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Had an interesting Goodwill find today — a boxed copy of the Dagger of Amon Ra. But, the documentation inside seems to be for the Colonel’s Bequest. Someone must have gotten their games mixed up before making their donation… too bad Colonel’s Bequest wasn’t at the same store!
Here’s what’s in my Amon Ra box:
-The Colonel’s Bequest – A Play by Roberta Williams (looks like the manual for Colonel’s Bequest)
-map of Misty Acres Plantation
-Colonel’s Bequest hint book with yellow “adventure window” (the standard rectangular card)
-cardboard magnifying glass with red window and “LB” on the handle (looks like another hint book window… but since the Colonel’s Bequest hint book has its own, what did this go with?)
-Amon Ra disks 1-4 and message / audio disk (3.5″ floppies)
-Sierra catalog (“The Entire Spectrum of Family Games”) copyright 1991
-Prodigy ad, copyright 1992
-Sierra 10 year anniversary catalog, copyright 1989
-Registration card (“Five shameless marketing ploys contrived to get you to do something that, in your heart, you know you should do anyway.”)
I can tell just by looking at the names and the years that everything probably goes with Colonel’s Bequest except the family entertainment catalog, the prodigy ad, and maybe the registration card. I am most curious about the magnifying glass-shaped red window.
And I’m wondering what I’m missing. Is there copy protection in the Amon Ra manual that I’m going to need?
-emily
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(re: Dagger of Amon Ra – what’s supposed to be in the box?)
Emily,
You can always check http://www.vintage-sierra.com (shameless plug) for box contents as most are there 🙂
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(re: Dagger of Amon Ra – what’s supposed to be in the box?) Hi Emily,
1. The magnifying glass is part of the copy protection of the Colonel’s Bequest. You put it on a given manual page and click on the symbol that shows up in the window.
2. The Dagger of Amon Ra had a manual check too, so you will need the original documentation.
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(Re: Dagger of Amon Ra – what’s supposed to be in the box?) 1. The magnifying glass is part of the copy protection of the Colonel’s Bequest. You put it on a given manual page and click on the symbol that shows up in the window.
Actually, the magnifying glass is used on the back of the Plantation Map to see the fingerprints for the CB copy-protection. And yes, vintage-sierra.com is excellent.
I had a great find recently too. A sealed copy of the original diskette release of Willy Beamish on eBay, with the watch offer sticker on the front. That makes a nice addition to my collection of sealed product. I’m looking for another one though so I can open it 🙂 -
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(Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
Hi Orat,
I’ve discovered your vintage-sierra.com site, which is very impressive. I have also discovered the differences between the first 2 versions of King’s Quest for the PCjr. I have the second one and didn’t know the keyboard overlay was something else than the small top overlay of the second release.
Do you have any idea where I could buy the first PCjr version?
BTW, I have the VGA version of Space Quest 1, although I’m not sure I still have the 3.5″ disks (I have the 5.25″ disks and all the rest for sure).Vincent.
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(re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
Thanks for the responses. My next question is, does anyone know where I can find the copy protection for Amon Ra? I looked around online a bit and couldn’t find it. It’s not on replacementdocs.com either. (I understand it has something to do with Egyptian history?)
I have the vintage-sierra site in my bookmarks but for some reason it didn’t occur to me to look there! I also found that all the Colonel’s Bequest stuff has been uploaded to sierragamers, but unfortunately the Amon Ra documentation has not…
-emily
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(re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
I have a copy of the game, and I’m looking for the manual. If I recall correctly, the copy protection was a magazine or something that I remember both Sierra and LucasArts doing lots of for many games (Playspy the one I recall, as well as Space Piston magazine).
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(re: re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
Are you talking about SQ1 VGA? I actually have an extra copy of the manual. Maybe we could set up a trade if you’re trying to get your hands on it. It has a little bit of writing on the back cover but otherwise is in perfect shape. Email me if you’re interested.
There was just a manual with codes for this game, no magazine. I got a shrinkwrapped copy earlier this year (and opened it!) so I’m sure of that. It’s SQ4 that came with the Space Piston magazine.
-emily
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(re: re: re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
An imperfect solution until you can find the manual would be to download an abandonware version of the game. It will be cracked. I own a couple of legitimate copies of KQ4, but use an abandon version to play, since I hate to have to drag out the manual, just to play the game. Same with The Colonel’s Bequest.
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(re: re: re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
SQ1 VGA came with a normal manual with an easily copiable copy protection in the middle of the manual. If you need it, jusy email me.
Since I have the CD versions of SQ4, KQ5 and GK1, I never knew why I had all of this other “stuff” in my box. So I never used it. Interesting reading, though.
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(re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
I might wind up doing that (downloading a cracked copy) for Dagger of Amon Ra, but I would prefer to find a manual if I can. My Freddy Pharkas didn’t come with a manual and I’m glad I found a PDF online, because it was a lot of fun to read.
Funny — I played the CD version of PQ4 and never understood why there was a manual in there, either. Didn’t even occur to me that it would have been for copy protection! I recently picked up a floppy disk version — I bet the manual is needed to play that one. Maybe I’ll load it up just to see how it’s implemented.
Out of curiosity, what’s the copy protection for GK1? I’ve only ever played the CD version.
-emily
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(re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
beats me. i have poor memory. the floppy version of PQ4 doesn’t have any copy protection at all, nor did QFG4, LSL6, or SQ5. If they did, I never encounted any.
I did have a demo from Sigma Designs of PQ4, and it had a different opening where the LAPD badge gets blown away by a shotgun blast.
as for GK1 . . . I really can’t remember. The only thing left after my sis in law stole a bunch of games is the comic for GK3.
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(re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
I thought, myself that the LAPD manual had something to do with copy protection, but it just didn’t. However, PQ4 was such a power hog that only my 486 and a neighbors Pentium (with no sound card) was able to play it. Everybody else either didn’t have the RAM, video, hard disk space, right format, or processor.
Or maybe the battle between copy protection vs. pirates just didn’t matter anymore if the profit was made, and the pirates would either crack or reproduce the copy protection anyways. This may be the actual reason.
Or the product was rushed. I do notice some scenes in InterAction previews of PQ4 (like a scene in a helicopter and another city scape) aren’t anywhere in the game at all.
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(re: re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
I don’t think that PQ4 was much of a power hog. Maybe a conventional memory hog, but all Sierra games and most decent games in general had that problem. That’s Bill Gates’s fault for only letting DOS have 640K.
I played PQ4 fine on a 386. Although I will admit that I had 16MB of RAM while most people probably had 4 (I bought the computer from someone else…not sure why he put that much in there). But still it was a 386 and ran all the Sierra games fine.
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(re: re: re: re: Original King’s Quest (mainly to Orat, vintage-sierra.com))
Odd. But I’ve played stuff on my Tandy that should’ve NEVER played.
The RAM in the machine did allow the game to play. The box has a requirement for (version 1.0) 486SX/25 w/ 4 MB RAM and then recommends a 486DX/33 w/ 8 MB RAM. I don’t own any other version, except the 4 most wanted, which has the requirements for SWAT on it.
I never did get it working on anything except Windows 3.1 on my old (still being used as of this morning, thanks to PowerLeap) 486. I went out as a teen and bought a SoundBlaster 16 just to have the extended level MIDI music.
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I have the boxed floppy version of Amon Ra with everything that came in it. If you still need the copy protection send me an email.tourist1980@yahoo.com .au
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