Has anyone actually beat the microscope minigame in The 7th Guest?

The firefly puzzle in Uru was also pretty tough.

Pixel-hunting puzzles were always tough, especially with CGA/EGA/VGA type of graphics that didn't show objects clearly.

One recent adventure game that is also tough (in a good way) is Frogwares' 2008 game "Dracula Origin".

One thing that has dawned on me is that puzzles don't necessarily have to really be challenging for an adventure game to be great. It just needs to have that right mix of storytelling and challenge, like The Longest Journey. The key is to give the player a memorable experience.

Sometimes a slick user interface helps. For example, the 3D virtual environment in the Tex Murphy game.

Maniac Mansion.

Somebody I knew "lend" me a copy of the game when it was first released on PC but at the time I had no idea what copy protection was or even that the game had one, so I literally spend months playing the game trying everything I could think of to find the code to open that damn security door, I tried exploring every single pixels, tried playing with every characters, I even tried entering code at random for hours.... it really traumatized me...

It's only years later that I discovered the reason why I was unable to pass this door.

For me it was the Space Quest series. Today I know all six of them off by heart, but when I was very young and had just started playing adventure games I didn't exactly understand Sierra's logic. That and I struggled with the parser for a couple days before I learnt how to effectively use it. Thankfully I had my father's hint books and his help since he played them all before me.

Oddly enough, I had no trouble with that puzzle. I walked into the room and my "GOAT" alarms went off, and I knew exactly what to do.

I did. Though it felt a little cheaty to do so :)

There is one puzzle in Toonstruck that I couldn't get through without a walkthrough. Although maybe I was just too young back then.

Pretty much all of them. Adventure games and I don't get along very well.

Riven kicked my ass for 5 years. I finally managed to beat it in 2004 with my uncle. It was incredibly satisfying.

Where are you stuck, I may give you some clues.

Still Life - stupid cookie recipe.

Syberia 2 - awesome pixel hunting in the last village.

me pwns them both my boyo

How did you deal with that built-in walkthrough in Machinarium?

I think I get hardcore stuck at least once in almost every adventure game I play. I absolutely fucking hate to use a walkthrough to get past that part, but I usually have to once in every game. I try super hard to not have to more than once per game. My problem is that if I use the walkthrough, then the fun of that entire part of the game is just completely reduced to zero for me. If I have to use it twice or more, then I won't even enjoy the entire game anymore. I don't know what my problem is psychologically.

I still remember back to when I was really young and I played The Neverhood when it first came out. I was new to the genre and just didn't understand what was going on and so I had to use the hint system on the very first puzzle. That room even now is still unenjoyable to me when I think about it, and it bothers me to this day that I didn't get to experience the fun and satisfaction of solving that puzzle.

I had to do it recently with a game from gog and decided that I would never do it again. I'd rather just not finish the game.

I must admit Gemini Rue was well balanced and puzzle made sense. But I still had to look a walkthrough for one puzzle.

This. Adventure games should make you feel good about using logical ways to accomplish things; there should be a slight challenge, but overall logic is important.

The player shouldn't be told EXACTLY what to do, but having the character mention what he can't do might assist.

Silly example: if he just took some clothes out of the washing machine, and the player tries to put them on, the character could say, "They're too wet and cold for me to put on." The player deduce from this situation to put them in the dryer. :P

its time for payback, watch out broken sword 3