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You need the patch.
Go here: http://www.sierra.com/downloadfile.do?gamePlatformId=284&mediaid=5598There was another thread around here in which I gave a more recent update. I can’t remember exactly where it was though, maybe someone else can point it out or you should be able to find it. I try not to navigate around here more than I have to, and just reply to posts.
Peasent’s Quest is the one that pops in to my head.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/disk4of12.htmlThere is also a JavaScript experiment
http://goodoldadventures.com/index.htmlAny others?
Patrick:
I wouldn’t say that my decision to leave was 100% due to what was happening in the software business, but it was certainly a major ‘straw on the camels back’. There were other factors: 1) Running Sierra was a 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, job for nearly 20 years. I needed some time off. 2) My NetMarket spin-off group had produced a product that was being slowly taken over by corporate. It was going from being a small R&D project to a strategic effort for the company. My ability to work fast and be creative was being impeded as the project was gaining visibility within the company. And, 3) I had a meeting with Kirk and Walter towards the end, to discuss strategic moves I thought CUC should be making in the shopping space. I had hoped there was a way I could have a material impact on CUC’s shopping business, but the pace large companies move at is way different than the culture I had created at Sierra. It was apparent that I was a fish out of water, and it was time to move on. Sierra wasn’t a small company. We had nearly 1,000 employees — but, CUC had many times this, and an ingrained way of doing things. I tend to move at internet speed, and that doesn’t always work in a large company.
-Ken W
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…B, Patrick, 2006-02-27 16:15:59‘I felt that the smart move would have been to put me in charge of the software business, and was confused when I wasn’t asked. Instead CUC moved one of their corporate vice presidents, with no experience in software, into the leadership position, and I left the company completely. ‘
So then your decision of leaving was based entirely on the move to put an inexperienced person in charge of software? I would not blame you if that was the case….
I do not know why Cendant sold off Sierra. I was not consulted then, and have not been consulted since – with respect to anything.
About 3 or 4 years ago, I made a decision to drop back in, and help Vivendi Universal get the business back on track. I wrote to their CEO and tried to meet. I’ll see if I can find the message I sent, and post it here. They responded by inviting me to visit their corporate headquarters for a meeting. I wrote back and said that I live in Mexico, and needed to do it as a conference call. They responded that if I didn’t want to fly to LA, at my own expense, the meeting was off. They could not be convinced to speak to me by phone.
I wanted no money. My sole goal was to help get Sierra back on top of the industry. It’s certainly possible that they are mad at me for some reason I’m unaware of — but, I don’t think that is it. I think its nothing more than that they are a big company, and they think like big companies. Anything out of the box doesn’t fit their mold. I keep thinking someday one of their corporate folk will read this board and call me. If it ever actually occurs, I’ll post a message here.
You may have noticed that they did a Leisure Suit Larry without involving Al Lowe. They have never contacted Roberta to speak about Kings Quest or Phantasmagoria.
Don’t ask me to explain this type of behaviour…
-Ken W
PS I just re-read my response, and it sounds like ‘sour grapes’. My apologies for that, but this really is a case where criminal conduct was involved. Perhaps, not with respect to Sierra, although Sierra’s shareholders were amongst those who were harmed by CUC’s criminal actions. And, as I’ve said before, a lot of people I really care about were badly hurt, and a brand name I spent most of my life building was allowed to die. If that doesn’t justify some sour grapes, what does?
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…young old gamer, 2006-02-27 14:41:37That’s really interesting, Ken…thanks for the fill-in.
I HAVE to ask one more thing…you dropped out of the CUC board and left before the HFS/Cendant merger and subsequent fraud unveiling, right? Do you know what prompted Cendant to sell off their software devision? Was it the simple fact that, because they were caught and loosing lots of money, if they sold Sierra (again) off to Vivendi Sierra might…if even only by name, survive? Did Cendant tell you or ask for your advice when they saw that they may have to sell Sierra off to Vivendi/Havas?
Sorry if I’m overly bugging you…but this is really interesting to me…I try to imagine what would have happened if Cendant was able to keep Sierra, would they have re-grown the software business, or would it have kept running into the ground?
History, even the ‘bad’ or ‘dark’ stuff is still, in my opinion, interesting to hear. Although Sierra is ‘still’ just a copyright, one never knows what Vivendi may have in store for it…until then…
Thanks again, Ken,
BC
…‘I felt that the smart move would have been to put me in charge of the software business, and was confused when I wasn’t asked. Instead CUC moved one of their corporate vice presidents, with no experience in software, into the leadership position, and I left the company completely. ‘
So then your decision of leaving was based entirely on the move to put an inexperienced person in charge of software? I would not blame you if that was the case.
That’s really interesting, Ken…thanks for the fill-in.
I HAVE to ask one more thing…you dropped out of the CUC board and left before the HFS/Cendant merger and subsequent fraud unveiling, right? Do you know what prompted Cendant to sell off their software devision? Was it the simple fact that, because they were caught and loosing lots of money, if they sold Sierra (again) off to Vivendi Sierra might…if even only by name, survive? Did Cendant tell you or ask for your advice when they saw that they may have to sell Sierra off to Vivendi/Havas?
Sorry if I’m overly bugging you…but this is really interesting to me…I try to imagine what would have happened if Cendant was able to keep Sierra, would they have re-grown the software business, or would it have kept running into the ground?
History, even the ‘bad’ or ‘dark’ stuff is still, in my opinion, interesting to hear. Although Sierra is ‘still’ just a copyright, one never knows what Vivendi may have in store for it…until then…
Thanks again, Ken,
BCHey Ken,
I lost my second post in Safari 2.0.3 on Mac OS X 10.4.5 (it keeps showing up blank!) so I’ve switched to Firefox 1.5.
The main point of my post was that I know millions of people were impacted by Sierra, probably hundreds of thousands significantly, and we’re all glad that we that time in our lives. I mean, I like Pepsi, but without it in my life, things wouldn’t be -that- different. Without Sierra, I would probably be somewhere else completely.
I’m commented on this a few times over the years.
For those who don’t know the story, here’s the quick version:
- Sierra was a public company
- Walter Forbes, of CUC, joined our board around 1992. At the time, Sierra was launching its TSN online gaming network, and I wanted a board member with communications industry and subscription management experience and contacts. Walter was a friend of one of our existing board members
- Walter was a great board member, and a very creative, intelligent person. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves, but he was the father of modern online shopping
- In 1996, Walter surprised me after a board meeting, by asking if Sierra could be acquired
- At the time, Sierra was not for sale. We were doing extremely well, but as a public company, we had to listen.
- CUC wanted to acquire several game industry companies and combine them into a mega-company. Companies like Lucasarts, Broderbund, Davidson (Blizzard) and others were discussed. This sounded good, because I felt there was an opportunity to create an unbeatable company with worldwide distribution.
- On the other hand, CUC was discussing having Bob Davidson, of Davidson software (an educational software company) run the consolidated company. I had major reservations about this. Bob was a ‘big company’ guy and very conservative. I couldn’t imagine Bob managing Sierra’s highly creative development organization, or marketing some of our more controversial products; such as Leisure-Suit Larry and Phantasmagoria. On the other hand, Bob had Blizzard, which were doing well, so there was some indication that it could work
- CUC was offering a price well above Sierra’s current stock trading price. To an extent the decision was out of my hands. As the CEO of a public company, I had an obligation to do what shareholders wanted. That said, I felt there was a risk in the transaction that Sierra could be ruined by becoming part of a larger entity, especially one run by Bob Davidson.
- Based on my concerns that Sierra would fail if run by Davidson, I declined the acquisition offer. This resulted in CUC negotiating a post-deal working relationship that would keep Sierra’s development group independent of Davidson. There was a software board created, which consisted of Kirk Shelton (of CUC), Bob Davidson and myself. It was specifically agreed that Sierra’s development group would NOT be managed by Davidson.
- Immediately after acquisition, it became obvious that things weren’t going to work. Plenty of finger-pointing ensued. It was clear that the ‘software board’ was never going to meet, and that neither Davidson nor CUC had an intention of working within the framework that had been completed.
- I do not blame Bob Davidson. We have never spoken about what occured, but there are indications that he and I were told different stories about how the software division would be managed post acquisition.
- One of my sayings is that ‘A ship should only have one captain’. Bob and I were trying to co-exist within one software company, and it wasn’t working. I felt betrayed by CUC, but wasn’t ready for retirement, and it was too painful to watch Sierra being destroyed. I thought Sierra’s best chance for survival was to end the adversarial relationship between CUC, Davidson and myself.
- I asked Walter Forbes if there was something else within the company that I could do. At the time, CUC was heavily involved in shopping by telephone. They had a membership club which provided discount merchandise that was ordered over the phone, and wanted to transform this business to online shopping. I split off a group of developers from Sierra and started running a group known as NetMarket. We had a great run of success at NetMarket, and built a great online shopping service.
- Meanwhile, Sierra was struggling. Davidson and CUC also weren’t getting along, and Davidson soon resigned.
- I felt that the smart move would have been to put me in charge of the software business, and was confused when I wasn’t asked. Instead CUC moved one of their corporate vice presidents, with no experience in software, into the leadership position, and I left the company completely.
- Soon after these events, CUC itself was merged with another company, and it was discovered that CUC had been ‘cooking its books’ dating back to several years prior to acquiring Sierra.
- CUC’s stock value collapsed, and its senior officers were charged as criminals.
- Kirk Shelton was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
- Walter Forbes has been tried criminally twice, and escaped prosecution on both occasions. Both have continued to maintain their innocence.
- I am frequently asked whether I believe that Walter and Kirk are crooks. I honestly have no idea. In Sierra board meetings, and during the brief period I was on CUC’s board, I never saw anything suspicious, other than their dishonorable dealings with Sierra and Davidson.
- Two juries have heard far more evidence than I had access to, and neither found enough evidence to convict Walter. So, perhaps he is innocent. I wish it were more definitive than this. A lot of people (1,000 Sierra employees) were hurt horribly by what occurred. Thousands of others who would have someday worked for Sierra will never work there. A brand name that once was amongst the finest in the world, now means little. Games that would have existed will now never be created. Thousands of lives were ruined. Those who were guilty should be hunted down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I hope that someday, someone will write a book about CUC. I’m as curious as everyone else to learn what happened.
-Ken W
Hi Tom!
Truly amazing!
Any possible way that you could make a scan of the disk’s with their labels and the casing they came in (If any)most appreciated
Peter
Alistair is correct. AFAIK, the most common DOS releases of KQ6 were in larger boxes with blue, red and black slipcovers, and as mentioned contained the tall version of the guidebook printed on higher quality paper. The common CD-ROM release was in a somewhat thinner white box and contained the CD-sized guidebook. There is also a one-piece larger purple box slash CD release out there that you want to avoid like the plague – it has no guidebook at all.
My understanding was that the long guide was found in the big DOS BOX, and the short square one was found in the jewel case with the CD.
– Alistair
‘Audio’ refers to sound effects and speech, not MIDI music.
Now, what Roland sound card are you using? Would help me out.
– Alistair
Just as a quick vote: The versions that both I (DOS) and my Wife (Mac) had came with the long book rather than the square book so I always assumed that was the more common version.
Hi,
Have you tried setting the game speed to its utter maximum before the phone rings? This will make Gabriel move rather awkwardly fast, but it *should* allow you to bypass that particular bug.
Jaap
See, when the creators started developing the game, they actually contstructed every monster of the same materials of a tomato. The seeds, the juice, the skin, even those green seeds you sometimes find, that’s what they’re made of. So, when Connor starts going sword happy, that’s actually tomato juice and seeds you’d be looking at.
Sometimes you’ll see monsters that are an ugly green or grey color. Those are just rotten tomatoes.
KQ8 is what, 8 years old now? Ken and Roberta have no access to the KQ8 code or the means to create such a patch.
Didn’t KQ8 even come with an option to change how much blood is shown? I can’t remember. But, the amount of blood is insignificant compared to what you see in any other video game. And it’s not like it’s very realistic either – again, compared to most video games.
Yeah, this has been going on for a while. VU were expected to first release them back in… October was it? Anyway, I guess they will get around to re-releasing them eventually, when it actually happens is anyone’s guess. Apparently, a third party is doing the work for VU to make the games run in an emulator, so it’s the third party who is taking their merry time. Personally, I think VU should have hired NewRisingSun who has been actually fixing all the bugs and timer problems in old Sierra games via patches. If VU actually consulted the fan community, they would be able to put together a great re-release product that would meet what fans wanted, instead of probably the super-cheap half-assed whatever it is that we’ll eventually get.
I believe that this is all in VU’s interest of gauging just what kind of classic adventure fan community is left out here and the interest in the old games and franchises.
Anybody else catch the story about VUG set to re-release some games for Windows XP?
Here’s the link from Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6144828.html
I am excited to see what they have to offer.
you should have no problem getting into game programming with that list of skills. your math education is deeper than mine, and i do alright so far. i only went up to business calc and elementary statistics. why dont you email me and tell me what areas you are interested in and i can help you from there. do you want to actually code an entire game engine, or are you more interested in just using someone elses and focusing on the physics and gameplay? do you want to start out in 2d, or jump right into 3d? tell me what kind of projects you have worked on before and, if any, game related things. maybe we can work together on something too.
i think you can get my email address from my profile, i hate to put it in the text of message boards because of spam.
My math background includes the following classes:
High School: Algebra I & II, Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus I
College: Calculus II & III, Differential Equations, Discrete Mathematics, Physics I & II with Calculus, Statistics.
My computer background is: Turbo Pascal, Programming Concepts (Java), Object Oriented Programming (C++), IT Program Design (ANSI C), IT Data Structures & Algorithms (ANSI C, Hash Tables, Binary Trees), IT Human Computer Interface (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
On the Side I have programmed in VBA in Access.
TOO MUCH SCHOOL!!!PS: And yes I’m still on dialup (Free juno)
Julie and I are still talking about what to do with the blackjack game once it is finished, so I’m not sure if we will be posting it or not yet, we’ll see. As for the popcorn puzzle game, I would rather not post it because the gameplay wasn’t right yet. I don’t want people to think it is a bad game the first time they see it because I do want to finish it someday and sell it.
As far as DirectX goes, you can code DX with any of the major microsoft languages. It is accessable from Basic, C/C++. and their newer language C#. The coolest thing about DirectX is that you can get it and develop with it for free. Go to msdn.microsoft.com/directx to download the latest SDK. It’s a hefty download though, so I hope you’re not still on dialup.
Let me know what kind of level your skills are in programming and math, and I can help you get started. If you’re still a beginner, DX might not be the way for you to go yet. Also, I can recommend some books that would be at your level.
mxCoder:
Wow! That’s quick. We just mailed it from Miami a couple of days ago.
We were there for the boat show. Three long days of seeing boats. Fun, but very exhausting. We’re back in Mexico now…
Thank you,
-Ken W
