I was hoping you'd be dropping in: your blog is top notch and so are these takes.

I don't really know if it was poorly received or not, but I've never heard much praise for Sierra's answer to Myst... Lighthouse: The Dark Being.

Personally I love it. The atmosphere, story, music, art (except for the extremely creepy looking baby and the professor's massively large hands), the puzzles, the machines, etc etc etc. I've always felt that it was underrated. Sure, it's a Myst copy, but the world manages to feel peaceful, timeless, and foreboding all at the same time.

I don't really know if it was poorly received or not, but I've never heard much praise for Sierra's answer to Myst... Lighthouse: The Dark Being.

I'd say it's pretty poorly received. From memory it has pretty clunky mechanics and easy ways to screw yourself over early on in the game, particularly as it was released at a time Sierra were trying to get away from such mechanics.

Neither of these were poorly received games, but Lucy Dreaming and Thimbleweed Park both have endings that are often criticized and which I think are splendid.

I get that some people don't like meta endings because it feels "cheap", but I don't mind them. The only issue with Thimbleweed Park is that I badly wanted to spend more time in that world, but is that really a criticism? Isn't it better to bow out when it's still good rather than run it into the ground?

King’s Quest V might have been bologna in 1990, but in 2026 would you really prefer to have it any other way?

I feel like criticism against KQV is like hot takes on tv shows / movies produced 50 years ago. Yes, a lot of things have aged badly but ultimately, almost everything is going to age badly if you always use modern day standards on old media. I prefer to view it as quirks of the time.

I don't really know if it was poorly received or not, but I've never heard much praise for Sierra's answer to Myst... Lighthouse: The Dark Being.

Personally I love it. The atmosphere, story, music, art (except for the extremely creepy looking baby and the professor's massively large hands), the puzzles, the machines, etc etc etc. I've always felt that it was underrated. Sure, it's a Myst copy, but the world manages to feel peaceful, timeless, and foreboding all at the same time.

I feel the same way about Lighthouse. I've played it at least 3 times over the years.

I'm not sure of the exact title, but I think it was Dracula Resurrection. Tim Curry was the "over the top" star. It was widely panned ... primarily because of Curry. I kind of liked it. I feel the same way about Shivers 1&2 and Lighthouse. I think LadyK will recall that I lobbied long and hard for them to be voted for when choosing a CPT on the old AG forum. Shivers 2 never made it. My guess it was because of the annoying disk switching needed to play the end game.

Good ones!

For some reason, I like exaggerated acting in adventure games. I'm putting Dracula Resurrection on my list.

Both Shivers games sound like good CPT suggestions, I think I'll try and resurrect the thread. Disc switching was such a hassle in the CD-ROM era. Both games are on GoG now.

Shivers 1&2, as well as Lighthouse, were primarily looked at as MYST clones, which they were. But that is beside the point. All three were excellent games in their own right. Their flaw, if there was one, was that the weren't developed by the same people who developed MYST. After all, RIVEN is a MYST clone, and it is widely lauded.

Maybe my perspective is a little off because Myst was not the first game of its ilk that I played, but I don’t believe that Myst should be the yardstick by which all lonely first-person puzzle adventures should be measured just by dint of its being the granddaddy of that genre. I thought the Shiverses were better games, at least in terms of being fun to play.

Maybe my perspective is a little off because Myst was not the first game of its ilk that I played, but I don’t believe that Myst should be the yardstick by which all lonely first-person puzzle adventures should be measured just by dint of its being the granddaddy of that genre. I thought the Shiverses were better games, at least in terms of being fun to play.

Okay, "Shiverses" is my word of the month. I hope that's okay.

Josh