The best projects can sometimes take a while to come to fruition.
In February 2023, GD from The Gaming Diaries shared a blog post which outlined the rules for a Plati-Alphabet challenge. The plan was to not only play a video game with a title starting with each letter of the alphabet, but also achieve the platinum trophies for them.
Despite not being concerned by achievements much myself, the idea of this challenge inspired me. Most readers will already be aware of how much I love the adventure genre and I wondered if it would be possible to do something similar with a focus on point-and-clicks. There are still a lot of older releases I haven’t yet tried, and it could be a great way of expanding both my library and experience.
I reached out to friend-of-the-blog Darkshoxx to see what he thought. He’s as big a fan of point-and-clicks as I am and there’s a nostalgic crossover between our favourites. He grew up with Loom, helping Bobbin rescue the Weavers Guild and save the universe; and I grew up with pirates in The Secret of Monkey Island, where Cobb told me all about Loom in the Scumm Bar.
He liked the idea and wanted to get involved too. But unfortunately, most of my time was being taken up by my apprenticeship and marathon training and so the project had to be put on the backburner after our initial conversations. It wasn’t one we ever forgot about though. They say that good things come to those who wait, and this challenge has proven that to be true: it may be almost a year later but we’re now finally ready to kick off our Love Letters to Adventures collaboration this evening.
The plan:
- Darkshoxx and I will agree on the game to be played for a particular letter
- Both of us will play it at the same time while on a voice call, and stream to our Twitch channels
- Each game will be played for two hours
- We’ll then come together for a discussion about our thoughts
- A review of the experience will be posted here on the blog a week or so later
The rules:
- Only point-and-click games are allowed
- Games that either of us have played before won’t be accepted
- Pete will be on standby with a walkthrough in case hints are needed
- There’s no obligation to continue playing after the allocated two-hours –
- But it’s possible that one or both of us may wish to continue
We’re starting with Atlantis: The Lost Tales tonight. The only things I know about this title are that it was released in March 1997 and has a score of 3.8 out of five on GOG, so it’ll be interesting to see what we’re letting ourselves in for. It was more common to come up against death sequences and moon logic in older adventures like this so, as mentioned above and to prevent any frustration, Pete is going to be on hand with a walkthrough in case we need a nudge in the right direction.
The table below will be continuously updated with stream dates, games and links once details become available. I’ll also bookmark this post on the top menu so it’s easy to return to. If you’re a point-and-click fan who’s reading this and thinking that the A-Z Adventure is an interesting idea, you’re more than welcome to get involved! Play the agreed titles, stream or record them, share a blog post about them – however you’d like to participate, we’re looking forward to hearing about your experiences.
| Letter | When | What | Watch | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 19:00 GMT on 26 Jan 2024 | Atlantis: The Lost Tales | Video | Review |
| B | 19:00 GMT on 16 Feb 2024 | Bad Day on the Midway | Video | Review |
| C | 11:00 BST on 30 Mar 2024 | Chronomaster | Video | Review |
| D | 19:00 BST on 03 May 2024 | The Dame Was Loaded | Video | Review |
| E | 19:00 BST on 29 June 2024 | EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus | Video | Review |
| F | 19:00 BST on 26 Jul 2024 | Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster | Video | Coming soon |
| G | 19:00 BST on 23 Aug 2024 | The Gene Machine |