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thanks :D, NAGI plays the games perfectly, the only thing is that when in fullscreen mode, the game is in a small box (about half of the size of the screen) in the middle of the computerscreen, this also happened with DosBox…
Quote:
“… (by Johann de Waal)
I do agree with you on that last point – please, no more remakes or fangames. Adventure games is an emerging market. If your team can produce an adventure game based on an original concept with original characters and that is actually good and worthwhile to play, then serious money can be made. Just don’t shoot yourself in the foot by claiming (like a certain development studio recently did) that you single-handedly saved adventure games. Such comments go a long way towards alienating fans who realise (and appreciate) that many different companies have contributed towards keeping adventure gaming alive during its darker years.
…”I disagree, but they have fans that love their games so my opinion does not matter! I am not a fan!
But, if you look at how many other free fangames (original and remake) came out before and after Tierra Entertainment/Anonymous Game Developers, there is a big difference. King’s Quest II+ would not have been possible if they had not released KQ1 remake first. They got others going by showing it’s possible (in both cases, they just updated the graphics, increased the quality of the music, added a Point-Click to KQ2) which showed to everyone:
Guess what! You can make your own games!
I think this was their goal; Tierra took over King’s Quest — for free! I personally think King’s Quest 3 is up next after they remake QFG2, but I could be wrong. Just because they aren’t selling the games doesn’t mean they haven’t taken it over. KQ9 is following in the footsteps of KQ8 which is: Radical different gameplay with each chapter (if indeed it turns out to be an RPG).
They aren’t looking to sell their games, so it doesn’t matter. They don’t have a job, but they have “make it their job”, by creating the games and allowing you to play them for free. They don’t require money to label it a success. They just did it. They are lucky they have the freetime to do this, as most people have to make a living instead of making free videogames.
I would like to see more 3-D sprites in 3-D pre-rendered environments. Online. If it’s original content, then it’s good to go!
3-D sprites are pre-rendered so you don’t need a 3-D engine running. Backgrounds can have animated 3-D sprites (for flickering torches along the walls). Personally if I was AGDI, I would ditch 2-D cartoon drawings and try 3-D cartoon ala Grim Fandango.
The problem with the existing 3-D Adventure games like I am describing (see the Internet for: Riddle of the Sphinx, Dracula Resurrection and other DreamCatcher Games), is: No Multiplayer. In my opinion.
Johann, are there any adventure games you have played recently that you would pay $50 for? I would pay $50 for Grim Fandango 2…
oops nonsense… I totally forgot that the second occurs in SF so the damaged building was not one of the WTC.. I don’t know how it stuck into my head that it was so 🙁
anyway it doesn’t matter.. nobody did read this.. did he? 🙂
The CPU cycles will be what ever you have them set at, regardless of the host machine, but the upper limit of DOSBox CPU cycles that you can use before you start having troubles, such as stuttering sound, etc. will vary according to the host machine that it is being run on. An older, slower box will choke on fewer cycles than a newer, faster machine. Other factors can also influence this. I dual boot regular 32 bit Windows XP and the beta of 64 bit Windows XP. Running one game I have in DOSBox in 32 bit Windows uses about 45% of my real CPU’s cycles, while running the same game with the exact same settings for DOSBox in 64 bit Windows uses 15%. If your computer can’t handle the cycles that a game might demand, then you will need to try other things, such as adding some frame skips.
You have a graphics card that does not support the fonts used by the AGI games (KQ 1-3.) Your best option is to use NAGI to run the game. With NAGI you will not only solve this problem, but, you will get three voices of music from your sound card (instead of the PC speaker) AND limited mouse support in the games. Get NAGI here: http://www.agidev.com/nagi.html
Matt, as far as I know Josh Mandel didn’t actively work (as in design or program) on AGDI’s games. He just did the voice for King Graham, which he also did back in the old days for Sierra and is now doing for the KQ9 fan project. However, we are told that Mandel is working on the unofficial SQ7 project as lead writer/designer.
And talking about KQ9, it is/will not be a “pure adventure game”. From what I’ve seen it contains several RPG elements and is set in a large, RPG-like world with multiple quests, etc. I could be wrong on this however, as that team have chopped and changed their game quite a few times over the last several years.
I do agree with you on that last point – please, no more remakes or fangames. Adventure games is an emerging market. If your team can produce an adventure game based on an original concept with original characters and that is actually good and worthwhile to play, then serious money can be made. Just don’t shoot yourself in the foot by claiming (like a certain development studio recently did) that you single-handedly saved adventure games. Such comments go a long way towards alienating fans who realise (and appreciate) that many different companies have contributed towards keeping adventure gaming alive during its darker years.
Matt,
Your comments are your own opinion and I respect that. However, there are other opinions out there that you should keep in mind.
1. It is very simple to crank out a remake, but work translates into quality. I made 3-D characters for a remake of Colonel’s Bequest, and created custom backgrounds. Also I found a number of people who wanted to help. Remakes are plentiful, or there are very few remakes; it all depends on your point of view.
2. I had the fortune of working in the field that allowed me to improve my programming skills and graphics to the point I was getting paid to make games. Now I do not have an employer, and the talent is out there, it’s just waiting. I’ve spent countless hours tweaking my projects.
3. Since it’s so simple to make a remake, and the talent is out there waiting to get started on a concrete project, all we seem to be lacking is direction. There’s too much other stuff out there right now, some people don’t even have the Internet.
4. Imagine if we had a real President who provided the impetus to get the ball rolling. Bush already mentioned that he wants everyone to get high-speed access, but some people don’t even have a computer. The computer world is Baby and “Toddler” and ‘Noob’ or they are Elite or Hackers or Phreakz. You probably don’t know Phreakz… their operative word is “The world is free for me.”
5. So; We are stuck in the 80s again. Only a lonely renegade company like SIERRA ONLINE can succeed in injecting some life into the scene. Let’s hope the battle has begun.
Hey Jim I believe you are right and that was a very good comparison.
P.S. Mark Twain use to work for us which is another reason I liked the comparison.
For those of you that haven’t got to read the book Tom Sawyer you can read the entire book on my website. http://www.hannibal.net/twain/works/tom_sawyer_1876/
5000 cycles at 1ghz = 50000000
5000 cycles at 2ghz = 100000000It works like the equation above. If you have a faster processor, the cycles are much shorter than a slower processer.
Otherwise there would be no point in changing the cycles.
Wait, I’m confused. Why are Dosbox cycles dependant on the host computer? You are telling me that having Dosbox set to 5000 cycles on a 1.5 Ghz is significantly different than DosBox set to 5000 cycles on a 3 Gig machine if both machines are powerful enough to handle it? I could understand if you are saying that they would be different if one machine was powerful enough to handle the 5000 cycles and the other one was not.
-Jim
I’d suggest running the games in DOSbox but keyboard connection might be a hardware problem. You can download dosbox here:
I tried to copy 1-3 directly to the hard drive, then I could open them, but the game is small in the middle with black boarders around it (which I think I can fix), and when I try to write something I just get random symbols and letters like: ☺þ♂&æĪ…
I think the problem is that DOS isn’t recognising my keyboard, so when I am hitting a key, like Enter, it thinks I am hitting some other key… but I don’t know how to fix it
I solved this puzzle by myself playing the original KQ1 around ’87. 🙂
But hey! I’m not bragging about this; Actually I wanted to tell you about that I believe there was a built in hint in the witches house, “Sometimes it’s wise to think backwards.”, or something like that. I think I had already finished the game before and was out for a hunt for the last points to gain. I reversed the Rumplestiltskin name in every possible way I could. Lovely puzzle! Thank you Roberta for teasing my Intelligence. 😀
I loved that game series. KQ3 being my favorite among them.
//Marcel Risberg, Stockholm, SwedenWhat was Sierra’s marketing and advertising like back in their glory days? How did it compare to the other game companies? What about in comparison to the other game industries (like console)? Did you face serious challenges in that area — even competing against console companies — or was it an untapped market so you didn’t have to worry about advertising?
I was just reading about Sega, my favorite video game console company, and it seems to me that — aside from having to beat a resident giant (Nintendo in Sega’s case) — Sierra and Sega are just about the same. New technology, great game, perfect product. What separated Sierra from Sega, and what led to both their downfalls and the downfall of the PC adventure game industry, is advertising. I remember Sega breaking rules with their constantly changing TV commercials, shown at their demo’s high-viewing time and TV channel (MTV). I remember their slogans and their mascots, magazine and newspaper ads, banners on buses and billboards…
I don’t remember Sierra having any of that. I don’t even recall any advertisements outside of game stores. In fact, I first heard of Sierra from my father, a veteran mainframe programmer/operator/engineer/tech who gobbled up PCs and all PC software as soon as they came out.
(Except for InterAction. I fondly remember those issues, and I always looked forward to more issues that, sadly, never came. Still, you would only know about the magazine if you bought the game. It wasn’t advertised outside of that, at least, not that I could tell.)
The secret of Sega’s success was their Sega of America CEO, who was the former advertising director for Matel. (Yes, the man responsible for Barbie and Ken. I found myself reviling and yet perversely revering his accomplishments in a Darth Vader “Luke I am your father!” kind of way.) How heavily did you focus on marketing and advertising? In hindsight, would you have done it differently? As you look at today’s games, do you think the secret of their success relies more on advertising (and force-feeding) than actually finding a viable market?
–Matt
Look at me, the newcomer opening up all the old cans of worms! Sorry in advance if anyone didn’t have an interest in reviving this thread!
I usually hate remakes, for all the reasons already stated. Perhaps the only notable exceptions to this rule are the films “Sabrina,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “The Lord of the Rings.” LucasArts (forgive my blasphemy!) game remakes — Loom, Monkey Island 1, and Indy Crusade — are also exceptions, as I see them as enhancing the experience without changing or adding anything. Similarly, I enjoyed Sierra’s own King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry remakes.
When it comes to fan additions or alterations to existing work, any work at all, I almost always hate it. Fans will never be able to sit in the minds of the creators, so fans will never truly get it right. Sure, they might be able to clone what the original authors did yesterday, but do they know what the authors want to do tomorrow? But this has its exception, too: I was blown away by AGDI’s King’s Quest II. Of course, this is a notable exception because Josh Mandel worked on it. Still, it’s not the same as having Roberta. Had it been a Space Quest remake, I’d be singing a completely different tune.
I have mixed feelings about Sierra fan games, for all the reasons already stated, as well as a few that most here seem to be missing. From what I gathered of Roberta and Ken’s own words, Sierra was a dynamic product of its times. What made it special was that it was born from cutting-edge technology — being the pioneer in the industry on all fronts — and it embraced and simultaneously created new technology with each new game. The King’s Quest IX Project addresses quite a lot of this rather admirably, but, as I’ve mentioned before, it just isn’t a King’s Quest without Roberta.
I see AGDI and KQ9 as two ends of the fan spectrum: one focuses on the original story with reminiscent technology, while the other focuses on new story with new technology. While I immensely enjoyed the King’s Quest II remake, and I know I will probably be disappointed with King’s Quest IX’s story, I really feel that King’s Quest IX is the “right way” for fan games.
The last part that Ken mentioned is the capitalism: they didn’t make their games just because they loved them, but because it paid bills. Even more importantly, whether or not it was their primary goal, the market popularity allowed their games to contribute to the industry. If fans come up with something new, and I think KQ9 might be a mold-breaker being a pure adventure game, it would be nice if the industry took notice of it and said, “Yeah, WE should do that, too!” If anything, that would be the best (and, probably, only) way to revive the adventure game industry. The only way to do that, however, is to market and sell the product so that it competes with the other software makers and, most importantly, gets noticed.
In short, I don’t think there should be any more remakes. Remakes are just reminders of the low-tech past and are all the more fuel for current game companies to go in the opposite direction. There should be additions, but I would love to see these guided by the original authors and marketed. Sure, it means that you and I won’t be able to get nice freebies, but if it means getting more, better, longer (faster, stronger…) adventure games back into mainstream, I think it’s worth another measly $50.
–Matt
Quote:
“… (by Ken Williams)Larry is an awesome franchise, and I’ve tried for a decade to buy the rights, so that I could make an animated film based on Larry.
…”I’m not sure if this belongs in this thread, but…
Could you tell us more about your idea for this animated film?
There are lots of things I’ve always wanted to see in film. “The Lord of the Rings” was one, and it happened, despite the endless problems with securing those rights. There have been times when I’ve wanted to see a King’s Quest film… and then I play King’s Quest VI again, which is just like watching a film, only I get to write (more or less), direct, and act in it, too. The same goes for Space Quest 6. I honestly never dreamed of a Leisure Suit Larry film. I can say that it would probably be the funniest thing out there, if done correctly.
–Matt
I’m sorry for posting to an outdated thread, not to mention making this post longer than it needs to be, but I only recently came across this site. (Yeah, I know: some fan -I- am, not knowing about it until now!) Please do let me know if I’m doing something wrong!
While this isn’t exactly 100% relevant to the Lisa computer, I was curious about the Basic Compiler. I know Apple was your “baby,” but did you ever make a Basic Compiler for IBM PC? I remember using the first one, but I didn’t check the author. (Yes, Captain Hook was alive and well even in THOSE days! Except it was more nepotism… er, I mean, family legacy, programmer’s heritage, father and son, and all that…)
I wasn’t sure if I should make a new thread in this forum for this, but I would like to join you in reminiscing about how technology really flew back then. Sure, it’s flying now like a bat out of hell, but back then the industry was like a pig-monkey, the very first one. I remember that shiny new Tandy 1000 and the RGB monitor. Space Quest 2 and Thexder were the first Sierra games we bought, right when they just came out, and boy was that incredible. Before we knew it, hard drives were getting bigger, OSes were magically replicated but with different company names (::cough:: Microsoft), and CPU speed was measured in MegaHertz. Double-digits, too!
I think the absolutely best line that could sum up that historical era was written into Space Quest 6, in the doctor’s lab on Delta Burksilon. When you look at the computer, Gary Owens narrates, “Gee, dad! It’s a…” followed by an exquisitely long parody of the latest computer model names. (I think the best at that time was a 486 DX4. Or maybe I’m just saying that because I had one at the time.)
Anyway, it’s so good to interact with people who remember those days, and even better to be able to communicate with the Williamses and the other members of the Sierra family. I am honored!
–Matt
Are you installing when logged on your computer with administrator rights? For 1-3, just copy each folder to your hard drive and run them from there, no setup needed. For 4, try copying the folder to your hard drive and run install.exe from the hard drive to set up the game for your hardware. Try installing the Windows versions of KQ5 and 6.
no, as I am saying, hitting Enter has no effect, nothing happens, the screen just stays the same, I’ve tried hitting every key, but nothing happens
The 2nd image is just the standard Sierra DOS SCI install screen. You just need to hit “Enter” to progress through to the next screen. Changing your resolutions will not help with any DOS games as they will control the display. Help with the Windows version of KQ6 can be found here:
http://community.vugames.com/WebX?14@130.9z9mdpbJ2pU.2@.f00b588
Ken,
I have created a forum section for you and Roberta in case you will be able to find Internet access. If you do, it would be nice if you sent me an email and told me your login name, in order to avoid bogus Ken Williams (as in people who would pretend to be Ken Williams and answer questions when they are not supposed to). We hope you will be able to attend, even if it will be for only a little while.
IIRC, the intro of the second part, showed an orb landing, and opn its way crushing a part of the rightmost building
btw, they both occur in 2004 🙂
For awhile I wasn’t getting any email notifications either. I rechanged the settings and everything’s fine. …Wait, does that also count for the Developer’s section? ..or do we have to redo those settings too.. ?
