I urge everyone to go check out the chaps at Flying Colours, working on a newer title called Midsummer. They've posted a great demo of a seemingly full-featured town including the ability to look at practically everything. Definitely worth your time.

Also, I was recently re-aquainted with a program called the Adventure Game Studio, which is built from the ground up to mimic Sierra and (with some tweaking) Lucasarts style adventure games. The entire package is very well rounded and easy to hop into. If you're struggling with palettes and VC, AGS might be worth a look.

Also, AGS is living proof that graphics do not make the game. ^_~