PC Gaming

These 80s games were made to sell actual walk-throughs. You had to buy a book or magazine for many of them.

They were not difficult, they were stupid.

Because that was the beginning of the adventure game era where there was no concept of game design and ensuring that the games made logical sense, hence the birth of "moon logic", thanks Roberta. These games were also made to be obtuse because games were very expensive back then and making obscure logic was an incentive to make things more "worth" it, often intending to make the game last months of play time to solve their "logic" puzzles and you had to be in tune with the game designer to get them.

Not to mention that due to intention or lack of game design, these games were notorious for allowing you to put yourself into a unwinnable state with no way to correct it, things like Space Quest with the alien kiss of death that won't trigger until the very end of the game or that Kings Quest game where you had one shot to throw a boot at a cat or you'd be dead man walking.

Not being able to finish these games wasn't even unusual back then without the help of friends or BBS. Heck I had games adventure games I bought from that era that I never finished until the got re-released on Steam.

A very common thing even back then. Finishing a game was not a given. It was an achievement.

Going into it cold without knowing the tropes of the genre and the visual design language would be a massive disadvantage. Gamers in the 80s would have a set of expectations and strategies that we wouldn't lean on today. Giving someone from 1985 Factorio might lead to some similar confusion until they got the hang of it.

Similar to giving an English reader some Chaucer.

Maniac Mansion was designed to be replayed, which is why the cast of characters you picked could be different each playthrough. It also meant a lot more red herrings.

Idiots should have known to use the honey on the skeleton, causing ants to carry away the bones but leave behind the clearly visible key that I was clicking on for 15 fuckingijfiejbfitkbeofniwkwhofh

Well, yeah.

Game companies also sold strategy guides at the time. They're designed to be obtuse. I'm pretty sure the full walkthrough for Leisure Suit Larry 1 is only 2 paragraphs or something.

The actual steps to the end are short, there's just always a puzzle where you have to use a rubber chicken with a bar of soap to make a helicopter or some shit. I love adventure games though, I'm just a walkthrough baby.

I’ve never beat Maniac Manson, but I did beat Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. Not in four hours, though. It took months playing (when it was new) after school and bouncing ideas off my father and his best friend. All three of us were playing the game separately and sharing tips.

I could probably beat it in around 2 hours if I tried today? I still remember the path but there are also the random mazes where you just try and hope for the best. Peru, the Sphinx, Mars, maybe another one. Oh yeah, Mexico City. Maybe there are guides online but I’ve never used them, and we didn’t have them when the game was new.

4 hours is pretty cruel.

I mean I beat that game for the first time, in the first way, when I was ten. But it took me a lot more than 4 hours. Now I could probably do it in two. But only for the Bernard involved endings, and where you can make use of the glitches, like the switch character-pause-freeze Edna in her bedroom.