10th January 2003, 9:19 PM
To me, there are two definitions of "adventure game". The first is Zelda, the second is a game like King's Quest. They both are different games, but both are called "adventure games". To be honest, to me they both feel like a grand adventure. All an adventure game is, in the Zelda sense, is an action/rpg game, which is to say, live fighting with puzzle elements and a single massive world. An adventure in the KQ sense is basically a large quest of puzzle solving in one large world, with almost no combat. Since the console and PC definitions kinda contradict, but are still incredibly popular, both of them, I think it's perfectly fine to say that there are two definitions.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)