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Sierra was responsible for creating two of my favorite games of all time - King's Quest VI (designed by Roberta Williams / Jane Jensen) and Conquests of the Lon

Sierra was responsible for creating two of my favorite games of all time - King's Quest VI (designed by Roberta Williams / Jane Jensen) and Conquests of the Longbow (designed by Christy Marx). It's such a contrast then to read (what I find profoundly distasteful) quotes like this from the other side of the company. Ken Williams: "I read books about business executives who owned yachts and jets, and who hung out with beautiful models in fancy mansions. I knew that was my future and I couldn’t wait to claim it.". It's a tragedy Ken Williams managed to overrule nearly everyone familiar with Sierra (including his wife) opposed to the acquisition by CUC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUC_International https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUC_International

snoman 2y ago
The Colonel’s Bequest (also by Roberta Williams) still holds a special place in my heart. I can’t play a game like Luigi’s Mansion without feeling like that was one of the inspirations.
- selimthegrim 2y ago
  A love letter to New Orleans.
hinkley 2y ago
I hope Larian gets into making sequels or remakes of all those 90’s games that people loved. Baldur’s Gate is a game my brain tries to place in the late 90’s along with the later Warcraft games but in fact it’s 00’s. Seeing them walk gaming history backward would be a treat. Before BG3 came out I started to try to finish BG which I played but got stuck a third of the way through. I made it at least halfway, but then the betas were coming out so I just watched other people play through on YouTube. Which I suspect many people did if they even bothered exerting themselves that much. What other games have good playthroughs?
rfurmani 2y ago
Completely agree on both counts! I loved those two games and felt Conquests of the Longbow didn't get the recognition it deserves. On the second point, when I read his book (https://kensbook.com/ https://kensbook.com/) I was disappointed to not hear about the magic of the games themselves and the creative process behind them. It became clear that his primary goal was to grow a business, he thought being a game distributor was more exciting, but then was disrupted by Steam, shareware, and online distribution.
the_af 2y ago
It was Space Quest for me. Oh, I played many of the others, but SQ -- specifically II -- was what made me fall in love with adventure games, warts and all. I learned English (well, besides taking actual English classes anyway) by typing words in its text interface.
- SamBam 2y ago
  So much humor in the Space Quest series. I loved them. I should work out how to get them running from GOG for my kids.
- pavlov 2y ago
  I also learned English mostly by Space Quest. I remember being nine years old, sitting in front of SQ1 with my best friend, and trying to survive the escape pod early in the game. How do you avoid dying when it crashes on an alien world? Our only hope was my neighbor who was a few years older and seemingly infinitely wise. I called him up, and patiently he spelled out the magic words to type before launching the escape pod: “FASTEN SEAT BELT” What do those words mean? We had no idea, but we lived on to explore another world. A few years later I could read and write English just fine, but had no idea how anything was pronounced. Sierra English was a real thing among my generation.
  - lolive 2y ago
    Same memories for me, but with King’s quest 3. I still have the tiny English-french dictionary I wrecked by opening it and translating every and each word of each sentence, for that [6 months] adventure. To get rid of the wizard, become a bird, kill that nasty spider, go into bear’s house, etc, etc…
- rfarley04 2y ago
  Yea, same for me. This article sent me down a rabbit hole of playing a few of 'em online: https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-games-online/play-space-quest-v-next-mutation-online/play/ https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-...
- 2y ago
999900000999 2y ago
How tragic to be widely successful, cruise the world and still have the drive to work on passion projects. They just released Colossal Cave a few years ago. Nothing good lasts forever, that's just how it is.
mzs 2y ago
I wonder how the early employees did in the deal. Did they cash-out as well?
- pavlov 2y ago
  To my knowledge there was a long lockout period in CUC Sierra acquisition. When Sierra employees were finally able to sell their CUC stock, it had already tanked as the massive fraud was exposed. (Spoiler for Part II of this article, I guess!)
Yeul 2y ago
This is interesting was there already enough money in videogames to make people multi miljonairs in those days?
- kevingadd 2y ago
  Business was good in those days if you had an audience and could distribute your game to your customers more or less direct. Retail was very expensive, but if you were selling shareware your distribution costs were really low and you weren't giving anybody 30-50% of your take. Titles may not have sold i.e. 10 million copies back then, but you could make good money off a single game, and it was cheaper & faster to develop a game. The 'if's I just listed are pretty significant, of course. For one example, Ultima 1 was developed by a couple people, sold for ~$40 USD, and eventually sold over 1.5m copies according to https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman/90148089/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman... and other sources. So that alone probably made everyone involved in the game's development millionaires, even if the publisher took a huge cut.

snoman 2y ago

The Colonel’s Bequest (also by Roberta Williams) still holds a special place in my heart. I can’t play a game like Luigi’s Mansion without feeling like that was one of the inspirations.

selimthegrim 2y ago
A love letter to New Orleans.

hinkley 2y ago

I hope Larian gets into making sequels or remakes of all those 90’s games that people loved. Baldur’s Gate is a game my brain tries to place in the late 90’s along with the later Warcraft games but in fact it’s 00’s. Seeing them walk gaming history backward would be a treat. Before BG3 came out I started to try to finish BG which I played but got stuck a third of the way through. I made it at least halfway, but then the betas were coming out so I just watched other people play through on YouTube. Which I suspect many people did if they even bothered exerting themselves that much. What other games have good playthroughs?

rfurmani 2y ago

Completely agree on both counts! I loved those two games and felt Conquests of the Longbow didn't get the recognition it deserves. On the second point, when I read his book (https://kensbook.com/ https://kensbook.com/) I was disappointed to not hear about the magic of the games themselves and the creative process behind them. It became clear that his primary goal was to grow a business, he thought being a game distributor was more exciting, but then was disrupted by Steam, shareware, and online distribution.

the_af 2y ago

It was Space Quest for me. Oh, I played many of the others, but SQ -- specifically II -- was what made me fall in love with adventure games, warts and all. I learned English (well, besides taking actual English classes anyway) by typing words in its text interface.

SamBam 2y ago
So much humor in the Space Quest series. I loved them. I should work out how to get them running from GOG for my kids.
pavlov 2y ago
I also learned English mostly by Space Quest. I remember being nine years old, sitting in front of SQ1 with my best friend, and trying to survive the escape pod early in the game. How do you avoid dying when it crashes on an alien world? Our only hope was my neighbor who was a few years older and seemingly infinitely wise. I called him up, and patiently he spelled out the magic words to type before launching the escape pod: “FASTEN SEAT BELT” What do those words mean? We had no idea, but we lived on to explore another world. A few years later I could read and write English just fine, but had no idea how anything was pronounced. Sierra English was a real thing among my generation.
- lolive 2y ago
  Same memories for me, but with King’s quest 3. I still have the tiny English-french dictionary I wrecked by opening it and translating every and each word of each sentence, for that [6 months] adventure. To get rid of the wizard, become a bird, kill that nasty spider, go into bear’s house, etc, etc…
rfarley04 2y ago
Yea, same for me. This article sent me down a rabbit hole of playing a few of 'em online: https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-games-online/play-space-quest-v-next-mutation-online/play/ https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-...
2y ago

999900000999 2y ago

How tragic to be widely successful, cruise the world and still have the drive to work on passion projects. They just released Colossal Cave a few years ago. Nothing good lasts forever, that's just how it is.

mzs 2y ago

I wonder how the early employees did in the deal. Did they cash-out as well?

pavlov 2y ago
To my knowledge there was a long lockout period in CUC Sierra acquisition. When Sierra employees were finally able to sell their CUC stock, it had already tanked as the massive fraud was exposed. (Spoiler for Part II of this article, I guess!)

Yeul 2y ago

This is interesting was there already enough money in videogames to make people multi miljonairs in those days?

kevingadd 2y ago
Business was good in those days if you had an audience and could distribute your game to your customers more or less direct. Retail was very expensive, but if you were selling shareware your distribution costs were really low and you weren't giving anybody 30-50% of your take. Titles may not have sold i.e. 10 million copies back then, but you could make good money off a single game, and it was cheaper & faster to develop a game. The 'if's I just listed are pretty significant, of course. For one example, Ultima 1 was developed by a couple people, sold for ~$40 USD, and eventually sold over 1.5m copies according to https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman/90148089/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman... and other sources. So that alone probably made everyone involved in the game's development millionaires, even if the publisher took a huge cut.