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(re: re: New format of viewing new messages) Sweet, this had been bothering me too. Another useful feature would be . . . I’m having a hard time explaining, so this might be long-winded:
Say I’ve posted to the 25th anniversary thread and the You Fell Off thread. How about an option to only display new messages to the threads I’m active in? I’m not a programmer (although I can make my computer scroll “Hello WORLD!” all day long), so this might be a complicated task.
Oh, and I’m not a fan of the JavaScript menus. I can’t use them when I’m in Mozilla Firefox (because of a browser extension, so I’m sure not everyone experiences it). Couldn’t you acheive the same effect with CSS?
At any rate, the place is looking good. And things have definitely speeded up since your last upgrade.(re: re: re: re: re: 25 Aniversery)
I always found it really really that big companies say that there isn’t a desire for adventure gaming (games not focused on combat but instead focused in the journey between point A & B), but they stopped making them THEN said that there wasn’t a desire. 🙂 But then agin, the 13 year old pimple face kids have spoken (and counter strike is what they said)
You know Ken, I read that power point pres you make in 2001 (about the success of sierra on-line) and agree with you. 🙂 Most companies today don’t experiment (Nintendo did good with their latest Zelda & Metriod for Gamecube. VERY creative!). They would be more suscessful if they did!
I wish I had money. I tried to convince a couple friends of mine to start a game company (well, just a company at first), one of them said yes, but the other one only wanted to program utility applications, not entertainment. 🙁 Oh well. We could of been the next sierra. 🙂
(re: re: re: Problems with KQ V —-> Dark Forest)
that’s weird — I only ever encountered the codes when I tried to get in the old guy’s boat (later in the game). I don’t remember having them at the witch’s house but I could be wrong.
I suspect you need to backtrack to a saved game.
-emily
(re: re: re: Problems with KQ V —-> Dark Forest)
Hello all. I’m playing KQV and am in the Dark Forest. I banished the witch away into the bottle, however when I tried to go into her house, I think the copy protection police got me. It said I had to unlock the door using some weird codes (which I assume was the manual). When I was unable to do it, it just kept telling me the door is locked and doesn’t give me the opportunity to open the door using the manual. Do I have to start over at this point, even if I now have the manual now?
Thanks – I miss Sierra!
(re: re: re: re: 25 Aniversery)
100% in agreement: that’s what happens 95% with consultants, especially big ones and especially when they do boast the “I can tell you what to do” mood, forgetting about the history of the Company and above all who made the history real… sic.
I jump to another topic: Ken, don’t you think that nowadays business is running too fast, with all these two years in a company managers who run business for immediate returns without having the needed and nurtured experience (and often using the type of consultants you mentioned part to cover for the lack and part as a cover for their back) ?
Giovanni(re: re: re: re: re: Collecting Sealed Copies of Older Sierra Games…)
They are indeed budget releases of Sierra games… although I’m not sure if they’re authorized by Sierra.
You can learn more here: http://vintage-sierra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72
(re: re: re: re: Collecting Sealed Copies of Older Sierra Games…)
What do you mean by “slash” games? Are they pirated copies? Budget re-releases?
-emily
(re: re: re: Collecting Sealed Copies of Older Sierra Games…)
That angers me that you got “Slashed”.
A good decade or so ago, I went to the BX at Nellis AFB and bought what I thought were “brand” new Sierra games (PQ 1-3, KQ 1-3, LSL 1-3 and QFG 2). All had a golden sticker around cheap shrink-wrap with the Slash name on it.
Though the games worked, I got none of the goodies to go with it, because all of the games looked cheap. The floppies all had dot-matrix labels, and the docs, like you have stated, were all photocopies. The magazine for LSL 3 wasn’t even use-able as I couldn’t see the numbers for the code to the waiter.
I also bought other games, like a new version of Double Dragon (dropped soda on original version) and DOS 5.0 that were also “Slashed”. Some LucasArts games were even slashed, as were many EA and Accolade games.
The key give-away to a Slash game is the extremely cheap box, usually a slip-cover, not the deluxe cover over a box that I recall everybody but LucasArts using at the time. Even the label for the system requirements are cheapened, and the actualy printing on the box looks like a color photocopy, and I wouldn’t put it past them.
Now, though the “original” as Slash version is not, playable it is, and everything is usually entacted. The only two games I ever had any trouble with is LSL 3 and Silpheed, both which I bought at a Smith’s Food King in Vegas. No, Larry 3 was at the BX . . . or maybe I bought them at the BX and a good many other games at the Smith’s FK? I can’t remember. The last Slash game I bought was Mortal Kombat 1 for PC, and all of the blood was gone till I used a code for it.
As I stated, the games play 95% of the time, so, as a teen, I bought many, many Slash games at the BX at Nellis, the Smith’s FK, Blockbuster Video, Target, Kaybee’s and a few small mom-and-pop stores. The average game was about $5 at the most in price, and many sold from $1.99 and up (Zork, Leather Goddess of Phobes). As a teen, I could go spend $50 on a new game (console or PC) or I could use that $50 and get LOTS of good games, just a few years on in age.
Now, if you get Slash games for over $10 to this day, that’s getting taken to the cleaners. I still find Slash games at Smith’s, book stores, thrift stores, and at CompUSA’s discount bin, whenever it’s out.
(re: re: Collecting Sealed Copies of Older Sierra Games…)
Well, I just got these games in the mail, and guess what? They aren’t the original releases. I believe they’re cheaper “Slash” releases. I also just received an old copy of Code-Name: Iceman which I believe is a Slash release as well. These games don’t come in the standard Sierra 2-piece box. The box under the slip-cover is black and has a flip-top for Iceman, and white for Heart of China and Manhunter 1.
I think I read somewhere that the Slash releases contained cheaper documentation inside the box as well… black and white photo copies of the original paperwork.
(re: re: re: re: 25 Aniversery) Don’t worry I never get bored hearing things about Sierra =). I’m also studying to be an IT consultant and if they’d hired me you know how thick my researchbook would have been hehehe. I don’t know what’s up today with big companies buying smaller companies. I know Sierra did but the smaller companies didn’t suffer from the takeover (or did they?). Samething happened with Microsoft buying Access Software. AS made some amazing games in the old days! Anyone remember Crime Wave. First game I played on my trusty old XT that supported 256 Color MCGA graphics and digitised music and voice effects! Those guys were brilliant…
Anyway I worked at a store called cd-rom land (I got the job because of my gaming knowledge) to make some extra money and after a year we were sold and taken over by some bigger store. 2 weeks later they opened two new cd-rom land stores in our vicinity with some new employees (sp?). Every thursday we had a meeting with all the personnel and this time with the personnel from all 3 stores. After the meeting we invited everybody to have some drinks with me and my colleagues. We just wanted to make some new friends. Of the 23 only 4 went with us… Our other colleagues didn’t feel like coming with us because they thought we sucked (so our boss told us). The 2 new stores were bigger, better looking and more expensive than our “old” store. We weren’t professional enough (we gave our customers walkthru’s for games for free and sometimes they could even call us at home if they were stuck) and our store would never make more money than theirs. So you can guess what happened… After 3 years the 2 new stores have been closed and we are the only store left! It’s not just the name of the business you buy that makes it great, it’s the people that work there that make it great! We just loved working there, we played games when we weren’t too busy, we talked about games, we took game stuff home (man those 3 meter posters rocked! 😉 ) we even held LAN party’s there. Some of my colleagues even stopped by at the store just to chat and they didn’t even have to work! I made some very good friends working there… Anyway like I said it’s the people that make it great not just the name of the company; although I do have to admit I bought some games I never heard of just because it had Sierra on the box. e.g. Shivers and Mission Force Cyberstorm. Fortunately I was never disappointed… Can’t say the same now…….(re: Preserving Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash)
on mIRC i’ve seen a ROM of this game for something but sierra is something I prefer to own the original
(re: re: re: re: Shadow of Darkness)
yeah, new PCs are very bad for old games.
go buy an old PC at a thrift store or garage sale.
(re: re: Finding King Quest 5)
KQ5 is everywhere. besides online shops, check radio shacks, compUSA and such in the discount bins.
sometimes wal-mart and target dumps KQ5 into the large discount bins where the price is like 4.84 per game or something wal-marty like that
every now and then, at the 99 cent store, i see old CD games, including some old sierra
(re: re: Looking for sierra games)
i’ll bet you a dirty chicken (???) that the voices are there and that the sound drivers we use don’t access the data.
you can copy the data onto floppies or put the CD into an older computer, think about 10 to 15 years ago.
the sounds should play. if not, you can take an older floppy sierra game and take the sound *.drv files for anything from a Disney Sound Source to a Tandy 1000 w/DAC
this has worked for many friends who are willing to have another PC just to place vintage Sierra
(re: Collecting Sealed Copies of Older Sierra Games…)
only buy games if you plan on playing ’em or don’t play ’em and be a jerk to all the people who worked on the project. and if you’re so worried about the disks, back ’em up at least 3 times. beware, though, that floppies start to erase themselves after 600 days, and over the years the data will erase.
(re: re: re: re: Shadow of Darkness) Here is a the direct link to the site http://geocities.com/belzorash/
This site contains patches to fix speed related SCI errors for a lot of Sierra games including:
Conquests of the Longbow
Hoyle Book of Games 3
King’s Quest 1 SCI Remake
Leisure Suit Larry 3
Leisure Suit Larry 5
Quest for Glory 4 (CD version only)
Police Quest 2 (version 1.002.011 only)
Police Quest 3
Space Quest 1 Remake
Space Quest 4 CD Version
Space Quest 5
Space Quest 6(re: Preserving Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash) Yes, it is guaranteed to be from you. It is listed in the “List of Sierra products” on this site, in the “Sometime in the ’80s” section. So, would you be the high bidder on this auction?
If you are, that would certainly spare me of some sleepless nights thinking about how to transfer this game to the right hands. If you prefer, you can e-mail me directly atvincent@joguin.com to further discuss this. I insist that you will probably NOT find this game again on eBay before a very very long time.
Vincent.(re: re: re: Shadow of Darkness)
With the Space Quest games (particularly Space Quest 4) there are also timer related problems. However this brilliant person actually made changes to the scripting files for them which fixed the timer problems. These are available on http://www.spacequest.net.
I assume that using the same techniques it would be possible to fix the timer problems in the other games like QG4 too. Maybe its worth looking into.
(re: Finding King Quest 5)
No, you can still get brand new copies of KQ5 on various online software shops – so go and buy one they’re only 10 bucks.
(re: Looking for sierra games)
Also, it may not be the case with the collections you are after, but I recently got the SWAT Career pack, which has Police Quest 1-4 (both versions of PQ1) and Swat 1 and Swat 2. Sadly, the versions of PQ1 SCI and PQ3 on there don’t include the digitized voice which I was seriously upset about.
(re: re: New format of viewing new messages)
What if each post had a named anchor, so when you click on the link on the new messages page, it would simply take you to the point in the thread where that post is, but with all the other posts on still on the page?
(re: Collecting Sealed Copies of Older Sierra Games…) I agree with you.. leave em sealed for collectings sake, and get you some opened playable copies.. it’s no fun unless you can play em! You can get MH 1 and 2 and Heart of China pretty affordably opened.
-Brad(re: Preserving Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash)
I hate game “collectors” who just take copies of games and never play them. I hate the same people who do this to comics, music, and movies. If we wanted to create things to never be played, I suppose you, Ken, could’ve just made pretty packaging. Now, to collect and to play a game, and to preserve games in a working status from the days of past . . . I applaude the efforts of ROM crackers, pirates, abandonware, and eBay for making access to these gems. Of course, if something’s copyrighted, a perfect good edition exists in one of four places: Imperial Tokyo Library, Library of Congress, Imperial London Library, and the Vatican Library. And at the Library of Congress, we can access everything in the library at any time.
(re: Preserving Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash) Nope – I definitely DO NOT have this in my collection. I don’t think I have any of the original Ultima games, but will start watching eBay for them to come available. I remember that our first box had copy on the back that my brother John wrote, that was hilarious. It had a list of things you could do in the game that included “hanging out with famous software developers”…
I remember that Richard (Garriott) forced us to put a cloth map in every box that cost me a fortune – like $2.50 and up per map. They were expensive, but very cool – and, a part of the success.
The Ultima game on eBay is for the Vic-20! And, on audio cassette?!!! I would absolutely have lost my money if someone had bet me that we once shipped software on a casette for the Vic-20. From the picture it really does look to be us. Strange – I don’t remember it at all. I remember some cartridge games for the Vic-20 .. but, not cassette. Oh well…
-Ken W
