suejak

I personally like VSB between the two, though it might be my personal bias (SQInc definitely caused me more headaches).  1996 to 1997 was kind of a sweet spot for adventure games, existing between the VGA Golden Era and 3D Armageddon where games like "Curse of Monkey Island", "Broken Sword", and "Leisure Suit Larry 7" were walking on blazed trails and weren't afraid to play with large casts of characters, open-world sandboxes, and tongue-in-cheek humor. I think "Vohaul Strikes Back" fits into that sweet spot. When I first joined the team, there was already so much content made for the game. Dozens of characters, enormous maps, massive dialogue trees, etc. Not to mention it was a great team experience. Even back when it was just a proposition on a forum post, VSB carried a very strong spirit for adventure gaming that I respect.
 
*head explodes*

But what if we do not understand? :lol:

Wowsers...
 

Bought the Sierra logo shirt! I'm gonna look so hot at the gym.

There are a lot of factual problems with this.
 
Space Quest got plenty of marketing and support. Anybody who remembers Sierra games almost always rattles off King’s Quest, then Space Quest (and Leisure Suit Larry).
 
King’s Quest was the flag ship. It sold more. It appealed to a wider base. Comedy in general is harder to get mass appeal. But this doesn’t mean Space Quest was not a money maker. Space Quest got 6 games. Aside from King’s Quest, only Leisure Suit Larry got as many. You don’t do that if the games aren’t making money. When Sierra first jumped to use professional musicians, King’s Quest 4 got William Goldstein, and Ken Williams got Supertramp drummer Bob Siebenberg for Space Quest 3. When Scott and Mark wanted Gary Owens for narrator for Space Quest 4, Sierra was on board and agreed instead of putting up a fight.
 
Also, most Sierra games outsold LucasArts by magnitudes. The LucasArts guys have stated their constant frustration that Sierra constantly outsold them by so much.
 
 
Ignoring the salient point that Scott and Mark could have never created Space Quest without Ken and Sierra, this could have never been a LucasArts game. The LucasArts guys have stated in interviews they hated the things Space Quest did. (They didn’t name Space Quest, but some Sierra game, but they remembered vague things about dying all the time, like picking up a piece of glass and cutting themselves and dying instantly which they hated. I think they were (mis)remembering Space Quest 3 picking up the sheet metal at the beginning. They felt that the authors were sadistic that hated the player and wanted to kill them.) This led them to things like the no-death policy. Ironically, it was probably Space Quest that help make LucasArts what they became.
 

Eh, maybe to us personally, but SQ doesn't have the community today that KQ has - look at the Phoenix Online forums, even back in their "Silver Age" versus here. Not much activity round these parts even back then. And it's not like there weren't similar things going on - the SQ7 group shut down about the same time TSL was going through its own cease-and-desist throes, which eventually reversed, supposedly thanks to their fans... And saying it's SQ ignores the following that games like QFG, GK, or even PQ has...
 
My intent is not to dump on any specific community. Perhaps SQ just appeals to a different type of person than KQ - the underdog.
 
My opinion as a programmer is that AGI/SCI, as well as Ken's ability to keep developers produce a number of quality games for years, are the true "crown jewels" of Sierra. Without an engine that could let storytellers do what they wanted or a producer that pushed them to succeed, I don't see how Sierra could have been successful. It's only once Ken was pushed out by Cendant that we saw Sierra fall. I don't feel that SQ could have happened at that time without Sierra. SQ helped diversify Sierra's portfolio and probably helped make it a bigger name, but there was Sierra before there was SQ. Ken was the one that let Scott learn how to program and develop his own game after hiring him for random projects. That wouldn't have happened later, or likely at another game company.

I'm actually leaning towards Incinerations as well. VSB wound up as a comedy game which has more in common with Space Quest 6 and the LucasArts classics. What is said and what happens during the course of the game aren't always supposed to hold any meaning in regards to the plot, but they're nearly always trying to raise a laugh from the player. I like to think it turned out a funny game. But it's not too preoccupied with any relationship with the rest of the series, other than trying not to break canon.
 
The humour in the game also stems from distinctly different cultures. The bulk of it was written by Andres, who's an Estonian. A few of the jokes, references and design ideas in there are mine, and I'm Danish. And Martin, who's Australian, just crammed a ton of sci-fi references into every little corner of all the locales. Most of the people on the team throughout the game's development were also quite young. All of that serves to make the humour more European/British, and overall less subtle than something Scott would write.
 
Incinerations, on the other hand, is indeed a plot-first game, and Chris infused it with a more American kind of humour that is closer to what Scott came up with in the first four games. Like the first Space Quest game, it's a serious sci-fi story at heart, in which the comedy mostly occurs because the main character is so removed from the stereotypical space opera hero. It's a subtle aspect of the series that I've only really come to appreciate quite recently, and Incinerations nails that completely. And hey, let's not forget that the story is actually very well-written. It'd have worked well on its own terms; actually, Chris planned to rename the returning characters, vehicles and locations, should he receive any attention from Activision. I'm glad that didn't come to pass, though. As long as we get no more official instalments of the series, Incinerations is to Space Quest what Fury Road is to Mad Max.
 
So, yeah, Incinerations it is. But I am immensely proud to have worked on both games (though I'd love to beef up my parts of the Incinerations soundtrack), and I'm proud that these two fanmade games were actually deliberately made to fit together - something I still think is unique for fan games...

I love how he focuses on little things that date the game just right. Neon signs and radio stations.

New video with the finished bookstore art and new character animation and clothing art...
 
http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/occultbookstore

Well, seeing as this game was made by Brian Provinciano, yes the very same Brian who created SCI Studio, Locker Gnome Quest, and oogles of SCI and AGI tools for the community (along with AGI256), I'd say it's a pretty legitimate homage.

But is it as much fun as doing the chores for the wizard in King's Quest 3?

Could not agree more. I know that there are probably MI fans around here, but that style was never KQ's schtick. While KQ always had humorous elements, it was never primarily comedy.

Hmm... I don't fully disagree with either of the two excellent posts above, but I do have a very different perspective.
 
All I'll say for now is that I wish they hadn't made Graham such an anti-hero. I felt this was completely unnecessary and a repulsive "Guybrushing" of a solid license. Does every adventure game hero really need to be a funny-looking bumbler with a heart of gold?

Ryan's a bum-paddle.  Good lord, I've had to read lengthy PMs and emails from him that are pretty intense.  But he's mostly harmless, like Earth.
 
Sierra Gamers is an odd group, for sure.  But I know who my friends are in the community - I can't believe people were dismissive of you, Collector, or that they deleted your posts.  Just about everyday I wanna send you a gift basket.  But I digress.
 
Of course a new SQ isn't going to be VGA P&C.  I never expected that.  I just wish Activision would have given Mark and Scott the fucking millions they provided TOG with to make an SQ game or to Space Venture.  Space Venture looks great to me so far, and imagine what it would be if it had a multi-million dollar budget.  Sigh.
 
Anyway, you're all a bunch of assmunches and I'm glad you're my friends.
 
 
Bt

That's a fairly broad brush you're painting with there. I don't believe people throw fits because the new KQ is not P&C. They knew it wouldn't be. It's just the limitations of which the direction of the approach they do engage is inherently comprised of are annoying and needless. They could have done so much more with that same interface without being P&C. It's not always about VGA 320x200 nostalgia nonsense. That was actually something Ryan accused many of (myself included) and he was just as wrong.
 
But anyway, that's for another thread. I'm still not joining this one. Let me know how it goes, though. At the end of the day, could it be that Sierra communities have been so segregated for so long that it may be impossible to keep everyone together in one place? Everyone has different ideas about what is fun to talk about regarding Sierra. And as it happens, people have left FB groups, banned others, and started new groups for one reason or another because of it. The existence of the many Sierra groups could just be evidence of that fact.

Occult book store... not the final colored version (obviously), but looking great so far
 
 

I usually don't post my opinions on games until after I complete them, but I made an exception since this one is long (it's said to be around 4 to 6 hours, hence it's price of $10 dollars per episode as opposed to the now standard $5). I played through the intro and the first trial for Graham's knighthood, and I loved it so much so far I had to share my thoughts. I was wondering if they would go the route of modern Telltale games, as that seems to be a market that Activision would want to tap into. The result is a little bit Telltale, a little bit classic Sierra, and a whole lot of fun (the humor in this was said to be inspired by The Princess Bride, and there's definitely a lot of that, as well as other irreverent comedy such as Monty Python).
 
So far, it actually takes the Telltale formula to the perfect level in my opinion, mixing in the right amount of QTEs and action sequences with classic adventure game puzzles and choices and consequences (although we'll have to see how the consequences play out in later episodes to see if it reaches the levels of games like Dreamfall Chapters). There's the choices and consequences (old King Graham, voiced perfectly by Christopher Lloyd, mentions that his younger self had a choice between several options, each of which would have consequences). There are QTE's, and there are ones where you have to push the button repeatedly, but they make sense here as they're presented as things such as chopping a tree or rowing a raft, rather than just arbitrary things like summing up strength, and the amount of button pressing repetition is never excessive. They also have first person shooting sections (with a bow and arrow) that are handled really well (and sometimes even happen in the heat of the action, which adds to the tension in my opinion). But, there is also an inventory and puzzles, and not ones where the solution is right next to the object, either. The areas to explore are rather large, and the solution might be location far away from the problem, which bridges classic Sierra with the modern adventure game formula together excellently.
 
The story is exactly what I was hoping, as it's clearly both a sequel (as well as a prequel in parts) and a re-imagining. The set up of old King Graham telling his granddaughter stories of his life works well for the game, as it gets to tell new stories never told before, and for the stories that it does revisit (such as Graham's quest to get the magic mirror from the dragon), any changes to the story can be chalked up to Graham embellishing a bit to keep his granddaughter excited.

So the new Sierra tweeted that the new KQ game would fill over 9000 floppy disks. I pointed out to them that it has surpassed KQXLVIII (The Quest for More Disk Space) by at least 467 disks. (which means it's over 12 GB)

God, the graphics for this game hit me so hard.
 
I wish I could just dump more money on it to make it grow faster.

It was linked in the latest update, but the direct link is here:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03tRjudNzM

And the music is great!

New video with a full scene in action --
http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/quickiepal

In case anyone is interested, we recently released Version 1.2 of Late Last Nite. What's new? Lots of stuff!
 

 
Version 1.2 of Late Last Nite:
 
Looks Better!
We’ve added new animations, updated sprites, and tweaked existing backgrounds! In earlier versions of the game, you might have asked yourself, "Is that talking owl’s trailer made out of cake, or what?!" Well, in Version 1.2, you can cast all doubts aside. Yes, that trailer is absolutely made out of cake, and you’ll know it just by looking at the screen with your eyeballs.
 
Sounds Better!
Not only have we added more sound effects, but we’ve also remastered the Late Last Nite soundtrack for your listening pleasure. Not impressed yet? What if we also threw in a brand new rock tune that plays over the closing credits? No? Well, what if I told you that original rock tune was written and performed by guitar legend Carlos Santana? Okay, that last part is a lie, but the rest of it is pretty cool, right?
 
Plays Better!
New puzzles? New characters? New dialogue? New Easter eggs? How is this even possible?! Well, we signed a pact with a certain Dark Lord who will remain anonymous until a predetermined Day of Reckoning, at which time all will be revealed while we roast in the Pit of Suffering. Until then, let’s just say we worked really hard on adding more cool, weird, and funny stuff to the game. We’ve also improved the interface for an overall smoother puzzle-solving experience.

Have you played Late Last Nite before? Well, there’s lots of new content to discover in the latest version. Never played it? Well, you made all those people who suffered through earlier versions of the game look like a bunch of suckers. Kudos!

Seriously, though, give it a spin. We'd love to hear your feedback.
 
Jess

To all of our great relief, it looks like the fantasminominal soundtracks of Quest Studios are getting a new home and won't be lost forever to time!
 
http://www.midimusicadventures.com/queststudios/
 
Including all the other resources it had like the MT-32 resource center and other applications. This is a great day. Now I'm actually going to download them all like I had originally planned but never did before QS went down.