The Crimson Diamond
When people get nostalgic about adventures games, the focus tends to fall on 1993 onward. Mice were now ubiquitous on PC (it’s very easy to forget they weren’t always the default, and even games like Doom were designed to be played keyboard only!), and even LucasArts dropped the verb system by the release of Sam & Max. At this point, they were games played with a mouse cursor alone, albeit one that switched between many modes for more interesting interaction.
But before even clickable verbs were text parsers. Sierra Online—the publisher that must receive the credit for properly popularizing the genre—originally created adventures in which interaction was performed by typing instructions into a pop-up box. “LOOK AT BOX,” “PICK UP LADDER,” “POO ON FLOOR,” and so on. (The latter got a response weirdly often in Sierra games!) This was an evolution from the same instructions being typed into text adventures, and game series like Police Quest, King’s Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry all started out this way. Today, however, while many of the modern games in this list are designed to hark back to previous decades, almost none return to the parser. Until 2024’s The Crimson Diamond
Set in 1914, it finds Nancy Maple traveling to a small Canadian town called Crimson, sent by her boss to investigate the discovery of a large diamond. However, this soon develops into a full-fledged murder mystery, full of twists and turns, and all controlled not only by pointing and clicking, but also through the extraordinary number of ways the game adapts to what you choose to type in.
This is the work of one developer, Julia Minamata, and it’s an incredible feat. The EGA-style graphics make it feel extremely nostalgic, while the phenomenal parser makes sure you know this is a huge step forward from the games of the 1980s. It’s so splendid that games like this can still be made, and indeed find a wide, enthusiastic audience. You should join them!
Updated: 04/03/2025, 12:29 p.m. ET: Added Unforeseen Incidents, which was the game that originally inspired me to write this entire article.
