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Well, Sierra definitely has January 1996 beat:
http://www.vintage-sierra.com/images/mag/interactionf91.jpg
My guess would be that if you can track down copies of InterAction magazine from 1991 and 1992, that would be your best source. Perhaps the person running the above site will be able to send you scans of the relevent articles.
I don’t believe I ever played TSN/INN after my family moved to Seattle in 1993 (Netscape was released around then and I was busy surfing if I was online), so as of Spring 1993 I can tell you for certain that it had the following features:
There was a map with different “worlds” (essentially lobbies for arranging games) that you could select.
In the upper left was Larry Land, which is where you could play casino games (poker, hearts, slots, roulette, and perhaps more)
In the upper right was Yserbius, the role playing game.
In the middle-right was the “Other” section I believe, which had all of the various board games (checkers, chess, boogers, 4D tic-tac-toe, backgammon, etc.) and action games (paint ball, and Red Baron the 3D flight simulator)^The above might be slightly off–perhaps there was a fourth land?
Larry land and the “Other” section when you entered would put you in the lobby. down the center of the screen was a list of tiles with the players names. A control panel ran down the right side of the screen. I don’t accurately recall the method for starting a game. I’m currently thinking that for some games there were rooms that you could enter if they weren’t full, and for others you would invite people and if they accepted then a game session would be created for you.
Yserbius was largely the same, except that they used a different lobby, that was supposed to be the tavern outside of the volcano, Yserbius. You would form a group and then enter Yserbius looking for goods.
Looking at the page you linked to:
“Real-time multi-player online games” – Yserbius was realtime or at least fairly close. There might have been some sort of semi-turn-based type thing in there just to make synchronization easier. But Red Baron (which was also part of TSN/INN) was full real-time amongst multiple players. Whether it was full blown MMO or not I don’t recall. I have a feeling like I recall being able to go out solo and be able to find and join other groups who were also already out adventuring–which would make it MMO, but you would need to ask more people who remember better than I.
“including card games” – Yes. Listed above.
“real-time updates to ladder rankings for multi-player online games” – I was #12 or #21 on teh Backgammon ladder. I am fairly certain that upon winning or losing a match, my ladder ranking was instantly updated.-Chris
Hello, this is Chris Williams, AKA son #2. =) Think this is my first post to my dad’s page.
A general belief in the gaming industry these days is that gamers make the best games. My dad also believes this if you ask him. The truth of the matter, though, is that of my mom, Al Lowe, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meyer, et al., I am not certain that any of them are gamers. Definitely, none of the ones I know are, and in fact my mom is largely computer illiterate.
Now, previous to making any new game, my mom would go out and purchase whatever the top selling games were (be it Myst or Duke Nukem) and give each a good weeks worth of play. For “The Mask of Eternity” I believe she might have played some form of MMORPG, and if so I would guess that that is it for either of them.
I myself am not much of a gamer, but working in the computer industry (and then moving to Japan where networked gaming is my only source of English-language fraternization) have become increasingly more likely to play MMORPGs. So far my progression has been Yserbius -> SWG -> CoH -> EVE -> WoW.
To try and answer your question, based on my knowledge of my parents and the current state of online RPGs:
If my dad was running a company that was producing an MMORPG, his primary concern would be with “Who will be the biggest market for a game of this type, and what needs to be done to make them like it more?” So pretty much, he wouldn’t have an opinion of the genre itself–just whether or not what was being made looked like it will become a successful product. Beyond that, if there were particularly nifty graphics he might be interested in trying to figure out how they did it (as a former programmer.)
If my mom was playing any of these games she would probably just say “It’s not an adventure game” and that would be that. …She’s a bit biased.
Personally, I would like to see a MMO Adventure Game and I do think it could be done. WoW certainly appears closer to this but I suspect that towards the higher levels this will degrade back to xp grind.
So, just to say what would need to be done to make a MMOAG:
No levels or skill modifiers. No dice roll
Zero-twich
Does not require more than arrow keys and the mouse <- Opinion
Player would be able to advance through a story (or perhaps several stories) and a multitude of subplots within each
Completing a story would give only the reward of a nifty animation sequence and perhaps open up a new storyOf course on top of that you would need to figure out how to make it multiplayer and a way to make enough content to satisfy millions of people for several years and provide in-game stuff to do when you just want to putter about.
-Chris
Quote:
“… (by Kay C) I was just at a friends house and i tried the game on her ocmputer. It worked! I don’t understand why it would work on hers and not mine even though we both have XP and basically the same files that would affect the game.
…”Possible reasons for working on one machine but not another:
– You were using a different game version, i.e. the CD Windows version on your PC and the disk version on a friend’s, OR the DOS version of the CD game at your friend’s
– You used a fix at your friend’s
– Your friend had different resolution settings (i.e. different colour levels, maybe 256 colours)Couple of questions. What does ‘I tried the game on her computer’ mean? You tried the pike sequence there, or what?
Also, what does ‘basically the same files’ mean? They are either the same files or they’re not.
– Alistair
I was just at a friends house and i tried the game on her ocmputer. It worked! I don’t understand why it would work on hers and not mine even though we both have XP and basically the same files that would affect the game.
Wow. I’m dumb-founded. That’s a mighty big Sierra Collection.
Here’s my favorites…
http://www.muzboz.com/gallery/ThingsILike/King_sQuest123 King’s Quest 3 is my favorite Sierra game ever, and after spending 4 years in the games industry, my fondest memories of playing games still lead back to Sierra games, especially King’s Quest 3.
Sierra would be the single strongest reason I now work in the computer game industry. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever get to work on a game quite like those which I loved so dearly as a kid. I think it’s possible to make a game with the same sorts of values and qualities, but I don’t think the industry/economics encourage that.
I think that truly great computer game DESIGN is not something with a lot of emphasis placed on it today. The emphasis is largely on the graphics and the bullet points you put on the back of the box; making games of licensed content from a film or a TV show.
Good games can come out of this, but I think truly great games are born from the environment/possibilities inherent in the interactive medium… the computer. Inspiration should be drawn from nature, and from all areas of the arts, not based directly on a movie.
It’s always hard to see past the nostalgia, and I know my views are clouded with the bias of my fond memories from childhood, but I can’t help but feel as though computer games could be a lot better than they are today.
– Murray
Okay. My email address isNOSPAMagillett@ihug.com .au (delete the ‘NOSPAM’, obviously)
From your current save folder (I assume you have more than one, or maybe you have just the one- in that case they’re in your EQ1 game folder) take your Ecosg.001 and all files after, including ecosg.dir (they’ll be called something like this, even if they’re not identically named). Make a ZIP file of them. I assume you have WinZip or WinRAR or something? Highlight the files, (drag and select), and right-click and select ‘add to zip’ or one of those.
Then send me an email with the zip attachment. Alternatively, when you have the ZIP, upload it here!
– Alistair
> Who was it who was working on that disk imaging program?
That must be me 😉> How’s it going?
I’ve recently taken some time from the project, working namely on the keyboard processor emulation for an Atari ST emulator (http://leonard.oxg.free.fr/), and a PCjr cartridge dumper (http://www.oldskool.org/pc/tand-em/jripcart/), but I’m about to resume work on Disk2FDI (http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi). I should be able to finish the program within a couple of months. Then, I’ll test the program on various disks. But the part to make the best images possible is already fully functional. It only needs some testing.I have also now collected a fairly complete collection of King’s Quest games for all machines (Apple 2, Apple 2GS, Macintosh, PC, Amiga, ST, even Tandy CoCo3), and will also image all these.
I’ll certainly drop a line here when this is done.> That’s what I’d like to use ideally for doing this.
Yes, that would definitely be the best. I also think there were some demo disks released for other machines than the PC, but they are probably much rarer.Vincent.
Great list, Collector. I have some of those too (a couple on their original disks). For now, let’s just get these online for people to enjoy, and worry about original disk archiving later. I’ll send you an email Collector regarding getting these to me. I want to post them up on a page in the TSA area, as opposed to posting them here as an attachment to a message.
If anyone else has alternate demos, please post here.
Brian Provinciano has quite a few on his “The Ultimate AGI & SCI Web Site”, though he now has them hosted through File Planet. I managed to get most of them before he moved them. I have about 32 Megs worth of them. Here is a list of what I have:
AGI demos:
DEMOPAC1(HelicopterSim_PQ_Thexder_SQ2_Mixed-upMG_LSL).zip
DEMOPAC2(HelicopterSim_SQ2_Thexder_KQ3_Mixed-upMG_KQ2_PQLSL_SQ).zip
DEMOPAC3(HelicopterSim_SQ2_PQ_KQ3_Mixed-upMG_LSL).zip
DEMOPAC4(GoldRush_ManhunterNewYork_Mixed-upMG_PQ_SQ2_LSL).zip
DEMOPAC5(SQ_DonaldDucksPlayground_KQ3_LSL).zip
KQ4AGIDEMO.ZIPSCI demos:
Castle_of_Dr_Brain_(DB1DEMO).zip
Conquests_of_the_Longbow_Talkie_Demo.zip
ECO1DEMO.ZIP
ECO2DEMO.ZIP
FREDDEMO.ZIP
FREDDOS.ZIP
GKDEMO.ZIP
GOB2_PRV.ZIP
GOB3DEMO.ZIP
GOBLINS1.ZIP
Island_of_Dr_Brain_(IODB).zip
KQ1DEMO.ZIP
LB2.ZIP
LSL1VGA.ZIP
LSL3.ZIP
LSL5.ZIP
MGDEMO.ZIP
MUFT.ZIP
PEPDEMO.ZIP
QFG1DEMO.ZIP
QFG3DEMO.ZIP
QFG4DEMO.ZIP
SQ1.ZIP
SQ5.ZIPChristmas Cards:
AGI-XMAS.ZIP
SCICARD.ZIP
seasonedpro-16.zip
seasonedpro-256.zip
VGASEASN.ZIPI have others that came on many of the game CDs, but I would have to look through them to see what all I have. Let me know if you want any or all of them.
Yes, let’s do that. Anyone who has a demo to share, please email me. I will setup a demo page temporarily under the new TSA section. (Eventually the demos will go to the TSA site).
For anyone who has a demo to contribute, let’s first try to get a hold of demos from the original disks that they were on. I’ll ask you to scan the demo disk itself to certain specs (I’ll make a page about that on the TSA area).
Who was it who was working on that disk imaging program? How’s it going? That’s what I’d like to use ideally for doing this.
Would it be possible to create a section on this board dedicated to preserving Sierra demos? Maybe under the new archives section?
Demos were only ever made to be freely distributed. So my guess is that it wouldn’t be illegal to do so. And there are quite a few demos out there that I never played, and others which I reckon are worth sharing, for example the Space Quest 6 demo, the Freddie Pharkas demo, that talkie Robin Hood demo, all those old AGI demos, etc.
Well, i got a sneak peek whis has a purple writing on it, previews of freddy pharkas etc on it, with a dos menu..
Quote:
“… (by Kay C) I don’t understand why it won’t work. It worked fine when I got it when it first came out. Maybe that’s the problem… the fact that it’s about 9 years old. Wow! I didn’t realize that I’ve had it for that long. I just discovered it recently after not playing it for a very long time. I never used to be able to get past the fish apartments. Haha! Those were the days!
…”It’s nothing to do with how old it is.
As I said, Sierra CD games with both DOS and Windows versions generally have problems with their Windows versions. You’d still get these problems regardless of whether you were playing in XP, or Windows 95.
A typical Windows version bug is the cursor palette being completely emssed up. I’ve never played EQ1’s Win version, though I own the EQ1CD. If you like, send me your saves via email (check my profile) and I’ll load EQ1 tomorrow and check this out.
– Alistair
I don’t understand why it won’t work. It worked fine when I got it when it first came out. Maybe that’s the problem… the fact that it’s about 9 years old. Wow! I didn’t realize that I’ve had it for that long. I just discovered it recently after not playing it for a very long time. I never used to be able to get past the fish apartments. Haha! Those were the days!
Have you played Eco Quest 1? I’m having problems. My post is called “Eco Quest Key From Skeleton.” Please help!
Never mind!,I figured it out without the copy protect docs,I just realized how easy it is to figure out the face mask questions in Eco Quest 2,some copy protects are near impossible to figure out without the documents,while some are so ridiculously easy to figure out!
Quote:
“… (by Kay C) Yes, I am playing the CD on Windows. It’s very strange.
…”
Yes, it’s all very clear now. The CD version would have worse graphics as well, right? (Might only be in the DOS CD version, but not sure.)
It’d certainly have some bugs in the CD version, this must be one.Never play Windows versions, Kay, they’re ALWAYS more buggy and dodgy than their DOS counterparts. No good reason to play any of ’em!
If you’re going to continue, I have some DOS saves I’m happy to send you, or alternatively to continue playing in the Windows version, to pass this sequence you’ll have to randomly click around ’till you get it.
Regards,
– AlistairThey did release both Ancient Art of War games before the Manhunter series. This is from Sierra´s Tenth Anniversary catalog (1989), page 32:
“Dave and Barry Murry got started designing computer games in 1980. They designed an air traffic control simulator, but decided that games would be more fun. When IBM released its first PC, they developed ‘Sierra Championship Boxing’. After the success of their games ‘The Ancient Art of War’ and ‘The Ancient Art of War at Sea’, Ken Williams asked them to do a game using Sierra’s Adventure Game Interpreter system. In 1988, Sierra released the first in the horrorific Manhunter series, ‘Manhunter: New York’, designed by Dave, Barry, and their sister DeeDee Murry.”
Quote:
“… (by Kay C) I got the orb! But I still can’t get the stupid key! maybe that’s because my cursors are weird. they are all cut off on the top so i can’t actually see what I’m clicking. Whether I click the key or the pike, it still says the same thing. I’m so sorry! I’m probably irritating you so much! I’m just really demented when it comes to this stuff!
…”Kay,
I’m guessing it’s not your fault, now that you mention cursors. I take it you’ve got the CD, and are playing the Windows version?
Let me know. And believe me, I’ve been around the community, and I’ve heard it ALL. This question of yours isn’t so bad. I don’t mind answering it, because people generally don’t ask for EQ tech support.
– Alistair
