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Future Wars is an 1989 Adventure Game by Delphine Software, released for DOS PCs, Amiga and Atari ST. It was one of the first adventure games on the PC to use 256-color VGA graphics, released over a year before King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!.

in 1989, a nameless window washer stumbles upon a time machine while snooping around his boss' office (in an attempt to play a prank on him) and happens to foil an alien plot in the middle ages; it is revealed to the protagonist that a war between the Humans of the future and a hostile alien race known as the Crughons is being staged throughout time, and the protagonist is sent into points in Earth's history to sabotage the Crughon's plans to destroy humanity.

Includes the following tropes:

  • Almighty Janitor: The hero is a window washer.
  • Accidental Misnaming: The hostile alien Crughons are often mislabelled "croutons" as a running gag.
  • And the Adventure Continues: The hero continues his fight against the Crughon threat after the events of Future Wars
  • Bad Future: It's pretty much in ruins because of the aliens.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: When the hero needs to change his outfit, he says "Wait for me here" and walks behind bushes. And the game ends with a speech addressed to the player.
  • Corrupt Church: The monastery is one of the aliens' secret bases. Just entering it unprepared kills you.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Too many to list. Most of the screens have something lethal.
  • The Future: One of the eras you travel to is the war torn 44th century.
  • The Generic Guy: The hero, bordering on Featureless Protagonist.
  • Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: You have to do this to a skinny dipper in Medieval times in order to acquire suitable clothes.
  • Master of Disguise:
    • The Croughons are capable of disguising themselves as Humans, explaining how they could pull off their shenanigans in human history without being caught. Also indirectly contributes to the protagonist nearly being put to death as the future civilisations have no DNA record of him and thought he was a Crughon spy.
    • The first humans from he future you will meet are disguised as the king and princess of the local village.
  • Permanently Missable Content: A classic adventure gaming trope. It is quite easy to leave several areas while forgetting to obtain an item that becomes crucial later, leading to a dead man walking state where you are unable to progress unless you load up a save to acquire the item or start over.
  • Phlebotinum Breakdown: The time machine doesn't work too well, causing you to end up in the wrong spot at least twice.
  • Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: It's revealed that the final Crughon bomb that would've wiped out humanity's primitive ancestors instead caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs when the protagonist sabotages it by detonating it early.
  • Pixel Hunt: Early in the beginning, you have to put a one-pixel flag into a one-pixel hole to proceed.
  • Sudden Gameplay Change: The endgame consists of two back-to-back action sequences.
  • You ALL Look Familiar: Many NPCs share sprites with you. Except for the coveralls you wear for window washing, every outfit in the game is copied by at least one NPC.
    • This is most obvious early in the game, when you take the Medieval outfit and look EXACTLY like the NPC who was just wearing it when you put it on.

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