PC Any Laura Bow fans around?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Remember going to any Abandonware site or circle in the early-to-mid aughts? Remember checking their game lists like a kid getting let loose on a toy store? I sure do and I also distinctly remember the Laura Bow games being shoved into the corner of said lists, completely overshadowed by their LucasArts counterparts and left to rot as mostly undownloaded files until those sites inevitably closed shop.

I thought there would be a really good reason for it but... No? Sure, they are hard-as-nails and the merciless nature of their Sierra DNA is in full display here, but the quality of both the visuals and the writing is at least on-par with anything Lucas was putting out at the time. These are just very, very unforgiving games and that can understandably turn off a lot of people but --and hear me out here--:

I mean, sure, there would be no situation in which getting completely screwed by mishandling a fucking sandwich would ever be fun (especially when the devs don't even have the courtesy of telling you about it until you run into a situation in which you need said sandwich and end up smashing your screen out of frustration) but, again, *refer to above GIF*.

I found the Laura Bow games to be just as good as the Indiana Jones games made by LucasArts around the same time and those weren't any easier (in fact, I own a magazine that blatantly says that "only experts would be able to beat 'The Fate Of Atlantis' without clues"), so I'm curious as to why they weren't embraced on the same vein.

That's just my opinion, though... Let me hear yours!

 

[G.L.a.D.O.S.]

Dear Waffles, I was always more of a Carmen Sandiego fan. I found that series rather intriguing, honestly, and I love the character of Carmen. I actually have never heard of this series, and I had been contemplating replaying the Carmen Sandiego games. Maybe I'll check these out.

Appreciate the suggestion, even though that wasn't your intent.

 

[Dani.]

I don't know it. But if I read here that if it's like Indiana Jones, then it will surely be good.

 

[Scotty]

I've played a bit of both games, but never got far in either of them. Like most Sierra games, their difficulty stemmed from memorizing the solutions to each puzzle through trial and error.

 

[Tonberry]

Never heard of them, but if it has Roberta Williams on the box, then it's bound to be at least good. Thanks for the write-up! Will definitely look into these one day.

 

[Clippy]

Sierra adventure games have always been too player-hostile for me to enjoy, sometimes even with a walkthrough which is certainly saying something. Lucasarts stuff was better in that regard but they liked putting nonsense in their games as well. Use a monkey as a crank to shut off a waterfall.

You can say it was the style at the time all you want but I think that's actually part of the reason point and click adventure games fell off so hard before the millennium was over. Sure, there were other reasons, like rising development costs, but I'm convinced that people had simply had enough of beating their heads against the wall and trying to figure out what kind of opiate is necessary to comprehend devs' train of thought.

I'm not gonna lie, I've never played any of the Laura Bow games. Knowing that they're Sierra adventures has always been enough to make me stay away