They got one attempt and 4 hours to beat Maniac Mansion. I never played that but I struggled for weeks with some adventure ganes back in thd days.

Great article.

Old point-and-click adventure games also make great case studies in good (and bad) game design, such as allowing a player early on to make a decision that renders the late game unwinnable without even realizing they've irrevocably screwed up.

I actually wrote an article discussing my love/hate relationship with King's Quest IV, a notoriously difficult adventure game.

https://mordenstar.com/blog/kqiv