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Four screenshots from Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist. The top left shows a stage with an image of Freddy as a baby shooting a water pistol. The words 'best little crackshot the west had ever seen.' appear under it. The second is of a white charge in the desert town of Coarsegold. It sits next to a cemetery. The third is a picture of Coarsegold at night, with an grand Southern house to the left of an alley leading up to town. There is a portrait of a sheriff with glasses in bottom right. The final image is a framed picture of some unsavoury looking types around a card table. Central to this is a man in black with a huge chin and an ace in the brim of his hat.

Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist

I first played this game when I was a youngling at my Uncle’s house and I remember being so excited when I booted it up and watched the witty Ballad of Freddy Pharkas play out.

The concept was original and captivating—an ex-gunslinger hangs up his sidearms to go out West and become a pharmacist before events draw him back in to his gun-toting ways—all set in a gorgeous cartoon Wild West setting.

I quickly filled the first two prescriptions that acted as the copy protection to the game, then enthusiastically took Freddy outside to explore where I promptly walked into a swamp and died.

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A screenshot from Monkey Island 2 where Guybrush is talking to the three pirates by Mad Marty's Laundry
A screenshot of Simon the Sorcerer, where Simon is facing a sleeping dragon. There's a fire extinguisher in the background.

Simon the Sorcerer

This post was originally written before the 25th Anniversary Edition was released in April 2018

Simon the Sorcerer is a 1993 adventure game by Adventure Soft. You play Simon, a teenager who chases his dog through a portal and into a world is under threat from Sordid. It’s up to the rather sarcastic Simon to become a certified wizard, rescue Calypso, and save the day in a game that gleefully subverts and gently mocks many fantasy tropes.

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The title card for the LucasArts graphic adventure Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Warning: As ever, spoilers about this 26 year old game abound. 

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a 1992 action adventure game from Lucasarts, featuring everyone’s favourite adventuring academic. It adheres tightly to the Indy tropes: a mythical ancient power has the potential to give the Nazis the edge and a sceptical Indy and a credulous sidekick (Sophia) have to go on a quest to find it first (which inevitably involves a little bit of colonial grave-robbing—altogether now: where does it belong?).

It’s a surprisingly realistic portrayal of what an archeological expedition might look like. As with many real life digs, it involves a lot of foreign travel, punching, and the widespread destruction of ancient artefacts.

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A screenshot from Monkey Island 2 where Guybrush is sitting by the fire with Bart and Fink

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

I was ten years old when I first played Monkey Island 1 and it blew my mind. Granted, it does not take much to impress someone at that age: pirates, sharp writing, and a well-realised world is plenty.

A more mature and cynical eleven year old, on the other hand, is much harder to excite. It was therefore somewhat surprising to me at the time to have the belief I had experienced everything the world had to offer roundly shattered by the 1991 sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.

Warning: spoilers

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A collection of four screenshots of Space Quest IV. From top left: Roger Wilco in a space bar, Roger Wilco being saved by a time-hopping security guy, a cyborg on Xenon horrified by the sight of Roger, Roger Wilco sneaking up out of the sewers

Space Quest IV

Space Quest IV is a graphic adventure by Sierra On-Line, first released in 1991, and is the fourth in a series of six Space Quest games.

This is my second Sierra adventure (the first being Quest for Glory IV, which I haven’t written about yet because I only realised after finishing it that it was published in 1993 and not 1989 like I first though) and I found this one to be more accessible and the puzzles to be a more straightforward. Unfortunately, it suffered from the same narrative problems as Quest for Glory.

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BIS Year-End Self Classification Report

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. I am not a encryption expert. If you are in doubt, do your own due diligence. I’m confident that “I read it on the internet and they said it was OK” will not be a good defence if the NSA kicks down your door and hauls you away for cyber crimes. I am trying to keep this up to date, but this stuff changes often so it’s worth double checking. If you notice anything wrong or out of date, please let me know. Thanks!

Update January 2023: According to this document on the BIS website, the reporting requirements for mass market items have been changed. My current understanding is that if your app uses any encryption that is included with iOS, or https, then you no longer need to send a report.

Yesterday, after uploading an app for beta testing, I received this message in iTunesConnect for the first time:

If you are making use of ATS or making a call to HTTPS please note that you are required to submit a year-end self classification report to the US government.

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A screenshot of the Secret of Monkey Island showing a close up of Guybrush being awed by a monster (which turns out to be a parrot)

The Secret of Monkey Island

When Guybrush Threepwood declares himself to be a mighty pirate, we all get to laugh at his naïveté—as if the simple act of declaring himself to be one is all it takes for him to be feared and respected—before he is roundly beaten into submission under a torrent of verbal abuse. 

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Screenshot of our travel blog, Never Ending Voyage
Screenshot of the text adventure game bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

While technically a text adventure rather than a graphic adventure, it was written by Douglas Adams and it is this writing pedigree that got this game on my list. 

In this department, the game doesn’t disappoint. The humour and characters set the bar high very early on for what adventure games could provide in terms of narrative and experience, foregoing the fantasy and science fiction to present a biting satirical critique on the modern world, one that still feels fresh and relevant today. 

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