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For those who missed it when I dropped by earlier:
http://www.minecraftskins.com/skin/20015

Feel free to use it!

I played the demo a couple months ago and I loved it but I'm not sure I like their idea of having a single player game playable only online. I'll probably end up buying it at some point but I hope they'll release an offline version when they're done with it.

You know why people speculate their dead? Cause they stop evolving!! Cause purists and hardcore fans that bragged about finding logic on a completely retarded puzzle are considered as geniuses in the genres!

It was more complicated than that. The death of adventure game coincided with plenty of factors: A complete change in PC owner demographic, the rise of the internet and multiplayer games, the arrival of 3D, the golden age of many, many other genres (FPS, RPG, Stealth, RTS, Turn Based Strategy, Sim games)... it's all of these factors happening at the same time that killed adventure gaming back then.

I second what you said about DOTT. That game had the best puzzles I ever seen. The only game that came close that DOTT when it comes to fun, witty and original puzzles was Time Gentlemen Please.

And I don't consider myself a purist. I am a purist in the sense that I want puzzles in my adventure games, I want adventure games that require me to turn on my brain and creativity to overcome challenges, but I don't care much if said challenges are classic items on items puzzles or new gimmicks. Go ahead and invent new gimmicks or rip off existing ones I don't really care, as long my brain is still required to progress in the game I'm fine with gimmicks, I'd even like to see more if they make new types of puzzles and stories possible.

I wasted far too much time in my youth playing useless and swallow games. The damage is done but it had a couple of positive effects on my life, the first is I can now recognize games that tries to waste my time with swallow mechanics and skinner box and ignore them, the second being that I now find myself with a very long list of actually good games I missed while I was playing these swallow games, which means I never have to wait for new games to come out because I always have cheap old games to play, and while I'm busy playing them, the price of new games and hardware drops steadily.

The last time I paid more than 20 bucks for a game was 5 years ago, when Blood Money came out, because even if I'm busy playing old game, there's still new games I want to play ASAP. And now with Steam sales, I don't think I ever will pay more than 20.

It's been done a couple times, there's one with 100 Click games in 10 minutes, each games having 6 seconds. Pixel Prospector did two, one with 190 indie games currently in development and one with 235 free indie games.

I think it would be especially effective at spreading the word about AGS games since indie games outlet appeared around 2007 and the games from 2000-2007 are largely uncovered, and save for a handful of people here who spread the word beyond this forum, most of the coverage AGS receives on these outlets is limited to the Top 20 features posted at the beginning of the year, so if these outlets were to pick up that video, most of the folks who would watch it would have no idea most of these games existed before.

Show interesting or funny scenes during these 6 seconds, choose a nice adventurey soundtrack to fill this 10 minutes put the name in the top corner and that's it. No need for the cup ratings, by choosing 100 out of the 1000 or so games in the database, you're already choosing the cream of the crop.

It would also be a nice project for the 11 or so years we've been around.

As for games in question:
The Apprentice games
Cedric And the Revolution
Reactor 09
Anything by Ben
The Shivah
The Blackwell games
Pleurghburg
Nanobots
Spooks
Anything by ProgZMax, but Dance 'Til You Drop is a must
Heartland
A Second Face
The Ben Jordan games
The Barn Runner games
FOY Demo
Knightsquire
Super Jazz Man
McCarthy's Chronicles
Cure For The Common Cold
AeroNuts
Alien Time Zone
Abducted 10 Minutes
Anna
Art Of Theft
Adventures In A Galaxy Of Fantabulous Wonderment
A Woman For All Seasons
Automation
Ben There Dan That / Time Gentlemen Please
Celtic Chaos
Back Door Man
Cold Meat
Calsoon
Chick Chaser
Cirque De Zale
Damsel
Beauties And Beasts
Coyote
Death Ep 1
By The Numbers
Downfall
Dr Lutz
Duty And Beyond
Earl Bobby
Earl Mansin
Emily Enough
Erk
Gesundheit
Grrr Bearly Sane
Hallways Of Adventure
Just Another P&C Adventure
The King's Quest, Quest for Glory remakes
Kuma Story
Loftus And The Sky Cap
Magsic
Maniac Mansion Deluxe
Merry Xmas Alfred Robbins
Murder In A wheel
Nelly Cootalot
Perils Of Poom
Once Upon A Crime
Permanent Daylight
ATOTK
READY starring Ready Eddie
Rein
Winter Rose
Snakes Of Avalon
Space Pool Alpha
Sidney Finds Employment
Star Trek Newton
Fatman
The Family Treasure
Da New Guys
The Farm
Trilby Notes
The Great Stroke Off
Infinity String
Journey Down
Marionette
The Young Chronicles Of Gabriel King
Tiltor
Castle Of Fire
Colourwise
Frank the Farmhand
H2G2
1st Drop
Odot Tamat On
Murphy's Salvage
This Odd Feeling
Thorak And Steve
Linus Bruckman
Little Girl In Underland
Historical League Of Bouncy Boxing
Some RON games thrown in the mix

That's it, I let you guys cover the games I haven't played yet or the games I managed to forget.

11 years, I feel so old.

I would argue that the adventuregameness of adventure games have nothing to do with puzzles at all. In fact, puzzles were probably the most frustrating part of adventure games of yore.

One could also argue that battles and platforming were the most frustrating part of Prince Of Persia Sands Of Time and that its narrative was what made that game truly memorable, does that mean combat, action and platforming should be entirely removed from the definition of what an action-adventure game is? Are action-adventure games just about exploration and narrative? Would it be feasible to create an action-adventure title that does not feature action or stealth or platforming or challenges or rules or decisions whatsoever? Would it be ok to label such thing an "action-adventure game" or even a "game"?

No, it would not. The narrative in action-adventure games or adventure games or any other games for that matter is a reward for overcoming the challenges present in the game, just like encountering a new type of enemy, or finding a new weapon, or a new ability, or an interesting character, or a joke, or entering a new world with different graphics. Yes it's often the part that we like the most, yes it's often the part that we remember the most, but genres are not defined by their rewards but by their challenges, rules, goals and decisions they asks us to take (which I'm now going to refer as gameplay).

If said gameplay is frustrating, it doesn't means it needs to be removed, it means it needs to be better designed, better implemented. Because the moment you changes the gameplay of a game, it switches genres, remove the running, gunning and theft out of GTA and it becomes a racing game, removes battle out of Prince Of Persia and it becomes a platformer, removes the platforming and it becomes an hack and slash. Remove all gameplay from a game and it stop being a game, it becomes an interactive movie where I must keep a finger on the "Play" button for the story to unfold.

And puzzles are part of the definition of adventure games. Changing them for mechanics and challenges that do not require reflection and creativity will result with a completely different genre, remove them entirely and you get interactive movies. If a puzzle is frustrating, it's the puzzle designer that is to blame not the puzzle itself. I believe creating interesting puzzles that are fun to solve and fit inside the narrative and the game world itself is a lost art, one very few could master, Tim Schafer being one of the rare person who could. And we certainly need this art to be found again, practiced, developed, because the more fun puzzles are going to be, the more compelling adventure games will be. And I take a MM, DOTT, MI1, Loom, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango or Time Gentlemen Please with puzzles over one without any day.

The escapist posted that article on the subject:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_284/8425-Give-Me-An-Axe-Ive-Had-Enough-Of-This-Puzzle

It's been 2 weeks, have they grown back?

Phemar: It's also possible to purchase an account as gift. I'm sure you'll find a cool dude or dudette to buy you one.

Also, Minecraft will enter beta on December 20. At this point it will cost 15 bucks instead of 10 and it is also unknown if the promise that everyone who bought the game during alpha will receive updates for free will still apply to the people who purchases it during beta, so if you've been interested in this game but haven't purchased it yet (or if you want to buy accounts for your friends) now is your last chance to get the complete package for cheap.

What kind of video will that be? One of those video where each games have 6 seconds, for a grand total of 100 games shown in 10 minutes? If so, when you get your list of 100 games, I suggest you find what area each games excel at and showcase that, some games have great jokes, for others it's the animation or puzzles or gameplay that would shine the most in a video.

All GOG games are up to 50% off for the holidays, if you missed a sale, here's your chance.

And on a completely different subject, if you're into these little flash adventure games where you must click on objects in a certain order to make your character reach the next room, give a look at Fallen From The Moon.

Wait a minute... if you buy three games it's $7 but if you buy only two it's $8...

Silly GOG, I wasn't planning to get BS3 but I suppose I will.

Alone In The Dark 1,
Blade Runner,
Goblins 1-2-3,
Gabriel Knight,
Gold Rush,
KGB,
Machinarium,
Project Firestart,
Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites,
Superhero League Of Hoboken,
Time Gentlemen Please...

5 years ago it was fantastic. 5 years ago Avast was catching nearly everything. It was damn slow, but it was catching everything. Then Kaspersky came and not only it caught everything and the stuff Avast, AVG and co were missing, but it was updated every 4 hours and it was 5 times faster than Avast, even when all the scanning options were turned all the way up to eleven. And my firewall was blocking 100 or so high rated alerts every days.

Those days are gone. I tried them all. I tried avira, avg, Avast, Kaspersky... Nowadays antivirus softwares are either incompetent at finding virus, or super effective but bloat your computer more than any virus wish they could (didn't I told you about Kaspersky that added a minute of loading time to every AGS games I launched?). As for my firewall, ever since I installed it (more than 6 months ago), it blocked nothing, 0 low rated, 0 high rated intrusion attempts. Other than nagging me with pop ups every time I launch an indie game, I'm not even sure if it's working.

I don't know, maybe the internet has really become safer or it's me who's just less stupid and doesn't get infected every weeks or something, but I miss the days when those software really were useful (or when they gave me the impression they were.)

I remember having a crush on Grace the first time I played GK1. Considering half the emails Ponch receives are about Dr. Noriko, I find it strange she has not been mentioned yet.

I stood next to a fire, there was a gust of wind and before I knew it my eyebrows and bit of my beard were gone.

Funny, I always thought you were a girl due to your nick.

Yeah, I get that often.

I dont remember where I heard this or if it's true (I suspect not) but i heard its possible that eyebrows will sometimes never grow back if shaved off or take a long time.

I heard that they sometimes grow back UNDER the eyes.

But seriously, this thread creeps me out.

The only post  here that's creepy is yours, Ascovel! [/shake fist]

I stood next to a fire, there was a gust of wind and before I knew it my eyebrows and bit of my beard were gone. It was a long time ago so I don't remember how long it took for them to grow back, I suppose they grow at the same rate as other facial hair, so in two weeks you should be fine.

Finished it yesterday, I liked the dancing puzzles.

How did you know I'd be eating a cookie when I read the manual??!!