Hi! I'm not sure why do I want to know this but it would be nice to know which game "invented" this genre. I can't really find any info on that.

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http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/01/history-of-graphic-adventures/
More info that supports Enchanted Scepters as the first one using mouse

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Wikipedia seems to suggest Mystery House as first adventure game.

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But, Mystery House isn't p&c, my good fellow ;D

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Yeah I realised. xD But it's a start. :)

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Doesn't seem at first glance,
but this question is hard to answer.
I will do some research, but I'm sure there will be a lot controversy about the "first" one.

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That said, the first one I ever saw was LOOM,
but maybe there was something before, like the game Ekaros suggest...

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Probably not the first-first I played, but to me it was the first great colorful one, since I learned of good old Lucasarts through it :

Loom -> http://store.steampowered.com/app/32340/

It was one of their first full adventure games after all (well along with some indiana jones ones) before the barrage of 90s masterpieces.
It was kinda short though. :P Check the above answers for further back in history however. If you go as back as text adventures go, keep in mind that you are looking at b&w early 80s mostly. Sierra etc. Or even further back if you remove graphics completely

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8 years ago
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Yeah, not sure if the first one,
but maybe the first one to "hit" the big market.

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Maniac Mansion was first from LucasFilms I think.

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You are right!

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That specific game Ekaros mentioned was so damn unlucky in my book. I actually got aware of it's presence after 2005 or so and never got round to play it. Despite the fact that I've finished all lucasarts games from the 90s at least 2-3 times each... including their latter grim fandango/monkey island 4 . :O

Those old days we didn't even have internet to learn of the games that existed!! :O Sounds so distant now...

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What about Zak Mckracken ;) ?

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Maniac Mansion is the first that I can remember...

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The original King's Quest, from 1984 would be a good contender for it. It's considered by many as the father of modern adventure games.

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Indeed. After seeing the wikipedia page too, I'd say we'd end up on this one as the earliest good one with graphics. It's a shame I didn't play it in the 90s in my adventure spree.

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It's not the first graphics one. To my knowledge, the first graphical adventure game is Mystery House, also by Sierra. Roberta & Ken Williams, who made King's Quest 4 years later, made this game as well. Mystery House is crude by today's standards, but it did help shape the genre into what we have today.

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Original versions where parser games though I believe.

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But it doesn't use the p&c mechanic,
you have to input text-commands.

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King's Quest is a text adventure game, not point-and-click.

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The first one that i saw: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_Mansion (1987)

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Enchanted Scepters (1984) by Silicon Beach Software on the macintosh.
Some info on it here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/01/history-of-graphic-adventures/

8 years ago
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+1 Just saw that info a moment ago

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Agree. Enchanted Scepters is one of the earliest point-and-click adventure games, if not the first.

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Well it was my first game altogether and it was Hollywood monsters, it was a demo i think but it was awesome

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I would say maniac mansion in the top of my head, it was the first game with the SCUMM engine...

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Brings back very sweet memories - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_Madness - for me this was the one :P

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On my Win3.11/DOS 6.22 rig! ^ ^

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

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This particular game was just soooo amazing for it's time. Spent countless hours as a kid to finish it 3+ times, since it supported (3) different paths that required solving puzzles in different ways. Just to get those few points missing. :O To be honest it beats all other adventures combined from those early years...

PS : I still remember the Parrot riddle, with Plato. xD

8 years ago
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Pretty much the same story here and my second choice would be the first Broken Sword. :-)

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I admit broken sword was pure fun, but honestly this was an easy game man ! :) Surely the harder ones were the more memorable no? I loved it but still can't compare in clocked hours and brain activity with Day of the tentacle, monkey island 2 or indiana jones imo. :P

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Yes true, but Broken Sword had the goat. :-)

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I can assume something like this :)

View attached image.
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lol good one :D

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Which game invented the genre, and which game is the first will give you two different answers. Point & click adventures grew out of text parser games, and for a not insignificant amount of time, there were hybrids (in fact, hybrids existed well into the 90's, with games such as Larry 7 still keeping a text parser). Even when we get to the first purely mouse driven games, such as the Macventure series & Enchenter Scepters (might be wrong on the later as I've not played it), they still kept a lot of the text parser things, but instead of typing "go door" you would click on the word "go" and then click on the door. Games like King's Quest are still text parser-based but are closer to point & click games in how they play than the earlier text parser games, and thus mark an important step in the evolution of point & click games.

So really, what I'm trying to say is that while we can point you to the earliest P&C game, it's questionable if it will really give you the answer that you're looking for, as adventure games existed before, and would be recognized as adventure games by someone who only know P&C adventure games.

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Dracula: The Resurrection. It was fun back then, could not play it now.

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The first one I played was Myst 1993. Not the first to be made, but it was pretty popular.

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I was reading all the replies and I would like to thank you for everyone who replied. I've learned a lot. Big respect to you all!

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You've already gotten a lot of good info, but I just wanted to weigh in that the history and roots of P&C adventures really lies with text parser / interactive fiction games, and one of the most notable games that kind of set the whole genre in motion is the Zork series by Infocom in the late 1970's. For those interested in video gaming history, this is a title that you should definitely know about.

In the mid 80's, Sierra kind of took the torch lit by Infocom and started combining text parser interactive fiction with graphics to huge commercial success, and games like King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Heroe's Quest were born. In the early 90's, they abandoned the text parser and switched to the full mouse controls -- perhaps somewhat inspired by the entry of LucasArts into the genre with titles like Maniac Mansion in the late 80's.

I, for one, was always a little sad that the text parser had just been almost completely abandoned from a large, commercial standpoint. In my opinion, the text parser gave the games a very unique illusion of freedom and non-linearity. It allowed one to connect more deeply and insert your own kind of personality into the characters and narrative. I really hope that at some point in the near future text or voice parsing makes a return to mainstream gaming -- and I think it may be possible with such things as VR units and better voice recognition and natural language parsing starting to become more usable.

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Adventure(1976) was the first adventure game. That's the origin of the genre's name.
Mystery House(1980) was the first adventure game with graphics.
Enchanted Sceptres(1984) was the first with graphics and a mouse pointer.
Below the Root (1984)(arcade adventure) introduced the graphics on top with selectable words below with joystick control
Manic Mansion(1987) brought in the point and click with mouse or joystick to control both movement above and word selection below.

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Closed 1 year ago by Elinor.