Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store
IGNORED

I worked at Sierra - The Rise, Fall & SCANDAL of Sierra On-Line

Metal Jesus
 Share

Recommended Posts

Metal Jesus Stargunner

Metal Jesus

Posted
Posted

Paul & I met while working at Sierra On-line in the mid 1990s in Bellevue, Wa during the height of the game publishers popularity. In this video, hear stories about how we got the job, colorful characters we worked with, crazy parties we hosted, games we loved and hated, the rise and fall of Sierra as a company and much more!

People forget that we published a few console games during the 80s: BC's Quest for Tires, Oil's Well and several others...
  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites
eightbit Quadrunner

eightbit

Posted
Posted (edited)

That will be interesting :) Will do. I watch your videos on occasion...great stuff. I particularly liked the review on the Vita. Last Sunday I caught your Plug and Play game review video you uploaded a few years back. Later that day I went to a Goodwill and in the glass case for $5 was a Scooby Doo plug and play. I took it as a sign and went home $5 poorer :)

 

A video about Sierra does sound interesting. I never knew anyone who worked there (although I have friends who worked or are currently working with other game companies) and certainly was not aware of a Sierra "scandal".

Edited by eightbit
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Metal Jesus Stargunner

Metal Jesus

Posted
  • Author
Posted

A video about Sierra does sound interesting. I never knew anyone who worked there (although I have friends who worked or are currently working with other game companies) and certainly was not aware of a Sierra "scandal".

 

 

Yeah, the reason why old Sierra isn't around anymore is because of the $500 million they lied about to investors... OOOOPS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Andromeda Stardust Quadrunner

Andromeda Stardust

Posted
Posted

Still loved my Sierra Pinball collector's 3-pack my mom got me from Sam's Club in the 90s. They had a sci fi, a spooky disc, and a dinosaur themed disc, and a bonus demo for incredible machine. The installers are 16-bit but fortunately this was from an era where games could be run directly off the CD, no DRM. I copied the contents of the CDs to some folders and miraculously it let me run and play them without install in 64-bit Windows 7, albeit windowed resolutions. Sadly it crashes if I try to enable "high quality" audio and video. I can't save my high scores as there's no install data but it was good for some nostalgia.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
-^CrossBow^- Quadrunner

+-^CrossBow^-

Posted
Posted

This was perhaps one of my favorite videos I've watched on your channel. I was a massive Sierra fan back in the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, when I was in 6th grade computer class, to pass the class we had to play through and beat SQ1. We played it on Apple IIe computers with Amdek color monitors. But I remember how awesome I thought the game was because it was like we were really in control of the character and what would happen next. Because of Sierra On-Line and and especially my time back then with SQ1, I've been a strong PC gamer sense. In fact, I was even a beta tester for both Cyberstorm games (Still have the CDs they sent me, but sadly not the hardware key to play it), and beta tested Starseige which, became a favorite of mine as well.

 

And you guys were dead on in regards to Dynamix. They hands down made some of best games that Sierra released in the 90s. Willy Beamish being another one of my favorites. Anyway, it was an awesome video to see you two just chatting about it and really making it feel like the viewer is right there sitting across from you listening.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
jdgabbard Moonsweeper

jdgabbard

Posted
Posted

I watched this episode when you released it the other day (yeah, I'm subscribed...). Good video, it actually got me thinking about all of those older software companies that went belly up in the 90s. I was just a kid back then, but what a great time in computing history!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Iwantgames:) River Patroller

Iwantgames:)

Posted
Posted

Still loved my Sierra Pinball collector's 3-pack my mom got me from Sam's Club in the 90s. They had a sci fi, a spooky disc, and a dinosaur themed disc, and a bonus demo for incredible machine. The installers are 16-bit but fortunately this was from an era where games could be run directly off the CD, no DRM. I copied the contents of the CDs to some folders and miraculously it let me run and play them without install in 64-bit Windows 7, albeit windowed resolutions. Sadly it crashes if I try to enable "high quality" audio and video. I can't save my high scores as there's no install data but it was good for some nostalgia.

You mean this one? :)

 

post-39068-0-24993000-1496037207_thumb.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Andromeda Stardust Quadrunner

Andromeda Stardust

Posted
Posted

You mean this one? :)

 

attachicon.gifKIMG0315.JPG

Yesss! With the extra thick 4-CD jewel case. I loved that game. I think my mom bought it at Sam's Club bitd for a whopping $10 in the clearance bin. :cool:

 

Ran fine on Wn95 with a 166Mhz Pentium MMX and 16Mb RAM. Still runs fine straight from the disc (or copied to a folder on my hard drive) on my Win7 64-bits with a 4.2Ghz 8-core AMD Bulldozer and 16Gb RAM (yes, my current rig has 3 orders of magnitude more RAM on it), aside from the fact the 16-bit installer doesn't work so I can't save my high scores, and "high quality" sound and video setting crashes the program somehow.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
82-T/A Quadrunner

82-T/A

Posted
Posted

 

 

Oh man...haven't thought about that game in a long time. Also remember Johnny Castaway screensaver?!

 

3_13607.jpg

 

 

Hahah! Yes... I remember that, and also... "Sierra Christmas eCard." I've got it saved on 5.25" floppy. It basically shifted from several scenes while playing Christmas music on the Sound Blaster.

 

 

Jones in the Fast Lane was awesome... but I seem to recall there was some kind of political correctness thing.

 

 

In the original floppy version, the guy working at Monolith Burger (or whatever they called the Mc.Donalds) was an Asian guy. Apparently from what I remember reading in... Game Pro I think it was... some people complained, so in the re-release of the game, they replaced the Asian guy with a white kid with pimples and stuff. And then the re-released it again, with speech and stuff, and they used a white kid with pimples.

 

 

 

Jones-in-the-Fast-Lane-Sierra-3.jpg

 

 

jflegass3.gif

 

 

 

But man... what a great game!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
-^CrossBow^- Quadrunner

+-^CrossBow^-

Posted
Posted

Yeah...I had Johnny Castaway bitd, but sadly cannot get it to work on today's OSes... Someone should try and port it over to the newer windows OS system. It was so fun to see all the different crap day by day that would happen to him and the messages in the bottle he would receive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2023 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...