by Christine Melgarejo

If there were any NES games that really stuck with me as I grew up a gamer, it was the Macventure games. Originally released for Macs, the NES versions were actually ports, but were my first and only experience with them. All three are in still in my collection and each one holds a place in my heart.

Dejavu was my first foray into these games and I remember first watching my brother play (as I was a little too young to be successfully playing a detective game). You are a detective who wakes up in a bathroom stall above a bar, with no recollection of who you are or how you got there. But you do know that someone is framing you for murder. You have to travel the city, finding clues and evidence to prove you aren’t the killer, all the while avoiding the cops and getting into trouble with the wrong people along the way.

The controls of the game were simple; you used your d-pad to move a cursor over the screen that gave you a variety of actions. You also had items to use and a notepad to refer to as well. You moved by either clicking on a direction on screen or on your map. It was slow paced and different from the many platformers and top down games of the NES. And it was not easy! It took some thinking and making the right choices to avoid getting killed too early on.

Shadowgate and Uninvited both followed that same control scheme, but different stories. Shadowgate starts off outside of a castle, where you have to go up against an evil Warlock who attempting to summon a Behemoth demon from hell. You have to make your way through booby trapped rooms and evil creatures to stop him.

Uninvited, which was the shortest of all three games (and if you know exactly what you are doing, can be beaten in less than an hour), had you searching for your lost sister at a strange, haunted cottage.  It is probably my least favorite of the three, just because of the shortness of it, but it still has great music and moments.

Speaking of the music, that is one thing that has always drawn me to the games. Each game, with very different themes (noir, fantasy and horror) have music that works so well for them. And though it is old 8-bit music, it still sounds so good.

I always bring up my argument that these three games could be awesomely redone in new HD versions. I’m talking complete graphics overhaul, update of the classic music themes and everything. I know if they ever came out for XBLA, I’d download all three instantly.

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