You don't mention Syberia I&II which although 3rd person pov, have small inventories and easy to follow and solve puzzles.  These two games have a charming storyline and rather beautiful graphics.

And a personal favourite of mine, Timelapse which although an older game is now available at Amazon.

Egyptian Prophecy

I'll look into this. Again, I think this is available on Metaboli.

if you liked atlantis 3 then definately atlantis 2 (longer than 3 though and harder) and secrets of atlantis (short and easy)

I think I bought number 2 but couldn't get it working on my PC. Again, Secrets of Atlantis is on Metaboli, so I'll download that in due course.

Road to India

I couldn't get into that. The production values were just... terrible. Sorry to say, it didn't grab me by the nuts the way a game should.

I highly recommend Riddle of the Sphinx II: The

Looks a bit bare but it seems to have a certain charm to it. I'll keep this game in mind.

Zork Grand Inquisitor.

Aren't I right in saying the Zork games are very temperamental with XP? This is the reason why I've not bought it, as there's an aging Xplosive copy at my local game shop.

I recommend Amber: Journeys Beyond. It fits your requirements as it's first person, fairly short, and relatively easy in difficulty. It does have a horror theme, but don't let that stand in your way. It's a great game.

Does it work well on XP though? I decided to take the risk ordering it as it was cheap enough and the reviews say a lot about it. People moan that it's a little too short, but I love ultra short games. Short by sweet that is. I've always got another game on my shelf I'm wanting to play next. I can't be bothered to spend 20+ hours on a game unless it's seriously good.

Dracula: Resurrection

I've got both Dracula games on my Amazon wishlist but I'm worried they're not compatible with XP. Can anyone clarify? I've seen a PSX version working and it seems a bit of alright

How can anyone recommend for EASY games:

Reah (impossible)
Schizm 1 & 2 (only for hardcore math enthusiasts)
Aura (def not easy!)
The Omega Stone (lots and lots of reading and not light stuff at that)

and so on? Or is anyone just interested in throwing any game into this topic?

Easy, 1st person, NOT horror (as asked, so no dracula) would be IMO:

The Egyptian Prophecy
Amerzone (best of the lot)
AtlantisII/Beyond Atlantis (little bit more difficult, but no walkthruigh recquired)

Owned Reah. It wasn't hard, but the way you panned left and right was just IRRATATING! Same goes for Schizm. There was something quite 'meh' about the graphics on both too (I didn't get Schizm DVD though). I played the demo of Schizm 2 and it didn't quite rock my boat.

I played the Aura I & II demo and, as shallow this sounds of me, it was the graphical style that put me off. Especially the first with that medievil look. Plus the demo didn't give me much of an indication of what I was supposed to be doing. Again, these are notoriously hard.

Amerzone - played it, had its moments. If only the resolution was better (doesn't look good with a 24inch monitor!). Sokal really should return to 1st person adventures.

Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about relative degree of difficulty guys. After all, Terramax said,

1st persons I've played and enjoyed are Myst, Myst III: Exile, Myst IV: Revelation, Amerzone, Post Mortem, The Dark Eye and Atlantis III (would have completed if it weren't for being buggy).  

Others I've played but not too keen on: Riven, Dark Fall 2, Aura (too hard!), a few horror 1st person demos, and I'm currently playing Cleopatra, but I'm sure I can't get any further because I'm missing an item of some sorts.

If Terramax was able to handle the Myst series, then he/she can deal with some pretty sophisticated puzzles.

Of the easier non-horror, first-person AGs I've played, it also just occurred to me that (assuming you can still find them and if you can get them to work on a newer PC) The Journeyman Series might appeal to Terramax.  

Cheers,  Terry

Riven and Myst: Revelatin owned me. I've recently gotten hold of the Prima walkthrough for Revelation (it goes for £79 on Amazon.co.uk- I got it for £6 including P + P mwahahahahahaahaha *cough, cough, wheeze*).

Anyone who enjoyed Myst but disliked Riven needs help.   Preferably help with learning how to relax and enjoy running around in Riven, riding the cable cars, tapping on the glass to annoy the big fish, etc.....   WinkIt's the best game of the entire Myst series.

Originally Posted By Terramax (26 JAN 2008 12:09am)

I recommend Amber: Journeys Beyond. It fits your requirements as it's first person, fairly short, and relatively easy in difficulty. It does have a horror theme, but don't let that stand in your way. It's a great game.

Does it work well on XP though? I decided to take the risk ordering it as it was cheap enough and the reviews say a lot about it. People moan that it's a little too short, but I love ultra short games. Short by sweet that is. I've always got another game on my shelf I'm wanting to play next. I can't be bothered to spend 20+ hours on a game unless it's seriously good.

...The nifty thing is that the designers have deliberately (I believe) switched the focus of the game from the world panorama to the inventory window... The extra-nifty thing is that this is not a weakness. Having decided to use this game focus, the designers followed through on it. They put in enough Stuff, and enough interesting combinations, that the inventory window is fun to play with... It's the same mimetic leap that good adventures games have always required. The only difference is that it's about what you're carrying, not what you're standing next to....

Originally Posted By Terramax (26 JAN 2008 12:09am)

Aren't I right in saying the Zork games are very temperamental with XP? This is the reason why I've not bought it, as there's an aging Xplosive copy at my local game shop.

Originally Posted By Caroline (28 JAN 2008 9:38pm)
I can't get Zork to work on my XP machine.  Do you use compatability mode or some other tweak?  For me, the cursor spins me around so fast that movement is impossible.  I've heard so much about this game that I'd really like to play it.

Originally Posted By SirDave (29 JAN 2008 4:05am)
Here's a better solution: Get a good business rotating stool (the type with the round cushion and no arms or backrest)- make sure it is the type that has high-quality bearings. Now, while sitting on the stool, make sure it spins at the same rate, but in the opposite direction of the spinning cursor. If you do it just right, the cursor will hardly seem to spin at all. Take my word for it... You can trust me...

Oh, and Timelapse is a truly lovely game.  No inventory.  And multiple endings.  Linear gameplay though, no mazes, impossible to become confused about what to do next.

Amber won't work on XP at all unless you run it inside a virtual machine. People have played it using VirtualPC, which is a free download. But you need a copy of Windows 95 or 98 to install inside the virtual computer. If you can get it working properly, you can try other Windows 95/98 games that you've had problems running on XP.

The puzzle are Intense! But when You Are done with Childish Games (Pfft, JourneyKID Project, more Like It!), Step Up to the Big LEagues!

My favorite review of "Return to Mysterious Island," by Andrew Plotkin.

  You could do worse than try 'Monet: The Mystery of the Orangery'. It's an underrated, easy-paced Adventure (except for the last bit), and it's very easy. It's one of the first 1st-person Adventures I tried, at a time when I was very much a fan of 3rd-person Adventures only.

Sentinel escendants in Time has no inventory based puzzles, a great story and a very beautiful 3D environment especially if your computer can run at max graphics.

Here's a better solution: Get a good business rotating stool (the type with the round cushion and no arms or backrest)- make sure it is the type that has high-quality bearings. Now, while sitting on the stool, make sure it spins at the same rate, but in the opposite direction of the spinning cursor. If you do it just right, the cursor will hardly seem to spin at all. Take my word for it... You can trust me...