Wich adventure games, have you completed without using a walkthrough?

[Minimi]

I was wondering this, as I'm playing Grim Fandango now for over a year, and I just finished "Year 1", of the game. I couldn't figure one puzzle out, with a sign in the ground.

I refuse to use a walkthrough, to finish games, though I did use for some games, like "The Longest Journey", and "The Uncertainty Machine", the walkthrough to complete it. I broke my commitment there.

I finished the following games on my own :

Amerzone
Syberia(cd1 finished, playing at cd2)
Myst 1
Jack Orlando
Ark of Time
Blade Runner
Broken Sword 2
Kings Quest VII
Goblins III

all other games, I'm still playing or gave up on. I'm talking about the big games here. So my question to you is : Do you often use walkthroughs for an adventure game? Or do you refuse to use them? And wich games have you honestly completed without a walkthrough/cheating? To my opinion, alot of games are just too hard!  :

[Darth Mandarb]

You know? ...

I don't think I've ever finished one without some kind of 'cheat'.

As much as I like them.  And as much as I love making them ... I'm afraid I'm not very good at them.

[Mr_Frisby]

I finished a heap before the internet was so readily available - You used to have to buy walkthroughs in magazines (what the . .?) I once bought a magazine to finish some text adventures and early KQ adventures - but they just gave hints not walkthroughs and I still found it hard to finish them.
Ones that I definately remember not using cheats for -

Kq 6 (the one twoth the minotaur)
Pq3 & 4
Spacequest 3, 4 & 5
Grimfandango
LBA
Full Throttle
MI 1 (but not 2 I got stuck with not knowing I could cut the pirates fricken wooden leg off!!)
MI 4 (but not 3 - too stupid to even know the barbers seat went up more the more you pushed the $%^ lever!!!)
Broken sword III (what a bunch of crap)

um - i'm sure theres more but I can't think of them now

oh yeah - all the Mysts
The Dig
City of Lost Children (stupid)
And the first Alone in the dark.

I used to be pretty good at them - but lately I seem to be getting rusty!. 

[Darth Mandarb]

I also remember getting 30-40 dollars worth of charges on my parent's phone bill calling the Sierra hotline back in the day.

I had the sequences memorized leading up to the part I was stuck at and I would just fly through the buttons in order to get there faster and not spend too much time on the phone ... it WAS 1.99 a minute you know!!

Ahhh ... the memories.

[ScottDoom]

Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max
Leisure Suit Larry 6

I'm also currently working on beating Broken Sword 3 with my girlfriend, without using a walkthrough. Other than that, I've always used a walkthrough for a hint here or there.

[Redwall]

Day of the Tentacle
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Blade Runner
Myst
Myst III: Exile

I think when a person gets stuck on a puzzle game it can sometimes totally break the experience (the Dig's turtle puzzle, anyone?). But it took me about four years to complete the Fate of Atlantis (I was around 8 when I got it), and it's my favorite game ever, so... maybe not. (I still have the path through the volcano to the Collassus memorized... woah) I do think that using a walkthrough for a puzzle-oriented game like Myst is stupid because that's the entire point of the game, whereas using a walkthrough for something like Grim Fandango is okay with me.

[BOYD1981]

Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit The Road
Beneath A Steel Sky

i got all those games before i had internet access, i've been playing more games without cheating lately and feeling better for it when i finish them, but some things in adventure games are so blindingly obvious when you just put your mind to it that i like to think of using a walkthrough as something you use to disguise the smell of a brainfart...

i also completed Blade Runner without any kind of help.

other non-adventure games i've completed without cheats or help:
Unreal,
Halo,
Soul Reaver 2,
and probably a few others that i forget, i'm also very close to completing Deus Ex 2 and haven't cheated once

[ScottDoom]

I never use cheats on non-adventure games. I just think that sometimes we adventure game players tend to think to hard, or we forget to remember certain real-life things.

For example, I was stuck in Syberia 2 on the clock puzzle. I saw that the hour clock hand was near the 3, but not exactly on it, and that the minute hand was on 45 or something. So I set the time below to 3:45, and nothing happened. I pressed a few things here and there, went around some more talking to people but I couldn't think of anything. So I looked at a walkthough which told me to put the timer thing to 2:45. I was like: "2:45? I'm pretty sure that hour hand was next to 3 hour mark." Then I realized I was a dumbass and forgot how to read normal clocks, as I grew up with digital clocks around the home.

And yeah, Redwall, that turtle puzzle on The Dig was annoying. I remember looking up a solution on the internet, and it just saying something like: "Move the bone pieces into the imprints that they match." I just worked on and off at it for a month or so, and then finally got it.

By the way, speaking of walkthroughs, does anyone remember UHS (Universal Hint System?) files or something like that? You'd use a UHS reader to load up the files for the specific game, and it'd have topics and stuff you could choose from to get the right info you needed, without ruining anything else. The last I heard of them, they weren't free anymore, and now they're no longer around I guess...

[Snarky]

Back when I was a kid and games came on floppies, I would be playing the games with friends. Either together sitting around the same computer, or at least in parallel, discussing puzzles at school the next day. We didn't have any walkthroughs or hint books, but being more people certainly helped: if we got stuck on a puzzle we would take turns trying to crack it while the others played Nintendo or watched TV or whatever the hell we did back in those days.

I kinda miss that.Ã,  :'( When I play an adventure game now, it's by myself. When I get stuck there's no one to help me out, and so I'll take a peek at a walkthrough.

UHS is still around. Just type the letters into Google. Most of the hint files remain free.

[shbaz]

I never cheated until I got the internet (at age 14) and even then not very often.

I did buy the Myst guide though, because that game was hard as hell for a 12 year old.

[Haddas]

It DOES still exist! http://www.uhs-hints.com/
You can still use it for free online as you can see here... http://www.uhs-hints.com/hints/

I use it all the time

[Minimi]

I remember too, the times playing on the NES 8-bit, CD-I, or MSX. Trying to get any further on a game, with some other people.
I remember we got stucked in Zelda, from the NES. We called an very expensive number, without telling our parents, wich was an NES-Infoline. We got to hear then, that you had to use the flute, at the lake to get to Level7.

Ooh the good old times. Me playing, together with my brother games, on the MSX, and CD-I (that darn cd-i gone all out of business). We bytheway still play Antartica, game from the MSX.

and I'm glad to see, I'm not the only one, with problems finishing games!


PS: the best game story I think is the one of Amerzone. I am really still convinced, that it is based on the truth!   

[Radiant]

Let's see...
Spellcasting 101, 201
Sorcerer
Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Loom
Monkey Island, MI2 in lite mode (if that counts )
Indy Fate of Atlantis
Black Cauldron, Mother Goose
SQ1,3,5
KQ1,2,4,6
PQ2
LL2
Savage Empire, Martian Dreams

[Lazy Z]

The ones that come to mind right now are the following:

Monkey Island 1, 2 (lite, of course) and 3
Quest for Glory 3
Loom
Sam n' Max
Full Throttle
... and I used a walkthrough only once in Broken Sword, does that count?

[Babar]

The same here, I completed a lot of games without walkthroughs before I got the net. That is not to say I did not get help from friends and family. Some games I finished are:
Monkey Island 2 (But only the easy one. In the Hard version I needed help)
Sam 'n Max
Day of the Tentacle
King's Quest 5,6 and 7
Space quest 4,5
Indiana Jones took me the longest to ever complete. I started when I was 7 or 8 and completed it when I was 14. Of course, that was also because of a whole lot of moving and losing the CD. One part I got stuck in (quite foolishly for many months) was where you had to

Spoiler

point the transitor(sp?) at the two horns. I kept pointing them IN between. It took a long time to notice that the mural had them from the outside. Another stupid part I got stuck in, and this for years was where you needed the ladder to cross the chasm to get the cup. I had left the ladder outside, not knowing I would need it.
Monkey Island 1 also took many years, but only because I was so frustrated that I left it. First time I used the net in my life, I looked for "Monkey Island walkthrough". I just never realised that you could actually USE the brochures for something (ie. give to the cannibals)

[close]

I used to have a cd: "SOLUTION CD 96" which had walkthroughs for a whole bunch of games. I used it for some of the harder games I played. I never found a Solution CD 97, but after I got the internet, I stopped looking. I guess no one would buy something like that when you could get it online for free

[Timosity]

To be honest I can't really remember as I've got atleast 1 hint in most.

Before the internet, I remember getting walkthru's from some BBS, and before that, I just had to wait until I got to school to see if anyone had got past the particular part.

dialling the sierra-online hintline internationally was not something I considered as my parents would have killed me.


I've finished a lot more AGS games without walkthru's

I defenately Finished these games without walkthru's (although some were joint efforts with friends)

LSL 3
SQ 3
Hero's Quest - that was my biggest achievement (game wise) at the time I thought
MI 3 & 4
Full Throttle (in one sitting)
Grim Fandango
Broken Sword 2

One's I know I definately cheated (although some I only may have got a few hints)

LSL 1,2,5,6,7
QG 2,3,4
KQ 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
Colonel's Bequest, Dagger of Amon Ra
SQ 1,2,4,5,6
PQ 1,2,3
Sam & Max
Maniac Mansion, DOTT
MI 1,2

ETC...........

At the moment I'm playing Broken Sword 3, and I haven't cheated yet, I'm in the castle

[Pesty]

Most of the games I played before 1997 were won without any walkthroughs. One time we call the hintline, sometimes we had guide books, but not often. Because there are so many, I can't list them all. FOA, Sam and Max, the Dig, Full Throttle, DOTT, every Monkey Island game, all of the Kings Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and Quest for Glory games (except KQ5. That was the one game we called the hintline for), Princess Tomato (no, I can't make a post about adventure games without mentioning it).

[Haddas]

I haven't playd that many, but LBA 2 and Zork: Grand Inquisitor have been completed without walkthrough as far as I remember. I recommend those 2 to everyone who hasn't played them allready

[Sam.]

all four MIs (except MI3 hard)
SAm and Max HTR
Fullthrottle
BS 1,2,3
The dig (except turtle puzzle where my grandad helped me)
BASS
Loom
Grim Fandango
Myst 1
CSI 1 and 2 (do they count?)
FOA

but i have  ALOT of time on my hands and i take a looooong time

[Yufsie Esq]

I've completed every adventure game I have ever played without a walkthrough. You see, I didn't get the internet until 1999. So I had no choice. And by the time I had the ABILITY to get walkthroughs, I had become clever enough to work puzzles out on my own.

Oh, except one part of Discworld Noir. I needed a walkthrough for that.