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(re: re: re: Sierra video promos) is there such a thing as a song that’s not copyrighted?
as long as it’s Sierra who could take action and not, say, the FCC, i guess i won’t worry about it much.
🙂 emily
(Fanmade Games) The neat thing about fan games is that some fit very well in the original series’ story. “Space Quest 0 – Replicated” is a very good example for an excellent fanmade game, and so are the Tierra KQ1 and KQ2 remakes. “Space Quest – The Lost Chapter” is also a must-play for every SQ Fan although I only give it a B (it’s not bad, it’s really enjoyable and I was overjoyed when the first demo was released – it was the first finished Space Quest game since Space Quest 6 after all and I’d played them all. It’s just too big. That would be alright if the size wouldn’t often seem ‘blown-up’, more quantity than quality. Too many screens without a function and too much verbosity at times. It’s hilarious none the less and has many good puzzles.)
They’re not the originals alright. But when you’ve seen all the originals, playing a fan game can be a lot of fun and even improve the experience on the fan-games’ commercial predecessors. It is also very nice to see that there are people around who care so much about these games that they take upon themselves the trouble to work very hard for no money (yet an immortal reputation among fans if they succeed.)(AGI Sound) I know I’m wisecracking a bit here, but the original AGI games’ sound wasn’t intended to be played on the PC Speaker but on the IBM Junior PC’s three voice sound chip. There just weren’t sound cards available like today for regular PCs in these days, that’s why, naturally, there was no support for them in the PC versions. The games, however DID have three voices – what you’re hearing when you play a patched AGI game is thus not too different from what one could hear on computers that had better sound capabilities, e.g. the Amiga 500. If the three-voice-music wasn’t already in the games, programming a soundblaster or Midi patch wouldn’t make too much sense, except enabling you to change the volume. Compare this to the Nintendo Gameboy that didn’t support colors at first – the games, however, did. Put an old game in a Gameboy Color or a Super Gameboy (adapter for playing Gameboy Games on the SNES) and it’s in color. Impossible, if the colors wouldn’t have been there all the time, only the Hardware of the original Gameboy didn’t support displaying them.
How you enjoy the old games, however, is your decision, of course. But it just isn’t true that the old AGI games were meant to play the bad excuse for music the PC Speaker was capable of.
(re: So how DO you like KQ2?)
I’ve never really been interested in the fanmade remakes. I don’t know why. Graphics and sound are not as important to me as the actual story and everything else. So the originals always come off as better to me….maybe it’s just me but thats how I feel. I don’t even use the soundblaster tool for older sierra games….I’d rather hear the internal speaker for games that were made to use it.
(So how DO you like KQ2?) Hey Ken!
I was wondering – I just played the KQ2 VGA remake again at a friend’s (it won’t run on my grafics card unfortunately!) and remembered reading about it here and that neither you nor Roberta played it (in the very interesting interview you posted), which, I think, is a pity.
I know there’s more important things in life than adventure games (like travelling or staying up to date with what really goes on in the real world, not an illusionary one, or discussing politics on a mature level ;o), but yours and Roberta’s career in the gaming industry actually fleshed out adventure games from the plain-text adventures that started the computer game’s role as a gate into virtual worlds and led the way to where computer games were going: from Ascii or no graphics at all where a lot was left to imagination to extremely convincing real-life simulations.
I think that the fascination for Half-Life-like games (a good example because of the cinematic atmosphere the game creates) has the same origin as that for the adventure games your company created: The fascination of a virtual world that you can believe in and get absorbed by – for a certain time – much like reading a good book or, lately rather, like watching a good movie.
But there’s more to it: These worlds actually exist, people visit them, they get to know the people living there, like or dislike them and even extend these worlds to a level that their original creators probably never imagined – these worlds have become alive in the minds and hearts of many people!
The fact that people put such a high effort in a fan game as has been done with KQ2 without the slightest financial expectations (except going commerical later with their own scenarios after having gathered some experience) should (and surely does) honor Roberta and you. Looking at this game, the beautiful intro scene alone, and playing it should bring tears to your eyes like the KQ4 intro brought them to the eyes of adventure game players of these days.
So check out Tierra’s page already and get the games! After all, they were done out of the same sentiments because of which you are running this site:
Dwelling in memories of a past when Sierra On-Line gave computer gamers around the world the chance to play a part in an interactive movie and really made us believe in these interactice worlds they created and even made us create our own worlds. It’s not Tolkien, alright. But it sure was fun. ;o)Simon.
(re: Soundtracks) For now, lets post the MP3s. If Sierra ever complains, they’ll have to come off though. I’m deleteing log files and other “junk” to clear out some space.
I’ll create a section in the Sierra Museum just for music/soundtracks.
-Ken W(Soundtracks) Emily, I would love to hear that soundtrack. I don’t think we’d get in trouble for posting mp3s from the CDs here… it’s just a matter of whether Ken has the space and can handle the bandwidth of many people downloading them, I’m sure. The QFG5 soundtrack, mp3 at 128 kb/s and 18 tracks, is a total of 46 megs. Maybe this is another case, where anyone who has MP3s can send them all to one person. Then that person burns a data CD with all the MP3s on it, and mails it out for shipping/CD cost.
(re: re: re: No Promises) Ken,
I don’t understand your problem. Where’s Sierragamers.com hosted? At which company? Why’s your ISP involved with this website? It doesn’t make much sense. If SpaceQuest.Net was to send 1000 e-mails a day, I’d have absolutely no problems what so ever. I’ve also think I recall you saying you don’t have enough server space. How’s that?
Frans van Hofwegen
SpaceQuest.Net
Frans:
I have a great hosting service – maximumasp.com. Who are you hosted with? I’ll check them out.
I’ve been with a few different companies over the years, and thus far like maximumasp the best, because of their: 1) sql support, 2) customer support, 3) reliability, 4) connection to the net, 5) selection of installed components. They’re a first tier service, although are a couple of things I don’t like: 1) I need to find an alternate solution to sending large quantities of emails, and 2) I’m limited to 2 gigs of disk space (unless I spend more).
-Ken W(re: re: No Promises)
Ken,
I don’t understand your problem. Where’s Sierragamers.com hosted? At which company? Why’s your ISP involved with this website? It doesn’t make much sense. If SpaceQuest.Net was to send 1000 e-mails a day, I’d have absolutely no problems what so ever. I’ve also think I recall you saying you don’t have enough server space. How’s that?
Frans van Hofwegen
SpaceQuest.Net(re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Sierra video promos) Hey Ken,
Glad to hear you are on board with digging through your videos. I know you have a lot – heck you should. =) Anyhow, unless there is some really hush-hush outtakes from the Softporn hut-tub photoshoot, I would suggest “filtering” as little as possible. Tape up the box of videos, find out what kind of deposit I need to put on it (as a measure of good faith) and ship it all down here so I can get started – if I need to make a 10 DVD set, so be it. Or better yet, gather it in chunks – I’ll re-master a group of videos on DVD, and send them back, and you can send another group in. Whatever works – just lemme know, and as you are digging, if you can find any other professional broadcast formats of the same “VHS” version, please by all means – let’s use those, I’ll have the machine to play it back.
Thanks Ken!
-Brad
P.S. I got the 14 minute 1989 Promo video down to about 40meg (from 90meg) using a MPEG codec still looks pretty good (for a VHS transfer).. anyone want to host that?(re: re: Sierra video promos)
emily, sharing mp3’s isn’t illegal, just coptwrited ones (and anything else copywrited). Technicaly, Sierra COULD get pissed if we passed around soundtrack mp3’s, but i doubt they will.
(Daily email digests) The daily email digest feature is now working!
You can now sign up to receive one email at the end of each day (or, at the end of each week) with a complete record of everything that was posted.
Currently, about 150 of you have requested to receive an email every time that a new message is posted. This is actually a problem for me. My ISP writes me angry letter anytime that I send over 1,000 emails in a day. I’m working on a solution, but for now it would help me if some of the people who are receiving an update whenever a new message is posted would flip to the daily updates.
To set your preference for updates, go to “My Account” and you will see it there.
-Ken W(re: re: Sierra video promos)
I have the GK Mysteries soundtrack (mostly GK2 music, also some from GK1 and GK3). I had been looking for it in MP3s for years before I finally found a copy of the mysteries pack. Would be happy to make MP3s available to others, assuming they can be hosted here or somewhere else (I don’t have the bandwidth to host them myself).
-emily
ps what’s the story with MP3s these days? are they legal… it’s just file sharing that’s illegal?
(re: Sierra video promos) >I actually still have my CD of the Sierra Soundtrack Collection. Always wished it had the Space Quest III theme on it.
Frans’ Space Quest site has lots of great Space Quest MP3s. Does anyone else have official Sierra CDs? We have Mark Seibert’s Sierra Soundtrack MP3s… maybe if anyone has another soundtrack, they could post the MP3s? I have the official QFG5 soundtrack, I could post the MP3s if Ken allows it.(re: No Promises) The day before yesterday, I got the email 4x. Oops. Yesterday I only got it once, and the links in it worked properly. So I guess whatever you’re doing is working.
(re: Sierra video promos) >Is there anyone of you who DO have all the Interactions? Those seem almost impossible to get.
>I’ve been looking for about two years now, and I’ve only found a few. It’ll be very cool if someone could scan them.
I have a number of Interactions, yes. Not nearly all of them, but a good number. I am working on scanning them… my posts about that are around here somewhere. Unfortunately, just the other day my scanner has stopped working, halting my work.(re: Building Old Computers For Sierra Gaming)
Hey Frans! Yes, seeing your site way back when you posted that article inspired me to do it myself 🙂
(re: re: Ken Williams – after Sierra) what a wonderful mechanism for sharing ideas with a legend. if i had tried to contact you through “normal channels” during your years at Sierra…GOD only knows the difficulty.
why keep waiting for someone to buy Sierra so that you can jump back into an “R&D role” or “chairman role”? You and Roberta have a big enough name in the industry to start another “thread” of a game company without the need for Sierra. people are(were) loyal to sierra, but not because it’s Sierra, but because of what Sierra created. you WERE that creation! wouldn’t your vision again be bound and restricted by some higher authority if you were to return to Sierra? you mention that the popularity of internet sales is on the rise. this would help your cause. i am willing to bet that if you put together a great game..the perfect game…and sold it on this site alone that the rewards would be reaped many times over. at the very least, the game would be 100% you and your ideas. from what i read about you, this would probably be the most gratifying aspect.
of course, you would need some programming resources to help create this masterpiece…that’s where I would come in! 🙂 a young, intense, passionate developer willing to live off of scraps with the thought of the possibility of joining forces with a game legend and producing a great product could come in extremely handy.
am i misguided?(re: re: re: re: re: re: Sierra video promos) OK – I am gone all day today, but will dig through my video library tomorrow. I have a LOT.
-Ken W(re: KQ6 intro movie (mac) – SUCCESS!)
Great Emily! It’s cool to see that, even without the music – I could hear the music exactly in my head anyway 🙂 The whole narration text on screen is really interesting. Anyway, thanks, that was good to see.
(re: re: re: re: re: Sierra video promos) Petter,
I am all over the idea of compiling a huge DVD set, and want to get more people like yourself fired up over it – I will contact Tom, and see what things he has, I have quite a collection myself. We need to start a list of things we want on this set. I think the videos from the the Smithsonian would be awesome, I know Ken was going to submit to get them – Ken, try to get the ones without the timecode burned in, and also Ken, still have not heard from you concerning the other videos, you have, and what formats you have them on, I only have the one promo video from 89.
Frans, I am experimenting with MPEG4 right now.. I will see what size it outputs. Also, I think you contacted me about Space Quest articles in my interaction magazine collection, I will try to look through those and find articles you do not have already. I can’t remember who was spearheading the Interaction scan project (Brandon?) but I have lots to contribute. We need to start an Online list to see which ones (as a group) we are missing, and put out an APB on the missing ones (and look to Ken to fill the holes hopefully).
So,
1. List Sierra Publications
2. Compile wants list for DVD set
3. Ken, let us know what videos (including the Smithsonian) you can contribute
4. Frans, let me know what magazines you have already scoured for SQ articles, so I can skip those
-Brad(re: re: re: Sierra video promos)
I actually still have my CD of the Sierra Soundtrack Collection. Always wished it had the Space Quest III theme on it. Oh well. CL(re: Sierra Soundtrack Collection)
Mark Seibert has the whole soundtrack available on his website in MP3 format. link below.
-emily
(re: re: Police Quest Area)
i was a huge fan of the first two PQ games. i played them when i was a kid. couldn’t play the third one because it was never released for the mac (big disappointment for me, i’d supposedly had it back ordered for months and then sierra sent me a card saying it would never come… bleah). PQ4 was released for the mac though. it’s very different from the first three, but still a good game. i like very realistic games and liked how the graphics were done in this one (especially at the mini mart!)
i acquired PQ3 for the pc a few years ago and started it, but haven’t finished. maybe i should go back to it. the driving was very difficult for me but i have a slower machine now that i could try it on. unless your computer’s old, you’re definitely going to need moslo or turbo… i first tried playing PQ3 on a 366MHz processor and couldn’t get through the driving without moslo.
-emily
(re: re: Sierra video promos)
There was a Sierra Soundtrack CD? I must of missed it! I got one of the Zelda CD’s (the Symphonic Hyrule one) and have been looking for the live concert CD’s that Nintendo put out years ago. I even tried to convince the local high school music teacher to play some game songs (specificly Sq and Zelda) but nothing ever came of it. 🙁 Just so I could get a live copy on CD!
