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(re: Freddy Pharkas medical recipes etc)
Thanks for your help Brian. As for the games that wouldn’t download, I goofed. I meant the Sierra Classics website that a link is provided to in another section of this site.
StG
(re: So WHO WAS John Magpie anyway??) Johnny Magpie was my brother, John Williams, who was the editor of the magazine, and ran our marketing team from time to time.
He did an awesome job with the magazine, and I miss reading his articles to this day.
-Ken Williams
(So WHO WAS John Magpie anyway??)
Dunno how many of you will even remember this, but back when Sierra On-Line had it’s magazine (later called Interaction, can’t recall off-hand what they called it before that). There was this guy who wrote a gossip/humor column in the magazine who went by the named Johnny Magpie. According to the editors, his identity was a closely guarded secret as his “scandalous” info would get a lot of people upset at him.
I guess it’s kind of silly, but i still can’t help but wonder if anyone ever found out who he was or if he revealed himself sometime after the magazine was discontinued.
A friend of mine theorized the guy was one of Ken’s children (John, I think) but I dunno if that’s true or not. (The lioe JM once said about get his information from, among other places, “…Ken Williams trash can” was what lead him to that theory.
Boy, amazing what your mind can remember even after all these years…
Mike
(who’s trying to recall exactly what point he ceased having a life)
(re: Derek Karlavegan??)
That is a great question… I’ve always wondered about the creativity and add-ons shown in Spear’s books for all of the quests. How did those come about from a corporate perspective?
(re: Freddy Pharkas medical recipes etc) Hey, not sure what you mean! AFAIK, neither FP nor any other game is available for download here from this site. At least, they’re not supposed to be, and I don’t see how the downloads would have slipped past me.
Anyway, to answer your question, you can find the full manual for FP downloadable at http://www.freddypharkas.com.
(re: Jones in the Fast Lane & Dr. Brain)
Jones in the Fast Lane was sold on eBay, SO YOU GUYS MISSED YOUR CHANCE! MUWHAAAHAHAAAHAA! I have Red Baron II avaliable now though as well as the previously mentioned Dr. Brain. Stay cool y’all.
(re: GK Tourism) Last year I spent a week in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. While there, I took the opportunity to visit some of the GK locations. I visited Napolean House, St. Louis Cathederal, Jackson Square, Tulane University, Lake Ponchatran, and a couple of Voodoo shops in the Quarter. While I didn’t get to investigate any ritualistic murders, I did get to have a lot of fun. 😉
-David “Oberon” Reese
lordcorenair@netscape.net(re: GK Tourism) I’d LOVE to visit those places, especially New Orleans. I plan on it one day. (inspired by GK of course!) There is, however, a traveler who visited Rennes le Chateau and wrote about his journey here:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/4397a/17581/
He refers to GK often and how the two differ and are alike. He said that he slept at the Devil’s Armchair!
(re: re: Sierra Quests on the Mobiles Link)
Dear Brandon,
The link didn’t appear on the page with links yet… :`(
Thanks in advance! 🙂
(re: GK Tourism) > Has anyone else visited the places in GK??
Indeed! I’ve also been to Neuschwanstein and the Marienplatz, as well as the Rennes-le-Château area. I have seen most locations from GK3, and took pictures of them. I have a nice picture of me sitting in the Devil’s Armchair (and I survived it) 😉
Vincent.
(re: What did Sierra do first?) > When I said 3D, I meant how Graham could go behind or in
> front of other objects and I don’t know the right term
> for it, but they used to call it 3D.Well, I think Sierra indeed invented this kind of adventure game graphics presentation (which is 2.5D as I said earlier) which I think suits the genre very well, even to this day with Syberia (which uses 3D environments rendered to 2D, with 3D characters).
BTW, anyone knows who came up in the first place with this idea of a character walking/swimming/climbing on the screen at Sierra?
> And when I said “Use Speakers”, I meant that it was the
> first game where you could use speakers instead of the
> one inside of the PC tower that had horrible sound.So that’s what I thought. And there were earlier games. But maybe King’s Quest IV was the first game to include a musical score composed by a professional musician coming from outside the gaming industry? Anyone knows about this?
Vincent.
(re: What did Sierra do first?) > Alkalabeth was created by Richard Garriot as part of his
> Computer Science curriculum and did not hit shelves until
> July 1980OK, thanks, I didn’t know that. So Mystery House is probably the first commercial computer (that is not console) game with graphics. Still, the first computer game with graphics (non commercial) dates back 1958. Here’s an interesting timeline:
Link: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline1.html(http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline1.html) > you also have to remember that VGA was lightyears ahead
> of EGA in terms of resolutionWell, not much actually. VGA does 640×480 in 16 colors (with a palette of 262144 colors), whereas EGA does 640×350 in 16 colors (with a palette of 64 colors). Still, the EGA card requires 256KB of video memory to be able to display this resolution, and a specific monitor is also required (a CGA monitor can only display 200 lines, so most games only used the 320×200 resolution).
> As a note of trivia, Sierra’s VGA games ran at a
> resolution of 360×300.I may be completely wrong, but I’d say it was the standard 320×200 resolution.
> I believe Sierra didn’t switch to 640×480 resolution
> until the Windows 95 version of KQVII was released.CD-ROM versions of King’s Quest VI, Gabriel Knight and Leisure Suit Larry 6 featured some 640×480 graphics (at least for the objects and the dialog close-ups).
Vincent.
(re: What did Sierra do first?) >KQ1- First 3D game
>>Not at all here. King’s Quest was the first “3D Animated Adventure Game”, which is basically an adventure game using the AGI or SCI engine.>KQ4- First game to use speakers,
>>I suppose you mean sound cards.All I have to say to you is Picky, Picky!
When I said 3D, I meant how Graham could go behind or in front of other objects and I don’t know the right term for it, but they used to call it 3D. And when I said “Use Speakers”, I meant that it was the first game where you could use speakers instead of the one inside of the PC tower that had horrible sound. I am a geek, but DEFINETLY not a tech one.
(re: QFG 3: Shadows of Darkness???)
That’s weird, because I remember reading something about how QFG3 was going to have the plots of QFG 3 & 4 together in one game, but the Coles seperated the two when they realized how long the story was going to be.
(re: Quest for Glory 5: Dragonfire-Good for Insomnia!!)
I don’t hate GK3 or KQ8 so much, Mask of Eternity is actually fun to play, but I think all 3 of the series’ deserved a better ending than what they got, though the creators of each series worked on the last one, so maybe I should shut up about it since that’s what they wanted.
(re: KQ1 Condor Question)
The best way is to slow down the speed of the game. Before the eagle comes, practice so you can see how long it takes Graham to jump up, and then you should be able to get the eagle.
(re: Sierra box cover artists) Thanks for the info. Oh and the early box art -zip file I already have.
Very nice stuff there.I’ve updated the cover artists page a bit.
When I get to it, I still know plenty of stuff to add there, though not from Sierra and Lucas at the moment.Brooks has contributed some Space Quest 7 concept art stuff to show for http://www.spacequest.net
He has very interesting side notes on the works at his page too (though there would definitely be much more to tell too).
Like Larry 1 VGA cover was paper cut and it fell apart week after the shoot :).And couple of the covers seen there were made with Adobe and Corel.
Interesting, because this was early 1990s, and CGI covers weren’t the mainstream yet (f.ex. Ultima Underworld II and Ultima 8 cover were made with computer too).There probably were computer generated covers in 1980s too (even if you’re not counting screenshot-covers);
does anyone remember some from any companies?
Or more from early 1990s?(re: What did Sierra do first?) I believe Sierra was the first company to publish hintbooks that required a special viewer in order to actually read the hintbook. The hintbooks for the first couple of KQ games were small handbooks that were typed in black ink for puzzle titles and other headers and a 90% transparent ink for puzzle solutions that was only legible when the reader used a piece of cardboard with a rectangle-shaped “window” made out of red celophane (same material used to make those wierd 3D glasses u get when u see a 3D movie).
The size of the “window” was only big enough to show one line at a time, so you could get hints/solutions for the puzzle you are stuck on without seeing the solutions to other puzzles (unless you moved the “window” down).
Other hintbooks at the time did not utilize such an innovate process. The Universal Hint System (UHS) program is based around the same concept.
I will also issue a correction on what others have said about Alkalabeth being the first computer game to feature “graphics”. Mystery House was indeed the first computer game to feature graphics. Alkalabeth was created by Richard Garriot as part of his Computer Science curriculum and did not hit shelves until July 1980 (Mr Garriot speaks about this in an interview on the Ultima Collection CD-ROM as well as a book published in the mid 80’s about the Ultima series from 0 to 6). Mystery House, on the other hand, was on shelves in May 1980.
As for the first game to feature VGA graphics, that paticular honor goes to the game “The Colony”, published by Mindscape in 1988. It’s easy to overlook this game, as most times when you think VGA, you think 256 color graphics. While the 256-color palette is awesome, you also have to remember that VGA was lightyears ahead of EGA in terms of resolution. While “The Colony” did not feature 256 color graphics, it was the first game to take advantage of the higher resolution options VGA gave.
As a note of trivia, Sierra’s VGA games ran at a resolution of 360×300. I believe Sierra didn’t switch to 640×480 resolution until the Windows 95 version of KQVII was released.
-David “Oberon” Reese
lordcorenair@netscape.net(re: What did Sierra do first?)
Man, I feel so disillusioned now…
I was so sure that Sierra had been the first to do all sorts of big things in the gaming industry, and now it seems to be just a step behind the rest…
Is there anything Sierra DID do first? I heard that the Mixed-Up Mother Goose CD was the first multimedia CD, but I’m starting to doubt this as well…
Akril
(re: SQ1 VGA Copy Protection Etc)
I actually have a spare SQ1 VGA manual. I’ll mail it to you if you want it. Send me an email.
-emily
(re: Police Quest/Swat Collection for sale on ebay) Actually you can – one of the mug shots is Jesse Bains. Just keep typing in Bains. You’ll have to keep restarting the game until his picture gets up but it shouldn’t take all that long. I have the PQ collection without the manual and I have always been able to get into PQ2 relatively quickly doing it this way.
(In theory, this would work by typing in any of the copy protection names – Bains just happens to be the one I remembered from when I played this game the first time around and actually had a manual.)
-emily
(re: Freddy Pharkus Free Download) Thanks. You’re right, I wanted to embed them, not have them at the end. I don’t use the advanced editor because usually when I post it’s at work on the Mac (which does not support the advanced editor). Guess it doesn’t work the same way in the standard editor.
-emily
(re: Sierra box cover artists) Good work and good luck as you continue with this! We’ll have to see if we can somehow integrate your Sierra list with this site once it’s grown to be comprehensive. It’s cool that you’ve found Terry’s site, I will get in contact with him regarding his work at Sierra in order to see if he has material for the museum here.
Terry also did: Gobliiins, Fire Hawk, and Freddy Pharkas. If you haven’t already, I’ll also send him a link to your site and ask him if he has more games to add to your list.
John Shaw has done tons of Sierra covers. The ones I can confirm right now are: Manuhunter New York, Space Quest 3, and Codename Iceman. His awesome art is all over the internet and I have probably emailed every website that his art is on, but I have been unable to get contact information for him.
Ken put up a zip of box art here before… I’ll see if I can dig up the link and post it for you. If not, I can re-post it. And good questions. Hopefully Ken can answer those for us.
Brandon Klassen, archivist ~ SierraGamers.com admin / dev team ~
(re: Police Quest/Swat Collection for sale on ebay) Larry 2 has similar copyright protection. After getting annoyed at the blurry image on Al Lowe’s website
Link: http://www.allowe.com(http://www.allowe.com)
submitted by another fan, I made a nice version that is now in the cheats area there, where Al also gives a bypass cheat for one particular version of the game.I always meant to make a similar sheet for Police Quest 2. I’ll see about getting around to that in the next few days.
(re: Freddy Pharkus Free Download)
Emily (and anyone else interested), by the way, I don’t know if this was just updated or if it’s always been here, but if you type a link in the form of http:// www dot website dot com, it will automatically become a link – at least in the advanced editor. I haven’t tested the standard editor.
