Sierra Have Sierra games aged worse than LucasArts?

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Real men play both.

 

[Great Deceiver]

There's actually a parser option in the remake, if that's how you wish to play - even a hybrid option.

The remake is truly spectacular. It even allows you to import your original QFG1 save. I can't praise it enough. The only reason I'd play the original is for the MT32 soundtrack at this point.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So, that post I made earlier about the Adventure Game Protagonist? Apparentely there's a side to that topic I had missed.

This is related to GamerGate, but you'll see soon enough why this is relevant here.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Never really liked Guybrush tbh. Now that I've read that, I like him even less.

 

[Sceptic]

The only reason I'd play the original is for the MT32 soundtrack at this point.

The remake uses a digitized version of he MT-32 tracks. As far as I can tell they were recorded with a real MT-32 - I've tried listening to them side by side and I cannot tell the difference.

 

[Blackthorne]

I like both Sierra and Lucasarts games, I think they've both aged well and fuck anyone who tries to make me choose. They only thing that might not have aged well is YOU.


Bt

 

[Elwro]

I liked games by both companies years ago. But looking at them now I have to say that:

• No Sierra game has as cool a setting as Indiana Jones
• No Sierra game is as wacky as Day of the Tentacle / Sam & Max
• No Sierra game is genuinely funny (for the modern version of me), whereas when it comes to Lucasarts titles, well...
• No Sierra game is designed as well as Maniac Mansion.

I think Space Quest was my favourite series, even though it used one cliche after another.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Lucasart seems to be the edgy millenial kid adventure game company. You are making me start to hate it.

 

[Aeschylus]

No Sierra game has as cool a setting as Indiana Jones

QFG4

No Sierra game is as wacky as Day of the Tentacle / Sam & Max

Some might say that's a good thing. Though I do love both those games. A cartoon aesthetic was never really something Sierra went for.

No Sierra game is genuinely funny (for the modern version of me), whereas when it comes to Lucasarts titles, well...

I'd say that's just a matter of taste. But again, comedy was never really something Sierra was aiming for. Parody maybe, but not comedy.

No Sierra game is designed as well as Maniac Mansion.

I would argue all the QFG games, Gabriel Knight 1, and KQ6 were all designed at least as well as Maniac Mansion, if not better.

I think Space Quest was my favourite series, even though it used one cliche after another.

...that was kind of the point. It was a send-up of sci-fi cliches.

 

[madrigal]

As an initial matter, I'll say that I quite like GK, which I think has great art, some fun characters, and a great tourist-level evocation of New Orleans (never having been more than a tourist there, I can't say if it holds up beyond a 48-hour visit, but I found it pretty uncanny when I went to the city years after playing the game). My recollection though, is that the researching aspect of the game -- which should be the heart of it -- always felt kind of superficial (compare the introduction of Anchorhead), and there was a lot of time doing silly stuff like putting on disguises, tag-teaming with mimes, etc. I also thought the culminating puzzle with DJ BRING THE SEKE MADULU or whatever didn't quite work, but I can't really be sure if that's because I was stupid or because the puzzle was missing something.

What is wrong with voodoo code puzzle, seems perfectly logical and straightforward? You observe a note that says 'DJ CONCLAVE TONIGHT BRING FWET KASH'. You bug the sekey madoule so want it brought to the conclave so replace the note with 'DJ CONCLAVE TONIGHT BRING SEKEY MADOULE'.

 

[Tramboi]

People complaining about 'unfairness' are sissies. Adventure games are about saving, narrative exploration and restoring. Dying is part of the fun, ideally just before C&C is found. Dead man walking is bad though.

They're not. Most text adventures for example didn't have save/restore (even if Zork had it). And I won't say that 'adventure games are about playing, dying and replaying for start', that would be plain wrong. Saving/restoring in Sierra games without a hard drive was just awful.
The truth is save/load was a convenience to avoid replaying for scratch : good.
Better game-design without dead-deads was a convenience to avoid reloading : good too

Sierra fans could even be arguing than falling in KQ3 stairs, casino in LSL, or Astrochicken in SQ3 are good adventure design.

(But I absolutely love QfG4 too ! And the Gabriel Knights. And most SQ. And LSL67. And... well ok, Sierra games were often very good)

 

[Blackthorne]

God, you children whining about not having a hard drive. I once loaded games from a fucking cassette tape!!!

A CASSETTE TAPE! THE SAME TAPES I LISTED TO BILLY SQUIER AND GUNS AND ROSES ON YOU BRATS!


Bt

 

[Korgoth of Barbaria]

God, you children whining about not having a hard drive. I once loaded games from a fucking cassette tape!!!

A CASSETTE TAPE! THE SAME TAPES I LISTED TO BILLY SQUIER AND GUNS AND ROSES ON YOU BRATS!


Bt

 

[Irenaeus II]

I always had a hard drive (my first computer was from 1989, I was 8).

 

[Tramboi]

God, you children whining about not having a hard drive. I once loaded games from a fucking cassette tape!!!

A CASSETTE TAPE! THE SAME TAPES I LISTED TO BILLY SQUIER AND GUNS AND ROSES ON YOU BRATS!
Bt

So did I. Clearly saving in an adventure game was a luxury on most 8bit computers

 

[CryptRat]

God, you children whining about not having a hard drive. I once loaded games from a fucking cassette tape!!!

A CASSETTE TAPE! THE SAME TAPES I LISTED TO BILLY SQUIER AND GUNS AND ROSES ON YOU BRATS!


Bt

What's the problem? Games loading during 15 minutes just do display a run error screen...That was good RNG.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

God, you children whining about not having a hard drive. I once loaded games from a fucking cassette tape!!!

A CASSETTE TAPE! THE SAME TAPES I LISTED TO BILLY SQUIER AND GUNS AND ROSES ON YOU BRATS!


Bt

What's the problem? Games loading during 15 minutes just do display a run error screen...That was good RNG.

 

[SCO]

The really annoying thing was playing 1942 spectrum and waiting 10 minutes everytime you restarted a level.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

God, you children whining about not having a hard drive. I once loaded games from a fucking cassette tape!!!

A CASSETTE TAPE! THE SAME TAPES I LISTED TO BILLY SQUIER AND GUNS AND ROSES ON YOU BRATS!

Bt

You "once" loaded games from a cassette? I did that just last month.

Having to waste 2 minutes of tape loading time just to get a copyright notice on-screen?

Having to load up one side of the tape to get the main menu, then having to turn the tape over and rewind the tape to load the levels? And when it was GAME OVER, you had to rewind the tape to the start to reload the first level?

Best one yet...ever tried playing a game that came on TWO cassettes? Despite the obvious markings, I'll bet you money that modern-day kids would fail to understand a "Insert Side 3" prompt.

 

[Blackthorne]

Hahaha, you're legit, man. Boy, I remember those days - played games with my cousin.


Bt

 

[Tramboi]

Worst experience was http://cpcrulez.fr/GamesTest/forteresse.htm
Each time you moved, the disk version had a seek.
The tape version asked you to fast forward or rewind to some number (true story).

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Each time you moved, the disk version had a seek.
The tape version asked you to fast forward or rewind to some number (true story).

If it was an adventure game with "rooms", then disk seek makes sense, but the tape version sounds horrible. There's an Amstrad game, "Winter Sports" which has the basic program and menu first on the tape, then the 8 sports events lined up in order on the tape after that. The game asked you to reset the counter once it had loaded, and then you had to figure out by yourself where each event was at on the tape.

Same thing with game compilations on tape. I kept a record of all the tape counter numbers for my Amstrad games.

The worst tape offender I ever came across was The New Zealand Story. First you loaded up the game, then you loaded up each level seperately. However, the first level of every world would only load up correctly if you reset the tape counter AT A PRECISE MOMENT during the loading sequence. Missed that moment, and LOAD ERROR was all you got. There was no prompt for this, this was only discovered via trial and error. This error was most likely due to the shoddy tapes the game shipped on, but there you go.

 

[Trojan_generic]

I just noticed that my C2N tape recorder for C64 still works, I use it when visiting my parents, because there is no PC in the house and not much else to do. It is 30 years old. Which other tape recorder thingy still works after that time?