Read, Watch or Listen

Ars Technica staff reminisced about frustrating moments in classic Sierra On-Line adventure games. The discussion centered on the infamous 'dry acorn' puzzle in King's Quest III, where players had to repeatedly try to pick up acorns from a specific pixel location to progress. This triggered memories of other seemingly impossible challenges, like navigating dark tunnels in Space Quest II, which led one staffer to use Sierra's expensive 1-900 hint line. The experience highlighted the sometimes-unintuitive and arbitrary nature of these classic games' puzzles.

Prepared by Emily Rhodes and reviewed by editorial team.