3 ms·

I’ve seen a few of these kind of articles lately on here, and I really enjoy them. I put a _lot_ of hours into the Quest for Glory franchise as a kid, and alway

I’ve seen a few of these kind of articles lately on here, and I really enjoy them. I put a _lot_ of hours into the Quest for Glory franchise as a kid, and always wondered what happened to it. Sierra just seemed to vanish in the mid/late 90s. Very interesting to read about the history now.

deckarep 5y ago
Also for anyone wanting to learn the history from the man himself Ken Williams recently wrote a book on Sierra’s rise and fall as one of the industry’s top gaming studios. Obviously he wasn’t there for the tail end of things during the acquisitions and fraudulent period but what I found most interesting is how Sierra was bootstrapped in the first place. Ken is a brilliant thinker and had the foresight to build a game engine that Roberta could plug and play her game content in because she admitted to not being a great coder. Later Ken wanted his next generation games to be built as a virtual machine (The Sierra Creative Interpreter) which meant they only had to make the game once and build the VM for different architectures. Again a brilliant move. Check his book out: https://kensbook.com/ https://kensbook.com/
- tfandango 5y ago
  It's worth noting that he's also working on a new game. https://kensgame.com/ https://kensgame.com/
- PhasmaFelis 5y ago
  > Later Ken wanted his next generation games to be built as a virtual machine (The Sierra Creative Interpreter) which meant they only had to make the game once and build the VM for different architectures. Like Infocom did from the beginning with their Z-Machine VM.
  - LaundroMat 5y ago
    And Lucasarts with SCUMM.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  I read Ken's (self-published) book and was a bit underwhelmed. Maybe interesting to diehard fans though. The chapter on Sierra in Steven Levy's "Hackers" was much more engaging (in fact probably made me want to become a published game author). Ken only mentions the Levy chapter in passing which is too bad — Levy did a fantastic job of painting a picture of the adolescent coding Mecca that Sierra was at that time. All night D&D, 2-liter's of Coke, coding, hot tubs and gaming....
x0x0 5y ago
Hey, in case you're unaware -- the Coles have released a all-but-in-name sequel to quest for glory https://store.steampowered.com/app/375440/HeroU_Rogue_to_Redemption/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/375440/HeroU_Rogue_to_Red...
- cgearhart 5y ago
  Whoa! Thanks—I’ll try this out ASAP.
m0ngr31 5y ago
The Quest for Glory series was my favorite as a kid. I'm not sure how many times I beat QFG1. I never did beat 2. But I clearly remember staying home sick one day from school and beating 3 in one sitting. Too bad that was probably the worst of the bunch. Another favorite of mine was Conquests of Longbow. I think that one was a little more obscure?
Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
I could never play VGA versions of Quest for Glory 1&2. Combat was so much better with the keyboard than with that mouse-driven abomination.

deckarep 5y ago

Also for anyone wanting to learn the history from the man himself Ken Williams recently wrote a book on Sierra’s rise and fall as one of the industry’s top gaming studios. Obviously he wasn’t there for the tail end of things during the acquisitions and fraudulent period but what I found most interesting is how Sierra was bootstrapped in the first place. Ken is a brilliant thinker and had the foresight to build a game engine that Roberta could plug and play her game content in because she admitted to not being a great coder. Later Ken wanted his next generation games to be built as a virtual machine (The Sierra Creative Interpreter) which meant they only had to make the game once and build the VM for different architectures. Again a brilliant move. Check his book out: https://kensbook.com/ https://kensbook.com/

tfandango 5y ago
It's worth noting that he's also working on a new game. https://kensgame.com/ https://kensgame.com/
PhasmaFelis 5y ago
> Later Ken wanted his next generation games to be built as a virtual machine (The Sierra Creative Interpreter) which meant they only had to make the game once and build the VM for different architectures. Like Infocom did from the beginning with their Z-Machine VM.
- LaundroMat 5y ago
  And Lucasarts with SCUMM.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
I read Ken's (self-published) book and was a bit underwhelmed. Maybe interesting to diehard fans though. The chapter on Sierra in Steven Levy's "Hackers" was much more engaging (in fact probably made me want to become a published game author). Ken only mentions the Levy chapter in passing which is too bad — Levy did a fantastic job of painting a picture of the adolescent coding Mecca that Sierra was at that time. All night D&D, 2-liter's of Coke, coding, hot tubs and gaming....

x0x0 5y ago

Hey, in case you're unaware -- the Coles have released a all-but-in-name sequel to quest for glory https://store.steampowered.com/app/375440/HeroU_Rogue_to_Redemption/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/375440/HeroU_Rogue_to_Red...

cgearhart 5y ago
Whoa! Thanks—I’ll try this out ASAP.

m0ngr31 5y ago

The Quest for Glory series was my favorite as a kid. I'm not sure how many times I beat QFG1. I never did beat 2. But I clearly remember staying home sick one day from school and beating 3 in one sitting. Too bad that was probably the worst of the bunch. Another favorite of mine was Conquests of Longbow. I think that one was a little more obscure?

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago

I could never play VGA versions of Quest for Glory 1&2. Combat was so much better with the keyboard than with that mouse-driven abomination.