Hi-Res Adventure Title Screens

[Great Hierophant]

This is the first release card for Mystery House :

 

This is the second release card for Mystery House :

 

 

This is the original title screen :

 

 

However, this particular screen was taken from a disk (4am crack) which gives a Coarsegold address.  When Ken and Roberta Williams first published Mystery House, they were living in Simi Valley, 250 miles south of Coarsegold.  They moved to Coarsegold soon thereafter.

 

This came seven years later :

 

 

 

There is a screen of text in between these explaining this game was being released for free by Sierra.

 

So what is this :

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-II-1980-Mystery-House-Hi-Res-Adv-1-By-On-line-Systems/112642669552?hash=item1a3a06bbf0:g:X2YAAOSwvflZU0SU

That Mystery House being sold on eBay appears to have the title screen was rearranged to include "V.F." (version francais).  The in-game instructions were not translated, but presumably the in-game text was.  I've asked the seller to confirm. I think the game probably came with an instruction sheet in French.  The translation was based on the original version with the Simi Valley address given in the instructions.  I also believe that due to the paucity of playing information on the blue cards that came with the original releases, that the instructions were always in the game.  The playing information contained in-game would be contained in paper booklets accompanying later Sierra Hi-Res Adventure titles and did not need to be repeated in-game.

 

I have never seen a title screen displayed for the next games in the series, (#2) Wizard and the Princess, (#0) Mission Asteroid and (#3) Cranston House, except for pirate and later budget releases.  #4 does have a title screen, but it is just plain next and no color unlike Mystery House.

[Great Hierophant]

That eBay disk is even more curious.  You can find a fully translated French version with the title screen shown in the auction in Asimov FTP at /images/non-english/french/misc/On-Line Systems - Mystery House (in French) cracked.dsk

[Great Hierophant]

Update : The seller informed me that he had both the French and English versions The French version had previously sold and he forgot to update the image to show the English version's title screen.  So much for that "mystery."