We all love making lists, whether it be about our top 5 THIS or our least favorite THAT. I’d always say my favorite video game of all time was The Secret of Monkey Island. Even though I had only played it once through when it first came out (in 1993), most of my memories were based on that one play through. I’d picked up the CD-Rom version of the game about a year ago (the original came on a few diskettes) and just kind of held onto the game. I just wanted the box and game in my collection, even though I had no Windows machine to play it on.

Fast-forward a year and I’m thinking about buying a new Windows laptop (to go with my Apple desktop). I buy a semi-top-of-the-line machine that can run Half-Life 2 at full res 60-fps blah blah blah. And what’s the first thing I install? The Secret of Money Island. Continue Reading »

At first, the only thing we knew about the Penny Arcade game was the title, but even that was enough to get my interest peaked… On the Rain Slicked Precipice of Darkness. It just sounds cool. I knew it was a game to keep an eye on but now it’s a game I’m dying to play. How does a game go from “this should be cool” to “holy shit I need to play this game!”?

Two words, Ron Gilbert.

To those that don’t know he helped create a few games you might have heard of, like Maniac Mansion , Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, and The Secret of Monkey Island. So in other words he’s responsible for some of the greatest adventure games ever made (Monkey Island is my favorite game of all time).

Not only that but he’s responisble for the game engine he wrote for Maniac Mansion and was subsequently used for almost all of the LucasArts adventure games, with the exception of Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island. The Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, better known to the gaming community as SCUMM.

If you’re making an adventure game, you simply cannot do better than getting Ron Gilbert to work on it. This game just shot to the top of my “most anticipated” list.