a walkthrough; haven't played it myself.)

[Darth Mandarb]

Ah, that's probably the one I was thinking of! (Only heard about it second-hand or in a walkthrough; haven't played it myself.)

WHAT?!?!?!  Where are you?  I will bring you a copy of the game right now!!!

REASON: favorite game of all time

[AnasAbdin]

REASON: favorite game of all time

SQ ]|[ is the reason why I make adventure games.

[Snarky]

If I'm not completely misremembering, didn't someone do a public playthrough of all the Space Quest games on a projector screen at Mittens in Miami? (My first Mittens!)  Maybe I saw it there?

[AGA]

That's the only Mittens I can remember that had a projector, so it doesn't sound completely made up.

[Blackthorne]

I was 12. Got Space Quest III for my birthday.  Picked up sharp piece of metal, and Roger Wilco became a blood fountain.

It was like discovering the holy grail.  Every time I make a game, I try to make an homage to that beautiful blood geyser. 

Bt

[Monsieur OUXX]

That moment when you realize that the Space-Quest-]|[ fanbase is actually some sort of morbid blood-fetish cult.

[Gaucelm]

So it was a reference to Space Quest 3 all along... it has become a bit of adventure-gaming's version of "It was a dark and stormy night/The butler did it", I guess.

Personally, I became less of a fan of the Sierra adventure games after getting in too many unwinnable dead ends.
Maybe because I was spoiled by the Lucas Arts titles where you would be prevented from going forward by any way possible if you didn't pick up the necessary items or interact with the right people (despite trying intentionally to get in a dead end, for fun).