
The founding of Sierra On-line - gmkoliver
http://www.filfre.net/tag/sierra/
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bitops
Ah, Sierra On-Line. I spent innumerable hours as a kid playing all the Kings
Quest games. (My uncle also gave me a copy of Leisure Suit Larry but let's not
dwell on that).

It makes me sad to consider that the old Sierra games don't seem to inspire
modern game makers any more. Everything is so "instant revenue" focused. These
old games referenced all kinds of interesting literature and movies.

Nowadays, it's all just blood and gore. I may be in a camp of one, but that
makes me sorta sad.

~~~
eropple
_Nowadays, it's all just blood and gore. I may be in a camp of one, but that
makes me sorta sad._

This is insultingly untrue.

<http://www.minecraft.net/> \- <http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/> \-
<http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/> \- <http://www.rodvik.com/rodgames/> \-
<http://www.braid-game.com/> \- <http://www.thinkwithportals.com/> \-
<http://www.audio-surf.com/> \- <http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax> \-
<http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz> \- <http://machinarium.net/>

This was just off the top of my head, too.

~~~
bitops
Sorry, let me clarify: everything even remotely mainstream is blood and gore.
Or, if it's not totally blood and gore, it's been dumbed down significantly to
appeal to the masses.

Good list of games, but...

\- Sam and Max is cheating because it was conceived during the Golden Age.
(One of my all-time favorites).

\- Plants vs. Zombies is great game, but doesn't do much to broaden my
horizons. And it definitely has a focus on fighting. That said, one of my all-
time favorite games is the original XCOM. You really had to think hard to play
that game. Had great atmosphere as well.

\- Machinarium...okay, it's a great game and currently installed on my
machine.

\- Minecraft: also a good game that's doing something innovative.

However! None of these games (as far as I know) appeal to a big mainstream
audience. I really doubt we'll see Zynga, Blizzard or EA doing anything like
these games in the near future. Maybe EA would.

But I'm glad to know that I'm not in a camp of one. :)

~~~
wccrawford
Does it matter that non of Sierra's games would appeal to a 'mainstream
audience', either? Back then, the audience was different. I'm not sure there
were enough of us to even call us 'mainstream', even.

Now, everyone under the sun is playing games. There are more gore-only gamers
now than there were total gamers back then.

There are still plenty of games in the style of Sierra's... It's just that
that same limited audience isn't the loudest voice any more.

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gojomo
Wow, don't recall _Mystery House_ but definitely remember the era of small-
self-publishers, diskettes-in-ziploc-bags.

And I recall being stuck in some later Sierra On-line game – by then with
color hi-res graphics, but still vector drawn slowly on the screen as if
retracing an artist's lines and texture-fills – where I had to throw a rock at
some cobra.

And I recall a similar crude black-and-white hi-res mode game, Richard "Lord
British" Garriott's _Akalabeth_ , which begat Ultima and the Origin empire.
Check out the screencaps:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom#Gamepl...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akalabeth:_World_of_Doom#Gameplay_and_technology)

------
Gormo
Ken Williams actually runs a Sierra nostalgia website
(<http://www.sierragamers.com>) and has posted some interesting background
about Sierra's founding and early years on his profile there
(<http://www.sierragamers.com/aspx/m/669573>).

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mathattack
I'm nerdly (and old?) enough to have played many of those games, and
appreciate the history lesson. Thanks for sharing!

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hokua
My personal favorites were Space Quest and Police Quest. Gold Rush was also
fun.

~~~
Ravenlock
Yes! Loved Gold Rush. What a quirky idea for a game, and so well implemented.

