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I’ve uploaded the first track of the soundtrack CD. It’s a 128 kbit MP3 file.
01 – TiticacaThis is the only ending I can even do at the moment, because I’m having trouble with the game locking up in the swamp (when stick-in-the-mud and rotten tomato are slinging the ooze around). I’ve read a lot of ways to get around this problem, but none of them have worked, so I just have to go the short way. It’s odd, because I’m not running the game in a particularly new OS…I have an old laptop with Win95 on it (which, of course, is still slightly newer than the game!) that I use for playing the old games…and KQ6 is the only one that still gives me technical trouble.
It’s okay though; when I first got the game I played it through the long way over and over…it’s a nice change to have to do it the other way. Despite it being shorter, I do actually think it’s harder this way! I had a lot more trouble figuring out how to do things inside the castle…that portrait thing really stumped me for a long time.
In the left-hand menu of SierraGamers.com, you will now see a section titled “The Sierra Archives.” If you go to that page there is more explanation about it. The reason I mention it is because also on that page you will find an update about the InterAction Magazine scanning project including a full progress report.
Brandon Klassen, archivist ~ SierraGamers.com admin/dev team ~
Whoops I did not mean to offend anyone 🙁
The assignment will probably not become anything either, it is just getting us to practice writing proposals. They are going to be graded on that alone, they are not being sent any where as actual “real-live” proposals. I just felt like I should ask permission even though the game proposal/ assignment is not going anywhere (except to my instructor). You mentioned that the fan games are great as long as no one gets in trouble, that was exactly my thought.
Thank you again for the prompt response.
Vivendi has yet to be so quick to respond to my inquiry…
Claire
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Yes — the code was run through a compiler, and compiled to an intermediate language. You cannot get back to the original source code. My guess is that it has been lost forever. I doubt Sierra was organized enough to preserve it.
…”That’s a shame. I’d be very interested to see an example of the true source, or better still the source for the complete game. Ah well, perhaps it’s on a QIC80 tape or WORM disk somewhere on the planet. But then finding something that can read it is another matter…
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“… (by Claireobijedi@msn.com ) Thank you so much for the quick contact, I realize that KQ is part of Vivendi but I wanted to know how you felt about the games being used. If I get the go ahead, I would like to offer to send the game proposal to you to look over before it is handed in.Thank you so much for the quick reply and thank you for inspiring me to be a game designer!
…”I support the fan games and think they are a cool idea (as long as no one gets in trouble). That said, it always seems like a lot of work for a project that is ultimately doomed – because the marketability of the product is so constrained.
It’s very unlikely that Roberta would look at your design. She made the comment the other night that she likes to think forward, not backwards. She is focused on whatever comes next, and doesn’t like to think about things she did before. She didn’t like thinking about Kings Quest 1 when she started on Kings Quest 2, or Kings Quest 2 during Kings Quest 3, etc. She loved the Sierra years (actually decades) – but, they were then and this is now. She refuses to do any interviews or ANYTHING related to the Sierra years.
I’d post your writing here, and see if people will comment on it. My guess is they will. Good luck!
-Ken W
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“… (by Chris Schweiter)
It looks like the true source code was chewed by some kind of preprocessor before being dumped into the resource files that the game uses. Ken, you helped write the AGI interpreter in the first place. Is there any truth to this?…”Yes — the code was run through a compiler, and compiled to an intermediate language. You cannot get back to the original source code. My guess is that it has been lost forever. I doubt Sierra was organized enough to preserve it.
-Ken W
I don’t think Al Lowe has anything left on disk. He had thick binders full of code print-out from the games he worked on as a programmer. He let me scan a page here and there just as a sample of what the original code looked like, so I’ll post those up sometime for you to see.
Thank you so much for the quick contact, I realize that KQ is part of Vivendi but I wanted to know how you felt about the games being used. If I get the go ahead, I would like to offer to send the game proposal to you to look over before it is handed in.
Thank you so much for the quick reply and thank you for inspiring me to be a game designer!
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True about BC and Disney. Isn’t BC openable with AGI Studio? You could then see the source code 🙂
…”I did that awhile ago, but the impression I got was that the source code variables and function calls were obfuscated at one point. There are some tiny code fragments I have from a magazine cutout about KQ1 written waaay back in the day (I can dig it up and post it if anyone’s interested), and from that I saw that the variable Sierra liked to use to reference the main character was Ego, but I don’t remember seeing such a thing when I looked at it with AGI Studio. Variables in the logic resource when opened by AGIStudio look like they’re all referenced with v(integer). I also saw no code documentation whatsoever. It looks like the true source code was chewed by some kind of preprocessor before being dumped into the resource files that the game uses. Ken, you helped write the AGI interpreter in the first place. Is there any truth to this?
Well Chris the time the board recorded our posts was 1:12 and 2:56 (whatever time zone that happens to be) so I guess I am not plugged in to the max 🙂 But I have the email notification option set, and I check my email too much.
True about BC and Disney. Isn’t BC openable with AGI Studio? You could then see the source code 🙂
Brandon, you must be tied into this board Matrix-style. Didn’t take you long to bump my post 🙂
Disney has been known for doing some inane things. I think the only reason Al has never gotten a C&D letter from them is because they don’t know about BC being on his site yet. But, The Black Cauldron is more like the Black Sheep for Disney, it’s true. Something they’d rather forget about…However, BC was one of my favorite Sierra games, and in fact it’s the one that introduced me to Sierra games in the first place. After that I couldn’t stop buying the things.
If Al REALLY wanted to test the water he’d release the source code :>
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“… (by EBeshar786@webmail.co .za) Hi ken
Ken there are a lot of fan games being made at the moment and i feel that my all time favourite Space quest need a vga look to it we have started doing the backgrounds etc and the look wonderfull if i must say so my selfa few of us have decided to remake the game and i was wondering will there be any legal issue. if there are we will stop the project. could you please advise the way forward….”
The only “sure” answer to this question is:
If you do anything that infringes on the copyrights of Vivendi, and try to do anything commercial with it, or perhaps even distribute it freely” you could be sued for damages.
That said, Vivendi has not been aggressive in shutting down fan games. Many have been produced, and I am aware of only one case where a nasty letter was sent. I do not know of anyone who has really been sued. My opinion (and, it’s only an opinion – not fact) is that Vivendi will not sue a game that does not damage their characters, or make money.
In other words:
1) Don’t try to make money on their characters
2) Don’t do anything to ruin the reputation of their characters (a porno version of space quest would get you sued quickly)
3) And, here’s another: don’t succeed. My guess is that if you did something that was really good, and gave it away for free – and, more than one million people download it – you will get sued.Keep in mind that this is my opinion only. Vivendi might have completely different ideas, and these are their copyrights to decide what to do with.
Good luck!
-Ken W
Chris, I moved your topic :p
Al Lowe surely doesn’t have the rights to the Black Cauldron game. He just figures VU Games & Disney probably don’t care, and he’d be right.
Ken previously wrote about some of what you’re asking here: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/BBSTopicPage.asp/t/4474/p/1
In summary, he said: “I do remember that the authors [of Gold Rush] kept trying to get the rights back so that they could sell the game themselves… my remembrance is that I gave them permission. Most publishers wouldn’t.”
Ken, this might be more appropriate in the Ken Williams Q&A, but since we’re on the subject, I was wondering about how the rights to the game characters/worlds for other series besides King’s Quest was handled. For instance, I’ve noticed that the creators of Gold Rush are selling their game online as educational software. Obviously in order to do that, the creators must have retained full rights to the game. When you were still in charge of Sierra, what was the arrangement when someone floated an idea across your desk? Did you take the rights and pay royalties, or did the creator retain the rights while Sierra took a cut of the sales? In the case of the former, were the rights released back to the authors on the sale of Sierra to CUC? What is the status of Space Quest/Leisure Suit Larry in that regard?
Actually, I find one case particularly interesting. The Black Cauldron was originally a children’s book series by Lloyd Alexander which was adopted by Disney and made into an animated film. My understanding is that Disney approached Sierra to make the adventure game tie-in, which was executed by Al Lowe. Today, Al Lowe gives it away on his site. How exactly does THAT work?
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“… (by Claireobijedi@msn.com ) … I would like to know how to contact Roberta Williams for permission to use the King’s Quest world and characters;…
…”Claire:
You’ve found us!
The bad news is that all rights to Kings Quest are owned by Vivendi. Roberta and I have no right to authorize anyone to do anything related to Kings Quest.
I wish you luck in getting a response from Vivendi.
-Ken W
I think I made the fan games forum after Ken had made this one, since some people were already discussing fan games in other areas of this website. I think the same thing would apply to both. Go ahead and post fan fiction here if you want, if VU complains, as Ken said, this area will be taken down. I think VU is not really going to care. As for fan games, the fan games forum is meant for discussing fan games, not for posting them. Links to fan games are in the Cool Sierra Links section accessible from the homepage – if you see a site that’s not on there, let us know.
Good Old Adventures is pretty cool, it’s still up (http://goodoldadventures.com), but it doesn’t have any gameplay elements (that I am aware of) except for walking around and talking to other users.
Ken Williams reads messages posted here so he can reply re: Roberta. As for Sierra / Vivendi, you are unlikely to receive a reply from them. I don’t think you really need anyone’s permission just to do a proposal or even a project for a Game Design class that incorporates King’s Quest elements.
If you are subscribed to email notification for SierraGamers.com, the title of the emails will be “New messages have been posted on the Sierra On-Line Fan Site website”.
I would love to see a MMORPG in the adventure game kind of game play. There was a old site called Good ol Adventure game where you could play any sierra AGI game character and any AGI game game. It was great. You could chat with other people too. 🙂
Ken made that post here: http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/BBSThreadPage.asp/th/19470
Unfortunately, page 6 didn’t get scanned or posted, I don’t know which, large enough to read. Since Ken had “borrowed” it as he says, and never put it back, this is stuff I never got to scan. Ken can hopefully dig up again when he is back in Seattle.
Hey! I have AfterDark Looney Tunes! I’m holding the CD in my hand as we speak..
But it’s meant for Windows 3.1 and won’t run on XP.. it’s a GREAT screensaver though.
It’s actually an Animated Screen Saver by Berleley Systems, made back in 1995. I don’t know if it’s related to Sierra though 🙁
-The Avatar
