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(re: Vivendi Games Cuts Work Force (including former Sierra office)) It is looking more and more likely that the Sierra label may dissappear for good.
If I remember correctly, this idea was actually bandied about a few years ago. They were going to replace it with the Black Label Games name. However, in the end this was only used on a few releases and the Sierra name stayed.
But suppose Vivendi’s games division was in some sort of financial trouble, or simply stopped using the Sierra name on its releases, would it be possible for “someone” to come in and buy back “Sierra”?
To tell the truth, I don’t see why “someone” couldn’t do that right now. As Ken noted on another part of this site, Sierra exists only as a label nowadays anyways. And even as a label, it really isn’t worth much in today’s market.
I reckon today’s PC gamers have learned to distinguish between the products of “Classic Sierra” and “Current Sierra”. Unlike in the old days, no one will today buy a game simply because it has the Sierra name on it.
(Sierra shut down)
Not sure if any of you read this today, but Vivendi Universal Games decided to shut down Sierra and lay off their 350 employees. This truly marks the end of an era, and I’d just like to say thanks to Ken and Roberta for the memories.
(re: re: re: Difficulty installing SQ5 on a new Windows machine)
This is a speed problem. Try the GOSiERRA patch.
http://www.queststudios.com/utilities/GOSiERRAv3.zip
Just un zip it in your installed SQ5 folder and run it. It should patch the AUDBLAST.DRV to work on modern, fast machines
(re: Vivendi Games Cuts Work Force (including former Sierra office))
I just read about this on another site. I hope they’ll be so starved for cash they’ll sell off the rights to the Quest and GK franchises… but who knows?
Not a good day, regardless of how I felt about what they’ve done to Sierra.
-emily
(re: Why Tierra Re-Makes Are So Great)
Tierra games are helping to keep alive a genre that I truly enjoy – a genre where storytelling, exploration and logical thinking are more important than twitch reflexes. My kids play a lot of games on the PS2 – and they’re “fine”… but, they have never grabbed me and made me want to play for hours on end the way the old Sierra/Lucasarts games did. Granted, the early Sierra games were pretty basic. There was only so much you could do with that old technology. But, with KQ2vga, Tierra has fleshed out a very basic story, given it depth and a real plot. Playing KQ2vga was nostalgic and yet new at the same time – and I couldn’t have enjoyed it anymore than I did. It’s unbelieveable that AGDs would put in the amount of time and effort they did – and just for the love of adventure games. That’s pretty great!
(re: re: Difficulty installing SQ5 on a new Windows machine)
Thanks for this suggestion. I have, in fact, previously done as you suggest, but because the AUDBLAST.DRV doesn’t seem to recognise my audio hardware, I cannot get sound from the game, unless I revert to the PC’s internal speaker.
Any suggestions?(re: re: Why Tierra Re-Makes Are So Great) To me personaly, they are so great becouse they have succeded in capturing the spirit of Sierra adventures, I loved Sierra’s remakes and I felt it was fitting AGDInteracitve did the job for those games that were left out. Somehow to me, personaly, the best adventures appeared in VGA, so my fondest memory exist in those views, I have, of course, played most of the adventure series from Sierra and loved most of them and really liked the rest. Enhancing the games in new graphics brought them closer to my fondest view of adventure games. The longer plot and extra puzzles in KQ2 really made it a better experience. It is a bit hard to believe that better graphics and interface would worsen the game, but it’s your opinion and it is to be respected.
However, I believe that the massive amount of work that Tierra put into these remakes is also to be respected. Like another person already mentioned.
The fact that they released it for free only emphasizes the effort that was put into making them, they never demanded anything in return and it had brought back fond memories to many old sierra fans and if they perhaps influenced some younger FPS loving gamers to play an adventure game, perhaps even buying the series or trying out other adventure games, or encouraging someone else to replay old Sierra adventure games… well that, if nothing else, makes them great, in my humble opinion, of course.(re: Alternate Sins Soundtrack?)
Hey there,
I have two possible explanations for this one.
Firstly, I assume you do not own a Roland Sound Canvas SC-55, which is the intended musical device of choice for this game, so for starters you won’t be hearing it the way it was intended to be heard.
Secondly, the CD version featured a digital musical version of the ‘nightmare’ theme, so it’s likely they used that one in the CD making.
Regards,
– Alistair(re: Editing reply overwrites original message) Strange. I’ll leave it for a couple days in case the tech guys get a chance to look at it, and then I’ll edit the posts and clean it up.
Brandon ~ SierraGamers.com admin team ~
(Why Tierra Re-Makes Are So Great)
I couldn’t agree more that remakes (at least those like Tierra’s KQ2) are great. Here’s why:
Those of us who are longtime adventure gamers greatly miss having quality games come out that are driven by plot and not just twitch reflex. KQ2vga added a great deal of story to the game – which made it both familiar, and new at the same time. The music was top-notch and I had a great time playing it.
I think it’s remarkable that these fine folks have made their labor of love available to the rest of us.
Personally, I would love to see them do a totally orignal game – or at least enlarge the story on any future remakes they choose to do. We can hold on our original floppy disks and keep them “sacred” while still having a lot of fun playing the remakes.
uploaded 6/17/2004 7:04:07 PM(re: re: re: The Good Times . . .)
Wooten: you are so damn right about then-games and intelligence. I think the interview you are referring to is somewhere on Al Lowe’s site, I remember reading similar words to yours. Thanks for sharing; it’s good to know more people are feeling in this way. Best regards -Vesko.
(re: re: The Good Times . . .)
Hell, I think I have all of you guys beat. My uncle worked for IBM’s R&R department and he talked me father into buying a computer back in the mid to late 80’s. An IBM PC cost an arm and a leg back then, so my uncle convinced my uncle to purchase the less expensive PC Jr. Big mistake…or was it? I’ve read that the Jr. was a commercial disaster for IBM (something Ken could tell you more about, since he had a KQ/Jr. partnership) and at the time I was crushed – I couldn’t find more than a small handful of commercial, store-bought games to play, forget the early Sierra staples like Space Quest or, my personal holy grail, Leisure Suit Larry. My Jr. was just too weak in the memory department.
My father worked for a corporation that employed a lot of computer geeks. They passed on to him homemade games that would work on the PCjr. My favorite was a Mad Max type game that involved side-scrolling bi-planes. It even had a boss character – a huge blimp! And the amateur programmer even worked in campaign slogans (“Win one for the Gipper!”) for Reagan’s ’84 campaign into the game.
I think there is one simple reason why computer and video games are getting worse as the technology gets better – back in the day, a PC wasn’t a home appliance that came with dumbed-down software and user-friendly controls. It was a mystery box that could be explored and mined for fun, and only intelligent people (or extremely rich ones) owned them*. Games were tailor-made for a niche market of intelligent explorers. No wonder Sierra was so successful -it was a company founded and run by intelligent explorers.I can only think of one game series that captures (or once captured) the spirit of these earlier games – Grand Theft Auto. Sure, the content of the games is certainly of questionable taste, but the games themselves seem to have an independent spirit and tone that suggests they were made in a basement or garage, as opposed to a corporate complex.
* I actually stole part of this theory from an essay that Al Lowe (one of my personal heroes) wrote for a PC magazine years ago. I’ll try to find the link.
(re: re: Can anyone tell me what this is?) I have it on a Space Quest Collection timestamped 1994. Here’s what the readme.txt in the CD’s root says about it:
FUN SEEKER’S GUIDE TO EASTERN MADERA COUNTY (FSG):
The Fun Seeker’s Guide was written and programmed by
Doug Oldfield, a programmer who’s name you might have
noticed in the credits of Space Quests 3 and 4 – as well
as several other Sierra products. Generally a very busy guy, he
apparently had a little too much time on his hands a few years
back and was inspired to create this little gem which offers a
unique perspective on one of the more interesting attractions
(if not THE most interesting) in our humble Sierra foothill
community. Anyone who has ever visited us here in Oakhurst or has
driven along highway 41 on their way to Yosemite will probably
recognize the subject of this program.(re: re: re: The Realm – An Sierra Online Online Adventure!)
old post I know, but man…
I remember reading about The Realm in Interact and thinking it was the best idea ever. Back then there was Meridian 59 and maybe UO, but the only past experience I had was with bbs muds. I remember sitting there downloading all the pieces of it on my modem (took forever). My friend and I would sit there playing it all night long, a trend we continued with almost every other mmog since. Still, The Realm was my first graphical one and it’s held a place in my heart ever since (like most Sierra games).
(re: re: Gabriel Knight Mysteries Soundtracks)
Will do. I usually archive (on CD or DVD) all the Sierra stuff I generate anyway.
(re: Can anyone tell me what this is?)
I would like to know more about this, too. I had downloaded it from the Underdogs. This is their entry for it:
(re: Gabriel Knight Mysteries Soundtracks) Thanks Collector, sweet. Keep a hold of your original scans and we’ll eventually (hopefully sometime soon) set up a painless way to transfer them from those who submit them to a museum submission area.
Vincent, good work on editing those links.
(re: The Good Times . . .)
Heh… what about Fantavision, Dr. Halo, Autodesk Animator, Commander Keen, all those old shareware games and old dos programs! Good times indeed 🙂
(re: re: re: re: re: re: Gabriel Knight Mysteries Soundtracks)
OK. Right-click and Save-as the links below.
Vincent.
1. Opening – Chapter 1
2. Main Theme – Prologue
3. Chase
4. Grace
5. Epilogue
6. Happy Minstrels
7. Aria to the Moon
8. Transformation Aria
9. Grace Takes a Trip
10. Hunt Club
11. Blues for Dedda
12. The Farm
13. The Smiths
14. Trance
15. Dark Theme
16. Ludwig
17. Wolfcam
18. Act I Underscore
19. Aria End Credits
20. Wolf Watch
21. GK1 Main Title Theme
22. GK1 Closing Theme
23. GK3 Emilios Theme
24. GK3 Trailer Theme
