Old Sierra Games Breathe Anew

Cow_With_Gun writes: "A small group named Tierra has taken it upon themself to resurrect the classic Sierra anthologies. So far they have brough King's Quest 1 up into the world of VGA and are working on other titles such as Quest for Glory 2 and King's Quest 2."

ScummVM

[bparrish]

There's an emulator for old LucasArts games that use the SCUMM scripting system.

http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/

There's also a port for Pocket PC. I've been playing Day of the Tentacle on my iPAQ with full speech. Runs great.

Sierra Game Timeline

[e1en0r]

This might be a little OT, but I found this link [classicgaming.com] which has all the Sierra games and when they were released. Just in case anyone else was interested.

infkovhgroghprm...

[ThomasMis]

Rumpelstiltskin backwards in a reversed alphabet.... do you know how many times that little dwarf on the big stairway stole items from me until I figured that out!!!!

Already been done for KQ1?

[Zlorfik]

I have a CD collection of KQ 1-6, and unless I mistake it for another collection, it has an enhanced version for KQ 1 on it. I prefer the original... for people who played the original, we want to remember the original. New players however will probably find it impossible to play with the graphics of yesteryear.... :)

Ultima is coming back as well

[Hadean]

Although I loved Sierra games, I always preferred certain other RPGs... For those who loved Ultima instead, there are remakes being made of them as well.

Ultima 1: A Legend is Reborn - http://www.peroxide.dk/ultima/ [peroxide.dk]

Ultima 4: The Dawn of Virtue - http://www.hut.fi/~jtpelto2/ultima4/ [www.hut.fi]

Ultima 5: Lazarus - http://www.u5lazarus.com [u5lazarus.com]

Ultima 6: Prophecy - www.laymeduck.com/u6 [laymeduck.com]

Ultima 9: Eriadain - http://eriadain.multimania.com [multimania.com]

Ultima 9: Redemption - http://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~fountain [purdue.edu]

Also, Bard's Tale is being remade into Devil Whiskey (Bard's Tale 4). It can be seen at http://www.bardslegacy.com [bardslegacy.com]

Re:Quest for Camelot....

[Anonymous Coward]

I recently ran across this site while wandering aimlessly throughout the galaxy.

http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/timewar p/

It's a sc2 clone. The best clone i encountered.
^_^
ui is a bit clunky but the melee mode is almost the same as that in sc2. lots of new ships too.

there is a new game mode called GOB that's addicting.

You want to play classic Sierra games?

[mewsenews]

Then I have two words for you: Sarien [sourceforge.net] and FreeSCI [linuxgames.com] (uhh ok so FreeSCI is an acronym). Both of them are GPL, both of them run in Linux, and both of them seem pretty polished.

Get the PC games free

[MoceanWorker]

I have this [abandonwarering.com] site bookmarked that links to many different "Abandonware" websites that let you download those old PC games (i.e. Sierra, Broderbund, etc..) for free. Just playing Police Quest 1/2/3 gave me old memories of how I used to spend my days on the computer trying to solve the game. :-)

Legend Of the Red Dragon (LORD)

[Nuke Skyjumper]

Since we're on the subject of old 286-era video games, I thought I'd mention that I run a LORD [nuklear.org] system under Linux via DOSemu.

The player list is currently maxed out, but if you log in just after midnight EST, you might get a spot just after old players are deleted.

Re:infkovhgroghprm...

[Anonymous Coward]

hehe...the hardest puzzle to solve in any game, ever ;)

i remember those days fondly...

Re:Sierra Games, does anyone remember this

[skotte]

I'm replying to this post here, because there's soooo many suggestions all below fFor different games.

I personally am working on Hero6 [hero6.com], which is sort of the root of a dozen other off-shoot games and groups. i'm really tied into the group, just now, and i encourage you to check it out.

to the point: the biggest fFactor with what gets reproduced is people to get motivated and start doing it. many groups were started by simply one person in another group getting an idea, and going with it. as with all programming projects, it requires an art person, a programming person, and possibly a "plot" person, and hopefully someone to pull it all together.

and i have fFound The GIMP [gimp.org] to be immeasurably useful in the art creation process. it has loads of scripts and tools, which do no end of good here.

There are several gaming engines which have already been produced, inluding MAD [slashdot.org], and AGS [adventuredeveloper.com]. so you dont have to invent a whole game, necesarilly. you may just need some killer art work, and some good scripting!

Cheers!

Re:What platform?

[skotte]

yeah, it's win only. see, the game actually uses scripts, which access libraries. these are all called up by the gaming engine (In this case, AGS), which can be ported to any platform. but as it happens, AGS presently runs on win32.

Re:Ultima is coming back as well

[aridhol]

See the Ultima Reconstruction Project [voyd.net] for info on all the re-creation projects.

Create your own using SCI and AGI and SQ 1 1/2

[screenbert]

I found a game called Space Quest - The Lost Adventures. Someone has programmed this game based off the Space Quest series. I was curious so I downloaded the game and couldn't stop playing it.

These games can be made either using AGI (KQ1 etc) or the new SCI engine (KQ4 etc). There are 2 complete engines that I found where it shows you how to create your own. They seem pretty easy to use. I found you can use the Above mentioned game to create your own. Sounds like fun. Anyway here are the links:

SQ Lost adventure: http://frostbytei.com/space/download.html

AGI and SCI engines and other info:
http://frostbytei.com/space/download.html

Have fun!

Re: Reverse Engineered Games

[Chris Feddern]

A reverse engineered version (binaries, sources) of the original space combat/trade game Elite can be found here [clara.co.uk].

The source for a replacement binary for Frontier: First Encounters (Unix/Linux, DOS/Windows 98/2000/XP) can is here [demon.co.uk], and you can get the complete data files here [eliteclub.co.uk](shareware, meaning you should send 5 British Pounds to Frontier Developments [frontier.co.uk] if you continue to use it after 30 days).

Re:God, I remeber these

[Moridineas]

Black Cauldron is freely released! It's on Al Lowe's website, http://www.allowe.com/

Scott

Answers to Questions about Tierra

[Anonymous Coward]

I've known about this project for some time; I know Tom at Quest Studios [queststudios.com], the person who is working with the "Anonymous Game Developers" at Tierra to produce the music for their remakes. Let me try to address some of the questions that people have asked.

1) Only the King's Quest I VGA remake has been posted; the team is currently working on three other projects, a King's Quest II-based project (more on that in a minute), a Quest for Glory II project, and a secret project. There are no plans to remake any other games at this time, just a lot of ideas floating around and only a few people doing all of the work.

2) Why King's Quest I? The team originally produced the VGA remake to hone their skills and spur interest in another (now-discontinued) project they called "Royal Quest I". KQ1VGA and RQ1 are not the same project, and never were. However, the original 3 AGDs (Anonymous Game Developers) had a disagreement over the path that Royal Quest I was going to take (the spoof was not going to be quite as "family-oriented" as the real King's Quest series) and Royal Quest I was cancelled. Another answer to the question is: King's Quest I may not be the best adventure game made, but it was one of the first of its kind on many platforms (from the Apple II through to the PCjr); it's historically significant, well known and remembered.

3) The KQ1 VGA remake has been available for download since last fall. Around the end of August/start of September, a speech pack was posted for the game, featuring dialog from Josh Mandel, the original voice of King Graham. The AGDs have also received help from sources they will not name to break the format of the Quest for Glory save-character file, so they can import QfG1 characters, and write out QfG2 characters for use in QfG3.

4) The above having been said, the current Sierra company has so not really said anything against the project. Even so, the AGDs continue to remain Anonymous, just in case. Strictly unofficially, Sierra seems uninterested in pursuing fan projects based on their games, but will of course still send out the typical legal boilerplate saying "No" if you bother to ask them if you can make a project using their intellectual property. Unfortunately, this approach suggests that it is only a matter of time before some of these fan projects become "too popular", in which case Sierra may HAVE to stop the projects in order to protect their rights, if they care about them. So far, this has not yet happened.

5) The games only run under Windows. I do not know of any plans for ports to other platforms, sorry.

6) The project is not related to the Hero6 project, nor is it related to the Space Quest: The Lost Chapter [frostbytei.com] project (another good fan project in which Josh Mandel has gotten involved!).

7) A bit more history on King's Quest: The SCI remake of King's Quest I made by Sierra in 1990 was still 16 colors (EGA) and used a completely text-based parser interface, just like the original AGI version. The Tierra remake is in full 256 color VGA. Much of the artwork is recycled from the Sierra EGA SCI version, but you will find new artwork in various places, and a cleaned up score from Tom and of course the voice pack featuring Josh Mandel as Graham. The remake uses the icon interface introduced by Sierra in later games, and applies it to the classic game. No more frustration mistyping "push witch"; click the hand icon, click the witch. The only time you need to type is to answer the Gnome's question, where there is no time limit, or to name your saved game. (BTW - The other official Sierra remakes were Mixed-Up Mother Goose, Space Quest I, Quest for Glory I (aka "Hero's Quest", Leisure Suit Larry I, and Police Quest I. Yes, all of these were redone in VGA, with icon interfaces. Only the King's Quest I remake was in kept EGA with a parser interface.)

8) The King's Quest II project is NOT a remake. Officially, the project is called "KQ2+" and features new locations and an expanded plot, and an all-new soundtrack (by Tom, of course). The project is nearing completion and the AGDs expect to release it later this year. You can find two samples of the new KQ2 soundtrack on Tom's site on the "What's New" page. OK, that's everything I can tell you about it!

Star Control 2

[orz]

Star Control
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/

Star Control: TimeWarp (fan sequel)
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/ timewarp/

Sierra games on Dreamcast -- Sariendc

[mastagee]

SarienDC [ganksoft.com]
Ganksoft has done a port of Sarien to the Dreamcast. Haven't tried it out yet because I don't have a Dreamcast keyboard or mouse.

Re:Sierra Games, does anyone remember this

[NinjaGaidenIIIcuts]

Instead of keeping way old pc's which are near of their mobo capacitors bogging down, you'd get Mo'Slo [hpaa.com].

Useful to make some DOS games running at a decent speed (e.g. 60 fps, nor 850+ fps) on a Pentium3 or Athlon.

You could make a boot disk to free up "conventional" RAM, also. Most Microprose games for DOS let an option to make efficient bootdisks. You should add some lines in Autoexec.bat and Config.sys, though, usually paths to your device drivers (sound, CD-ROM) and devices' configuration.

Add these lines to MSDOS.sys, attempting to only change their value to "0" if they already were in MSDOS.sys.

[options]

drvspace=0

dblspace=0

heres a direct download

[Anonymous Coward]

ftp://ftp.megagames.com/pub/freegames/KQ1VGA.exe

i was getting 120k from it.

Re:I dont know if I should be excited or sad.

[stripes]

The message sent was clear: Software developers today are more interested in making a game look pretty then givig it guts.

As a former CoinOp game developer I have to say the game developers do still care strongly about game play (er, they use to when I did it), but management didn't. More over the users frequently didn't, and since they pay the bills, well, frequently you follow their wishes.

Or you quit and program something else for a living.

Full solutions of king quest.

[Anonymous Coward]

(1) get magic mirror
Go west 2 screen. Push the rock and get the dagger. Go to the well and use the dagger on the bucket. Climb down the well and dive into the water. You'll see an underground cave. Swim to the underground cave and get out, then fill the bucket with water. Walk west and you'll see a dragon guarding the magic mirror. Pour the bucket of water on the dragon, when the dragon leave, get the magic mirror and exit.

(2) get magic chest
Get carrot from the carrot garden, use carrot on goat so that it follows you. Bring the goat to the bridge guarded by the troll, the goat will kill the troll. Walk over the bridge, guess that little guy name (nikstlitselpmur). He'll give you beanstalk. Walk east 2 screen to plant the beanstalk and climb up the beanstalk. Here you'll find the giant, walk around the tree, the giant is slow so he cannot catch you. Soon he'll fall asleep, get the magic chest.

NOTE: walk south then east of the giant to get the slingshot to earn extra 2 points

(3) get magic shield
Get the bowl, look at the bowl, use the bowl on yourself to fill the bowl with stew. Then give the bowl full of stew to the woodcutter. He'll offer you his fiddle, get the fiddle. Go to the witch house and open the cabinet, then get the cheese. Go to the cave entrance (south, east of the witch house). Grab the condor, the condor will drop you near a hole. Don't jump into the hole first, go west to get the mushroom. No go east and jump down the hole.

Give cheese to rat. Play fiddle by using fiddle on those guards. Get magic mirror. Walk west and eat mushroom. Exit and return to castle to end the game.

NOTE: In the witch house, you can kill the witch to earn 7 extra points, get the note in the witch house to earn 1 extra point, read the note to earn 2 extra point.

NOTE: Near the magic shield is a sceptre, get it to earn 6 extra points.

(4) EXTRA POINTS
- golden egg
Go west 2 times and north one time, you'll see a big tree. Climb the tree and get the golden egg.

- golden walnut
Find the place where there is a squirrel running. Get the walnut on the ground. Use the walnut on yourself.

- pebble
Go west 3 times and get the pebble to earn extra 1 point.

- invisible ring
Talk to the elf to get invisible ring, the elf is north of the carrot garden.

- pouch of diamonds
Go east 4 times, look at the tree, you'll find a pouch. Get the pouch and use the pouch on yourself.

- clover
Go east 2 times and north 2 times, get clover to earn 2 extra points.

(5) easter egg
Sometime when you read the note (from witch house) you'll get the message "all your base are belong to us".

by 31337 h4x0r

Re:The C64 owned the PCjr

[Piper82]

Oh I know. I had one of those too. The difference with the PCjr was that with it's (higher rez) colour monitor, KQ1 was beautiful and crisp vs the C64 on then 20 year old B&W Sears tv. :-) No doubt the C64 had way more games, but it's KQ1 that did it for me. The PCjr was of course a PC in a day where 90% of PC's lacked graphics period. Most were stuck with a monochrome hercules card and if you're (un)lucky, CGA. It even had a great wireless keyboard (later models)!