Solid Geekery

An article about adventure games that I found recently brought back fond memories from the days when they were much more popular.  I can remember a day when companies like Sierra and LucasArts created games that centered on the story that was being told and the puzzles the gamer had to solve in order to advance.  Before the internet was widely available and multiplayer became all the rage, those adventure games provided hours of entertainment.

In recent years, adventure games seemed on the brink of extinction.  LucasArts, one of the best producers of adventure games, switched to focus mainly on various Star Wars games.  Other companies found a bigger market in first person shooters and multiplayer games.  For a long time, the only news was that adventure games were dying and all that was left was to say the last rites.

Enter the DS

So why haven’t we seen a news story saying that adventure games are finally gone?  They’ve found a bit of new life in an unlikely place, the Nintendo DS.  When you think about it though, the DS seems like the perfect platform for adventure games.  It has a touch screen that is perfect for puzzles.  It has two screens so you can still see the adventure scene while you look through items in your inventory.  Perhaps the most important feature of all is the sleep feature when the DS is closed.  If you’re at a point in the game where you can’t save but have to stop playing, you can just close the lid on the DS.  It will remember where you were when you pick it up again.

There are several games now available of the adventure variety:

• Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney - In this game, you play novice attorney Phoenix Wright. People come to you with cases they want you to defend in court, and you help them by finding evidence and digging up contradictions in witness testimony.
• Professor Layton and the Curious Village - In this game, you play Professor Layton as he tries to solve the mystery of where in a quaint little village a treasure was hidden when a rich resident passed away. In order to progress in the game and get information from the villagers, you have to complete puzzles that the villagers give you. There are all different types of puzzles to solve, and overall the game is rather challenging.
• Hotel Dusk - In this game, you play a salesman named Kyle Hyde as he tries to solve a mystery about what happened in room 215 at Hotel Dusk. To play the game, you actually hold the DS on its side, and it’s more like reading a book than playing a game. With the touch pad, you explore the hotel, talk to the other characters, and search for clues to solve the mystery. This game is almost like reading an interactive mystery novel.

ScummVM 

I’ve always been a huge fan of games in the adventure and role-playing genres, so I’m really excited to see the DS hosting an increasing number of these types of games.  For those who still remember fondly the old days, it’s possible to get some of those old games running on newer systems like the DS or the Sony PSP.  Check out the ScummVM site to download free software that lets you run those old games on newer platforms.  Some of the platforms that can support it include Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, PocketPC, PalmOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, DS, PSP, and PS2.  The only stipulation is that you must have the original games to copy some of the data files that the virtual machine uses.