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Hello Ken,
I seem to recall KQ5 (maybe KQ6) on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Did this pan out well for Sierra? Does Nintendo get a percentage of the game sale? What kind of “licensing fees” does a company like Sierra run into when producing a game for a console? I appreciate anything that you can remember about this. I personally never seen KQ5 on the Nintendo but I have a friend that swears he seen it. Thank Ken!
Tim from Upstate New York -
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(re: Catridge Based) I seem to recall KQ5 (maybe KQ6) on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Did this pan out well for Sierra? Does Nintendo get a percentage of the game sale? What kind of “licensing fees” does a company like Sierra run into when producing a game for a console? I appreciate anything that you can remember about this. I personally never seen KQ5 on the Nintendo but I have a friend that swears he seen it. Thank Ken!
I’ve long forgotten the details of this deal…
My recollection is that we received an advance against royalties, and that it was around $1 to $2 hundred thousand dollars. My recollection is that the cart bombed. As Josh mentioned, the graphics were so reduced in quality the game was almost unplayable.
I think it was Activision that did the cartridge – I don’t believe it was Nintendo.
Companies who want to do games for video game systems have to buy their “finished goods” (meaning the boxed CD or cartridge) directly from Nintendo, Sega, Sony or Microsoft (the xbox). Or, at least that’s how it worked in my day. The CDs would have cost Sierra somewhere around $7 each — which gives quite a profit to the videogame hardware company, whose costs would only be around $2. In the old cartridge days, it wasn’t unusual to pay around $15-20 for a cartridge (if Sierra had bought carts from Nintendo). It’s a give away the razor, sell the blades strategy. It costs the video game companies more to produce the machines than they are selling them for – but, they know you will buy carts.
-Ken W -
(re: Cartridge Based (KQ5)) Alright I moved this post to the KQ chat area and I changed the title of your post slightly to better reflect the content.
Yes it is KQ5, and I have seen the actual game played on a Nintendo system… and of course you can see copies of it going for sale on eBay (although I haven’t yet found one with manual and / or box in good condition for my collecting satisfaction).
The game was done by KONAMI. Interestingly enough, when the Sierra logo comes up it’s “Sierra Design.” The graphics aren’t that great and of course the interface is a pain. But, if you can warp your thinking to handle the interface, and if you’re a big Sierra fan (as I guess many people on these boards are), it can still be fun to play and also very interesting of course from a historical perspective. We discussed this recently before (I’ll have to see if that thread is appropriate to move to this chat area, or you can try and find it yourself) and there’s a few of us here who have an NES emulator and a ROM of the game. Someone said (I forget who at the moment) that they were working on getting together a huge collection of screen captures from the game for us all to see. So that will be neat.
While we’re talking about game cartridges… the other Sierra game that went to cartridge was KQ1 for Sega’s SMS. Again, not great graphics but a very interesting interface. I’ve acquired an SMS emulator and a ROM of the game, so I am in the process of doing a whole ton of screenshots for that one. What is super-interesting about this one is the interface. KQ5 on the NES did a copy of the cursor interface. But for the SMS, they had to invent a new interface because KQ1 relied on typing. So guess what they did? They made an interface similar to the early LucasArts games. It’s pretty cool overall, it’s much more playable than the NES KQ5 (KONAMI would have done well to make such an interface instead). I will get those screenshots up in the museum area… sometime soon. I’m attempting to be as thorough as possible. -
(re: Cartridge Based (KQ5))
Ooh, I’m so excited. I got a sealed copy of KQ5 for NES. I’m so excited I don’t know whether to open it or to leave it sealed! Normally I’m someone who opens sealed packages, allowing for scanning of the package contents, but then makes sure to protect all the contents. But this one just seems so much rarer that I’m almost starting to subscribe to the true collector’s philosophy of not opening it!
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(re: re: Cartridge Based (KQ5)) Brandon,
I have a KQ5 NES in my collection. I’ll dig it out.. I have the box, and I am pretty sure I have the instructions. Let’s keep yours sealed for future Sierra buffs. =)
-Brad
EDIT: Brandon, just checked – I do have KQ5 NES with box / cartridge / slipcover / and silver instruction booklet – mint condition. If you have any other sealed items, let me know about them and I will see if I have any of them open already in the Sierra Vault, so you can leave yours sealed =) I also have the KQ1 SMS release too, if you are interested in that – I know there was a discussion about it. -
(re: Cartridge Based (KQ5))
Brad, you must have everything! You really must start sending me scans! Heh, I guess that’ll happen the day I start sending you scans 🙂 Yeah, of course I’m interested in the KQ1 SMS too. I did mention that I got a ROM for the KQ1 SMS, right? And I started doing screenshots of that, which I’ll continue doing. I don’t know what happened to the guy who was doing KQ5 NES screenshots, haven’t heard an update from him. Alright, I’ll try to keep my KQ5 NES sealed 🙂
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I found some screenshots of the NES version. Just scroll down untill you come to the NES section and voila!:
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