Can we mark in the list the ones that are here on GOG somehow?

Thanks, I'll look into these for sure although the thought of an interactive fiction game with a timer scares the crap out of me. ;)
Done!

Hmm, there are quite a few 'action adventures' on there, like Alone in the Dark, Outcast and Little Big Adventure. Not saying they don't belong on the list but it seems silly to make the distinction then include them.

Nice list with many games I've never played, but those I have were mostly good :)

One game I'd have included if I'd made such a list myself is A Mind Forever Voyaging, the one Infocom text adventure that I really enjoyed.

BioForge is action adventure too. So is Omikron.

http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/193073-omikron-the-nomad-soul/index.html
http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/565028-bioforge/index.html

GameRankings suggests otherwise.

Maybe we should have a vote here on GOG to see whether these questionable games should be included. If a game reaches 5 negative for being Adventure then I'll replace it. If anyone thinks they should be included then that's a positive.

So far: Omikron: The Nomad Soul -1, Bioforge -2, Outcast -1, Twinsen's Odyssey -1, Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure -1

And just like that GOG releases another one on the list. Zork: Grand Inquisitor is here!

Why there are no Star Trek adventures on that list? Surely these are better than some sequels of well-known game series?

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity


I would also include some "hidden gems", such as

Alien Incident
The Shivah


Of course if the idea is not to have the best games, but the best known games, then maybe it shouldn't be called "Top 100" but "100 most famous adventures".

If they are most famous, why would anyone need a list for reference?

All interactive fiction by Legend is missing (like, Spellcasting trilogy or Erik the Unready), Death Gate, Neuromancer, Shadow of the Comet, Darkness Within: in Pursuit of Loath Nolder, Lighthouse, Veil of Darkness.

Text adventures are getting short shrift here. Adventure (i.e., Colossal Cave) is an especially surprising omission from a list trying to stress the importance of various adventure games throughout history. And there were many other indisputable classics, such as Planetfall, Suspended, Hitchhiker's Guide, and A Mind Forever Voyaging, along with a host of others almost as good. Zork is a fine series but hardly hints at the diversity and evolution of the genre.

Ironically, text adventures use some of the oldest technology in gaming, yet they age the most gracefully. The best ones will always deserve a look. There were some phenomenal ones coming out regularly a few years back.

Among other things, I'd suggest condensing the individual titles of juggernaut series into single entries on your list. No point debating whether Monkey Island 4 or King's Quest N is more significant than the Enchanter trilogy. You might end up with less than 100 titles, but that's an arbitrary number anyway.

Bioforge had so much combat in it that the expansion was going to feature a gauntlet mode. It's an action-exploration game with some puzzles here and there. Although like most Origin games, it's hard to put in a single genre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0EU2E3LPc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpGFt1XBSBE

Outcast is another one that's hard to stick in one category. But it's heavy on exploration, combat, and weapon upgrades. If anything, it's an open-world sim, not a point-and-click adventure. If you're going to list it, you might as well include games like Nocturne and Blair Witch series, along with In Cold Blood, Martian Gothic, and Project Eden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLc6bvYh5Cw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmUJJhu7CPM

Omikron has combat, but I didn't get far enough to see how integral it is to the game.

Some significant point and click omissions are Chronomaster, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Riddle of Master Lu, and probably most of the stuff in the Lost Adventures of Legend collection (never got around to playing those). Don't overlook Journeyman Project, either. It's a worthy runner up to Myst as a QuickTime-driven first-person adventure.

Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentlemen, Please! are cheap and look primitive. But they're too much in sync with classic adventures to leave out. You could also consider adding Ceville, although I'm not a huge fan of the English conversion. Shadow of the Comet? Definitely. The Star Trek adventures through Final Unity were highly regarded too.

Star Control 2 is arguably a graphic adventure with arcade elements. Like Outcast, it's hard to categorize.

I'm sure there are other adventures I didn't play that should be on this list. Normality, perhaps? There were a lot of well regarded Myst-style games, too, such as Obsidian. Using Myst as shorthand for all the rest leaves out a lot of excellent adventures. Maybe some of these...
http://justadventure.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1046560654

Most of the games you listed are excellent and should be played. You're just overlooking a number that should take precedence over games like Runaway or the more generic entries in Sierra's series. Or Syberia, for that matter.

I have only played about 5% of that list. I do plan to play more of them.

The list is missing Culpa Innata and Grey Matter :)

I haven't played it yet, but from what I've seen of it I'd say that Outcast isn't really close to the style of game that the 'adventure' category otherwise comprises from a traditional PC gamer's perspective. It would seem like more of an exploration-based game in an open world with shooting action in addition to some conversations, or am I completely wrong here?

I'm not too familiar with the other games you mention as questionable, but I would like to be a bit generalizing here and talk about what these 'adventure' games actually are (or aren't).

First of all, just because a game is experimenting with other mechanics doesn't mean that it can't stay within the framework of what constitutes an 'adventure' game. A game like Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, for instance, is quite different in terms of how you interact with the world and is paced more like a movie in contrast to the slower, more methodic pace of the point 'n' clickery style of games. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have a lot in common with the traditional style of adventure games, namely in that it puts story-telling and characters ahead of elaborate gameplay mechanics (while more action-oriented games, on the other hand, will often put the latter ahead of story-telling and characters).

Another thing is, I'd recommend not blindly trusting gamerankings or any other site that categorizes incredibly large numbers of games (or books or movies for that matter) within certain genre labels. Every gamer might not have the same take on what an 'adventure' game is. For PC gamers there is perhaps general agreement on what it means, but if you ask someone who's only ever played console or arcade games it might mean something else. The 'adventure' game is perhaps in itself the most unspecific genre label I can think of in video games. You've got other traditional video game genres that at least are informative of what you, as a player, will be doing in the game: strategizing in strategy games, shooting in first-person shooters, jumping on platforms in platformers, etc. etc.

What does the 'adventure' label describe, then? That you go on an 'adventure', yes. But it says nothing about player interaction within that adventure. And then there's of course the small matter of several games within other genres that can also be said to send the player on an 'adventure'. It's such a loose genre term that it's really rather useless in itself, but requires some context and general agreement.

I don't know when or why people started using it about the story-driven, puzzle-solving types of games that we still use it for today, but it'd be interesting to hear if anyone knows.

Anyway, pointless ramble over:)

Get Inform Designer's Manual, skip technical details, read Craft of Adventure section.