I wanted to sort of end this Top 5 thing with a bang, and do something really big like my top 5 games of all time, but instead I opted to do this. It's actually a little more personal. Back in the day there were 3 games that essentially sparked my interest in gaming: Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros. and in between those two was King's Quest III. Frankly it's not really that great of a game, but it opened the door to adventure games to me, and I was firmly camped in that genre for the next 10 years - really until the genre itself kind of died.  ANd of course, Sierra was king of those games. So here we go:

1. The Dagger of Amon Ra - This was a classic Agatha Cristie mystery, and kind of a switch from the regular adventure games. Your focus had to be on everything and not just following point A to point B. If you were just solving puzzles to progress you wouldn't catch the clues and ultimately you'd have no clue who committed the murders.  

2. Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory - Hands down my favorite series that Sierra ever made, and the first one was like crack for me. I played and replayed it so many times that I could actually draw out the game's map from memory.... and frighteningly enough I think I still can to this day. Maybe I did play this one too much.

3. Conquests of the Longbow - The greatest Robin Hood game ever... not that there are tons out there. But they took the Robin Hood mythos, mixed it with a little druid magic and the result was not only a great game, but one of the better retellings of the tale.

4. Gold Rush! - Gold Rush! was one of those games that got lost in the shuffle. By the time it had come out Sierra had sort of transitioned graphically to 256 color games, while Gold Rush was left with just the 16 color palatte. They did some amazing things with the old technology though, and the game itself was amazing. Total throwback that was harder than hell. But the unique period piece that took place during the country's California gold rush was a pretty special game.

5. Jones in the Fastlane - Jones wasn't actually an adventure game. It was really more of a board game that you played on a PC. Almost like a turn based version of the board game Life, but with specific goals. You had to reach certain marks levels of career, education, wealth, and happiness. It was bizarrely addictive. Something you could play alone, or play with friends.