I was an introverted teenage girl during the ’90s. Although much of my time was spent hiding behind PC games, my game list was quite short. My parents would not buy games and it was believed that games would get in the way of straight-A’s and homework. So all the games I owned in the 1990s were bought with my own allowance, earned from good grades and chores. For that reason these titles hold a very special place in my heart. I feel lucky to have been part of the gaming revolution that took place around the world during those years and still remember these titles fondly.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
The first time I experienced gaming addiction was with Monkey Island 2. Which led me back to the original and then through all the future releases. This is one of my favorite series of all time. The humor, clever dialog, gameplay, story, and graphics created a perfect game for me. LeChuck tortured me and Guybrush for WEEKS before I finally figured out how to get rid of him. It was a very satisfying ending.
When the iPad version of the game was released, I shared it with my then-4-year-old son, who was immediately drawn to the funny dialog. Sadly, after Disney bought Lucasfilm, the infamous LucasArts titles had been removed from the App Store.
King’s Quest II: Romancing The Throne
King’s Quest II was not your typical point-and-click type of game, as the mouse did not exist at the time of publication. It also did not support sound card; the music was composed entirely using 8-bit sound. The most notable track was Greensleeves from the title screen.
The gameplay required you to type in phrases to trigger actions, phrases like, ‘open mailbox’, ‘take basket’, ‘look inside stump’, ‘pick up brooch’, and ‘rub lamp’. I was 11 years old and thought it was artificial intelligence! It was later I learned that it was just a parser — a very detailed, elaborated, and thorough parser.
The experience ignited my passion for programming, inspired me to create a number of silly ASCII animations and tunes written in 8-bit code. I became a huge Sierra fans ever since.
Police Quest III: The Kindred
After King’s Quest, I got into Police Quest. As a latecomer, I started with PQ3 without experiencing the first two games. The PQ series transitioned to point-and-click interface in PQ3. Sierra cleverly leveraged the new interface to improve the gameplay experience. For instance, players get to examine crime scenes by clicking the magnify glasses on suspicious objects.
All three Police Quest games were connected. Sierra released the Police Quest Collection Series in 1997 that included Police Quest 1 to 3, Open Season and SWAT. I personally could not get into Open Season and SWAT, but appreciated their innovation in interface design. Sierra was ahead of its time, just limited by technology.
Dick Tracy
The DOS version I owned came with multiple 5.25 floppy disks. The gameplay was constantly interrupted by the frequent disk-switch. It was a large game and each floppy was only 1.2 MB in size. Left hand to remove the floppy disk from the computer, while right hand insert the next disk. My fastest record was 2.7 seconds.
In the game, you are Dick Tracy, you have to search crime scenes for evidences and clues, then arrest the villain. It was a deduction game with 2D action, car chase and shoot outs.
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Al Lowe from Sierra, who created Leisure Suit Larry, was my hero. It was brilliant to ask ’80s pop-culture questions to determine whether the player was old enough to play the game; I had to memorize a lot of answers, all of which was learnt from trial and error. In today’s world, this game would have been rated MA.
I learned so much about American pop-culture from playing this game. The dorky jokes were hilarious. Flirting and chasing girls, as Larry, was a lot of fun. Someday, I would love to create a female version of Larry. Game title would be “Leisure Dress Laura Looking For Love”, and it would about a dorky girl chasing boys.
Caesar III
Caesar III was like Sim City but in Ancient Rome. Another great title published by Sierra, Caesar III was a high quality simulation game for its time. It took place in the ancient world, which was fascinating and fun watching the little ancient buildings evolve into beautiful architectures.
As a mayor, you had to manage both foreign affairs and internal affairs through your consults. Trading goods with neighboring cities would build commerce relationship. Invading neighboring states would affect economy and resources.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
I did not get to finish the game. I ran into a bug when I was very close to the climax of the story, the game froze and I lost all progress. I was too sad at the time to restart the game.
It was a very spooky game, kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time, but also kept me highly intrigued. The dark humor balanced well with the eerie intensity.
Tim Curry who played the voice of Gabriel was funny yet solemn. Also featured Leah Remini as his witty assistant Grace, and Star Wars’ Mark Hamill as his best friend Detective Mosely. It was one of the first video games in the early ’90s featuring Hollywood voice acting.
