I currently have three copies of Space Quest 4: 16c, 256c and Multimedia. The two disk versions have an embossed glossy slipcover, but the Multimedia version is matte and not embossed. It’s an original release because it was out at the same time (and at the regular price of $65. OUCH!!).
Now that I’ve had a major resurgence in my Sierra collecting, I’m finding all sorts of variations in the different releases. I’ve almost got it down to knowing what kind of disks (mountain label, colorband, etc.) are in the box based on the stickers on the outside! Handy when dealing with Ebay auctions.
I’ve also always wondered about Sierra’s return policy of, “Just send us Disk 1 and we’ll send you a whole new set.” — Well, I’m assuming each game was “tweeked” as bugs were found after release, and subsequent releases had the patches already applied. Case in point being Quest For Glory 2. I have three different versions (disks only) that have different dates on the files and a different sized RESOURCE.000. A disk from one set will not work with a disk from another set, despite the version numbers being the same on the labels and in the game. Now, if I could only find the release notes on every version (I know HQ1 included a readme) I could find out what they fixed/changed/made better in each one!! It would be cool to try and collect ALL versions of a given game.
Tom.