Video Games I've Played

This is not a complete list, but it's a list of the games I felt a sense of accomplishment upon finishing. Many of them, especially the puzzle ones, Kristina helped play, or at least watched. I also like some X3 games like Master of Orion, Alpha Centauri, and the Civ series. In addition, I played and defeated pretty much every shareware version of the games put out by Apogee back in the day.

In any case, this list is mostly a reminder to me which games I've played, because I am getting old enough now I can't always remember.

Tomb Raider Series

Tomb Raider - (defeated)
Tomb Raider Unfinished Business - (defeated) - a bit of a waste of time
Tomb Raider II - (defeated x2) - was OK though parts could be a bit tedious
Most recent replay took a long time and was really hard, much harder than I remember.
Tomb Raider III - (defeated) - graphics were much better, but the levels were too large and non-linear
Last Revelation - (defeated)
Chronicles - (defeated)
Angel of Darkness - (defeated) Controls are a pain.
Legend - (defeated x2) - Graphics are amazing, especially since we're playing on a 6-year old machine with integrated Intel GPU. Gameplay is a bit linear though, with fairly unoriginal puzzles. Controls awkward when playing under wine.
Anniversary - defeated x2 - OK, though the boss battles could be obscure
Underworld - in progress - almost too much for our recent machine to handle, controls akward under wine

Squaresoft Games

Final Fantasy 1 - (Defeated, **). Thought it was a bit too easy, and the end is annoying -- time paradox!
Final Fantasy 2 - (Defeated, ***). Much better than 1. Not too much grinding, but missing the blood sword makes the final battle very hard.
Final Fantasy 5 - (Defeated, ****) Took two attempts.
Finaly Fantasy 3/6 - (Defeated, ****) Took two attempts.
Final Fantasy 7 (Defeatedx3 *****)
Final Fantasy 8 (Defeated ****)
Chrono Trigger (Defeated, ****) Originally got to the last boss battle, was too hard because I had unknowingly skipped a lot of optional stuff and wasn't leveled high enough. 20 years later played again and managed to just barely beat it, the final Lavos fight is *really* difficult.

Metroid Series

Metroid - (Defeated ****) not fast enough for swimsuit
Metroid II - (Defeated ***)
Super Metroid - (Defeated *****) again, not fast enough for swimsuit, but did save the animals

Lego Related

Lego Starwars Wii - (Defeated ****) unlocked freeplay
Lego Indiana Jones Wii - (Defeated ****) unlocked freeplay
Lego Harry Potter Wii - (Defeated ***)
Lego Batman Wii - (Defeated (**)

Indiana Jones Related

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusage - (defeated **) really awkward controls, hated the fight scenes
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - (defeated twice ***) weird ending (second time, puzzles more annoying than I remember)
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine - (defeated twice ***) Very tomb-raider-esque. Crashes way too often in annoying ways. (second time: concur on the crashing and sometimes obscure puzzles)
Indiana Jones and the Emporer's Tomb - (incomplete ***) The Mac Version has really painful controls, spazzes out with joystick at critical times. Have gotten near end [had to cheat a few times]. Stuck on a really annoying level where I always fall to my death. I do enjoy smashing furniture though.

Star Trek Related

Star Trek 25th Anniversary (PC edition) - (Defeated ***) Voice acting great, puzzles so-so. Has really lousy ending. Favorite part was getting the ghost of the dead Ensign to say "Captain, don't melt the snow!"

Monkey Island Series

The Secret of Monkey Island - (Defeated Thrice *****)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - (Defeated Thrice ****) Bizzarre ending. On second playing, I can't emphasize enough how weird that ending was.
The Curse of Monkey Island - (Defeated Thrice *****)
Escape from Monkey Island - (Defeated Thrice ***) Not bad, but the Monkey Combat was boring and the ending was rushed and not very enjoyable.
Tales from Monkey Island -- (Defeated Twice ****) I liked it a lot, though the manatee and crossroads parts were a bit gross. I also don't like the voodoo lady conspiracy stuff, though at least it means there's hope for Morgan.
Return to Monkey Island -- (***) The game itself wasn't horrible. Managed to beat it without any hints. Felt like it was rehashing things a lot by spending so much time on Melee. The family *really* didn't like the ending, but I suppose it wasn't that much worse than the ending of 2. We also were disappointed with Elaine, we were used the grumpy/sarcastic version of her, she was way too nice in this version.

Sam and Max Games

Sam and Max Hit The Road - (Defeated **)
The plot was fun, but I found the controls nearly unusable, and was constantly stuck because I wasn't clicking on the exact two pixels that would pick up an important item or take us to a mostly hidden room.
Sam and Max Save the World (Remaster) - (Defeated ***)
The kids really enjoyed this one. Some of the voice acting was a bit grating at times.
Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space (Remaster) - (Deafeated **)
This one seems to have more obvious crude/adult humor and a lot of needless cruelty even for a Sam and Max game. Just got weirder as it went along.

Other SCUMM Games

Loom -- (Defeated **) Interesting game mechanism. Weird story, way too short. The radio-drama casette got stuck in my car tape deck. Interesting game to play if your last name is "Weaver".
Maniac Mansion -- (In Progress) A bit too non-linear for us, with awkward controls.
Grim Fandango -- (Defeatedx2 ****) Good, though the puzzles were non-obvious at times, and had trouble telling the characters apart. Very immersive. Second time around was mostly annoyed at how buggy the native Linux steam version is, managed to soft-lock the game a few times.
The Dig -- (Defeated ****) The kids liked this one. I found the voice acting a bit annoying, and a few of the puzzles were overly difficult, mostly for user-interface reasons (I need to hold down the button? I need to find the 3-pixel wide part lying on the ground?)

Myst/Cyan Games

Myst - (defeated four times, ***) The first playthrough in the 90s we had the defective first version that told you the wrong way to flip the switches at the end.
Myst (2020) - (defeated, **) I prefer the original. The VR-related changes take away from the game I feel. Also we were playing right after release and it was very buggy. The patches helped, or at least they helped when they weren't forcing us not to play as once steam started an update we had to wait for the full multi-GB download to complete which for us could take hours. The autosave interface was unintuitive and we lost our near-the-end save.
Myst Apple II - (defeated, ****) Also have the world speedrun record
Riven - (defeated four times, ****) I still think this might be my favorite, though maybe for nostalgia reasons. I hate the must-close-the-door puzzle.
Riven (2024) - (defeated once, ***) It is a nice game. Interesting added content which I can't have an unbiased opinion about because I really liked the original. Did get stuck a few times, but mostly because I was short on time and also had to unlearn things from the old one. Still hate the close-the-door puzzle.
Myst III: Exile - (defeated five times, ****) Really nice graphics for the time, though hard to navigate these days, keep trying to use WASD. This is especially trouble in the Jungles. Runs great in SCUMMVM these days.
Myst IV : Revelation - (defeated four times, ****) Beautiful graphics, but was over too quickly. Also, freaky lion on the curtains songs. On the 4th replay almost considering dropping the rating. The controls are awful and some of the locations you need to find are almost impossible to find.
Myst: Uru Complete Chronicles - (defeated, ***) Poor interface, tired of kicking things around, more close-the-door puzzles, and we kept missing really subtle clues that were needed to win.
Myst 5: End of Ages - (defeated four times, **) Yeesha is a pain and a bit too preachy. Lots of unanswered questions about the tablets, etc. A bit short.
Obduction: (defeated, ***) Played it once and got 2/3 the way through before giving up. The excessively long loading times were a huge pain. Tried again a few years later and did finally finish it. Was an enjoyable game, but a completely incomprehensible plot and a very disappointing ending. Picked the wrong ending at first just because it was very subtle that the game even let you make any decisions.
Firmament: (defeated, ***) A lot of frustration with bugs (especially with the ice crane) but that might be because we kick-started it and actually played it right at release. A bit frustrating as patches often would come just as we wanted to play and due to our slow internet meant we had to delay playing for hours. We did manage to get through w/o any hints. The aforementioned ice crane, the harvester steering, and the pipe maintanence were all probably more frustrating than needed. That ending was something else and a bit unexpected.

Sierra Online Games

King's Quest 1 (VGA Remake) - (defeated, **) too many ways to dead-end, lots of non-obvious puzzles.
King's Quest 2 - (defeated, *) more dead-ends, nonsensical story
King's Quest 3 - (in progress, *) Hated the first-half time limit. Ended up hacking the save game to give us more time.
Torrin's Passage - (defeated, **) a lot of non-obvious puzzles

Infocomm

Return to Zork - abandoned - Very annoying puzzles.

Darkside Detective

Darkside Detective - (Defeated - ****) Some of the puzzles were a bit obscure. Kids liked this one.
Fumble in the Dark - (Defeated - ****) Some of the puzzles were frustrating but eventually figured them out. Much longer than previous game. Weirdly obvious typos in the last few levels.

Nancy Drew

Sea of Darkness - (Defeated - ****) Some of the puzzles were a bit hard but we beat the whole thing w/o spoilers. The kids really got into the plot.
Treasure in the Royal Tower - (Defeated - **) This was an early one. Controls were a bit laggy on modern hardware and extremely inconsistent. The final puzzle was a bit non-intuitive and had to run back and forth to the tower a million times.
The Final Scene - (Defeated - **) Controls still laggy. A lot of just walking around talking to people. Last series of puzzles had too many timed puzzles.
Curse of Blackmoor Manor - (Abandoned) This one was a pain, the puzzles were annoying, and it just got tedious.

Amanita Design

Samorost 1 - (***) Really short and really weird
Samorost 2 - (***) Also really short and really weird
Samorost 3 - (***) A lot longer and still weird. Struggled a bit but part of it was just trying to find out what can be clicked.
Machinarium - (***) Puzzles/steering were a bit non-obvious at times.
Botanicula - (***) a bit short, eventually figured out the puzzles

Portal

Portal - (Defeated - ****) though too short
Portal 2 - (Defeated - ***) clever ending, but unlike a lot of people I *really* hated Wheatley

Misc Wii Games

Back to the Future (Defeated - ***) -- Fun though you're a bit on rails for much of it.
Zak and Wiki -- (Defeated - ****) -- first time through got stuck on last level. Played over from scratch 7 years later and finally beat it.
Boy and His Blob -- about 2/3 the way through
Rythm Heaven Fever -- about 2/3 the way through

Kerbal Space Program

Some screenshots (****) one of my favorite games

Videlectrix

Roomisode Triungulate. (***). Beat it with help of kid #3. Did the whole thing without hints, including the elevator bonus.

Stardew Valley

Achieved perfection. (****). Highly recommend. See some pictures here

Broken Sword Series

Broken Sword 1 : Shadow of Templars (original version) (Defeated -- ***) Not a fan of the must-talk-to-everyone and show-them-every-inventory-item gameplay while only being able to walk around really slowly. Also died in some seriously annoying places without a chance to save nearby. Got stuck on the infamous goat puzzle (annoying as we had it figured out we were just clicking things in the wrong order). Not really attached to George. Nico is great though.
Broken Sword II : The Smoking Mirror (original version) (Defeated -- ***) Really got tired of the puzzles in this one, hit the second-worst adventure game problem: figuring out the solution to a puzzle but not being able to figure out the exact clicks needed to accomplish it. This happened multiple times. Also for whatever reason George just doesn't click as a sympathetic character. I kept wanting Nico to be even ruder to him. The ending was extremely abrupt as well.
Broken Sword 3 : The Sleeping Dragon (Defeated -- ***) Hate the on-again off-again thing with Nico, and George is obnoxious as always. Not having permadeath is an improvement. Wasn't always a fan of the box-pushing puzzles and the weird control system threw me off. Ending was also a bit abrupt.
Broken Sword 4 : The Angel of Death (Defeated -- **) Was a bit hard getting it to work on Linux. Not really a fan of this control scheme either. Spent the whole first half wishing Nico was there. George even worse than normal. Some really annoying puzzles. Paperclip? Too many timed stealth puzzles. Endings are always unsatisfying rushed cutscenes.
Broken Sword 5 : The Serpent's Curse (Defeated -- ***) A bit too much talking which really slows things down. Puzzles more or less reasonable up until the Heiroglyphics one which we got 3/4 done and couldn't figure out the last part. Ending was very abrupt. K was sad there wasn't an actual giant serpent boss battle.

Old DOS Games

Out of this World - (Defeated Twice - ****)
Prince of Persia - (Defeated Twice - ****)
Lemmings - (****) Have played various versions. Used to go to my friend Paul's house to play this in middle school. I think the one I defeated was the SNES version somehow.

Platformers

Ori and the Lost Forest - in progress. Found a few of the parts way too difficult, not a fan of the controls.

Puzzle Games

The Witness - (Defeated -- ***) defeated the initial part (all lasers) but not the bonus. Puzzles surprisingly accessible and mostly fun. Lack of actual plot was a downside. Game kept crashing but that's mostly due to our low-end Intel graphics.
Quern - (Defeated -- ***) All endings. Was nice to play a new Myst-like game. Fun to pretend the weird guy was somehow an early Atrus told from a less flattering point of view. As with Myst, ending was a bit disappointing. Solved almost all of it without hints.
Rime - (Defeated -- ***) A bit darker than the usual games we've been playing, and surprisingly reminiscent of Tomb Raider. Not 4 stars because the story was so, so sad.
Talos Principle -- Part way through
Semblance - (Defeated -- ****) Nice puzzle game. Would have liked to have had slightly more plot, the ending was a bit quick with no explanation.
Broken Age - (Defeated -- ****) Beat it entirely without hints! Though we ended up extremely frustrated and almost gave up a few times on the second part. Did like the characters.
Haven Moon - (Defeated -- **) Very pretty game, but the puzzles were extremely obscure. We did get the good ending first try.
Quantum Conundrum - (In Progress) Have done it without hints so far, though it has gotten massively harder in the third wing (generally know what to do, I'm just bad at 3d-platforming)
Baba is You - (In Progress) Another one with a neat concept but as always the puzzles ramp up in difficulty to the point it is hard to make progress.

Outer Space Games

Outer Wilds - (Defeated -- ***) I've got a weak spot for "fly around in spaceships" games even though I am always terrible at flying. It's nice when the controls are somewhat forgiving. Managed to perma-die a lot here (including within minutes of playing the first time) which in retrospect is impressive. I know you're suppoed to avoid spoilers about this game so let me just say the ending was... weird and a bit incomprehensible. It was fun to play, and the few times I got frustrated enough to look up spoilers it was always because I was doing the right thing just not quite in the right way. I did enjoy finally getting to use the force-feedback on my 30 year old logitech controller (even though Steam is eternally upset that it's not an x-box controller).
Star Control II / Ur Quan Masters - (In Progress) I had roommates in college who were obsessed with this game, but I only played it after the free Linux version was available (downloaded the sound pack very slowly across a modem). But I lost because I didn't realize there was a time limit. Playing it again 20 years later and maybe making slightly more progress.
Solar Winds - (***) Really liked this DOS shareware game back in the day. Was excited to finally play the second two episodes, only to be really disappointed by the plot in those.

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Last updated 23 June 2025