Sierra Gets Creative
August 30, 2016 6:27 AM Subscribe
Jimmy Maher of The Digital Antiquarian tells the story of Sierra Entertainment's gamble on the MS-DOS/IMB platform shaped PC gaming as we know it: from creating the first game with a cinematic score (and later helping to make the Sound Blaster a standard feature of home PCs); to pioneering the genre of adventure games with rich storytelling; to a female-friendly marketing and design strategy that was decades ahead of its time.
Great article, it read like a season of Halt and Catch Fire!
And on top of that, I just noticed Sierra released a Police Quest bundle on Steam a couple of days ago, that's awesome!
posted by briac at 6:58 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
And on top of that, I just noticed Sierra released a Police Quest bundle on Steam a couple of days ago, that's awesome!
posted by briac at 6:58 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's so strange now for me to look back at that time. I mean, I was ten years old when Kings Quest IV came out, and then twelve when V came out. I remember IV being super fascinating in part because of the female protagonist, but also because those games always seemed to ooze a certain fascinating fantasy kitsch. It was so strange and wonderful to have such personality coming out of my cold, biege computer box. The Space Quest games as well with all the silly jokes had the same appeal.
At the same time... look, the Kings Quest games are terrible. I mean, the puzzles are garbage and the scripting was always just the worst. The fact that you can be effectively dead for hours of gameplay (because you didn't do X back at the beginning) is insane. A lot of the other games Sierra made (like Quest for Glory or Gabriel Knight, admittedly later on) were much better. Not to mention what Lucasarts or even a company like Legend was able to do.
That bit about the Roland MT32 was interesting. I always wondered how many people had wavetable or similar cards back in the day. The Soundblaster and SB16 were by far the most compatible cards back in that era but they could only do FM synthesis.
Personal anecdote: when I went to Circuit City to buy a sound card with my birthday money, they didn't have any Sound Blasters left and I was crushed. They did have a card whose name escapes me except that it was a rebranded Ensoniq Soundscape. The salesman talked me into buying it and I brought it home. My friend had this Legend adventure game (Death Gate, based on the novels which he was obsessed with) and I decided I'd try it. At first the card didn't work at all and I spent an hour or so fiddling with the IRQ settings and config.sys in increasing frustration. Finally I got it to work and booted it up and... I can't even describe to you how amazing wavetable music sounded after hearing FM synthesis for years. I think I almost cried.
That card always took forever to get running right, but it was always worth it. A lot of people out there are rightly nostalgic about chiptune music, but it'll always be .MID (and later, .MOD) for me.
posted by selfnoise at 7:01 AM on August 30, 2016 [28 favorites]
At the same time... look, the Kings Quest games are terrible. I mean, the puzzles are garbage and the scripting was always just the worst. The fact that you can be effectively dead for hours of gameplay (because you didn't do X back at the beginning) is insane. A lot of the other games Sierra made (like Quest for Glory or Gabriel Knight, admittedly later on) were much better. Not to mention what Lucasarts or even a company like Legend was able to do.
That bit about the Roland MT32 was interesting. I always wondered how many people had wavetable or similar cards back in the day. The Soundblaster and SB16 were by far the most compatible cards back in that era but they could only do FM synthesis.
Personal anecdote: when I went to Circuit City to buy a sound card with my birthday money, they didn't have any Sound Blasters left and I was crushed. They did have a card whose name escapes me except that it was a rebranded Ensoniq Soundscape. The salesman talked me into buying it and I brought it home. My friend had this Legend adventure game (Death Gate, based on the novels which he was obsessed with) and I decided I'd try it. At first the card didn't work at all and I spent an hour or so fiddling with the IRQ settings and config.sys in increasing frustration. Finally I got it to work and booted it up and... I can't even describe to you how amazing wavetable music sounded after hearing FM synthesis for years. I think I almost cried.
That card always took forever to get running right, but it was always worth it. A lot of people out there are rightly nostalgic about chiptune music, but it'll always be .MID (and later, .MOD) for me.
posted by selfnoise at 7:01 AM on August 30, 2016 [28 favorites]
In related news, Several classic Sierra games, including the Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, and Quest for Glory series, are available on Steam as of yesterday.
So here's the question. I LOVED Gabriel Knight 2 when I played it as a kid. Do I dare go back?
posted by selfnoise at 7:03 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
So here's the question. I LOVED Gabriel Knight 2 when I played it as a kid. Do I dare go back?
posted by selfnoise at 7:03 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
A friend of mine bought an MT-32 specifically to play Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest. I was so jealous of that sweet, sweet general MIDI sound.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:03 AM on August 30, 2016
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:03 AM on August 30, 2016
look, the Kings Quest games are terrible. I mean, the puzzles are garbage and the scripting was always just the worst.
Well, you fight like a dairy farmer.
The fact that you can be effectively dead for hours of gameplay (because you didn't do X back at the beginning) is insane.
Fair enough.
posted by jeather at 7:05 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Well, you fight like a dairy farmer.
The fact that you can be effectively dead for hours of gameplay (because you didn't do X back at the beginning) is insane.
Fair enough.
posted by jeather at 7:05 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
In related news, Several classic Sierra games, including the Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, and Quest for Glory series, are available on Steam as of yesterday.
OMGOMGOMG
I still play the fan remake of QFG2. Looks like I'm about to catch up on the rest of the series!
posted by zombieflanders at 7:05 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
OMGOMGOMG
I still play the fan remake of QFG2. Looks like I'm about to catch up on the rest of the series!
posted by zombieflanders at 7:05 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
The one and only fan letter to a "celebrity" I've ever written was to Ken and Roberta Williams around 1989/1990. I was just entering high school, and wrote to tell them what a fan I was of their games and how I would love to work for the company writing adventure games some day. I was thrilled to get a reply on Sierra stationary (I still love that logo), typed, probably a form letter, but definitely hand signed by both Ken and Roberta. It thanked me for my interest, and recommended a few programming languages to study in high school/college.
Of course, life happened, adventure games fizzled as a genre (though never quite dying), and the company basically went defunct as I was finishing college. And now I write billing and purchase order software. sigh.
I'm very tempted to play through some of the older games on Steam, but also very worried they won't live up to my glorious memories of those times. There's no way they could.
posted by Roommate at 7:12 AM on August 30, 2016 [16 favorites]
Of course, life happened, adventure games fizzled as a genre (though never quite dying), and the company basically went defunct as I was finishing college. And now I write billing and purchase order software. sigh.
I'm very tempted to play through some of the older games on Steam, but also very worried they won't live up to my glorious memories of those times. There's no way they could.
posted by Roommate at 7:12 AM on August 30, 2016 [16 favorites]
Do those Steam bundles come with the goofy DRM code feelies?
posted by notyou at 7:12 AM on August 30, 2016
posted by notyou at 7:12 AM on August 30, 2016
In reading a bit more about Sierra today, I was reminded that they published the original Half-Life. Think about that. Valve had never released a game before, and the game's release was delayed for a very long time. At the time (1997-8), there had already been tons of FPSes and Quake clones. It was probable that the genre had already peaked, and here is this studio with no shipped titles and they can't get their FPS out for another year?!
Sierra made some really, really good calls.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:16 AM on August 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
Sierra made some really, really good calls.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:16 AM on August 30, 2016 [6 favorites]
>> In related news, Several classic Sierra games, including the Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, and Quest for Glory series, are available on Steam as of yesterday.
> OMGOMGOMG
Several Sierra games have been available on GOG for quite a while.
posted by farlukar at 7:16 AM on August 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
> OMGOMGOMG
Several Sierra games have been available on GOG for quite a while.
posted by farlukar at 7:16 AM on August 30, 2016 [5 favorites]
I always wondered how many people had wavetable or similar cards back in the day. The Soundblaster and SB16 were by far the most compatible cards back in that era but they could only do FM synthesis.
The Gravis Ultrasound was reasonably popular (I had one!). I forget if the Sierra games supported it though.
(The GUS had the curious property of being unable to play some MIDI files, depending on the number of instruments that are used. This is because it only had 256kb of sample RAM, and the full MIDI patch set was a whole six megabytes.)
I was reminded that they published the original Half-Life
They also published Half-Life 2 (as Vivendi Universal), but it didn't turn out so well for them.
posted by neckro23 at 7:26 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
The Gravis Ultrasound was reasonably popular (I had one!). I forget if the Sierra games supported it though.
(The GUS had the curious property of being unable to play some MIDI files, depending on the number of instruments that are used. This is because it only had 256kb of sample RAM, and the full MIDI patch set was a whole six megabytes.)
I was reminded that they published the original Half-Life
They also published Half-Life 2 (as Vivendi Universal), but it didn't turn out so well for them.
posted by neckro23 at 7:26 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
While I was always more into LucasArts adventure games, I really loved Sierra's Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist, which Al Lowe co-created. He thinks it might be his funniest game. Unfortunately it has yet to make it to places like GOG or Steam yet, although there be places on the web where abandoned games can be found, or so I hear. HG101 has a nice write-up about the game.
posted by airish at 7:27 AM on August 30, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by airish at 7:27 AM on August 30, 2016 [8 favorites]
Some of the puzzles required a bit of lateral thinking. Old Man Murray (2001) noted his annoyance with Gabriel Knight 3 in that respect.
posted by kurumi at 7:28 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by kurumi at 7:28 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Oh, the PS/2. First computer I used, and the old computers at school (6 or 7 286 or 386 from several sources - clearly weren't a batch purchase) looked pale without the proprietary interface and clackety clack keyboard. I still could find space for a 2011 here.
The SCI engine was a bit messy when compared to AGI - 15 years ago, most of us who missed the release and had to settle for whatever version the abandonware site had available. When doing the yearly Quest for Glory I-V run, I still dread going to III because of not knowing if I'd end up stuck because of a SCI error.
On the side: a lot of those Sierra Classics have been on GoG for ages. Don't know why the fuss it's on Steam now, unless you like paying more (at least in €) for the same thing, and possibly, missing the extras GoG pack as optional.
So here's the question. I LOVED Gabriel Knight 2 when I played it as a kid. Do I dare go back?
It's not bad. I preferred the First and would have preferred the third if it wasn't for the obscure puzzles. Visually it's a bit of a victim of the "LET'S HAVE DIGITISED CHARACTERS" craze of the era, but storywise it's not bad. It reminds me a lot of one of those SyFy (I think) supernatural shows, down to the slightly surreal stages that look greenscreen but you're not sure and yet it's pretty clear the actors just aren't there.
Of course, life happened, adventure games fizzled as a genre (though never quite dying), and the company basically went defunct as I was finishing college. And now I write billing and purchase order software. sigh.
Never too late to start, if you have time. There's so many languages with tutorials going around even I have considered doing my European Club Soccer revival.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:43 AM on August 30, 2016
The SCI engine was a bit messy when compared to AGI - 15 years ago, most of us who missed the release and had to settle for whatever version the abandonware site had available. When doing the yearly Quest for Glory I-V run, I still dread going to III because of not knowing if I'd end up stuck because of a SCI error.
On the side: a lot of those Sierra Classics have been on GoG for ages. Don't know why the fuss it's on Steam now, unless you like paying more (at least in €) for the same thing, and possibly, missing the extras GoG pack as optional.
So here's the question. I LOVED Gabriel Knight 2 when I played it as a kid. Do I dare go back?
It's not bad. I preferred the First and would have preferred the third if it wasn't for the obscure puzzles. Visually it's a bit of a victim of the "LET'S HAVE DIGITISED CHARACTERS" craze of the era, but storywise it's not bad. It reminds me a lot of one of those SyFy (I think) supernatural shows, down to the slightly surreal stages that look greenscreen but you're not sure and yet it's pretty clear the actors just aren't there.
Of course, life happened, adventure games fizzled as a genre (though never quite dying), and the company basically went defunct as I was finishing college. And now I write billing and purchase order software. sigh.
Never too late to start, if you have time. There's so many languages with tutorials going around even I have considered doing my European Club Soccer revival.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:43 AM on August 30, 2016
I was never able to afford an MT-32 or even an AdLib card ($200+ was a LOT of money in the early 90s, kids...) but I did have a PCJr-esque Tandy 1000, which at least provided 3-note chiptune-esque polyphony. With only a 360k 5.25 single-sided disk drive, one could get a real workout swapping disks playing some of the later Sierra games that came on 10+ floppies.
It's funny the article chalks up KQIV's difficulty to Roberta Williams' flaws as a game designer -- I always assumed they made them hard just to sell the hint books with the revealing highlighter pens.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:47 AM on August 30, 2016
It's funny the article chalks up KQIV's difficulty to Roberta Williams' flaws as a game designer -- I always assumed they made them hard just to sell the hint books with the revealing highlighter pens.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:47 AM on August 30, 2016
The Gravis Ultrasound was reasonably popular (I had one!). I forget if the Sierra games supported it though
I have fond memories of the GUS; a large card, on a bright red circuit board populated with RAM chips, it came with a CD-ROM of megabytes of samples, and sounded better than anything else at the time (mostly because computers at the time didn't have the CPU power to do multi-channel digital audio in software whilst doing other things).
posted by acb at 7:48 AM on August 30, 2016
I have fond memories of the GUS; a large card, on a bright red circuit board populated with RAM chips, it came with a CD-ROM of megabytes of samples, and sounded better than anything else at the time (mostly because computers at the time didn't have the CPU power to do multi-channel digital audio in software whilst doing other things).
posted by acb at 7:48 AM on August 30, 2016
I think the thing I liked so much about GKII when I was a kid was the Munich setting. I liked the Ripley's Believe it or Not game for the same reason... I had never been out of the country and it felt like taking a really nice trip where you got to play games along the way.
posted by selfnoise at 7:50 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by selfnoise at 7:50 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
ah, the GUS. I bought one just because all the demos coming out of europe starting requiring one.
posted by osi at 7:56 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by osi at 7:56 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm Swedish. I was like 10-12 years old when the first titles in the Kings Quest, Space Quest and Police Quest series came out. A couple of years ago I watched long plays of the aforementioned games and I was amazed that I was able to finish them - I mean, they don't pull any punches language wise (so to speak). But I think that's a testament to how great I thought they were and how enchanting I found them - I just powered through. And oh man did I ever learn a phrase or two while doing so.
I highly recommend watching long plays/speedruns of those games by the way. All the entertainment and all the nostalgia and none of the frustration!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 7:59 AM on August 30, 2016
I highly recommend watching long plays/speedruns of those games by the way. All the entertainment and all the nostalgia and none of the frustration!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 7:59 AM on August 30, 2016
a female-friendly marketing and design strategy that was decades ahead of its time.
What the hell was Leisuresuit Larry then? Decades before gamergate?
posted by adept256 at 8:05 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
What the hell was Leisuresuit Larry then? Decades before gamergate?
posted by adept256 at 8:05 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Quest for Glory is the greatest game series past present or future and there is no debate.
posted by winna at 8:06 AM on August 30, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by winna at 8:06 AM on August 30, 2016 [12 favorites]
At the same time... look, the Kings Quest games are terrible.
Let's not and say we did.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 8:20 AM on August 30, 2016
Let's not and say we did.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 8:20 AM on August 30, 2016
I really loved Sierra's Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist
Ah, yeah, FPFP is fantastic. I find most Sierra games (especially the earliest ones) pretty much unplayable (for a lot of the reasons enumerated by this article), but Al Lowe's writing (and music!) make Freddy Pharkas (and the Larry games, if I'm allowed to admit it) pretty enjoyable.
Sierra as a vanguard of PC computing is something that never really occurred to me, even though I was pretty much steeped in this stuff from the start.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:20 AM on August 30, 2016
Ah, yeah, FPFP is fantastic. I find most Sierra games (especially the earliest ones) pretty much unplayable (for a lot of the reasons enumerated by this article), but Al Lowe's writing (and music!) make Freddy Pharkas (and the Larry games, if I'm allowed to admit it) pretty enjoyable.
Sierra as a vanguard of PC computing is something that never really occurred to me, even though I was pretty much steeped in this stuff from the start.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:20 AM on August 30, 2016
+1 for the Gravis Ultrasound. I reviewed it for a magazine and got to hold onto it, and it was so much fun. I can't remember the details of the software that came with it, but I wrote some poetry for its speech synthesis - which had really good inflection - and did some sampled music based on church bells. I wish I still had that, it was one of those pieces where you start off with a doodle and all sorts of great things happen as you try out variations.
(Hmmm... I have something similar I did recently with pitch-shifting chunks of a Purcell motet. Perhaps I could have moar churchbell in that, too)
The GUS sounded great then and sounds great now.
posted by Devonian at 8:35 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
(Hmmm... I have something similar I did recently with pitch-shifting chunks of a Purcell motet. Perhaps I could have moar churchbell in that, too)
The GUS sounded great then and sounds great now.
posted by Devonian at 8:35 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
another +1 for the GUS. It was one of the few 'affordable' sound cards that had support in Cakewalk and a reasonably professional level of features.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 8:45 AM on August 30, 2016
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 8:45 AM on August 30, 2016
I had a Gravis Ultrasound, and it was definitely great for getting decent sound from games. Before that my family had a Tandy 1000, and for a while, that was really a good choice for playing some of those early games, as I recall, both graphics and sound were better for a lot of those games.
I basically grew up playing the Space Quest series. The Kings Quest ones were ok, but after a while the pacifist nature of Roberta Williams really started showing through, and it just became almost impossible to get killed off in the game. While Space Quest, well, let's just say they kept coming up with new and inventive ways to kill you. It was actually worth getting killed some just to experience the humor of the two guys from andromeda. Eventually both series became just a little too much of the point and click, with no other real interaction (the early games you had to actually *type* commands, it took actual thought).
posted by piper28 at 8:48 AM on August 30, 2016
I basically grew up playing the Space Quest series. The Kings Quest ones were ok, but after a while the pacifist nature of Roberta Williams really started showing through, and it just became almost impossible to get killed off in the game. While Space Quest, well, let's just say they kept coming up with new and inventive ways to kill you. It was actually worth getting killed some just to experience the humor of the two guys from andromeda. Eventually both series became just a little too much of the point and click, with no other real interaction (the early games you had to actually *type* commands, it took actual thought).
posted by piper28 at 8:48 AM on August 30, 2016
AdLib vs. Roland MT-32: King's Quest 4
(No real contest here, but the soundtrack was composed specifically for the MT-32, and in the right hands FM synthesis sounds ok too)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:49 AM on August 30, 2016
(No real contest here, but the soundtrack was composed specifically for the MT-32, and in the right hands FM synthesis sounds ok too)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:49 AM on August 30, 2016
You put the ladder into your pocket. Ouch.posted by tonycpsu at 8:49 AM on August 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ah, I just found the name of that card I bought at Circuit City: the Reveal Sound FX Wave 32. Which apparently had a wavetable module made by AMD of all companies! Looking at a picture I remember it being enormous and having to really work to fit it in my dad's computer.
posted by selfnoise at 8:54 AM on August 30, 2016
posted by selfnoise at 8:54 AM on August 30, 2016
One thing about the unfairness of the games is that it was both a way of selling hintbooks (I think one of Al Lowe's favourite stories is how LSL was one of the most pirated games ever - as he claims to have sold about close to twice as many hintbooks than actual games) and as a way to frustrate people that haven't bought the game.
I recall a few years back reading a huge rant on Police Quest "randomness" by a modern gamer (as in, not used to reading manuals but to a lot hand-holding throughout the first levels) such as the car breaking down if you don't kick the tires or being assaulted by a guy handcuffed in the front but those things are all laid out as "don'ts" on the manual, disguised as a Lytton PD Indoctrination Guide.
Sure, later games used way too obscure puzzles - aka the cat moustache puzzle on GKIII - or just loved killing Roger Wilco, but I feel their reputation for being so hard mostly stems from players who played it without the printed material that dropped hints about the puzzles.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:27 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I recall a few years back reading a huge rant on Police Quest "randomness" by a modern gamer (as in, not used to reading manuals but to a lot hand-holding throughout the first levels) such as the car breaking down if you don't kick the tires or being assaulted by a guy handcuffed in the front but those things are all laid out as "don'ts" on the manual, disguised as a Lytton PD Indoctrination Guide.
Sure, later games used way too obscure puzzles - aka the cat moustache puzzle on GKIII - or just loved killing Roger Wilco, but I feel their reputation for being so hard mostly stems from players who played it without the printed material that dropped hints about the puzzles.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:27 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
the cat moustache puzzle on GKIII
Uggggh, I had almost, almost forgotten about that.
And it actually reminds me that, despite my Sierra-aversion, I really did love Sins of the Fathers.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:35 AM on August 30, 2016
Uggggh, I had almost, almost forgotten about that.
And it actually reminds me that, despite my Sierra-aversion, I really did love Sins of the Fathers.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:35 AM on August 30, 2016
The Kings Quest ones were ok, but after a while the pacifist nature of Roberta Williams really started showing through, and it just became almost impossible to get killed off in the game
Did you ever play her game The Colonel's Bequest? You might be surprised.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 10:00 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Did you ever play her game The Colonel's Bequest? You might be surprised.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 10:00 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
My favorite part of Gabriel Knight 3 is that there were two kinds of crazy gibberish puzzles: The cat-moustache kind, and the kind where you're piecing together the clues to the big conspiracy theory reveal (which are more or less based on real conspiracy theories). They're both crazy, but with different flavors.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 10:22 AM on August 30, 2016
posted by Elementary Penguin at 10:22 AM on August 30, 2016
Did you ever play her game The Colonel's Bequest?
Yes, with a group of people. Like watching a movie together. On the rare occasions when we play games this is still how my wife and I play, she navigates and I drive, we discuss strategy together. You have to have the right games to do this though.
posted by bongo_x at 10:51 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yes, with a group of people. Like watching a movie together. On the rare occasions when we play games this is still how my wife and I play, she navigates and I drive, we discuss strategy together. You have to have the right games to do this though.
posted by bongo_x at 10:51 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Thomas? Thomas? Herr Doctor Klingman here. Show our wolves to Mr. Knight
Can't tell you how disappointed I was that when visiting Neuschwanstein as an adult there was no secret panel and the main wolf painting in the game wasn't real...
posted by mincus at 10:58 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Can't tell you how disappointed I was that when visiting Neuschwanstein as an adult there was no secret panel and the main wolf painting in the game wasn't real...
posted by mincus at 10:58 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
The first Gabriel Knight is the greatest adventure game I've ever played. It captured my imagination so much that I ended up reading a book on the history of voodoo during my 4th grade reading period. We all had to share what we were reading with the class, and my teacher was really, really weirded out by my selection.
posted by naju at 11:15 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by naju at 11:15 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
I never got very far in Gabriel Knight II, but I'm nostalgic for its horrible full-motion video anyway. I might have to play through it. Bonus, I can play it on my couch now with the steam controller.
posted by naju at 11:23 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by naju at 11:23 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Anyone interested in buying some of these games: not only are they on Steam, Humble just launched a new bundle with a bunch of them in it. Worth looking at it cost-wise.
The Bundle reminded me of Arcanum, probably my all-time "I know I would dig this game if I could get into it but I never, ever will" game.
posted by selfnoise at 11:28 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
The Bundle reminded me of Arcanum, probably my all-time "I know I would dig this game if I could get into it but I never, ever will" game.
posted by selfnoise at 11:28 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
There's a fan remake of QFG2?! How did I miss this!
posted by thermogenesis at 11:35 AM on August 30, 2016
posted by thermogenesis at 11:35 AM on August 30, 2016
It's interesting to read this, having read the early part of Sierra's history in Steven Levy's Hackers. It's a very engaging book, but Levy tends to bounce around between his subjects and not always return back to them. He left Sierra's story at about the time that Ken Williams was burning out on shepherding his own stable of talented but immature coders and is thinking of outsourcing the work, but he seems to still have his own coders here.
I also appreciate that the writer is willing to be critical of Roberta Williams; Levy is a bit more generous and gives some consideration to their being no (or at least very little) precedent for the sort of games that she made, but there's a difference between being a creator of a form or genre and being its exemplar. (Someone's already linked this Old Man Murray post, but I have to excerpt one particular sarcastic bit regarding the death of adventure games and one site's efforts to explain why: "Genius adventure gamers come to the painful realization that the same equipment they use to explore the complex fantasy world of Leisure Suit Larry can also be utilized by stupid people to run Quake. Thanks to their television-atrophied attention spans, these casual gamers are mentally incapable of spending six hours trying to randomly guess at the absurd dream logic Roberta Williams has applied to the problem of getting the dungeon key out of the bluebird's nest."
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:44 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I also appreciate that the writer is willing to be critical of Roberta Williams; Levy is a bit more generous and gives some consideration to their being no (or at least very little) precedent for the sort of games that she made, but there's a difference between being a creator of a form or genre and being its exemplar. (Someone's already linked this Old Man Murray post, but I have to excerpt one particular sarcastic bit regarding the death of adventure games and one site's efforts to explain why: "Genius adventure gamers come to the painful realization that the same equipment they use to explore the complex fantasy world of Leisure Suit Larry can also be utilized by stupid people to run Quake. Thanks to their television-atrophied attention spans, these casual gamers are mentally incapable of spending six hours trying to randomly guess at the absurd dream logic Roberta Williams has applied to the problem of getting the dungeon key out of the bluebird's nest."
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:44 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Anyone interested in buying some of these games: not only are they on Steam, Humble just launched a new bundle with a bunch of them in it. Worth looking at it cost-wise.
Thanks for the heads up! $15 gets you pretty much everything. Guess I'll find out how well they all hold up after all.
posted by Roommate at 11:51 AM on August 30, 2016
Thanks for the heads up! $15 gets you pretty much everything. Guess I'll find out how well they all hold up after all.
posted by Roommate at 11:51 AM on August 30, 2016
If anyone wants the Space Quest or King's Quest collections, I have one spare key for each.
posted by jeather at 12:04 PM on August 30, 2016
posted by jeather at 12:04 PM on August 30, 2016
these casual gamers are mentally incapable of spending six hours trying to randomly guess at the absurd dream logic Roberta Williams has applied to the problem of getting the dungeon key out of the bluebird's nest
and this is why Quest for Glory is the best of the bunch. You can either cast fetch, climb the tree or throw rocks at it.
In fact, I bet the villagers in Quest For Glory IV occasionally wondered why on earth was the outsider throwing rocks at every direction just outside the town, like he was possessed by some strange rock-throwing mania.
And speaking of mania, I'm disappointed considering the looks of the hero on later games the Coles never added a easter egg where the Hero accidentally triggers a dance craze and everyone is kicked off the village.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:06 PM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
and this is why Quest for Glory is the best of the bunch. You can either cast fetch, climb the tree or throw rocks at it.
In fact, I bet the villagers in Quest For Glory IV occasionally wondered why on earth was the outsider throwing rocks at every direction just outside the town, like he was possessed by some strange rock-throwing mania.
And speaking of mania, I'm disappointed considering the looks of the hero on later games the Coles never added a easter egg where the Hero accidentally triggers a dance craze and everyone is kicked off the village.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:06 PM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
In fact, I bet the villagers in Quest For Glory IV occasionally wondered why on earth was the outsider[...]I'm sure they did. The villagers were very suspicious of strangers, and liked to spread rumors and gossip.
"Rumors? What rumors? There are no rumors here."
"Unless you count the rumor that the castle is owned by..."
"Nonsense. There are no rumors to speak of in Mordavia!"
"We do not gossip about our neighbors in Mordavia. Do we, Ivan?"
"No, but you used to tell everyone about the time Olga caught Boris drinking with us when he was supposed to be minding the store."
"That was not gossip. That was merely a funny story!"
posted by Juffo-Wup at 12:56 PM on August 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
See again why that is the best game.
I am still sad I do not have a blue House Thing that perches on the mantel.
posted by winna at 1:13 PM on August 30, 2016
I am still sad I do not have a blue House Thing that perches on the mantel.
posted by winna at 1:13 PM on August 30, 2016
Personal anecdote: when I went to Circuit City to buy a sound card with my birthday money, they didn't have any Sound Blasters left and I was crushed. They did have a card whose name escapes me except that it was a rebranded Ensoniq Soundscape.
I owned an Ensoniq Soundscape. I believe it had 2MB of memory. It was a special kind of glorious.
So here's the question. I LOVED Gabriel Knight 2 when I played it as a kid. Do I dare go back
I would say yes. You get to relive the FMV era of video gaming and the story more or less holds up.
posted by linux at 2:33 PM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
I owned an Ensoniq Soundscape. I believe it had 2MB of memory. It was a special kind of glorious.
So here's the question. I LOVED Gabriel Knight 2 when I played it as a kid. Do I dare go back
I would say yes. You get to relive the FMV era of video gaming and the story more or less holds up.
posted by linux at 2:33 PM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
I recall fondly group-playing Sierra adventure games at a family friend's house.
My first game was 'Conquest of Camelot' and boy, guessing which nouns to use in the text interface could be an exercise in extreme frustration. I spent an entire afternoon trying to guess what the name of the quest-item pastry I was supposed get. Finally, I asked my mom (paraphrased) "what do you call a lamb pastry?" and she suggested just trying to type "lamb" - and it worked.
Similar to Roommate my only ever fan letter was to Lori Cole gushing about how great I thought Hero's Quest (renamed Quest for Glory) was and... I actually got a reply back!
High grade paper with the gorgeous Sierra letterhead, printed out on a high end laserprinter, hand signed by Lori Cole. It was a little boilerplate, but my impression was that there was a list of stock paragraphs that they mix-and-matched to create semi-personalized responses. In 1989 (well, 1990 by then, I got it as a request Christmas gift from my dad - $60 was a lot of money at the time and for my family) the folks at Sierra were already thinking about CD-ROMS and how the could add more character races and even let the player select the onscreen avatar's sex. iirc, there was also a hand written postscript.
My first computer was a 386SX16 with a SVGA card and came with a (8 bit?) Soundblaster. Far superior to my friends' Ad Libs. Upgraded to a SB16 and then subsequently a GUS in lieu of a SB AWE32 (?). Boy, I loved that GUS and I even started playing around with composing MODs (and then S3M) and ripping samples (the sound waveforms) from MODs and S3Ms released mostly from composers in the demo scene.
Ah, the days of editing autoexec.bat SET SOUND to set IRQs and DMAs, not to mention HIMEM and EMM386.
(DOS/4GW)
Maybe a decade ago, I tried to replay Quest for Glory (and then QFGII) - no dice. The gameplay was so repetitive and grindy (the only Sierra adventure game with stats that you could grind? - I wanted to play a Thief character, get the Chainmail in QFGI, then get the Broadsword in QFGII, and ultimately go the Paladin route in QFGIII) and the payoff so weak.
Like a beloved former flame, I still feel so fondly for those old Sierra adventure games that it hurts sometimes.
posted by porpoise at 2:42 PM on August 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
My first game was 'Conquest of Camelot' and boy, guessing which nouns to use in the text interface could be an exercise in extreme frustration. I spent an entire afternoon trying to guess what the name of the quest-item pastry I was supposed get. Finally, I asked my mom (paraphrased) "what do you call a lamb pastry?" and she suggested just trying to type "lamb" - and it worked.
Similar to Roommate my only ever fan letter was to Lori Cole gushing about how great I thought Hero's Quest (renamed Quest for Glory) was and... I actually got a reply back!
High grade paper with the gorgeous Sierra letterhead, printed out on a high end laserprinter, hand signed by Lori Cole. It was a little boilerplate, but my impression was that there was a list of stock paragraphs that they mix-and-matched to create semi-personalized responses. In 1989 (well, 1990 by then, I got it as a request Christmas gift from my dad - $60 was a lot of money at the time and for my family) the folks at Sierra were already thinking about CD-ROMS and how the could add more character races and even let the player select the onscreen avatar's sex. iirc, there was also a hand written postscript.
My first computer was a 386SX16 with a SVGA card and came with a (8 bit?) Soundblaster. Far superior to my friends' Ad Libs. Upgraded to a SB16 and then subsequently a GUS in lieu of a SB AWE32 (?). Boy, I loved that GUS and I even started playing around with composing MODs (and then S3M) and ripping samples (the sound waveforms) from MODs and S3Ms released mostly from composers in the demo scene.
Ah, the days of editing autoexec.bat SET SOUND to set IRQs and DMAs, not to mention HIMEM and EMM386.
(DOS/4GW)
Maybe a decade ago, I tried to replay Quest for Glory (and then QFGII) - no dice. The gameplay was so repetitive and grindy (the only Sierra adventure game with stats that you could grind? - I wanted to play a Thief character, get the Chainmail in QFGI, then get the Broadsword in QFGII, and ultimately go the Paladin route in QFGIII) and the payoff so weak.
Like a beloved former flame, I still feel so fondly for those old Sierra adventure games that it hurts sometimes.
posted by porpoise at 2:42 PM on August 30, 2016 [4 favorites]
I got my dad to spend $100 one month so I could play unlimited Shadow of Yserbius. Tied up our phone line for a month.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:46 PM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:46 PM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
I was beyond jealous that my best friend had an IBM PCjr and so could play King's Quest. I'd be smug, but we bought a Commodore 128.
posted by nev at 3:48 PM on August 30, 2016
posted by nev at 3:48 PM on August 30, 2016
I'd never seen Jimmy Maher's blog before I stumbled on this on Hacker News, but I've been scanning through it in spare moments today and it's full of fantastic posts like this one about Sierra. So much nostalgia.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 5:57 PM on August 30, 2016
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 5:57 PM on August 30, 2016
Most every post on The Digital Antiquarian is excellent.
Reading about M.U.L.E. on there made me realize I'd sadly missed playing it on my Atari back in the day. Got it running under emulation, with multiple USB joysticks, and had a great time playing it with family, including my mom who is in her 70's and had never played any video game before.
posted by joeyh at 6:32 PM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Reading about M.U.L.E. on there made me realize I'd sadly missed playing it on my Atari back in the day. Got it running under emulation, with multiple USB joysticks, and had a great time playing it with family, including my mom who is in her 70's and had never played any video game before.
posted by joeyh at 6:32 PM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sierra's released a ton of old games on Steam and has them all on Humble Indie Bundle - including the ones not normally available in all regions, the King's Quest and Space Quest collections. (They're all already on GOG.com in all regions, including the Codemasters-owned Leisure Suit Larry series.)
posted by BiggerJ at 8:52 PM on August 30, 2016
posted by BiggerJ at 8:52 PM on August 30, 2016
BiggerJ - how do those old EGA games look on 1080p displays?
Do the GOG versions of the EGA (not the remade VGA) games still only have blooop blaap sounds or do they have midi support? How does a modern integrated basic audio chip handle this? MT-32 emulation?
posted by porpoise at 9:45 PM on August 30, 2016
Do the GOG versions of the EGA (not the remade VGA) games still only have blooop blaap sounds or do they have midi support? How does a modern integrated basic audio chip handle this? MT-32 emulation?
posted by porpoise at 9:45 PM on August 30, 2016
porpoise: If you're not aware, they're all emulated with DOSBox (wiki). It handles sound emulation, and with games that use the PC speaker, it even converts it to normal speaker audio (which admittedly makes the audio of the first two Tex Murphy games less impressive - digitized sound out of the PC speaker!). (Short wiki page about graphics emulation.)
posted by BiggerJ at 11:31 PM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by BiggerJ at 11:31 PM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
You guys know they're working on a new Quest for Glory game funded via Kickstarter, right? It's taking foreeeeeever, but at least they're transparent in their updates about the various reasons why.
posted by MsMolly at 1:07 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by MsMolly at 1:07 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm glad I missed that when it happened... between the not-quite-as-long spiritual sequel to Planescape: Torment, and the excruciatingly long wait for the movie based on Neil Gaiman's The Price, I've had my fill of kickstarters in over their head. I'll happily scoop up Hero-U if/when it's finished, though.
Started Quest for Glory 1 last night, thanks to the Humble Bundle. Not very far yet, but it's amazing how much quickly came back after all these years. All, that is, except the instinct to save early, save often, and save multiple slots - that took a hard lesson or two. Games today, so coddling.
posted by Roommate at 4:39 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Started Quest for Glory 1 last night, thanks to the Humble Bundle. Not very far yet, but it's amazing how much quickly came back after all these years. All, that is, except the instinct to save early, save often, and save multiple slots - that took a hard lesson or two. Games today, so coddling.
posted by Roommate at 4:39 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Crap, I just remembered. Some classic Sierra adventure games may be literally unbeatable on modern computers due to timing bugs (I don't know if DOSBox has been updated to fix them automatically, or if so, whether the versions used on GOG and Steam have those updates), so use fanmade patches from here (which aren't automatically included because Activision undoubtedly thinks the potential legal issues aren't worth spending a cent of lawyer money on).
posted by BiggerJ at 4:46 AM on August 31, 2016
posted by BiggerJ at 4:46 AM on August 31, 2016
I finished QfG from I to V 4 times (I VGA excluded) with GoG's version without a problem. LSL too, so they're likely to be patched or rigged to work in some way.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:07 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by lmfsilva at 8:07 AM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by Roommate at 6:57 AM on August 30, 2016 [12 favorites]