Hardcore Gaming 101 is a great resource covering a ridiculously wide range of games. Surely you're all familiar with them! They have collectively put out quite a few books, of which I have two. The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures is HUGE and was a Christmas gift I received several years ago. Every now and then I pull it out and read a few entries, which sets me up to finish it sometime next decade, I think. It's especially interesting for me because I know so little about the genre. The other is about Treasure, the idiosyncratic Japanese action game developer—one of my all-time favorite developers. I've only scratched the surface on this one but I'm excited to dive deeper into it. Treasure still exists but is not actively developing new games anymore. I miss the days when we got new Treasure games.
I loved adventure games as a kid. Played a lot of Sierra games. Missed out on the LucasArts ones though... don't know why.
Isn't that like missing the best part?
I played a lot of the LucasFilm Games point and click adventures as a kid. My favorite was Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. Back before The Walking Dead, TellTale used to make some pretty good modern point and click adventures, too.
It's kind of funny (and sad) that the thing that brought TellTale such success and reknown—putting out games with big expensive licenses attached—ultimately led to their downfall too. I wonder if they had to stuck to smaller "classic" style adventures games, or at least a mixture of the two, if they'd still be around today.
I've dabbled in the genre but they've always frustrated me with obscure solutions. I'm always interested in them though and try some when I can get them on Game Pass. I played one recently but I forget the name offhand. It was good for a while until the inevitable obscure solution that got me stuck. Darn those games, I want to like them.