Okay, you can still find Monkey Island without help. But not many other games.
I bet everyone of you knows this: The dark memory of an old game has been buzzing around in your head for ages. What was it called again? I don’t know, but in the main menu there was this one funny picture and you solved a puzzle with colorful snail shells… Man, if you could find that again, that would be it.
There is hope! Of course, you can send us such requests at any time or post them in the GameStar forum. We in the editorial office are happy to puzzle over them. But sometimes we just can’t figure it out, especially when it comes to very old, niche titles that may no longer even exist today.
That’s why I want to introduce you to a second option that I have already used successfully myself: the Reddit community r/tipofmyjoystick
This gives you the best chance of success
This sub-Reddit is full of people who like to solve puzzles – and who together have a huge knowledge of games. The chances are therefore high that someone here can tell you the title of the game you are looking for. The important thing is that you stick to the rules and have a little patience.
How exactly posts should be formatted is written by the official mod guidelines The language of the sub-Reddit is English (if necessary, you can write your post in Europe and convert it using a translation program). The more of the following data you have at hand, the better your prospects:
- What platform did you play on?
- In what period did you play? Can you narrow it down to a few years?
- What did the graphics look like? 2D, 3D, pixelated?
- Do you still remember individual words from the title?
- Can you remember any specific gameplay features? The more details you can give, the better.
Pictures are now also allowed – if you have a screenshot, great. If not, just try sketching the main menu, cover or a scene in Paint! This not only makes the search easier, but also more fun for everyone involved.
Michelangelo would have wept bitterly at my exemplary work of art. Probably out of envy.
Since there are a lot of requests every day, it can take a day or two before someone answers you. Impatient spamming doesn’t help at all, of course, and can lead to your post being deleted. Wait a bit before you nudge your request again – preferably at a Time at which as many users as possible are online in the North American time zones. For example, from 1 a.m. Europe time.
From my own experience, I can say that the community is really smart: a while ago I had them look for an obscure 2D adventure from the 90s, of which I only knew that it was about a volcanic island, a crashed hot air balloon and a T-Rex that you scare with a camera flash. Twelve hours later, I had my answer!
And what was the name of my lost game? I would love to tell you at this point, but unfortunately I’ve forgotten it since then. A few months ago, a clever GameStar reader even wrote it in a comment – but that didn’t stick either. I guess I’ll have to create another post in r/tipofmyjoystick.
Which almost forgotten game would you like to rediscover? Post it here in the comments, maybe someone can help you right away! And if you enjoy puzzles, you will certainly find many tough challenges in the subreddit. Maybe your knowledge of technical simulations from the early 2000s or all games with frog protagonists will finally pay off.
