Indie team Himalaya Studios has been making classic-style adventure games for more than a decade. They started out with free remakes of Sierra's King's Quest games and are currently working on Mage's Initiation, an original adventure/RPG Kickstarted earlier this year for $125k.
In between these projects was Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine, a wild west adventure released for PC in 2006. A new enhanced version has just come out, so if you missed Al's adventure the first time, now's your chance!
Who is Al Emmo?
Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine harkens back to the "golden age" of adventure gaming with hand-drawn VGA graphics, an icon-driven interface, a comedic storyline, and classic point-and-click puzzle solving. Al -- a feeble, middle-aged man unlucky in love -- gets wrapped up in a thousand-year-old Aztec curse while trying to impress a sultry lounge singer. Does this balding, parentally dependent fashion disaster have what it takes to be a treasure-hunting cowboy?
What's new and improved?
With over 120 hand-painted backgrounds, more than 15k frames of fluid character animation, and unique messages for practically everything you click on, Al Emmo is a lovingly crafted game by a team passionate about old-school adventures. New features in Al Emmo Enhanced include:
- A brand new voice actor for the titular character, Al Emmo
- Classic 2D-animated cutscenes
- 20 achievements
- Sierra-style scoring system with 500 points to win
- Higher-res graphic options for more detailed characters
- UI and graphical tweaks to enhance gameplay
