Hardcoregaming101.net Presents: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures

This is an amazing book. In terms of content, it's ridiculously comprehensive and gives the basic background information of every game (developer, platform, etc.) as well as a very in-depth review. The reviews themselves are fantastic as they cover the game from a variety of perspectives: how the game relates to its series (if applicable) as a whole, how the game relates to others in the genre, how the game holds up today, etc. There are occasional screenshots as well, with captions. The reviews never give numerical ratings, which is a plus for me because they can often be misleading. I really appreciate the coverage of entire series, and games that are technically not graphic adventures are often included for the sake of completeness.The whole thing is organized by publisher, starting with the bigger ones and giving a brief overview of each company before moving into the games themselves. There are also some interviews, which are really informative. On the whole the book is really well put together.There have been a few complaints that pop up in various Amazon reviews of this book, some of which I don't think are really fair. The book does go more in depth with some games than others, certainly, but the major points are nonetheless covered, and the information is always valuable. The book also tries to be objective (and is clear from context what is objective and what is not), and while at some points I may not agree with a particular part of a review (this is to be expected), I have yet to find a review that could be called unfair or nitpicky as a whole. Also the book seldom puts down a game without clearly listing what the issues were. Another unfair complaint is the black-and-white pictures instead of color, which is, ironically, actually explained on HardcoreGaming101 itself: apparently the publisher would have required them to split the book into two parts and cost them over double. While I would certainly have preferred big, high-res color pictures, in the real world this is a niche book that will likely never turn much of a profit, despite how informative and comprehensive it is.All that being said, there is one legitimate issue: the proofreading. There are a number of textual and grammatical errors throughout the book, though they aren't as severe as some reviews have made out. The errors aren't every other page, but they do turn up every so often. I didn't notice any real issues with tone or cohesiveness, though some of the book's reviews are certainly better than others. On the whole it was easy to read and understand, and it never really did anything to turn me off.So while the book isn't perfect and could have used the careful attention of a professional proofreader and editor, it has no major issues and works hard to be comprehensive and fair. In short I love it, consider it one of the best classic gaming books I've ever read, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the genre.

I will admit that owning a 772-page book on graphic adventure games is awesome in and of itself, but...it's got problems.First off is the problems mentioned before in other reviews: it's pretty obvious it was formatted in Microsoft Word, making it look rather unprofessional. The grammar errors and whatnot got me less than the fact in many cases, it lists the platforms, but many are missing their Mac versions ("I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream", "Manhunter", "Full Throttle", and a bunch more)Secondly, you should know that even though are many of them are exclusive to this addition, several ones are cut-down versions of the site's version. The black and white photos are hard to see and don't do the originals justice.Thirdly, it seems to be less "every graphic adventure game" and more "random selections". Of course, most (if not all) games from LucasArts and Sierra are covered, but from there, it diverges. Some people have commented on the lack of favorites here, while more obscure titles are covered. I mean, some obscure Euro title is fine (and I'm talking more obscure, then say, Teenagent) but a bunch of licensed schlock is covered, including "Snoopy: The Cool Computer Game", the video game version of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", and "Wayne's World". Meanwhile, some other games are not covered. "Peasant's Quest", the Flash game on HomestarRunner.com, isn't covered. But it's mentioned in the entry for "Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People" as Rather Dashing is a character in Episode 5, Rip-Offs/Homages is a part of HardcoreGaming101.net (such as "Wade Hixton's Counter Punch", "Power Punch II", and "Frank Bruno's Boxing" for the Punch-Out!! series, though that isn't in this book), and browser based games are covered (such as the extraordinarily boring "Legends of Zork", included because of the Zork lineage). So why no Peasant's Quest, even though it's solid. More insulting is the incredibly poor treatment of The Manhole, Cosmic Osmo, and Spelunx, calling them, and I quote, "Be warned, though -- these games are supposed to be aimed at children and might even be called educational." Even if it was tongue-in-cheek, the short description as well as being poorly researched (a few versions of The Manhole, a few versions of Cosmic Osmo) was a shame.Puzzles are a part of adventure games, as one reviewer said. While it calls out the third Gabriel Knight for having an incredibly convoluted and out of character puzzle (the "cat hair mustache" puzzle). It criticizes "Runaway: A Road Adventure" for several incredibly obtuse (if not outright incorrect) puzzles...pour oil on a crossdresser's sunglasses to make him ("her" according to the book: I'm pretty sure that if you're only crossdressing, you're still a dude) think (s)he's done tanning, as the sunglasses will be darker (according to the game's logic, anyway) or mixing butter and peanuts to make peanut butter.All in all, it's a pretty unique book and definitely one of a kind, but it still feels like it's missing something, based on the numerous errors, some odd omissions (no Quarterstaff? Why? Because it was Mac only?), and the cut-down reviews from the ones on the website. It's more of a shame then a deal-breaker, because with a little more work this could've been great. Sure, I would've liked to see larger text, better formatting, fixed errors, and a better selection, but for what it is, it's pretty great. It has some things I'm thinking about trying, and ones that I need dust off and try again (I never beat Machinarium, for instance). I also would've liked to see reviews (not on the main site) or a publisher (not just developer) but nothing's perfect.

Holy crapola this book is something else. It's like a neverending stream of really superbly put together narratives on both the games AND the state of the publishers who worked on them. Each game is discussed from the perspective of its own merits, but also the writers digress into the people who wrote the games, the effects of other projects going on at the time, what the developers did before and after, and how this fits into their corpus of work. Given that it's over 700 pages long, this is seriously the best value for money out there, bar none. BAR NONE.The quality of the writing is.. well, frankly its astonishing. The writers are clearly long-seasoned professionaly with a love of the genre and bucketloads of experience. Every writeup includes quirks, level notes, graphical glitches, funny asides and easter eggs. Some of this you can't get from an online review or an easter egg site, they have to have played the games. The reviews are fair, balanced and well argued.This has to be the best value for money and the best literature-oriented book on gaming I've purchased since The official book of ultima back in the 90s. Superb job @HG_101, you should be proud of this work!

I actually bought this as a prize for one of our pupils in an adventure game design class, and wanted to keep it myself (but didn't!). It's a weighty tome, covering pretty much the entire history of graphic adventures from those with static images through to the more modern ilk.Interviews with games creators, comparative reviews of games (with a nicely rose-tinted view of the past) and lots and lots of pictures.Having had to part with the one I bought, this is on my wishlist so I get a copy for myself.

I liked the looks of the book and they definitely got me by the excerpt and the cover. Tha book is massively extensive and covers almost any graphic adventure you could think of, and many you didn't even know that existed! The only setback are the oh-so-many spoilers it has. Except for that, you'll make a good idea of what you can expect from any of the reviewed games.This book made me realise how few adventure games I have finished and been able to enjoy! Too much work to do...

Brilliant book, wonderfully researched and hugely informative, it is quite a tome, I wont lie, but that is because it's bursting with information on even the most obscure adventure games, if you love games and have a deep nostalgia for those early Sierra or Lucas Arts titles, this is definitely worth getting.

A must have to all adventure game lovers. Very rich content that you will definitely enjoy reading.