Revisiting a Macintosh Adventure Classic: Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon (1992)
The early 1990s were a golden era for point-and-click adventure games, and while giants like Monkey Island and King’s Quest often dominated the spotlight, there were plenty of quirky hidden gems that brought their own unique charm to the genre. One of the most memorable was Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon, a wonderfully bizarre puzzle adventure that became a standout title on classic Macintosh computers.
Developed by French studio Coktel Vision, Gobliins 2 expanded on the success of its predecessor and delivered one of the strangest — and funniest — adventure experiences of the early 90s.
Release Information
Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon was originally released in 1992 for several platforms, including:
- Apple Macintosh
- MS-DOS PCs
- Amiga
- Atari ST
The game was published by Sierra On-Line in North America, helping introduce it to a wider audience outside Europe.
It served as the sequel to the original Gobliiins, continuing the series’ trademark combination of humor, absurd animation, and challenging environmental puzzles.
The Story: Saving a Cursed Kingdom
The story begins when King Angoulafre is mysteriously struck by a magical spell that transforms him into a bizarre creature. To make matters worse, the kingdom’s prince has disappeared.
The player is tasked with guiding two goblin heroes:
- Fingus – The intelligent strategist who specializes in interacting with objects and solving puzzles.
- Winkle – The more aggressive goblin capable of physical actions, combat, and brute-force solutions.
Together, the pair must travel through a series of increasingly strange environments in an attempt to rescue the prince and restore the kingdom.
Unlike traditional adventure games of the era, the game leaned heavily into slapstick comedy and surreal humor, making every puzzle feel unpredictable.
Gameplay That Was Different From Everything Else
One of the most interesting aspects of Gobliins 2 was its control system.
Instead of controlling a single protagonist, players had to switch between two characters simultaneously, each with completely different abilities. Solving puzzles required combining their talents in creative ways.
Key gameplay features included:
- Point-and-click interface
- Character switching mechanics
- Puzzle-solving with multiple solutions
- Animated cartoon-style humor
- No dialogue trees — storytelling was mostly visual
- Creative environmental interactions
The game became famous for its unforgiving puzzle design. Many solutions required experimentation, and failure often led to hilarious animations rather than traditional game-over screens.
Macintosh Version Highlights
The Macintosh version stood out for taking advantage of Apple’s graphical user interface and mouse-driven controls, which made point-and-click adventure games feel particularly natural compared to keyboard-heavy DOS releases.
Mac gamers in the early 90s appreciated features such as:
- Smooth mouse-based interaction
- High-quality hand-drawn animations
- Digitized sound effects
- Colorful cartoon presentation optimized for Macintosh displays
At a time when adventure gaming thrived on computers, titles like Gobliins 2 helped show how well the Macintosh platform handled visually driven games.
The Creative Team Behind the Madness
The game was designed by Pierre Gilhodes, the creator of the entire Gobliins series and one of the most inventive minds in European adventure gaming during the early 90s.
Coktel Vision became known for creating unusual educational titles and experimental adventure games that often pushed creative boundaries compared to mainstream releases.
Legacy of the Gobliins Series
The Gobliins franchise developed a cult following and later expanded with:
- Goblins Quest 3 (also known as Gobliins 3)
- Later sequels decades afterward that attempted to revive the series for modern audiences
While never reaching blockbuster status in the United States, the franchise remains highly respected among retro adventure game enthusiasts.
Why It Still Deserves Attention Today
Gobliins 2 perfectly captures what made early computer gaming so special: creativity without limitations.
It embraced strange humor, unusual puzzle design, and artistic freedom in ways that feel completely unique even today. For Macintosh collectors and retro gaming enthusiasts, it represents an era when European developers were experimenting with ideas that larger studios often ignored.
For fans of vintage Apple gaming history, Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon remains one of the most fascinating puzzle adventures ever released for classic Macintosh systems.
Final Thoughts
If you enjoy classic point-and-click adventures, bizarre humor, and exploring overlooked gems from the golden age of Macintosh gaming, Gobliins 2 is absolutely worth revisiting.
It may be weird.
It may be frustrating.
But that strange charm is exactly what made early 90s computer gaming unforgettable.
Here at Vintage Apple, we continue preserving the history of classic Macintosh gaming — spotlighting forgotten gems, creative developers, and the software that helped define Apple’s early gaming era. 🍎💾🖱️
