[Aloisius]

I may be an odd ball here, but I cheated at Monkey Island 1 and 2. I don't like to be frustrated with a puzzle that relies on either randomly choosing inventory items or seeing some pixels that look like almost every other set of pixels on the screen and trying to pick them up.

For me, what made Monkey Island great was that it was a pretty quirky comedy. I wanted to see what Guybrush would say next.

Further, it shocks me at how bad the graphics are at some of these games after looking at them again after decades. It occurs to me that what I remember it looking like is a heck of a lot better than what it actually looked like. So I'd rather the game not look like the pixely original. I'd rather have it look like I remember.

[Contero]

I think Machinarium is a good example of how you can preserve the fun frustration of adventure games without pushing people to cheat. They would allow you to play a mini-game in order to reveal some extra hints which would push you in the right direction enough to figure out the rest on your own.

In Monkey Island I would sometimes get annoyed and google for what to do out of angry frustration. It was easy for me to throw my hands up and say "I don't give a shit any more, time to move on!" Lots of times the solutions made zero sense to me. In Machinarium I still got a sense of frustration and puzzlement, but I would try to forego the hints out of pride for as long as I could which made for a much more enjoyable experience.

[ricardobeat]

You mean Altavista?

[m_mueller]

Machinarium's gameplay could (and should) be pretty much copy pasted onto lots of adventure games, both remakes and new ones. It's just perfect. I hope Amanita goes back to that franchise, there's still a lot that could be explored there.

[lobster_johnson]

I really liked the puzzle difficulty with Machinarium. I think I had to use the hints system once for one of the particularly difficult puzzles. Great game.

[neworder]

> Further, it shocks me at how bad the graphics are at some of these games after looking at them again after decades.

I played MI 1 and 2 in the early 1990s and after revisiting them after 15 years or so, my impression was exactly the opposite: "Look how well the graphics has aged!". Yes, pixels are there, but the aesthetic value of locations, landscapes etc. is relatively unaffected, it's still pleasing to watch (esp. in MI2). I think this says something about the quality of graphic design in those games.