by Roody_Yogurt » Sat Mar 12, 2022 12:21 pm
If we're limited to one answer, mine would have to be Lurking Horror. One of the first two legitimately-obtained Infocom games I ever owned, I played it at a time where it was still a bit above my reading comprehension level. Without any knowledge of what "Lovecraftian" even meant, every new creature or eerie element introduced in the game really blew my mind, so it had the most "whoa" moments.
If we're free to spew as many games as we want, Ballyhoo, the other of the first legitimate games would also be up there. Funny how one has you perpetually in a freezing winter night and the other is a nice August night, and I spent so much time in each. As someone who has put so many hours into Ballyhoo, I know how to milk it for all its worth- like knowing which NPCs actually give useful responses about other characters- and without that knowledge, I can easily imagine how it hasn't aged well for the average person. Those bits of info can be very hard to find. That's part of the reason I covered Ballyhoo in my "Old-School Transcripts" project.
Later on (but before LToI), I legitimately owned Witness, and I have to agree with pinback that it is great. For me, more than any other Infocom game, it just oozed coolness and really nailed Classic Hollywood noir.
After I got "Lost Treasures of Infocom," of course, Planetfall had its big emotional moment, which still stands tall among of IF's big emotional moments, even if I can't argue with those who call it contrived and manipulative.
Wishbringer blew me away with just how well-designed it was, fairly moderate difficulty level with two solutions to every major puzzle. Its plot and set pieces aren't anything special, but it was the first game where the design alone really wowed me.
And when I got "Masterpieces of Infocom", playing A Change in the Weather and realizing that there was an online community writing IFjust like Infocom was a life-changing experience.
Lastly, when I finally got around to beating Necrotic Drift, years after its release, and I saw that the character that had me as its avatar gave a little speech using words I had written on this very forum (all to a very cool song by pinback, btw), it was just a really cool moment for me. I was going through a bit of a dark patch in life at the time and it really picked me up.
If we're limited to one answer, mine would have to be Lurking Horror. One of the first two legitimately-obtained Infocom games I ever owned, I played it at a time where it was still a bit above my reading comprehension level. Without any knowledge of what "Lovecraftian" even meant, every new creature or eerie element introduced in the game really blew my mind, so it had the most "whoa" moments.
If we're free to spew as many games as we want, Ballyhoo, the other of the first legitimate games would also be up there. Funny how one has you perpetually in a freezing winter night and the other is a nice August night, and I spent so much time in each. As someone who has put so many hours into Ballyhoo, I know how to milk it for all its worth- like knowing which NPCs actually give useful responses about other characters- and without that knowledge, I can easily imagine how it hasn't aged well for the average person. Those bits of info can be very hard to find. That's part of the reason I covered Ballyhoo in my "Old-School Transcripts" project.
Later on (but before LToI), I legitimately owned Witness, and I have to agree with pinback that it is great. For me, more than any other Infocom game, it just oozed coolness and really nailed Classic Hollywood noir.
After I got "Lost Treasures of Infocom," of course, Planetfall had its big emotional moment, which still stands tall among of IF's big emotional moments, even if I can't argue with those who call it contrived and manipulative.
Wishbringer blew me away with just how well-designed it was, fairly moderate difficulty level with two solutions to every major puzzle. Its plot and set pieces aren't anything special, but it was the first game where the design alone really wowed me.
And when I got "Masterpieces of Infocom", playing A Change in the Weather and realizing that there was an online community writing IF[i]just like Infocom[/i] was a life-changing experience.
Lastly, when I finally got around to beating Necrotic Drift, years after its release, and I saw that the character that had me as its avatar gave a little speech using words I had written on this very forum (all to a very cool song by pinback, btw), it was just a really cool moment for me. I was going through a bit of a dark patch in life at the time and it really picked me up.