If you like Game Quest...
Game
Quest didn't come out of nowhere and the gaming community is vast and
vibrant beyond the clichés you'll find in newspapers and superficial
game-o-the-day sites. If you're already a game fan, I'm sure you'll
find a few interesting niches below you've yet the pleasure of
exploring. For those of you who know nothing about games, but are
interested in this fantastic world, each site below is a great portal
into some of the topics covered in my book:
AGDInteractive:
One of the biggest and most professional fan-based Adventure Game
development groups out there. They've already done very impressive
remakes of King's Quest I and King's Quest II (with Quest for Glory 2
on the way!). Great games in their own right, AGDI has managed the
uneasy task of improving on them! If you haven't played an adventure
game, download a remake here for free and have a great time. A great place to start.
Adventure
Game Studio:
Ever wanted to make your own Adventure game? Thanks to Chris Jones,
developer of the Adventure Game Studio, and the community of developers
at this site, doing so is easier than you'd expect! If you don't want
to make one, download fan-made games here spanning the whole range of
length, quality and genre. The quality is quite impressive.
Adventure Europe:
Unlike the rest of the world, the adventure game seems to be on a come back in Europe. Adventure Europe is a great site for finding out what's coming up or going down in the adventure game world. A lot of great info on adventure games, companies and products you may have never heard of as well a strong news section. A great nexus for adventure game fans new and old.
Infamous
Adventures:
Like AGDI above, this looks to be a very dedicated and professional
Adventure game revival unit. Their VGA remake of King's Quest III (one
of the best adventure games ever made) looks gorgeous. Even better,
their idea for a negaverse version of Quest for Glory 1, where you get
to play a Villian, is an absolutely brilliant idea. Definitely a group
to watch for.
Just Adventure +:
Just Adventure + is a great site, really covering all that's going on in the scene. The site alone is keeping the adventure game flame going. With interviews with obscure, retired and underground games, an adventure game archive, to reviews of weird and obscure adventure games even the most season afficiando has probably never heard of. A great site to really plump the quirky depths of this world and learn something you didn't know before. Highly recommended.
Womengamers.com:
If you're a woman gamer, or are interested in women gamers (not in the
dating sense!*) then this site is FULL of great news, discussions,
information & links.
* Well...who knows. Maybe. They're very open minded over there.
Ken's
Book:
Who's Ken? Ken Williams, founder of Sierra! And he wrote a book! No,
it's not about Sierra, but about a trip he made with his wife (you
probably know her...Roberta Williams) across the ATLANTIC OCEAN in a
CRUISE BOAT! Man, these people do everything. They're retired at 49.
Anyway, you can read some excerpts there, or buy the book. I had a
quick read through the excerpt and it's pretty entertaining, actually!
Definitely worth a look.
Sierra
Gamers:
If you were ever a fan of Sierra's Adventure games (who wasn't?!) this
is a site set up by Ken Williams, the founder of Sierra, himself for
you to ask questions about and discuss those truly golden days of the
adventure game.
Sierra
Planet:
A fun fansite for Sierra games that goes beyond the usual coverage.
Check out their cool section of books based on, spun off from Sierra games (I had no
idea!) and the curiosities section is good for a few laughs!
Vintage
Sierra:
A great site that covers all the classic games from the golden age of
Sierra.
The Silver Lining:
Meant to be the 10th King's Quest game and easily the most ambitious fan made project to date, this game, after 5 years of volunteer work, on the eve of release, received a cease and desist from Vivendi Universal, who owns the rights to the original series. Thankfully, after a strong 'Save KQIX' campaign by the vast legion of Adventure Game fans (almost out of Game Quest itself!), they seem to have worked out a deal and now have a fan license. Will be interesting to see if the game lives up to the history behind it.
Grumpy
Gamer Blog:
Ron Gilbert, creator of Monkey Island, has a blog! Holy Three-headed
monkeys! He's a cantankerous sort, but I can appreciate that! You might too.
PC Life:
If you're interested in Adventure Games and you speak Hungarian, then this is the site for you!
Hebrew Quest:
If you're interested in Adventure Games and you speak Hebrew, then this is the site for you!
*
* *
So far I've had great support from people on the Internet, particularly
in the adventure gaming community. Here's a list of sites of people who
have been kind enough to promote me on their sites. I'm sure they'd
love it if you checked them out.
The
blog of Andrew Edmark
JL Studios
Kalbzyan's World