Here, I'll start. When I was 8 years old, my parents went to a dinner party and plonked me down in front of the host's computer so I'd stay out of their way. The game they booted up to keep me occupied was Space Quest II. Little did they know what impact that would have on me...
For me, it was the original King's Quest. Like you, my dad was looking at a way to keep my brother and I busy.
The original King's Quest — as in PC Jr, or the DOS conversion? Either way, I would imagine KQ1 kept you guys busy for a loooooong time.
It did keep us busy on the fun DOS conversion
I didn't play it until a couple of years ago when I did my video on it. I imagine I would have had a lot more fun with it if I was a kid and had all the time in the world to explore the world. Sadly, my first KQ game was KQ3, which stopped you from having any fun every 2-3 minutes with the sudden appearance of a bossy wizard.
I didn't play that until 18 when I bought the King's Quest collection. I think if that had been my first experience, I wouldn't have ventured into the adventure games world at all.
That being said, I do plan on making an text adventure game along similar lines.
Somehow my friend from school had gotten wind of the "bye bye wizard" cheat code, and we STILL couldn't get anywhere in the game. I'll take falling off a space station to my death, thanks. 😂
The Cliffs of Illogic!
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It was King's Quest 1 for me also. Although it was the pcjr version. I think I still have the original plastic box/manual in storage. My memory at the time, me being about 3-4, was of walking around and frequently finding my parents and asking them how to spell certain words I couldn't yet. I never beat the game as a child but I loved exploring the world.
We also had Space Quest 1 after that and it grabbed my imagination even more. I don't think I ever beat that one as a child either but I got a lot farther.
For whatever reason we didn't have any other King's Quest or Space Quests until the series went vga. KQ5 and SQ4 were the next ones we picked up.
Somewhere in there was also Loom (which came with a companion audio cassette. I wish I still had that!) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I'll always wish someone would complete the Loom story.