One thing that I cannot help noticing is that, with a few exceptions, the classic Lucas Arts and Sierra point-and-click adventures (of late 80s and early 90s) were never released for the main video game platforms. NES had two versions of Maniac Mansion (both released in 1988). The original King's Quest was released for the Sega Master System in 1989, and King's Quest V was released for the NES in 1990. And The Secret of Monkey Island had a port for the Sega CD in 1993 (and so did The Adventures of Willy Beamish). And Loom got a TurboGrafx-16 port in 1992. Apart from that, I do not see those classic adventure games being released for any main video game platform.
I wonder what would be the reasons for that. Those games had some good graphics, but the backgrounds were mostly static. Plus, most of them used 256 colors, which could be easily matched by the SNES and Genesis.
Censorship. Nintendo required Maniac Mansion and King's Quest V to be modified in order to comply with its internal policy. This may have discouraged other ports of adventure games to Nintendo video game platforms. However, it would not explain why Lucas Arts and Sierra would not port those games to Sega consoles (as Sega was more permissive in terms of content). Lucas Arts and Sierra were both U.S. based companies, and were not traditional third party Nintendo manufacturers (such as Capcom or Square), so this would not prevent them from porting their games to Sega consoles.
Size. Some of the classic adventure games had a large size which would be difficult to fit in a video game cartridge. I remember Monkey Island 2 and Indiana Jones being close to some 10 MB (Megabytes) when installed, and Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max would be more towards 15 MB. SNES and Genesis cartridges were, with a few exceptions, limited to 32 Megabits (which are 4 MB). But ROM was very expensive, and the first 32 Megabit cart came only in 1994; in 1992, they were limited to 16 Megabits, and in 1993, to 24 Megabits. That could explain why Sega CD and TurboGrafx-16, which supported CD-ROMs, got most of the adventure game ports. Said that, classic adventure games could perhaps be squeezed into ROM carts. I remember that games that had PC and console versions occupied far more space on the PC, so Monkey Island 2 and Indiana Jones would certainly take far less than 80 Megabits in a ROM cart. Maniac Mansion was a 2 Megabit cart for the NES; I wonder whether Monkey Island could have fit into an 8 Megabit cart.
Interface. Point-and-click adventure games are perfect for a mouse and keyboard combo, in front of a computer. The interface is not ideal for playing with a game controller in front of a TV. Still, it is perfectly possible to play. In addition to this, both Nintendo and Sega released mouse peripherals to their 16-bit consoles, so adventure games could have used those.
Sales. Early adventure games were not exactly a huge hit, I suppose. But Maniac Mansion for NES had some 250,000 carts manufactured, and apparently it was only the first batch. While it was not a million seller on the NES, it is not bad at all, and certainly justifies more ports. I may be wrong, but I think the first Lucas Arts adventure to sell a million copies was Full Throttle, in 1995; so console ports could have helped to beef up sales.
Lack of interest. It may also just be that Lucas Arts and Sierra were not really interested in exploring other markets apart from computers. That might justify why those companies were mainly confined to making computer games for the majority of their existence. Or perhaps there were not enough developers that could work on porting those games.
Anybody know the reason, or could at least guess?
I wonder what would be the reasons for that. Those games had some good graphics, but the backgrounds were mostly static. Plus, most of them used 256 colors, which could be easily matched by the SNES and Genesis.
Censorship. Nintendo required Maniac Mansion and King's Quest V to be modified in order to comply with its internal policy. This may have discouraged other ports of adventure games to Nintendo video game platforms. However, it would not explain why Lucas Arts and Sierra would not port those games to Sega consoles (as Sega was more permissive in terms of content). Lucas Arts and Sierra were both U.S. based companies, and were not traditional third party Nintendo manufacturers (such as Capcom or Square), so this would not prevent them from porting their games to Sega consoles.
Size. Some of the classic adventure games had a large size which would be difficult to fit in a video game cartridge. I remember Monkey Island 2 and Indiana Jones being close to some 10 MB (Megabytes) when installed, and Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max would be more towards 15 MB. SNES and Genesis cartridges were, with a few exceptions, limited to 32 Megabits (which are 4 MB). But ROM was very expensive, and the first 32 Megabit cart came only in 1994; in 1992, they were limited to 16 Megabits, and in 1993, to 24 Megabits. That could explain why Sega CD and TurboGrafx-16, which supported CD-ROMs, got most of the adventure game ports. Said that, classic adventure games could perhaps be squeezed into ROM carts. I remember that games that had PC and console versions occupied far more space on the PC, so Monkey Island 2 and Indiana Jones would certainly take far less than 80 Megabits in a ROM cart. Maniac Mansion was a 2 Megabit cart for the NES; I wonder whether Monkey Island could have fit into an 8 Megabit cart.
Interface. Point-and-click adventure games are perfect for a mouse and keyboard combo, in front of a computer. The interface is not ideal for playing with a game controller in front of a TV. Still, it is perfectly possible to play. In addition to this, both Nintendo and Sega released mouse peripherals to their 16-bit consoles, so adventure games could have used those.
Sales. Early adventure games were not exactly a huge hit, I suppose. But Maniac Mansion for NES had some 250,000 carts manufactured, and apparently it was only the first batch. While it was not a million seller on the NES, it is not bad at all, and certainly justifies more ports. I may be wrong, but I think the first Lucas Arts adventure to sell a million copies was Full Throttle, in 1995; so console ports could have helped to beef up sales.
Lack of interest. It may also just be that Lucas Arts and Sierra were not really interested in exploring other markets apart from computers. That might justify why those companies were mainly confined to making computer games for the majority of their existence. Or perhaps there were not enough developers that could work on porting those games.
Anybody know the reason, or could at least guess?
Facebook
Twitter