The Nancy Drew Games that Girlbossed too Close to the Sun 

My sisters and I always played them together and got matching key tattoos that say "it's locked" bc we would always repeat it back to each other whenever we came across something locked (9000 times)

The biggest Nancy Drew mystery twist is the identity of the anonymous biotech angel investor who kept Her interactive afloat because it was the "moral thing to do"

Nancy Drew is not a franchise it's a fucking lifestyle. I read 42 of those yellow hardcover Nancy Drew books as a child, named my first webkinz Nancy Drew, and was OBSESSED with those games. Me and my sisters would get a new one and I would play through it as all of my little sisters gathered around and watched me. It took us like a full year to get through our first one, which was the absolute banger Nancy Drew: The Curse of Blackmoor Manor, before we discovered online walkthroughs. I still haven't played through all the games, as I'm saving some of them for when I really need a good dose of Nancy straight to the bloodstream. I'm a Nancy Drew girl for life.

i'm ashamed to admit that i literally wrote my master's dissertation on these goddamn games thank you for (lovingly) dragging them with me

the “she has albinism” constantly being commented as an answer is what got me 😭

NOTHING could have prepared me for the Nancy Drew rap that featured lyrics of a literal teen homicide ft. haunting melodic background vocals

I laughed so hard for like two minutes straight at the teachers guide saying that Nancy drew will teach students how to adopt a whale LOL

Once Nancy Drew becomes public domain, it would be so exciting to see more people make ND games.

I will never forget when I was 11, my mom read an article about these “educational Nancy drew games” and purchased a pack of the first 3 games on CD-ROM. I was instantly hooked…. And i will never forget when she walked in on me playing stay tuned for danger, took one look at Mattie Jensen and busted out laughing at how creepy the characters looked. But she didn’t understand! Compared to the cartoon characters in secrets can kill, these were peak graphics!! These games gave me so many good memories with my friends and family. From me and my friend at school sneaking up behind each other in the hallway yelling “HEEEEEERES SHORTY” to my sister and I constantly quoting “it’s locked” and “it won’t fit” and now my 6 year old nephew is obsessed with them. When he comes to my house all he wants to do is play Nancy drew! Although he’s a bit young for them, and all he actually wants to do is dial Ned over and over and cracks up laughing at the name “Ned Nickerson”. I have so much love for these games, the best thing they could do for their fans at this point is just pass the torch, and disappear quietly.

Little Jackalope here! Thanks for the acknowledgement. Sadly, I didn't ever reach the level of Director, I only made it to Marketing and Production Coordinator. And the "production" part was ambiguous and undefined. But great video! It must have taken a lot of time a research on your part to put this together. 👍 Thanks for being a great Nancy Drew fan!

Midnight in Salem was the first ND game I ever learned about and I really enjoyed it. Then I watched all of the lets plays Gab Smolders did. Only now, in hindsight, through this video, I realized how bad that one actually was. I think one super small thing that actually highlights a pretty big problem in their idea of "modernization" is Ned. Making the story modern means conflict and jealousy, I guess. In the old games, Ned is appreciative of how smart Nancy is, supports her in what she wants to do, and loves hearing from her and her cases. In Salem, they're both jealous, don't rly seem to care about each other, and don't even seem to like each other? They really said "lets take this very strong female character that's a great example for young girls and remind those girls that having your own goals and hobbies makes you an evil career woman actually"

Man the carnivorous plant death was just the most hilarious thing when I was a kid. I think I triggered it almost every playthrough just for a quick laugh. Good times!

Lani Minella really just does the absolute most in every game she’s in. She’s in the Professor Layton series and there is a cutscene in one of those games that has five characters in it with speaking lines, and she is four of them. Absolutely blows my mind every time.

I know these games were made for girls to play with their moms, but as a boy I grew up playing these with my dad. Some of my fondest childhood gaming memories, along with Humongous Entertainment and the Syberia games.

thank you for including the punchy leroux scene, “turn it up” has me rolling - its giving “she’s really good”

i grew up in the seattle area and toured her interactive when i was like 10 in girl scouts and i got a behind the scenes look at the game they were working on and it changed me forever,,, turned me into a nancy girl for life

Been meaning to leave a comment here for a while... this video was very thorough and well done! Reading through the comments here, I have to agree with so many people. Nancy Drew means so much to so many people, but the era of the games has been one of the greatest. I was raised with the games and seeing how the company is now is just heartbreaking. However, these long breaks between games have given me so much time to delve further into the games, how they were made, how they work, who made them, and why they're all-around awesome. I've also made so many amazing friends through the games, and being able to further develop those friendships has been amazing. Massive thanks to YOU for the shoutouts! I'm very honored to know you watch my videos, and to be featured in one of yours?? I really do appreciate it! Thank you so much! Best of luck to you, if there's anything you ever need, please let me know! Cheers! ~Huw

I remember being so disappointed when they released Midnight in Salem, especially for how long we waited. The quality of the graphics was about the same as the earlier games, a bit worse in my opinion. And it lacked the authenticity that you'd get with older games that made it feel like a Nancy Drew game. Btw I would love to see you talk about the Barbie computer and console games. love your vids 💕

The beauty of the Nancy Drew games for me were the ways in which they managed to make the environments more and more detailed with each release while barely having to update their tech. It's a signature style that they polished over years of releases. I loved it because it was iconic! It made me feel cozy and ready to play through a mystery on a rainy day. Trying to 'update the graphics' and make it look like any other modern AAA game was a step backward for me. It really kind of took some of the heart out of it.

39:00 I find this HILARIOUS I have albinism, and I 100% love that they'd have a person with albinism be a main character, and that they'd portray the bullying we often get accurately...but also they could not have had shorter answers. Many ppl don't know what albinism even is

yesss, as a lonely kid who so badly wanted to go on adventures and solve nonexistent mysteries, these games hold a large part of my heart. I turned into a DM for d&d as an adult, it’s kind of everything I ever wanted

"My birthday and Christmas were exactly 6 months apart." Ah, so I see you had the Golden Gift Equation.

Mystery of the 7 keys gets a trailer, I go back to this video immediately.

Hey!!! My aunt worked on these games 🥰 Edit: she started with haunted mansion and her last one was blackmoor manor

I'm glad I wasn't the only one obsessed with these mystery games. Freddi Fish and Spy Fox are core memories for me, I love hearing about how important these Nancy Drew ones too (also, want to play now)

I don't know why the multiple same toned "Hi BLANK she has albinism" made me giggle so much. Also, I legitimately saw that trailer and said "sims?" Like it fully looks like one of those series people would make in the sims 2.

As a 12 year old homeschooled kid with no social life, I LIVED on the HerInteractive forums. Not only talking about the game, but also writing LOTR fan fiction??? Strange times. Great video though, this was so fun to learn about the history of my favorite childhood computer games!

Oh wow, I was so excited when I saw this on my subscriptions tab. I muttered “yyeesss” to myself and immediately dropped everything else I was doing for the next 59 minutes and 12 seconds to sit down and watch this.

My husband LOVED Nancy Drew games growing up. He played more Nancy Drew games than I did growing up. We still pull them out and play them sometimes.

her interact needs to be run by the fans. i’ve seen so many amazing characters and story concepts on tumblr and twitter which i would’ve loved to seen. it’s the fans that keep the games afloat and have an undying love to them

oh no we had the SAME childhood. My grandma used to have those Nancy Drew games on her computer, and I would always ask to play them when she babysat me. Not to mention, my childhood love of Curse of Monkey Island that blossomed into a lifelong obsession with P&C adventure games :')

What I love so much is not only are the games still so fun NOW but there seems to be a huge resurgence of the love for Nancy Drew games during 2021 and 2022, it's like covid re-ignited this game franchise somehow and there are many more people beginning to play it. I HOPE this shows HerInteractive how much we love these video games and gets them more investors in order to produce a new ND game in the original style and not whatever midnight in salem was.

I didn't play these games as a kid. I tried once, got scared, and quit. As an adult I have played a few of them after discovering them at a second hand media shop and I have loved them.

TLDW: Nancy Drew has entered her flop era. I think the HeR Interactive was really banking on the fact that a haunted Salem witch trials themed game had been a fan suggestion for years in online forums and thought Midnight in Salem would simultaneously appeal to original fans (now well into adulthood) and a new, younger audience. While I’m saddened to see a huge part of my childhood go down the drain, there’s a part of me that’s happy that I can hold on to the nostalgia of the original games.

i can’t even begin to explain how much pajama sam changed meeeee AND FREDDIE FISH ARE YOU KIDDING MEEE

As both an Ashley Norton AND a Nancy Drew fan - I can’t wait to watch this. Saved 🕵🏼‍♀️

I love the little frank cameo’s throughout. It made me laugh way harder than it should.

i remember i got one of the games as a present, which was basically the first game i was ever allowed at all. i spent hours trying to get to the end, and then my mom realized how long id been playing, assumed my brain had been taken over by the video game brain zombie virus, and shut down the game entirely, deleting all my progress. i was so discouraged that i never played the game again and im still mad about it to this day. this actually has very little to do with the video i just needed to get that off my chest. thank you, void of the internet.

These games mean so much to me. I remember getting Blackmoor Manor, my first (and favorite) Nancy Drew game in a combo pack of computer games for girls and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve played and replayed all of them through the years and I’m currently working on Castle Malloy and Waverly Academy again. Thank you for this video!

These games were terrifying to me as a kid! I loved them, but I absolutely screamed several times while playing. The ghost dogs of moon lake! Those dogs were spoooooky

47:30 Without a doubt, this entire bit in the game was heavily influenced by Robert Downey Jr’s amazing portrayal of Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder.

I've been watching Arglefumph play these games for years and I still watch his mega marathons. He also has individual walkthroughs for when you get hella stuck lol

I had never heard of the Nancy Drew games until I saw Jerma play it. His play through of some of the games make the experience all the more insane and hilarious.

the amount of time I spent as a kid playing ghost dogs of moon lake…the night time part was honestly so scary

I do respect their response to the Thornton Family business question. They could have answered the question vaguely but instead went full in saying they didn't feel like they could tackle the subject of slavery without extensive research and careful approach. They didn't even have to bring up slavery in their answer but I respect them acknowledging the elephant in the room and giving an honest response about it. I don't think the topic should ever be erased from history, but I do understand not feeling up to the task to include it if you can't do it justice. I haven't played the game, but I imagine it isn't really necessary to spell out what bad things the family used to do for the story. That aside, this is a fantastic video and well researched. You've gotten yourself a new fan for sure.

My grandma introduced me to the Nancy Drew games and other point and click mysteries! We used to sit next to each other in front of the computer and play these games allll day and it’s one of my favorite memories with her :’)

I’ve never played the games, read the books, or even been remotely interested in the Nancy Drew franchise but I just intently watched a whole hour long breakdown about it lol you make great videos!

I would also like to recommend Gab Smoulder’s Nancy Drew playthroughs if you want some comfy vibes

The cover art for the game secrets can kill terrified me as a child. We had an old dingy unfinished storage room in our basement with shelves filled with junk, and I was always afraid I would see a pair of yellow eyes staring at me from behind them.

Her: in actuality these games are only about five hours worth of gameplay Me: still hasn't solved the Haunting of Castle Malloy after my dad bought it for me ten years ago

Great video! Thanks for making! For the record "by adopt a whale", what they mean is there's a way to "adopt" animals where all it means is they put some kind of camera device on them so you can watch them and get a certificate but it really means nothing. My seventh grade science class tried to adopt a polar bear I remember

It's one of those amazingly sexist things that no one wanted to sell these (I remember going to shops and i was lucky to find one game) and yet almost every girl I know either owned or played at least one of these

This video showed up randomly in my suggested one day but I'm so so so happy to find that so many other people loved these games like I did though they were kinda janky. I loved their quirks from the robotic animations to the weird photoshopped pictures in the game. They were my everything in elementary and middle school. Seeing the decline of Her Interactuve over the years was a bit heartbreaking, I have so much love for these games (I even based my concept art class final on Nancy Drew) and part of me was hoping they would miraculously make a resurgence. Though I own Midnight in Salem, I havent really had the heart to start playing it honestly. It just felt like a game indicative of all the problems Her Interactive has been having so far. There's so much I can say about the state of Nancy Drew and Her Interactive, but to cut it short, you did an amazing job on this video and I can tell how much time and research you put into it.

AHHHH no way! These games have never been talked about enough, I’m so glad you did a video on them! (edit to say whoever made MID should be put in jail)

9:40 Oh my good lord. Can you imagine the poor cop that has to sit through “Here, try another one!” over and over again while trying to keep their composure 😂😂😂

I made it all the way through the video fighting back the sadness that this is an end to my childhood and one of my favorite franchises, but seeing "sonny joon was here" in your description is what brought the tears

THANK YOU for pointing out the voice acting in SAW, it drives me insane whenever I play it and I never see anyone talking about it!

You know, you can access all these games on Steam too. My dad and I used to play them together and now he still does LOL

I loveee Nancy drew games! I've have been playing Nancy Drew since I was an little girl. and I noticed as I got older and went to the places where they sold the physical copy of the Nancy drew games (Walmart, and game stop) didn't sell them anymore 😪 even when I go the her interactive website they only sell digital copies. Call me old-fashioned, but I love me an physical game I can hold. I'm just glad I brought those physical games when I was younger because it feels like I have an novelty items

Omg I LOVED those games, got me through my parent's divorce

You just unlocked a deep memory for me. I lived w my grandparents for a summer and I spent pretty much the whole summer on their old was desktop computer because I had no friends in the area and I was like 10 so I was little past the age to go to parks and stuff (at least that’s how I felt lol) . My grandma is lowkey not a good caregiver but one day she came back from the store with a Nancy drew game for me “since I’m always on the computer anyways”. And I mf loved it. I played it like 4 times over until I had to go back to my house and we didn’t have a computer that could play it. I was so sad , but I still have the CD I’m pretty sure. It was the one where you explore the B&B

This was incredibly fun to watch even as someone who has no idea about any of this.

bring back train frank you cannot understand how much i love that man

I've never played these games but boy do I love the clunky point and click aesthetic. Thank you for enlightening me with this fascinating snapshot of gaming history.

is my only experience of nancy drew the emma roberts film? yes. will i watch this ten times over the course of next month? yes.

Omg it’s crazy that someone is covering these games. Me and my mom used to love playing these games together when I was a kid along with other point and clicks like the Mystery Case Files. It brings back such good memories to see all of them again haha

Curse of Blackmoor Manor is me of the best games ever. Took me like a year to solve it, I’m extra dumb, but I love it!

let out an audible gasp when i saw the title of this video... such a niche experience

I have played every single game most of them multiple times. I’m 30 and see no reason Id lose enjoyment of them after making it this far. I just want the old style back

Ive actually never heard about this game before and Im not much of a gamer but this was so interesting to watch, I really like your laid back but information packed style of narrating and laying out the story.

I grew up playing these games with my mom and sister. I loved them so much as a kid and owned every game. Now as an adult I still go back and play them every once in awhile. I remember being SO disappointed with Midnight in Salem dropped. We patiently waited years for that game only for it to be a watered down version of some free to play adobe flash game.

I remember my childhood public library had a copy of secret of the old clock that I would check out a lot. I basically had no idea what I was doing, but I was content to just walk around and talk to people. I always remember being particularly fascinated by the graphics.

I have so many fond childhood memories of sitting in my nana's recliner with her and playing these games.

I cannot believe I've waited years to play Midnight in Salem only to find out it's entirely different from the game I've been imagining. I am so glad I watched this because if I had gone in not knowing about the differences I would have lost my mind. I check Her Interactive every couple of months hoping for an announcement of a new game. Oh well. At least I can still play the old games but there is nothing like the first time. I probably will still play Midnight in Salem though.

Learning about the actors who played POC not being POC is really heartbreaking and for sure leaves a lot to grapple with.

Those Nancy games changed my life 20 years ago when I first played them. I just love them!! I wish so much that we could have more (but not MID quality).

I randomly found your content when your Clique deep dive came up in my recommended videos, one of my faves growing up. Now I fund you're also a Nancy Drew game fan who loves Survivor... I wanna cry, i feel so seen. The Nancy Drew games are like a fever dream, no one else I know knows about them but they were my whole youth.

im just listening at work but as soon as i heard the cowboy say “try another” i knew… it was jerma

I liked the MYST games growing up. My dad and I would play them together. Ooh. There was also Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego, the Clue Finders, and that one really old Mac game with the fighter jets... I can't remember what it was called, but it was on a floppy disk...

I’ve been a Nancy drew games fan for 25 years and there was so much in here that I didn’t know! What an awesome video. ❤

11:28 I'm going to headcanon that the reason a bunch of women born in the late 90s/2000s have the name McKenzie (or its variants) is because of this game just like how the movie Splash suddenly made a lot of people name their newborn daughters Madison

These games hold such a special place in my heart. My sister and I played them together (which was really just me watching her play cause I was a little too young) and it was always such a thrill to figure out the puzzles and solve the games. We even got the Koko Kringle chocolate bars many years ago from HeR Interactive. While I'm sadden by what happened and as much as I would love a new Nancy Drew game, perhaps from a different developer. Thank you so much for talking about this topic ❤

I remember how my mom used to love Nancy Drew games so much, and we still have a few discs somewhere. As a child, I was intimidated by those games because I once saw how Nancy died in the game, and I started to believe that you need to do everything in a specific order or else you die and need to start this game from the very beginning. But I always had this weird adoration towards Nancy Drew games and finally got to play every game during the pandemic. For the entirety of two months playing Nancy Drew was the only thing I was doing. I first decided to play one of the latest games, "The Sea of Darkness", and saw the sneak peek of the future game, "Midnight in Salem". So when I started playing each game in the order, I already anticipated the 33d one. So imagine my frustration when I couldn't even install this game on my computer because it required too much. I've managed to install a game from 1998, but not the latest one. And the saddest part is that "The Sea of Darkness" literally perfected the formula. Everything was there: mesmerizing backgrounds, beautiful soundtracks, and interesting characters, each with an intriguing story. They even added the option to skip conversations! From my understanding, the old version of "Midnight in Salem" was at least in development, so I refuse to believe that modernizing it so much costed less than finishing and releasing the old version. If the whole problem was with the lack of funds, they could've started a gofundme account or something like this, and so many fans would be willing to help them. It's just devastating, how much the company underestimates the fanbase of Nancy Drew. For lots of people, it was their whole childhood, and even now I see so many RU-vidrs discovering those games and playing them occasionally. It just feels like the management of the company didn't even try to do things right. Just talk openly to your fans and stop ruining the Nancy Drew franchise for everyone! And also, I really want them to release an original version of "Midnight in Salem".

This was such a comprehensive review of everything that happened! I've been following this as much as I could, and yet you brought me new information. Also, the cowboy games made me laugh so hard, my roommate ran in my room to see what was so hilarious xD thank you for this wonderful content.

I'm very late to the party on this but thank you for the shoutout!! I enjoyed this video immensely, it's so well-researched and your humour is spot-on!! (Also just gotta put my two cents in and say I enjoyed the Shadow Ranch mobile game immensely but then again I love cowboys and bad media so I might be biased)

I was obsessed with these as a kid, I still have almost all of them (minus a few of the newer ones) in a box in my garage haha

These games have seriously had a lasting effect on my entire life, us fans hold them so dear! Thank you for this video, it brings me even more joy. ♥️

It's so insane to me how many of my own niche interests you have touched on

She actually just pulled out the classic "eat hot chip and lie" Love it

This convergence of my two loves- Nancy Drew games and your content- is just too good to be true

i remember going to the library as a kid and beelining for the KE shelf in the kids section (and, later, when i had run through all the nancy drew books, finding DI for the hardy boys), and being so jazzed when i got a copy of one of the games for a birthday. i still have several of the games on disc despite not owning a computer i can put them in, and i nurse fond memories of sitting in my bed on a chunky old laptop (because it was the only thing i had with a disc drive) trying desperately not to scratch the cds too badly when i swapped them. i fell in and out of waiting and watching for new games every few years, but happened to be "out" when Shit Went Down, so i appreciate the catch up!

I have all of these games because I can’t get rid of them. Every. Single. One. And I still watch people play them on twitch sometimes. They were iconic for young girls.

I discovered you thanks to this video and RU-vid recommendations and I absolutely love what you did here. I have been playing games basically since I was born in the 80's, Im actually an AAA dev now, and I praise myself of knowing a lot about videogame history (much of which i actually lived through) but being a man you might imagine how my knowledge can be skewed, so im always thrilled when i find a videogame niche i didnt know about. Im so glad this video exists, it was really enjoyable and informative. Everything you talk about in this channel is new to me so im subscribing to see more. Hopefully you can do more videogame stuff in the future.

THANK YOU for this video. I've been playing those games for 20 years and still occasionally download an old one on a chill day off. But all the changes that have occurred and the amount of time I waited for that Salem game to come out just for it to be so awful... I'm heartbroken.

This is the most comprehensive summary of the story of the Nancy Drew games that I’ve ever seen. I’ve been a fan of these games for over 20 years and you mentioned so many things that I didn’t even know about. Thank you for sharing all your research on the company, this was a great watch

I used to borrow the CD ROMs of Nancy drew games from my local library as a kid and I was HOOKED for years, eventually bought them all online too. I miss them and really wish they would keep making them

Ashley, you are one of the best people on this site. A freaking Nancy Drew video?! I've been obsessed with these games since 2000. My husband and I are playing Danger By Design as I attempt to make him play every single one of these games except MID.

This is an incredibly well-made and thorough video of my favorite game series! Thanks!

My special interest RU-vidr talking about my special interest games?! This is bliss

As a 25 year old man with zero exposure to anything remotely spoken about in this video, Nancy Drew has gained a fan and Ashley Norton has gained a subscriber