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Much game art was kept in a storage locker – a locker that, when Sierra closed, was pilfered by artists. Other art in that locker was also thrown away – again, some rescued by individuals. Part of the archival activities currently in progress consists of trying to find as much artwork as possible (as well as other things you mention, such as photos), through the collections of fans who have happened to acquire it or from former Sierra employees, and scanning it in very high quality so that we can put together a master collection of original Sierra artwork that eventually everyone will be able to enjoy.
Question for Ken:
Many times you have mentioned that your main concern when
discussing the CUC Sale with the CUC heads back in 1996 was that a post acquisition structure would be put in place which would keep Sierra alive. What was this structure exactly, and what factors led to Sierra’s decline?Well, I’m glad that I did find you! I thought I’d never be able to get a hold of anyone. But I understand completely that you and your wife have no ownership of it, and I apologize for stumping you. If “Etheria” and “the dragonnets” are under Sierra’s copyright law, I’ll be certain to omit their presence in my book, unless given permission. And I also understand that Sierra would be very reluctant in giving me permission, so I’m prepared to have my request rejected from them. But thank you so much for your reply. If, by chance, you find out anything about this case, could you please email me? It would mean so much. And I understand that you may be busy and might never come across the answer in this case. Working around the copyrights, I’ll have to omit and change a lot of things in my book if they refuse to give me permission. But then again, a very important part of my book would be lost. I guess that’s the way businesses work. I’ll be crossing my fingers though. Thanks Ken!
I have now set up a simple website for the project, it can be found here.
If you check out the ‘Getting On-Line’ section you will learn about what tools are needed to get connected. You will also notice that I am planning on hosting a public demonstration of the INN server on Saturday, March 24th. There is an e-mail address on that page where inquiries about the demonstration can be sent.
If there is enough interest in the demonstration before that date, I will e-mail anyone that signs up with the details and look forward to seeing them on-line. If interest is limited, I may reschedule to allow more time for word to get around.
You’ve found me!
Sorry, I would have responded sooner, but I’ve been on a boat the last few days and unable to check email.
You’ve stumped me on this one. I’m usually fairly good at the legal stuff, but I honestly don’t know the answer. Personally, Roberta and I own ZERO rights to any of the copyrights associated with our games. Sierra controls everything.
Clearly, you can not step on Sierra’s copyrights without their permission. Historically, they have been very reluctant to grant these rights.
-Ken W
Before you part with them, I’d be interested in some scans of your compilation boxes.
Are you planning to sell these on Ebay?
Well, I’m glad to see that people still keep the site active. How could I go about getting Ken’s attention to this matter? I have never done anything like I am doing now, in terms of seeking out permission to use the said material in my book. So, I’m quite new to contacting companies and people in the like. Actually, the inquiry I made at Sierra’s website, I got a reply in my email today. The guy, named Ken (ironic, lol) said that he has forwarded my inquiry to a different department that would be able to assist me further. But I’m not counting on a reply anytime soon.
How often does Ken come on the forums? Should I try to email him or something?
Hey folks,
Just posting for all you collectors and Sierra game fans to say I’m selling large parts of my collection, due to my financial situation, and due to me wanting to get into audio college later this year.
After all this time, I have a completely new file which covers my sale list (rather than bulky forum posts). It’s in TXT format for simplicity and ease of download and use.
It covers:
– Sealed games
– Compilation packs
– Normal boxed and jewel cased games
– Hintbooks and other Sierra books.And if you think you’ve read it all before- think again. Almost all the items are different! Lots of rarities too.
You can check it out here:
http://smc.sq7.org/assorted/games.txtIf you find anything interesting, feel free to email me or IM me.
Feel free to ask any questions or make any comments!
Regards, and thanks for checking this thread out!
– AlistairFortunately, this forum still has a group of ‘regular’ posters
I don’t think Roberta Williams answers a lot of emails anymore, but Ken is a regular poster so he still might answer your question.
As for contacting Sierra… Don’t bother! A friend of mine bought the new KQ collection and had some questions about the manual like why are there instructions in the game manual for games that aren’t IN the collection?
He never received an answer…
Oh thank you! I was afraid no one went on this forums anymore. I contacted Sierra On-Line about it just in case no one here could answer it for me. But they haven’t replied yet. I was hoping I could find an email address to Roberta Williams to ask her since she made it. But I didn’t find one.
Thank you so much.
As far as I know, as long as the name Etheria does not have a copyright protection, you can use the name freely. In addition, I don’t think that Sierra holds the rights to that name so I think you’ll be fine
Ofcourse I’m not a lawyer or anything, but I AM a technical writer
and deal with issues like this on occasion…The first King’s Quest game I ever played was King’s Quest VII. We also owned King’s Quest V. Now I own one through seven. But I have a serious question concerning copyrights. I wasn’t sure who I should contact with my questions of concern. Maybe someone could point me in the right direction or find an answer for me?
Anywho, my concern is: Is the land of Etheria a copyrighted item of Sierra On-Line? I’ve heard many stories concerning some of the inhabitants of Etheria and I tried to research Etheria online but didn’t find anything. I am currently writing a book in which I planned to use Etheria as the name as the land in the clouds. Etheria seems like another term for Olympia, in the sense of mythical stories.
Is Etheria the creation of Roberta Williams and her colleagues? Or has it been used before in other works?
I’m just wanting to clear up some small issues to avoid lawsuits and problems. Thank you for reading this. And I hope I can find what I seek.
An update on the project:
The last time I wrote I was working on getting conferences set up on the server. I ran into a brick wall there, so I took a step back and looked more closely at the invitation system, and getting some games to work. Yesterday I finished up implementing the invitation system, and this morning I played the first game of Checkers that has taken place within INN for a long time.
I made a new video of a game invitation and a few moves in Checkers. It is posted on YouTube along with my other videos, the link is below. I have a few issues in the server to work out, but I hope that very soon I will be able to open up the server during limited times to let people check it out. I’m working on a small website with information about how to get everything set up so you can get online in the future. I’ll post a link when it is a bit more complete.
Your best bet is on eBay… if you can’t find the game you’re looking for right away, you can use eBay’s search result watch thingy, which lets you specify search terms and eBay will email you whenever an item is posted that matches your search terms. I have a number of games I’m planning to sell myself, I just haven’t got around to listing them yet, depending on what you’re looking for. I don’t have a copy of Time Zone at all. There may be other collectors on this board who also have games to sell.
If you follow the link below, you can get the interview in .mp3 format. It should play in anything like WinAmp, Windows Media Player, etc… Actually most browsers will start playing the .mp3 directly when you follow the link.
that is a good interview. it’s funny when he asks al how come larry 5 never came out. it’s a good listen, lots of talk about early sierra, pre-larry 1 even.
I have demo “movies” for some of the games listed. Which is essentially the same thing as non-playable demos.
I’m getting ready to move at the end of the month, once I’m settled in to the new place I hope to start working on my sierra-collector site again, I’ll post the demos and movies I have there.
I have 1-5 of the demo packs, but PQ2 is SCI. Since KQ was the first AGI game, there might have been no demo. I think that the Phantasmagoria demo was the first chapter, but I might be thinking of what was included with The Roberta Williams Anthology. Do you have any idea about SQ3 and SQ4?
Collector,
I know Phantas 1 had a demo (well, 99% sure), and am fairly sure LSL7 had one as well. Police Quest 2 may have been a part of their ‘demo pack’ releases., but I’m not aware of any of the other games in your list having demo releases.
– Alistair
This leads me to another (mirror) question: does anyone know which Sierra games were released in Japan? And for which machines?
I have King’s Quest 5 for the FM-Towns, as well as King’s Quest 8 (for PC of course).
I think KQ5 contains an ad for Mixed-up Mother Goose, and I think I’ve also seen an ad for Police Quest 2.Anything else? King’s Quest 4, earlier KQs? Space Quest? Quest for Glory? …
Vincent.
