Going to tech shops to look for a PC game these days is like looking for a book in the science-fiction and fantasy section in the bookshop. The shelves sport a dwindling number of titles and those that are there are often an age old.
It's not that I am averse to the console, I just prefer to engage with a good PC game, and they are in seriously short supply. Standing at the PC game counter in one of the most well known computer shops the other day, I couldn't help but reminisce about what was.
I remembered sitting in my cousin's house, booting up his ancient machine, with a mono-screen. It's so long ago I can't even remember the make of the machine. But I do remember that we would hack out the puzzles in Space Quest.
The gaming industry really got its boost from those games, and it's what I eventually bought last week, because there was nothing better on the shelves.
Nowadays it's all about the bigger better cars, or the hard-hitting first-person-shooters. I don't have anything against those games; I just prefer my games to be challenging, and not mindless.
There have been a couple of game companies that took the quest through the ages, but the idea of a good quest game seems to be the last tag on the “things to develop” list. One of the greatest games in the genre was the Myst series developed by brothers Robyn and Rand Miller.
The series of seriously hard and fun quests puts most of the current games on the market to shame, even though the graphics were far from what is available today. Just to give you a taste of how brilliant the games were, the creators made players learn an entirely new language just to get through the levels.
I just prefer my games to be challenging, and not mindless.
Candice Jones, telecoms editor, ITWeb
They took into account sounds and visuals, and I still own my notebook where I hacked away at the puzzles for hours. Unlike today's game development, the simplicity of the game is astounding. New games revel in complexity.
There is hope
A few years ago, small point-and-click games began to surface across the Internet. These games had me convinced the return of the quest game was imminent. Every month since, I have poured into game review sites and questioned local distributors for something, anything that would get the brain working.
Finally, a friend took pity on me, having found an incredible, albeit small quest adventure game called Machinarium.
The game takes a player through a haunting, beautifully crafted world with an unnamed robot as the protagonist.
The game was developed by Amanita Design, a Czech independent game development studio founded in 2003. The company does animation and graphics, and started its game development services in the online flash point-and-click genre.
The guys involved in the development of Machinarium really took pride in the game, and it comes across as an animated film short that the player can determine the outcome of.
Players guide Machinarium's protagonist to the final outcome, which remains a mystery until the player completes the game. There is a sense of immersion that kept me involved in the game from beginning to end.
While the puzzles are not nearly as hard as the Myst series, they are challenging enough to keep a player entertained. Unlike many of the available point-and-click games available, Machinarium doesn't bog you down with a million items that need to be used.
While the game is riddled with odd bugs, it has to be one of the most entertaining plays I have had the privilege of installing in many years.
With any luck, the developers will follow up this title with something equally exciting and entertaining. The release of this game will hopefully also light a fire under some of the bigger game developers.
Maybe, just maybe, I will see the PC shelf in the tech shop filling up again.
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