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)
- 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 - In Progress
- Lego Indiana Jones Wii - In Progress
- Lego Harry Potter Wii - In Progress
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.
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 -- (Defeated ****)
Good, though the puzzles were non-obvious at times, and had trouble
telling the characters apart. Very immersive.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- Myst III: Exile - (defeated four times, ****)
- Myst IV : Revelation - (defeated thrice, ****)
Beautiful graphics, but was over too quickly.
Also, freaky lion on the curtains songs.
- 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 thrice, **)
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.
- Myst -- Apple II port -- (played too many times)
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.
Other
- Out of this World - (Defeated Twice - ****)
- Prince of Persia - (Defeated Twice - ****)
- Lemmings - (***)
- Machinarium - (***)
Puzzles/steering were a bit non-obvious at times.
- Botanicula - (***) a bit short, eventually figured out the puzzles
- Ori and the Lost Forest - in progress. Find a few of the parts
way too difficult, not a fan of the controls.
- 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 - (in progress)
A bit darker than the usual games we've been playing, and
surprisingly reminiscent of Tomb Raider.
Portal
- Portal - (Defeated - ****) though too short
- Portal 2 - (Defeated - ***) clever ending, but unlike a lot of
people I *really* hated Wheatley
Wii Games
- Back to the Future (Defeated - ***) -- Fun though you're a bit on
rails for much of it.
- Zak and Wiki -- stuck on the last level
- Boy and His Blob -- about 2/3 the way through
- Rythm Heaven Fever -- about 2/3 the way through
Kerbal Space Program
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Last updated 11 March 2021