This is meant to be an extensive list of every possible type of adventure games puzzles ever used in any type of videogames.
You're invited to complete it.
If you read carefully, you'll see that some puzzles are very generic and don't need to be repeated in the list. They can be summarized in an asbtract description, as it's meant here. don't focus on the situations, focus on the mechanism.
Put thing in hole, aka key
There's a hole with a specific shape, and you must find an object tat fits in it.
Seen in : the dig, where you don't really know what you're doing but every hole seems to have a crystal with the same shape meant to fit in it.
Tool
There's a contraption that can work only with a specific tool, that you're expected to identify. You're supposed to understand that it's irreplaceable because of its shape and size.
Seen in: any game with a screwdriver. the tool can have an approximate subsitute, like the spear head in Fate of atlantis or the Monkey wrench in MI2.
Alternate reality
You can visit the same room either in another dimension or in a different time period, and whatever you do here will affect the state of the room in the other "reality".
Seen in : Day of the tentacle (future/past rooms), Unavowed (when you're a ghost nobody sees you while you visit the room)
See also : Only when the lights are off
Remote trigger, aka magnet
The lever in the room is blocked by something that you are never meant to overcome, but you can remotely trigger the object with some other device.
Seen in : Monkey Island, when you steal the key using the magnet. Nelly cootalot, when you work out the lift controls to drop a crate onto the villain.
I can't walk there
There's a part of the room where you can't go but there's counterintuitive way to go there.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when you crawl down the ventialtion shaft to spawn in a different room behind the robot statue. Flight of the amazon queen, when you're in the amazon city and must take the proper corridors to wlak on the other side of a channel.
Trap
There's a critter in a room that walks around seemingly randomly and you must wait for the right time or push it to catch it.
seen in Fate of Atlantis, when you put the ribcage in a pond and wait for a crab to get caught. Also seen in Fate of Atlantis when you wait for the jungle rodent to move in front of the right jungle path.
Hidden dialog
There's a dialog option that will appear only if you follow a specific dialog options sequence and/or exhaust all dialog options. If you choose the wrong option then the dialog "reboots" and the hidden option goes unnoticed.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when you try to convince the bouncer to let you in. Any dialog line where you criticize Madame Sophia brings you back to dialog start. The final winning option is a compliment.
question-answer fight
Any sentence said by the other characer must be answered by you with the corresponding line of dialog until you win.
Seen in : Monkey island (swordfight)
Seen in : Monkey island 3 (insults fight on the seas)
Not to be confused with : memory game, where you have to reproduce a sequence (e.g. the banjo fight in Monkey Island 3)
Have someone else do it
You cannot perform the action yourself but you can ask your sidekick to do it.
Seen in : fate of Atlantis (ask Sophia to do it)
Wait for the right time
The action that you perform will succeed only if you click at the right time / if it matches some not-too-obvious ingame timer.
Seen in : Monkey Island 2 when you must spit precisely when the wind is blowing.
The parrot knows
A dialog option in suggested to you by a character that seems to talk unrelated nonsense.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when the parrot says "hermocrates", which is actually the answer to Sternhardt's riddle. Until then the player character is offered a seemingly infinite number of wrong answers.
Follow the navigator's head
In every room the player must consult a tracking device that tells him to go North, South, East or West.
Seen in : Fate f Atlantis, when you check the orichalcum fish on a string. Monkey Island, when you ceck the navigator's head.
See also : Listen to the noises
Listen to the noises
In every room the player must listen to a sound that tells him/her to go North, South, East or West.
Seen in : Telltale Monkey Island.
See also : Follow the navigator's head
Trigger something in a different room
You activate something in the current room, expecting it to have a consequence in another room, off-screen.
Seen in : last Crusade, in the catacombs, when you unplug the plug on the ceiling and it emptues the pond the room above.
See also : Pull something from a different room
Pull something from a different room
In the passageway leading to the previous room where you left an object, you can still (barely) see that object. You find a way to pull it into the current room.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when you whip in a statue head into the current room, in the Crete labyrinth.
see also : Trigger something in a different room
Empty pond/fill pond
Approximate recipe
You must follow a recipe but you use substitue ingredients, based on puns or resemblance.
Seen in : Monkey Island (use black powder instead of pepper). Kyrandia 2 : all the magic spells.
Disguise
You are forbidden to walk past a certain area unless your character is wearing some outfit
Seen in : Last crusade, where you have to dress as a nazi or as a waiter.
Coordinates
Your guide asks you "where do you want to go?" and you must answer with a set of coordinates that were provided to you separately. Only the proper combination of coordinates works (e.g. "12 degrees South, 6 degrees North")
Seen in : Monkey Island 2 (to find the wreckage of the ship) , Fate of Atlantis (when you go down the entrance of Atlantis in a scaphander)
Repeat until it works
Trigger a room element until it does something. The first attempt doesn't work. You're being given a hint that, even though unsuccessful, every attempt is not the same as the previous one.
Seen in : (I can't remember, but basically the character says something different every time he fails, and eventually succeeds)
See also : Exhaust neverending dialog
Exhaust neverending dialog
Say the same line of dialog repeatedly to a character. He will refuse to do what you ask every time, but finally accepts afyer many attemps.
You're usually given a different answer at every attemp, to give you a hint that each attempt is different.
Seen in : Monkey Island, when you ask the navigator head to give you his magic necklace, and he'll refuse numerous times. All you have to do is to insist.
See also : Repeat until it works
did you listen to what I said?
A character asks you a question about something he said earlier in the game. You need to give the right answer.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when Trottier asks you what his favorite passtime is.
See also : Did you read the book?
Did you read the book?
A character asks you a question about something you're supposed to have read. It's a game designer trick to make sure you're ready to go on with the adventure.
Seen in : Fate of Atlantis, when Trottier asks you questions about the contents of the Lost Dialog to prove to him that you have read it.
See also : Did you listen to what I said?
What would you add to this list?
