Joe Pranevich – The Retro Gaming Treasury

Missed Classic: Moonmist – Representation Blues

On June 30, 2020June 30, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich I intended to wrap up Moonmist this week by closing out on the three remaining cases then moving quickly to the final rating. I did not make it. When playing and reviewing, I try to come to these games as unspoiled as I can. I learn […]

Missed Classic: Moonmist – Getting a Clue (Won! Once!)

On June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back to Moonmist, the Nancy Drew mystery with a bit less Nancy Drew and a bit more Clue. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that Galley and Lawrence were inspired by the 1985 film starring Tim Curry and based on […]

Missed Classic 86: Moonmist (1986) – Introduction

On June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich As we close on Infocom’s final release of 1986, we turn the page on a new era. As best as I have been able to determine, Moonmist is the final game that was deep under development prior to the purchase by Activision, or at least the […]

Infocom Marathon: Leather Goddesses of Phobos – Part Two

On June 7, 2020June 7, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich My six-year old has recently become very interested in space. In the way that six-year olds can pick odd topics to be obsessed with (er… that apple didn’t fall far from the tree), he’s talked so much about Phobos and Deimos lately that I could probably […]

Infocom Marathon: Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986) – Part One

On May 25, 2020May 25, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Sex sells, but few things market a product better than controversy. Throughout much of the 20th century, it was an adage that a book or a play “Banned in Boston” was guaranteed to sell well elsewhere. Oscar Wilde once said that, “The only thing worse than […]

Missed Classic 85: Drive-In Adventure (1982)

On April 17, 2020April 17, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Sex sells. Whether you personally consume pornography or not, it is undeniable that whenever a new media technology came along, it quickly adapted for adult entertainment. Pornography influenced the rise of VHS in the 1970s, the early internet in the 1980s, and eventually the broadband push […]

Missed Classic 84: The Pesach Adventure (1993)

On April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Happy Passover! For the last five years, we have had an annual tradition of a Christmas adventure, a special one-off look at a festive game for the holiday season. I love playing and documenting these games, but the truth is that Christmas is not a holiday […]

Missed Classic: Trinity – When Soviet Time-Traveling Robot Armadillos Attack

On March 16, 2020March 16, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich In Trinity, we traveled to the dawn of the nuclear age and attempted to change history. We failed and became trapped in a time loop with our mischievous roadrunner friend. I suppose there are worse ways to go. In the words of one famous time traveler, […]

Missed Classic: Trinity – Won! (And Final Rating)

On March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich We finally made it to the end of Trinity, but the ending was a lot longer than I expected. The trip through New Mexico is the longest sequence in the game and it’s a lot of fun, even if I bit off more than I could […]

Missed Classic: Trinity – Fly Me to the Moon

On February 21, 2020February 21, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Trinity continues to impress and depress me. Last time out, we witnessed the unexpected destruction of New Mexico thanks to a more powerful than expected nuclear test at the Trinity site. My guess was that we had finally found the “plot” of this game: to find […]

Missed Classic: Trinity – Is This the 50s? Or 1999?

On February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back! Last time out, I explored the strange mushroom forest that I was dropped into after the end of the world. This “wabe”, as I think it is called, is a strange place set in the shadow of a gigantic sundial and includes giant bees, […]

Missed Classic: Trinity – Gyre and Gimble in the Wabe

On January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back! It was a bit slower going than I had hoped to get here, but we got here nonetheless. Last time around, we jumped into Trinity and an exploration of a near-future Kensington Gardens followed by total nuclear annihilation. Fortunately, we escaped just in the […]

Missed Classic 82: Trinity (1986) – Introduction

On January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich I should be at the beach and instead I am playing a game that is equal parts charming and deeply disturbing: Moriarty’s Trinity, a “fantasy” adventure game about inevitable nuclear armageddon. Much like A Mind Forever Voyaging, this is a game with a narrative purpose and […]

Missed Classic 79: A Christmas Adventure (1983)

On December 25, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Merry Christmas! Welcome back to another Christmas at “The Adventure Gamer” where we are looking at our sixth holiday adventure game! Time flies while we are having so much fun and I’m just amazed that we keep finding new holiday adventures to play. This time out […]

Interlude: A Very TAG Christmas

On December 24, 2019December 24, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich We all have our secrets, but the time has come to reveal one incident in the Secret and Absolutely True History of The Adventure Gamer. I tell you this now of my own free will and not because any well-armed elves are presently in my house, […]

Missed Classic 78: Crash Dive! (1984)

On December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich For the era that we study, Brian Moriarty is one of the giants. He brought us three of Infocom’s classics, starting with Wishbringer, and jumped over to LucasArts to create Loom, one of my favorite adventure games of all time. Before we move on to Trinity […]

Consulting Detective Vol. II – Hint Book Review & Final Rating

On November 26, 2019November 26, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich The time has come to put another game into the cabinet and officially close out 1992! We played a staggering 38 adventure games this year. I’ll leave the year-end commentary to Ilmari, but we are moving on quickly to 1993 which somehow has even more games. […]

Consulting Detective Vol. II – Sleuth Solves Spy Special! Satisfactory Send-off to Second Saga (Won!)

On November 19, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Welcome back to the final gameplay installment in Consulting Detective Vol II! I know this one has dragged on a bit, especially as we have had some slowdowns in Ween as well, but we arrived at the finish line with the best case of the set. […]

Consulting Detective Vol. II – Murdered Mechanic Made Military Mighty

On November 10, 2019November 10, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich Two cases down and one to go! Thus far in Consulting Detective Vol. II, we’ve solved a pair of murders and it appears that we are going three-for-three. Admittedly, the first case was murder-with-theft and the second was murder-as-a-cover-up, but both involved murder. Some commenters have […]

Consulting Detective Vol. II – Failure! Fiendish Forger Found a Friend to Flame the Folio

On October 29, 2019 By IndieRetroNews

Written by Joe Pranevich I failed at this case. If you follow our blog to read about masterful play and to see an expert gamer moving from clue to clue with purpose and conviction, you have come to the wrong place. As you will read, I tripped up a number […]