Welp, that's another item to cross out on my bucket list. I received UAKM for Christmas back in 1994 and never finished it (heck, I don't think I even made it to day two). I picked it up again recently and finally plowed through it to the ending.
That got me thinking, whats the longest amount of time it took you to finish off a game (this includes stopping and starting back up)?

Final Fantasy X
I got all the way to the last stage and then stopped for nearly 2 years before going back and completing it. (Took about an hour.)

My version of Pandora Directive never quite worked right. I played it through to the last day twice, and both times it stopped up. If I spend all weekend on it: 13 years.

I played LucasArts' Outlaws back in 1997 when it was released but never finished it. I found my old CD this year and finally completed the story! That's 13 years.

I did the same thing with Xenogears a while back. After I finished it, I didn't remember the characters who were in the last cutscene/fmv. I am guessing they were important, lol.

Hmm, one of the games we got with our first PC back in 1992 was King's Quest V. I never finished it, mainly because I didn't have the answers to the copy protection. A few year back (before they were released here and on Steam) I bought a used copy of the old King's Quest I-VI collection. Maybe I'll restart and finish it over Christmas, planned on doing that since I bought the box. That would be nearly 19 years then.

Hopefully someday soon I can speak about this phenomenon with The Dig. Remember it being an impossible game as a youngster, never finished the dang thing (circa 1995 or so I would think). Recently got back in to it, and although I got way further with it then I ever did the first time over 15 years ago, I still haven't finished it! Hopefully someday soon.

Glad you got UAKM finally finished up. Never was a problem for me. Back in the day, as soon as ol' James Earl Jones speaks up in the beginning I was determined to hear him finish it off. Fantastic game.

UAKM is one of my favorite games ever, and notably while I did not own it when I beat it, it is what caused me to shell out full price for Pandora Directive when I was a teen.

This past weekend, I finished UAKM for the 2nd time ever (the first was back in 1994 when it originally came out). The nostalgia factor was high and I really enjoyed the game, even with its rudimentary 3D. The genuinely funny dialogue, decent puzzles and memorable characters made for great gaming memories.

I also remember how the game looked better the more RAM your system had. Back in the day my little 486 had 4MB - I literally borrowed a friend's RAM so the game would look better! Ah, good times.

I heard about a guy on another board who took 15 years to finish the first Gabriel Knight game...

I still have an original version of Shadow of the Comet. Bought it when released so that would be 1993. I couldn't get anywhere in that game for the life of me and wasn't about to pay for the premium rate phone call to the hint lines available back then. Cant wait to see it turn up on GOG so i can finally master the beast. Guess that makes it 18 years i've been waiting to complete it. I'll finally do it, then i'll drop down dead.

Just make sure you have it noted on your headstone that you finished the game ;)

I can't remember when I bought the game, but I still haven't finished Myst 4, Revelation. As I began playing the Myst-series at the time of release of the first game, I kept an eye out for all the following games, like Riven, Myst 3 Exile and so on.
I think I got Myst 4 and 5 about six years ago, couldn't figure out one of the last puzzles so I never finished. Myst 5, however, was either flawed or my computer was an idiot. Still haven't been able to install it to play :p

When you stop playing a game it is usually because you have gotten bored with it and therefore are unlikely to play it again. That happened to me with the original Unreal that came out in 1998. It was around the time Quake 2 and Half-life came out, and Unreal was just nowhere near their level. I bought it for $30 in '98 and it put me to sleep before even the end of the first level. It was a good-looking game (for its time), but pedestrian as a shooter. I never touched it again until this past week when I installed it on my new Win7 PC just to see if it could run and to see if I missed something since Unreal had become such a franchise. I played up to the 20th level this time and realized all over again how boring it was. And IT STILL HAD 20 MORE LEVELS TO GO. No good game is too long, and no bad game is short enough.