[Unknown,Unknown]

(What do you need?) This is so exciting. Alhough I’ve been told not to get to excited about this thing, I just can’t help it.
My question now is this: What kind of answer do you need? I mean, if on this forum you ask like “do you guys want an new KQ, SQ,LSL or whatever produced?”, then there will be, so I hope, no one on this site to answer no, since essentially this is what this whole thing is about. If what you are looking for is an approximate number of potetial buyers someone should bring this up on the Sierra-Ring, like the links in the sites listed in the “cool sierra links” section. I am quite sure that the feedback will be amazing.
Well, let us know how we can help…
doern

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: KQ9.org)

yeah, good question i also noticed it, i think there was a kq9 irc-chat, maybe there they can help, anyone knows the server?

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: re: Is this the reaction????) Well, I guess it really is to early to get really excited about things, but I believe that it is about time for us to prove what the Sierra comunity is worth. All of those petitions and aggressive writings to the Sierra headquarters and the fuss on this web site have found a listening ear at last!
Basically what I wanted to say was that I was rather surprised to read endless threads about some bug in QFG something bla, but then a brief response by Ken turned out to be the only reaction to that, what in my view may be the greatest news since those about Jane Jensen’s new game being in development.
This is why I think we should at least try to find out what we can do in order to support those plans and then do our very best to make it happen! Otherwise everything this site is about would lose it’s substance and it would turn to a dusty collection of empty words…. sounds rather sad to me!
doern

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Is this the reaction????) I’m behind a Sierra resurection any day. Just tell me what day I can pick up QFG6, KQ9, and SPQ7 at Best Buy, and I’ll be there in line at midnight, cash in hand, waiting for the doors to open.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: re: re: A Long shot..)

The problem is in the saved games I was loading from. When I started a new character I encoutered no such problem. Thank you all for the help you have given.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Is this the reaction????) well, people have been voicing a desire to do this since sierra changed hands in the 90s. it’s too early to know if anything will come of it.
i try not to let myself get excited about things until i know there’s something to be excited about. 🙂
-emily

[Unknown,Unknown]

(Is this the reaction????) I just read the “Retro the old sierra” – message, and I was like “Oh Gosh, now this is a f*** good message!!!”, just what the whole passionate Sierra-Revival community has been screaming for on houndreds of forum pages. And then I whent on to read the hysterical reaction I expected to find further on – But apparently nobody here actually cares. I mean, isn’t this the one chance all of us, or at least I, have been praying for every single time we entered this site?? Or did I get something completely wrong?
Somebody please tell me, if there is an essential point I missed, otherwise, go and tell the world what you want!
Doern

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: re: A Long shot..)

That fixed the problem of the repeating sounds but it created another. Now in QG1 with these changes when I try to get into the healther’s house I get a waiting sign and it just sits there. I think it’s because usually he knocks twice and with the changes he only knocked once I tryed only using the autoexec.bat and the soundblaster changes by themselves and I could get in the Healther’s but the sounds still repeated. I keep fooling with settings and see if I can fix it. Any suggestions would be appriciated. Thank you for your help thus far.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Window SCI Engine under Windows XP) I discovered a way around this, which I posted how to in the thread
Link: Is there any Windows XP help? (Holmes)(http://community.vugames.com/WebX?14@120.Uvtpbgmb4G3.12@.ef97ec7) 
on the Sierra King’s Quest VI forums. I was able to get the Windows version of KQ6 going under XP with my method as well as Laura Bow II.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: A Long shot..) I too had this problem on XP with VDMSound. I found this solution from VOGONS. Go to the advanced settings of your VDMS short cut and Set Sound Blaster to IRQ: 5
But in the DOS Environment type in the following on the AUTOEXEC.BAT field: SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 T6
This worked for Longbow.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: A Long shot..)

Thanks for the idea, I’ve also gotten a few from the VDMSound forums(one failed and the other was to use DosBox, which I haven’t tried). I’m not sure I want to mess with that stuff right now but I’ll have a new system to check it on next week(I guess I could dig out the old 486, wonder if it even still works- hasn’t been used in about 6 years). I’ll see if the problem is still there on that system and post back. I’ll keep checking the forum regularly and once again thanks for the suggestion.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(A Long shot..) This is a complete long shot, and I really don’t have a suggestion on how to implement a solution for it… but… I have not used any of these new Sound utilites to try to get Sierra games to work on new computers (I just use my old 486) but the repeating sound problem that you have seems like what used to be back in the days before plug and play an IRQ setting problem… conflicting with another device using the same channel. All this is computer managed now as far as I know on newer systems, so I don’t know if you can get in and overide settings anymore, to try different ones. I do remember stuttering and repeating problems as recent as KQVII on a Win95 system if my memory recalls correctly, and was solved by proper IRQ and DMA settings.
Anyhow, this may or may not be the problem , or even make sense, but that’s my take on it from my end of the screen. I hope you are able to figure it out!
Good luck.
-Brad

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: This is a test – ignore) Well, it worked for me!
I can no longer see all the people subscribed…

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Sorry to say this about your website.) Thank you for the comments! My responses are embedded…
-Ken W
Hi,
I’m sorry to say this, but the site isn’t getting better, it’s getting worse.
One of the problems is that since your last update you have to click the answers just to see alle the messages.
Before, I was displaying all of the responses to a message onscreen at the same time, and now I’m just displaying them one at a time (with a list of them, so that you can pick and choose which responses to look at).
I’m with you on this one. I miss the ability to see all the messages at once. Unfortunately, the code that I was using was built hastily one night, and had a lot of bugs in it. It was poorly designed and poorly written. I’m working on a rewrite that should be back online within a month or two – and, be much better.
Posting a message should be clear that you post a message in ‘Website related’ or ‘Game Related’, now you see new posts just popping up right in the middle of some other thread. you see ‘Re:’ as a new post…
That’s a bug I haven’t seen. Can you try to repeat it?
Turn off “auto notification” before you do – so that each message you add isn’t being emailed to 100’s of people, and then do some experimenting.
The issue of the title on the message is that I automatically put “re:” on the message you are posting under as the title of any message posted. It’s easy to just type over this with a new title. I think people aren’t realizing they can change the message title. I’ll look to see if there is a redesign I should do.
The Photogallery demo doesn’t seem to work (or at least it doesn’t do what I expect it to do) When I select the Photo Gallery demo all I get is a page with some links to the photo’s.
OOPS!!! You are right. When I installed the new version of the software I forgot to move over the code to handle photo gallerys. In the old days at Sierra we had a team of nearly 100 paid QA testers. Now I’ve just got me :{ Oh well… this shouldn’t be hard to fix. Try it again tomorrow. It’s actually a cool feature – I’m surprised no one has used it.
You really should look into ‘vBulletin’ or the other one I posted about in ‘I changed how messages get posted’. these forums are really as userfriendly as any forum every can be.. So if you don’t want to use those forums, at least try to get it to be as easy as those.. I learned when I was a young kid: ‘Why invent the wheel again’ But I know it more fun to try to recreate it yourself so you can learn from it, and I gather from this site that you are learning website programming.. LOL..
You are right that one of the goals for this site was to learn website programming.
In the early days of Sierra, and before I started Sierra, I was a hot programmer. Unfortunately, during the last 10 years or so when I was running Sierra, I was stuck as a bureaucrat while all the developers got to have all the fun. It doesn’t matter how hot “I was” – all that matters today is that it has been about 10 years since I was writing lots of code, and I’m pretty rusty. To be fair though, I’m positive that I’m at least a “top 10%” programmer.
Most of the problems with this site come from three areas:
1) Hot programmers are not necessarily hot designers. My wife Roberta (Kings Quest) is a hot designer. She understands user interfaces, and how to build one that isn’t confusing. I’m good at code, and mediocre at design. I primarily design via the “do it and refine it” method. I’m very fast coding, so generally I like to put something on the site, see if people use/like it, and do more of what people like, and less of what they don’t.
2) This site was never intended for this purpose. I built this software to be a general purpose website generator (look at
Link: http://www.talkspot.com(http://www.talkspot.com/) 
) to see where this site is headed. My long-term goal is that anyone (individual, small business, or group/association) who wants a website can build one themselves. There are currently websites that do this – but they are all gutless. Most give you one page, and no user authentication. There are LOTS of features that will be added to this over the next year. Users of this software will get sites for $10 per month that would have cost $10’s of thousands of dollars if they were coded custom. If I were building a website just for sierragamers.com, it would be a lot simpler.
3) It isn’t finished yet. You are seeing a VERY pre-release piece of code. The code is changing too rapidly to start writing documentation. 99% of the functionality hasn’t even been coded yet. This means that there are no help files, no tutorials, no instructions, etc. Even when finished, the software is intended to be used differently than it is being used here. Here’s a quick overview: The idea is that this is a website generator – but, one major distinction is that I’m using a novel approach for generating websites. My plan is to have 100’s of different “template” websites, for 100’s of different target audiences. For instance, I see templated websites for cub scout troops, church groups, homeowners associations, fan clubs, corporate intranets, train clubs, boat clubs, retail stores, liquor stores, etc. The idea is that in 30 seconds you can build a website that is already customized for you. 99% of the work is already done. All the target user needs to do is change whatever text that separates their homeowners association from the one down the block.
Some of the nice things about those other forums are:
– better editor (this one is real annoying when pressing the enter)
I should have a fix to the “enter key” confusion within the next couple of weeks. The code is already written.
– all messages are kept inside a very clear thread
This site uses a different metaphor. I’m using a tree, of infinite depth. Currently, I have a bug in the code that displays your position in the tree at the top of the message window. When I put this code back it will clear up some confusion.
– Threads are sorted by date (last added reply)
I do display things in date sequence, but then give the forum administrator the freedom to move anything anywhere. I was a bit sloppy when I re-organized the board and didn’t pay much attention to date. I was moving things around based on “topic” not date. I’ll try to pay more attention to this in the future.
– It’s more clear when you want to reply and quote
Give me an example of what you are talking about… should I include the message being responded to in the response? So that you can easily refer to it?
– The ‘watch this thread’ function (you get a message when there is a new reply, it’s kinda like this site but then only on the threads I wanted it)
I had that, and it was confusing my non-techie users. Perhaps it was just poor design. If this seems to be something people want, I’ll add it back.
– Better navigation between subjects..
The way the board is now is propably ok
***CONTINUED***

[Unknown,Unknown]

for the ammount of messages it has now, but when there are more threads and messages it will get very difficult to navigate.
I’m going to have a “newest” and “oldest” button on threads soon – maybe that will help. My current thought is to just watch people use it (especially myself) and then enhance it a little each day as I see ways to make it better.
I hope I haven’t offended you in any way 😉
Heck no! Comments like this help me know how to improve the site.
Here’s another piece of background info on the site: My long-term goal is that this site get taken over by one of my sons. Both are talented programmers, but neither want anything to do with the site. I’m betting that once money starts rolling in, and that they discover that they can work from home, and just cash checks – their opinion suddenly changes. If not, who cares? I’m having fun working on it. I don’t see this as a business that will ever make big money.
There are other reasons to do things than to make “big money”. I’m a believer in the power of computers to change lives. The telephone made the world smaller through giving people from different countries (and cultures) a way to communicate. Television kind of also does this, but it’s really just a broadcast medium – not a communications medium. And, there are some major problems with television as a “world shrinking device” (it’s not fair – some get it some don’t – and, it’s not a level playing field – some countries produce more, and higher quality than others). I get excited about the idea of people from different cultures having a way to communicate in a true multimedia way. I’m a “freedom of speech” kind of guy. I like the idea of empowering people and groups with a simple multimedia way to spread a message. Currently, the software on this site is adding about 1 new website per week. That will grow enormously over the next few years. Think about it. The internet is enabling communities of geographically dispersed people to communicate and interact in a multi-media way. To all of you who grew up with the internet, this is old news. To us old guys who didn’t see a computer until our teens, it’s BIG news. If I can find a way to swing it, I’m going to offer this free (or, darn close to it) to non-profits. Today you can do most of what you do here on a BBS – but, that’s only today. As I said 99% of what this site will do hasn’t been coded yet. If I used public domain software I wouldn’t really have control over what features go in, or how it rolls out. I think there is something cool here that I want to be part of, and I want to guide its destiny.
And I’m looking forward to discussing a lot of old sierra history (The good old Sierra On-Line).

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Quest For Glory 4 – Won’t run)

I tried running it in 256 colors and with and without win 95 compatibility on and it still dosen’t work; but no matter, I just installed the dos version and ran it with VDMSound and it works fine.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Window SCI Engine under Windows XP)

I too had this problem and have found no way around it, but which game is it specifically, every windows SCI game that I have and that I know of has a DOS version (not sure about SQ4 with speech- but text version is DOS and works fine). I just install the DOS version and run it using VDMSound. They all run fine.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Retro the old sierra) Okay hope it will work, by the way: by meaning original sierra designer, this also means you mr ken williams,hope if evereything goes that we will have you on board also..

DH

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Retro the old sierra) There currently isn’t a way to poll on this board. I’ve got the code to do it, but haven’t hooked it up yet. My guess is that it will be another month before I have it installed. I’ll look around to see if there is some simple polling software that I could hook up short-term.
Good luck with your project! I hope it goes.
-Ken Williams

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: Quest For Glory 4 – Won’t run) Just run it under 256 colours. You will again receive this message, but don’t worry – it won’t affect the gameplay. Just click OK. The other thing in win qfg4 – there’s a bug which can’t be destroyed. It is in the screen when you choose your character… This bug happens only under Windows XP.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: KQ4 unreleased cover art) Yes, I’ve seen this cover art in ’88 summer catalog, but it was never released, so only sketches are available. I think you can only obtain those from Ken or Roberta Williams, or a former Sierra artist.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: re: Sierra and Half-Life 2)

Eh, I thought Half-Life 2 looked way better than Doom 3. Even if the graphics of Doom 3 will be more detailed, it will require the absolute latest in hardware to even run at a decent speed. Half-Life 2 is supposed to work even on a P700. Ok, it won’t look great, but it will run. Also, you should be aware that the short teaser movie doesn’t give the game justice by a longshot. You don’t get to see anything spectacular there. The long E3 demo gives you an impression of how the AI looks in the game, demonstrates all the graphic effects (subdivision surface bump-mapping, all sorts of water, glass and fire effects, HUGE outdoor environments etc. etc.) and the physics engine. There’s a nice part in the movie where they use a “gravity gun” to pick up a body (with limbs moving realistically in response to the action) and uses it to push a table full of stuff down into a pool of water. Things react completely realistically to this, and it shows just how good the physics engine is. The characters also look more alive than anything I’ve seen before in a game like this. They use research from the 70’s about the face musculature to make the characters’ faces show emotions and produce perfect lip-synch. I also think that the environments in Doom 3 looked pretty boring given the resources of the game engine, where Half-Life 2 produces a wide range of interesting sceneries.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: KQ4 unreleased cover art)

Yeah, they actually do.  I know that it was either in an issue of Interaction, The Sierra Magazine, or one of the leaflets included with an older game of mine.  It was a really cool box, and I will try to find a copy of it.  If anyone else remembers where it was, let me know.

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: What about a Mystery House sequel) (First how about moving this to a seperate thread)
But there is sequel to mystery house, it’s the second Laura Bow (The first is a rewrite of the original Mystery House).

[Unknown,Unknown]

(re: New Space Quest Fan Game Released!) I’ve been playing SQ0 for a few hours now. A very well made game, and I must give prase to all that had the currage, nastalga and skill to create it. Thanks from an old SpaceQuest fan.
Matt

[Author]

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