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Your favourite adventure game interface?


TommyBear

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Well, I guess I ask this because I'm just curious, out of all the LEC adventure game interfaces, which one did people find the most usable, interesting or cool??

 

Personally I still love the original MI1\MI2\DOTT interface, there was just so much you could do..

 

anybody else got any ideas?

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Originally posted by TommyBear

Well, I guess I ask this because I'm just curious, out of all the LEC adventure game interfaces, which one did people find the most usable, interesting or cool??

 

Personally I still love the original MI1\MI2\DOTT interface, there was just so much you could do..

 

anybody else got any ideas?

 

Actually I loved the GF interface, the way he looked at stuff to show it was something interesting just seemed to work... can anyone remember if GF was the first to use this or was it in some other game first??

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As many quibbles as I have over EMI, it has a better interface than Grim Fandango. At least it tells you what you are looking at, so if there are three things on a table you know how many are actually interactable and how many are just scenery.

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I love both the 'classic' mi1>onwards interface and the ft/cmi one.

 

For future LEC conversions to systems without a mouse eg GBA I would prefer the old MI1 verb interface to be replaced with a CMI style 'verb coin'. Simply because I have played Maniac Mansion on GBA(via GBA nes emulator) and its annoying to have to continually scroll down to the verbs, a verb coin would be far more intuitive.

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Well, over the years, controls in adventure games have made it more and more easy for the player, simply because they are more simple. In Grim Fandango, instead of having to say "use" "push" or "pull" the door, you just press enter. You do this with every piece of equipment. I mean, there could be a situation with..... I dunno, lemme think.... OK:

There's a parrot that is talking. The most obvious thing to do in the classic style controls is to click "Talk to" then "Parrot" - the parrot won't talk to you. Oh well, dead end. However, if you PUSH the parrot, he falls over and drops a cracker. You can now use the cracker to get into the cracker factory! etc etc etc.

In the Grim style controls, this puzzle is overlooked because you press enter he pushes the parrot, even though you expected him to talk to it.

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No, what you do in the Grim style controls is you picked up a "pushing stick" earlier, and used that on the parrot ;-) Essentially every object you pick up is a verb.

 

I did prefer the old sentence builder approach in some ways. I particularly liked how it made the playing area a cinematic wide-screen, and you always know roughly what a command will attempt. But really, the 9 verbs didn't really add much utility. Use ended up being 90% of the puzzles, because push/pull/open/close/give aren't ultimately very interesting. Want to wear something? You have to use it. Want to throw something? You have to use it.

 

The "coin" style interface is really a 4 verb interface: Look, Pick up, Talk To, Use.

 

The grim style interface is, I guess, down to 3 verbs, combining use and talk-to.

 

So, while the sentence builder gives me warm fuzzies, I have to objectively go for the EMI interface. It's definitely an improvement on the Grim interface, in that you know exactly what you're looking at, the inventory system is nicer, and it avoids the adventure game hell of hunt-the-pixel, because if you're even moderately thorough in searching a room, Manny will see something, whereas it's very easy to miss stuff on a mouse sweep across the screen. But it doesn't hand it to you on a plate, either - you have to at least go looking. 90% of the time I'm stumped on a puzzle in an adventure game, it's 'cause I've missed a small object somewhere. (Incidentally, while Grim is perfect in 3D, I think the approach could be extended to 2D games quite easily, and then I think those who hate 3D would see the light)

 

There are some other interesting innovations in other games that I like, though. Some games (e.g. Discworld Noir), allow you to use not only objects, but pieces of information you've learned, so for example, you learn that X used to write in mirror writing, and you use that piece of information on some writing on a wall, and it decodes the writing. I don't think it was very well done in Discworld Noir, but it's a great concept. In the end, though, you can probably distill most things down to actual objects rather than abstract information - like the previous example would be an actual mirror.

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I like the GF and the EMI interface(s). I like the fact that GF doesn't show text when you look at an item too, it adds a sense of realism, adds to the atmosphere. GF only had objects in small, obvious places, too, so text wasn't really necessary, whereas in EMI things were spread about around islands and towns, and text was more necessary.

 

Although the improved MI scumm interface was great too.

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I personaly belive the EMI interface is best. I also think that is as close to the M1/2 DOTT interface as you can get.

 

Heres a sinario in MI2, I point my curser at a pirate. Imidiatly the talk to verb lights up. If I right click Guybrush talks If I pick use Something else happens. EMI has this same interface. If Guybrush Looks at a pirate the Talk to verb imidiotly pops up so I can press enter to do the ovios. I can use the Pirate if I want too.

 

See the interface is almost Exacly like the clasic interface but with out the classic interface graphics.

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Secret of Monkey Island style:

 

"Look at" + "Girl" = "Its a girl. Blond. Ok lookn', if you're into that kinda thing."

 

"Talk to" + "Girl" = "Hey there honey."

"Get lost!"

 

"Push" + "Girl" = A comedic sequence in which said girl spills her drink as a resul of being pushed.

 

"Use" + "Girl" = "I'd feel bad about it afterwards"

 

"Pick up" + "Girl" = "She's not my type."

 

"Pull" + "Girl" = "I really prefer brunettes."

 

"Open" + "Girl" = "What am I, a surgeon?"

 

"Close" + "Girl" = "Yeah, Ok, I'll close the girl... (who the hell is playing this game??)"

 

Grim Fandango style:

head is looking at "Girl" + Enter = The correct one of the above scenarios, ie. "Push".

Yeah, I made the scenario up, but its a good example.

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Grim Fandango:

 

Look At Girl (Numpad 5) (Press . to switch between her face and her chest ;-)

Talk To Girl (Enter)

Push Girl (Use Pushing Stick on Girl)

Pick Up Girl (Numpad +)

Pull Girl (Well, that's the same as pick up girl, really)

Open Girl (Use Scalpel on Girl)

Close Girl (Okay, I admit it, you've got me there)

 

Plus, potentially, a response for each and every one of the 20 objects you have in your inventory.

 

There is no "puzzle" in Grim Fandango where all you have to do is press enter, so your "good" example is spurious. Unless maybe you count "open door" as a puzzle, which is the sort of tedious thing you have to do in the sentence builder (The handy right-click default helps, but oh no, that's giving you the "right" answer straight away!).

 

If most puzzles were simply combining a verb with the environment you might have a point, but most puzzles are combining an object with the environment, and most puzzles involve things which do not fit with push/pull/open/close - and trying to fit everything in the game to those few verbs actually restricts the puzzles you can create.

 

For the sentence builder approach to be worthwhile, you would need a lot more than nine verbs, and then you're moving into the realms of text adventures (I was always astounded by how many things actually had responses in Infocom's Hitchhikers Guide).

 

Now, what _would_ be superior is if when you selected an object you got nine verbs customized for that particular object. But at the current point in gaming history, the limiting factor to what you can do is not the number of verbs or objects you have - it's the amount of animation and recording of dialogue you would have to do.

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