Probably due to their story-driven and generally humorous nature, adventure games have a tendency to contain more cross-game references and homages than games from any other genre. I have a particular fondness for them, so let's collect as many of these as we can!
Many of these references and jokes would completely fly past you if you're not familiar with the referenced titles, e.g. the threat of being eaten by a grue in a dark room makes zero sense, unless you had spent some quality-time with the Zork series of games before.
Arguably, the Space Quest series is the gold-medal winner when it comes to referencing pretty much every other Sierra and LucasArts game in existence that came before them. So one basic (and good) answer would be to just play all Sierra and LucasArts games in chronological order. But here I'm more after identifying influental titles from the pre-Sierra era; most of these titles are probably text-only adventures.
Hopefully this effort will result in a list of classic games one could play to maximise their chances of understanding these in-jokes and references; kind of a recommended "basic education programme" for
adventure gamers!
What counts
References
Book of Unwritten Tales, The
Recommended games
Play these games in order to maximise your chances of catching adventure game references:
Many of these references and jokes would completely fly past you if you're not familiar with the referenced titles, e.g. the threat of being eaten by a grue in a dark room makes zero sense, unless you had spent some quality-time with the Zork series of games before.
Arguably, the Space Quest series is the gold-medal winner when it comes to referencing pretty much every other Sierra and LucasArts game in existence that came before them. So one basic (and good) answer would be to just play all Sierra and LucasArts games in chronological order. But here I'm more after identifying influental titles from the pre-Sierra era; most of these titles are probably text-only adventures.
Hopefully this effort will result in a list of classic games one could play to maximise their chances of understanding these in-jokes and references; kind of a recommended "basic education programme" for
adventure gamers!What counts
- References from any adventure game (the referenced game *must* be an adventure game, but the title the reference appears in can be of any genre)
- Anything that makes you remember the referenced game(s) -- dialogue, story, item descriptions, graphics, music, sound, mechanics, etc.
- Purely cultural references (they would be too numerous to mention)
- Easter Eggs (but if an Easter Egg happens to be a reference as well, that's fine)
References
Book of Unwritten Tales, The
- LucasArts Indy games reference
In the Indiana Jones style cave scene there's a dialog option to sell fine leather jackets.
- Maniac Mansion reference
You can play Maniac Mansion on the computer (this is a combined Easter Egg + reference).
- Monkey Island reference
You can find Guybrush Threewood's grave in the Sapienza cemetery.
- Maniac Mansion reference
The old chainsaw and fuel joke on the boat.
- Zak McKracken reference
There is Zak McKracken poster in the game room in later versions of the game.
- LucasArts references
The game features characters from Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken.
- References most other previous adventures
This first Magnetic Scrolls adventure was famous for subverting and making fun of genre conventions and tropes that got a bit stale by the mid-80s.
- Loom references
There's a guy wearing an "Ask me about Loom" button in the Scumm Bar, and unsurprisingly... you can ask him about Loom!
When Guybrush falls on his head in the circus after the cannonball incident, for a moment he thinks he's Bobbin Threadbare (protagonist of Loom). - Zak McKracken reference
The three-headed monkey is a possible reference/continuation of the two-headed squirrel thing from Zak McKracken. - Sierra reference
It is possible to fall and "die" on Monkey Island in one of the jungle scenes. A typical Sierra-style death-dialog appears, then Guybrush springs back to life.
- Secret of Monkey Island reference
You can insult-fight a guy called Mancomb in one the DLCs.
Recommended games
Play these games in order to maximise your chances of catching adventure game references:
- Adventure (1977 Crowther/Woods version)
- Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (1980 Infocom version)
- Pawn, The (1985)
- All Sierra and LucasArts adventures in release order (maybe expand this into a list later)
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