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Comment by doublerabbit | Hacker News Reader

You had to have the patience.

My older brother loved the Myst series, DoTT, Sam & Max and as a younger brother who used to sit and watch him play games, I got bored. His way of shoving me out the room because I would then hear him play GTA and not be allowed back in...

It's the same with any of those games. Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max. -- You need that logical and forward thinking mindset and an attention span greater than 3 seconds. It's an niche genre and not for everyone and now it's a genre that's lost with time just because how the world is nowadays. Who has four hours to point and click around a realm?

I meanwhile just wanted to frag folk and jump around a CTF map on Quake 3.

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On the plus side, in the modern era, you can easily find a walkthrough to help you through whatever. Though many are not well-structured to avoid spoilers when you drop into the middle of them.

I don't do a ton of adventure gaming, but I have gone through most of the episodic Sam & Max games. I estimate about 1 walkthrough consult per 2 games overall, and about a 50/50 split between "oh crap I should have gotten that myself" and "oh, I was never going to get that" results (with the occasional "oh I was right and I just didn't click on the right thing or notice the tiny little widget" that really makes me glad I just looked).

Day of the Tentacle was probably the largest game I've done with 0 consults, though I was probably stuck enough to justify it a couple of times. One of the heights of the genre, there.

Day of the Tentacle is also one of the few point and clicks I've finished from beginning to end without consulting a walkthrough. This is actually one reason that I personally prefer it to COMI, the puzzles in DOTT generally are sensible/logical for the most part, especially by genre standards.

The absolute worst puzzle for me remains the infamous Broken Sword/Circle of Blood Irish goat scene:

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goat_Puzzle

I made it so close to finishing without a guide, but I never thought to Close the Door, and wasted hours trying to find the next thing before finally giving up.

>You need that logical and forward thinking mindset and an attention span greater than 3 seconds

Not only that but you do need a lot of free time as well. As a kid I had the patience and time to push through point and click games, now as an adult with responsibilities I don't. If I only have 30 minutes per day to spend on gaming it's gonna be too short to invest in those kinds of games but just enough time for a few rounds of Q3 arena or such.

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