The "Uncle Albert" Series

[Perped]

 

I'm wondering if anybody else has ever heard of the late-90s-early-2000s games in the "Uncle Albert" series.

 

I used to play them when I was young, and recently dug them (the CD cases) up out of a box in my closet after I moved. I've got three out of a series of five, or ten, or... I don't know. I'll explain in a minute.

 

These games were developed by a french company called Lexis Numérique, and published by Emme Interactive, which was also based in France.

 

If your recognize Lexis Numérique at all, it's because they also developed Amy.

 

Yeah. THAT Amy.

 

Anyway, neither company exists anymore. Lexis Numérique went bankrupt in 2014 and Emme Interactive was swallowed up by ANOTHER french company called Avanquest Software.

 

Now, it's really hard to find information on these games apart from my own dated knowledge about them. If I try looking them up, I can only find online purchase options, maybe one old walkthrough, and the Wikipedia pages on them.

 

Wait, scratch that.

 

The French Wikipedia pages. Which are stubs.

 

So, what exactly are these games?

 

The games in the Uncle Albert series are adventure/puzzle games, with a somewhat point-and-click feel to them. The premise is as follows:

 

You're a child, living at home when, one day while going through your attic, you find your Uncle Albert's old album/journal, which he wrote whilst exploring the world. Uncle Albert is purported to be a sort of eccentric explorer/inventor. In his album, he's hidden secretive treasures which the player must uncover by way of solving the strange puzzles within.

 

The main mechanics follow a sort of non-linear approach: the interface is the album itself, and you can flip to multiple pages. Each page is decorated with a background - sometimes inter-actable, sometimes not. Each page is packed with items or creatures you can collect for use in other puzzles. As you solve the puzzles on a page, you unlock another page, and so on. This makes the journal feel almost alive with bits of strange machinery or animals scurrying about. It's all very surreal but kind of charming.

 

Telling from the french Wikipedia pages, from what little of the language I know, there are five main Uncle Albert games, with perhaps five of a spin-off series. They were all developed in French, originally (Interestingly, in the french versions, 'Uncle Albert' is actually 'Uncle Ernest') but three or four were translated to English and sold in the United States and Canada.

 

The three games I own are:

 

Uncle Albert's Magical Album (1998)

Uncle Albert's Fabulous Voyage (1999)

Uncle Albert's Mysterious Island (2000)

 

I don't know if the other two (The Lost Temple of Uncle Ernest & The Cursed Statue of Uncle Ernest) were ever translated and sold in North America, though I swore I saw The Lost Temple in a bargain bin somewhere when I was younger.

 

I've provided what visual sources of the series I can find - In-Game Screenshots and a video (in french).

 

 

[Michatom]

I also played them! Great games! I have 3 games in my language (it's not english) and 2 in French. I was also wondering why Uncle Albert is Ernest in French ... I don't think I will find out . I have not heard of the English version of the last two games. It is a pity that they do not make these games anymore ...

Edited June 18, 2020 by Michatom (see edit history)

[Bodacious Dionysian]

Oh God yes, this was THE game of my Childhood. If anyone can help me play it again, then I'd be very grateful

[dialga154]

Hello guys,

 

hope I could help you with this link:

 

https://macintoshgarden.org/search/node/ernest

 

On this website there are also a lot other games from Lexis Numerique, Terzio and Tivola.