So I fully intended to post about one more short game to finish 2024, and while I found something short, it turned out to be uniquely bad in an unusual way, making for a longer post than expected. It will land here eventually.
In the meantime, let’s look back at 2024! And what I hope is the last full year devoted to games from 1982, as we genuinely are in the final stretch, and you can read that post I just linked to see the remaining games. Only a few on there are ones I expect to be “long”, that is, take more than three posts. (My next “long” one upcoming is Cornucopia, which is allegedly Cotton’s hardest, so more comparable to Catacombs than Goblin Towers.)
If you want to just read everything I posted last year, you can go to my Big List, hit everything in 1982 starting from Crime Stopper up to Espionage Island; also snag the six from 1981 starting from Escape from Colditz, and also two from 1980 (Magical Journey, Bally’s Alley).
If you just want a sampling, I picked some interesting moments. I don’t consider these the “best”; I appreciate all the games I play, even the ones that play poorly.
Crowther’s Adventure, and Software Toolworks
Let’s start with my most popular new post of 2024, where I go through the newly-unearthed campaign known as Mirkwood Tales and compare Crowther’s D&D experiences directly with his writing of Adventure. I then go on to give some new information on Don Woods leading to the Software Toolworks version of Adventure, the only one that paid the duo royalties.
From the Mammoth Cave National Park Facebook page, posted in 2022.
Toxic Dumpsite and Spook House by Roger Jonathan Schrag
Schrag was into making games for the challenge of coding, and he made multi-directional look graphics games for the TRS-80. Despite us having other first-person adventures before (like Asylum and The Haunted Palace) this is the closest in feel to a proto-Myst. Includes one absurdly unfair puzzle.
Dragon’s Keep by Rae Lynn MacChesney, Margaret Paul Lowe, Al Lowe, and Michael MacChesney
Dragon’s Keep got the attention of Sierra On-Line; this eventually resulted in Al Lowe being the main developer on Leisure Suit Larry. This was interesting to study as it goes very different against the tide of regular adventure games, and I managed to unearth some new history on a story that’s been told before.
El Diablero by Ken Kalish
Based on the eventually-revealed-to-be-fiction books of Carlos Castaneda, and the biggest surprise of the year. It manages to leverage its sparse prose as a benefit, on top of a unique setting and some brilliant puzzles.
Orb by Ian Richards
A randomized clone of an even more obscure game which contains an absolutely bizarre trick which leverages the computer’s “crash error” system as a game mechanic.
From the Museum of Computer Adventure Games.
Bally’s Alley and Treasures of Cathy by John Collins
A pair of homebrew adventure games made for the Bally Astrocade. As wild a technical achievement as that sounds, with plenty of misadventures just trying to get the games to even work.
Starcross by Dave Lebling
The most pleasant thing for me to play all year; Infocom still holds up even to modern standards. I’m particularly happy how I managed to weave in historical details and textual analysis with what people have previously written.
Via eBay, for $2,495.00 or Best Offer.
Das Geheimnisvolle Haus, Avventura nel Castello, Des cavernes dans le poquette
The start of German, Italian, and French adventure gaming respectively, with lots of historical details. I was particularly invested in getting the details of these out to English-speaking audiences; there’s a lot about early European gaming we still don’t know.
One more bonus pick; an elaborately animated game originally for Tandy CoCo with a fascinating historical story attached, and some analysis about what influences game creation.
If you’re a regular reader and want to plug any of the games in particular from last year, feel free.
BONUS: Pulled from the comments, we have votes for Transylvania and Critical Mass.
Transylvania had an unusual amount of care (and available time!) put into the graphics, with Penguin’s cutting-edge software; Critical Mass had dynamic real-time events that felt like one of the necessary steps on the road to King’s Quest and modern point-and-click games.
Renga in Blue 
Highlights for me were Transylvania and Critical Mass, unsurprisingly Apple // games. Sands of Egypt as an honourable mention since I never knew the differences between computer versions (I only ever played the Apple version and therefore never knew what I was missing).
I didn’t even own an Apple II (just the “Oregon Trail Generation” thing where it was in computer labs at school) and it gives me warm fuzzy vibes.
Still a little bit of Apple II art to go for 1982, including one I don’t think people are expecting.
I know you already listed it, but the big surprise for me this year was El Diablero. Given the era and its provenance, my expectations were very low, but it ended up being a surprisingly inventive and effective game! Blending the philosophy of the source material into the game world is an advanced move for this era.
Quite often if I spend some time on the background of the media (history, lore, etc.), it ends up being just for flavor, but it really got connected up here. (The Star Trek games, while getting some unique vibes and leveraging the “fan-fiction shortcut” to describing things, have still not felt like “real” Star Trek.)
Another vote for El Diablero as an amazing find. One of the more memorable moments for me was figuring out the ringing phone in Crime Stopper but the game couldn’t really be recommended beyond that–shame because it was trying something different. (Also the skeleton in Castel del Avventura but that’s already here.)
Looking at the list of All The Adventures, Transylvania strikes me as another notable one. Shame about the moose head puzzle. And Temple of Disrondu which not only was historically important but good enough that you could see where these folks were going to go on to great things.
Also looking at the All The Adventures list, I think that you could follow up the if you “are interested in long and difficult games” list with “If you don’t believe me, try reading about Ferret. See you in a month!” It wasn’t this past year but Ferret was the most interesting discovery and extraordinary experience for me as a kibitzer on this blog.
I always love the collaborative moments!
I had someone on a random Discord tell me “oh, you’re the Ferret guy” so it’s getting read on its own by people who aren’t regular visitors.