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Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures is a 1996 computer game inspired by the Indiana Jones films. This was the first in a series of "Desktop Adventures" games; the second, entitled Star Wars: Yoda Stories, followed a year later. Because LucasArts has not sold this game for many years, it is generally considered abandonware.

Publisher's summary[]

Take an Indy Adventure Break!

Grab your whip and fedora and join in the first-of-its-kind mini-adventure. Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures offers literally billions of games, set in 1930s Mexico, with motley characters, challenging puzzles and a variety of outcomes. With each game averaging under an hour, there's always time for an Indy adventure break.

Plot summary[]

The game is set in mid-1930s Mexico. Indy and Marcus Brody have set up headquarters in the small town of Lucasio from which to conduct excavations at Site R, whereupon they are immediately confronted with a series of mysteries, emergencies and adventures.

Gameplay[]

Lucasio

Indiana Jones traverses Lucasio.

The game is designed as a "casual" adventure game, playable from start to finish in about an hour or less, presenting an alternative to traditional light computer diversions such as Solitaire and Minesweeper, and like those games is played in a small window on the desktop. As Indiana Jones, the player must contend with motley characters, challenging puzzles, and a huge variety of outcomes. The plot and direction of each game is randomly generated at the start, with locations, items and characters being drawn from a data set and varying with each game. Therefore, unlike most Indiana Jones games, the game has no singular narrative, but rather a vast number of possible adventures, each with its own side quests and encounters - billions of different stories are possible, ensuring replayability, though they follow a common formula.

Players go against Dr. Victor Van Loon, Nazis (led by General Anton Schlossberg), bandits, and dangerous animals to complete quests, which can range from recovering various artifacts to rescuing kidnapped characters to investigating strange goings-on. Gameplay is structured around randomly-generated puzzles which generally involve obtaining various items such as tools, keys, antiquities, etc. and using them to gain access to other items. Perilous encounters reduce health points, which can be restored with health items such as first aid kits or medicinal herbs.

Crew[]

Appearances[]

Characters[]

Artifacts[]

Locations[]

Items[]

Keys[]

Health Items[]

Weapons[]

Behind the scenes[]

As with LucasArts' previous Indy game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the project was led by Hal Barwood, who wrote the story and designed the game together with production manager Wayne Cline; lead artist Tom Payne and lead programmer Paul D. LeFevre also contributed to the game design. Veteran LucasArts composer Clint Bajakian contributed music and sound effects editing, incorporating brief quotes of the famous "Raiders March" by John Williams.

Perhaps to convey the "lightweight," casual nature of the game, it was sold in minimal packaging - a slim, shrinkwrap-sealed cardboard folder, with an interior pocket for the game floppy disk - quite different from the standard boxes of other LucasArts games of the time.

Because of the tremendous story variation possible, the prospect of incorporating the game narrative in any specific detail into the larger Indiana Jones canon presents considerable difficulty, although the general situation, adventure objectives, principal characters, etc. may be considered canon.

External links[]

Indiana Jones video games
Adaptations
Raiders of the Lost Ark · Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game · The Graphic Adventure · Taito game
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Mobile game · Didj game
Film series: Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures · Cancelled trilogy adaptation
Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles · Revolution · Special Delivery · Hunting for Treasure · Cancelled IBM game
LEGO Indiana Jones
Console: The Original Adventures · The Adventure Continues
Desktop: Indiana Jones Adventures · Shanghai Chase
Mobile Adventure
Original stories
Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom · Indiana Jones in Revenge of the Ancients
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game · The Graphic Adventure
Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones · Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine · Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Scavenger Hunt) · Indiana Jones and the Lost Puzzles
Indiana Jones Adventure World · The Gifts of Mara
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Cancelled: Young Indiana Jones at the World's Fair · Iron Phoenix · Spear of Destiny
Tie-ins and crossovers
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction · Pinball FX/Pinball FX3/Williams Pinball · Fortnite
Disney
Disney Magic Kingdoms · Disney Emoji Blitz
Star Wars
Yoda Stories · Republic Heroes · Galactic Spy
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga · The Clone Wars · The Force Awakens
Related
Timeline of video games
ADVENTURE TIMELINE
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Unknown Mid-1930s Unknown
Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures
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