Messages

1

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Chainsaw Monday

« on: February 25, 2019, 06:33:08 AM »

I've made a short documentary on Chainsaw Monday, the Major Layoffs at Sierra On-Line which happened 20 years ago, on February 22nd, 1999 in Oakhurst, CA and ultimately destroyed the company, albeit slowly and needing another set of layoffs in 2004 to finish off the job! Anyway, its good to remember Sierra... And, its good to know why you shouldn't let somebody else buy out your company, especially if they're fraudulently fiddling with the business statements!

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / The Digitization Of Sierra Classics Initiative (TDOSCI)

« on: February 05, 2017, 12:56:53 PM »

http://tdosci.weebly.com -- I thought you guys might be interested in my website, it's been my pet project for a while. It's goal is bringing Sierra Classics (such as the Laura Bow, Aces and Hoyle games) to GOG.com for affordable prices using their 'Community Wishlist' feature and the help of the Sierra Community, instead of them being only on eBay for sometimes two to three figure amounts. This is done by having box art of titles not yet on GOG (supplied by Sierra Chest) with a click-through link to it's GOG Wishlist page.

The problem I could have with a project like this, though, is bringing a steady stream of traffic to the website. It's a one-time use sort of thing for a user, primarily because the site isn't prone to new content or regular updates. I see the usage being: 1) You go to the site. 2) You vote for the games via GOG Wishlist. 3) Optionally, social sharing... Then that's it, basically, you never return. To cover this, I'm looking to partner with other Sierra Sites. As in, have banners on each other's links page or something else feasible and free for both parties.

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: The ImagiNation Network (INN) - The Little Red Funhouse

« on: January 15, 2017, 09:34:57 PM »

Christopher?

Yeah?! I bet you probably saw one of my posts in a Facebook Group. Really, I'm trying all my options because hopefully INNRevival will eventually return... But there's things that can't be fixed without having additional content. I was already able to fix The Arena thanks to finding FOOTBALL on an INN Install with Torin's Passage, and the aforementioned expansion packs should unlock 'The Little Red Funhouse' in the bottom right of the map.

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / The ImagiNation Network (INN) - The Little Red Funhouse

« on: January 15, 2017, 07:50:03 PM »

'The Little Red Funhouse' was part of The ImagiNation Network's Map as an 'expansion pack' you'd have to purchase from Sierra. As far as I can tell from Sierra Resources, it had two 'expansions' which would be loaded from the folders 'SCHOOL' (Bright Star School) and 'DWSchool' (Dim Wit School). I'm wondering if any INN Members have these in order to create a complete INN v2.4?

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Everything-Else / Neverwinter Nights v2.22 (AOL)

« on: September 21, 2016, 12:25:46 PM »

Neverwinter Nights, part of the Gold Box Games was developed by Stormfront Studios, SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.), and TSR (TSR, Inc.) for AOL (America On-Line) between 1991 and 1997 as what is credited as the first multiplayer online role-playing game to display graphics. AOL closed the servers for the game down in '97 after disagreements with Stormfront, SSI and TSR when their contract ended.

I'm interested in doing something similar to the INN Revival Project with Neverwinter Nights, there's an Offline Version of the game available thanks to reverse engineering near the start of this millennium. What I'm looking for is v2.22 of the ONLINE game, the files that would have been used to connect to AOL, so I can dig around in the files and see if this is even possible.

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Everything-Else / Re: Habitat is now Open Source!

« on: July 07, 2016, 08:11:36 AM »

https://themade.org/posts/1701

Lucas Art's Habitat was a very early attempt at online community/rpg, a bit like Sierra's ImagiNation Network.

Now, the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment has managed to collect the source code for Habitat and released it on GitHub. Hopefully they'll be able to make the server operational again and we'll be able to enjoy this piece of computer history.

Oh my, I never knew this was a thing, did LucasArts ever try to make anything else similar, closer to INN through it's (INN's) run?

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Art feedback

« on: July 06, 2016, 03:50:51 PM »

On a related thing to SCI0 Art, I can't make it myself, not for my main project or side project. If I even tried you would literally just get stickmen drawings and stuff, when I'm trying to make an authentic SCI0 looking game... How do I find SCI0 Artists to art for me?

Given how few SCI programmers there are, you likely won't find any SCI artists.

The biggest help for me as been finding scenes in games that are similar to what I wanted, and then trying to emulate that. Open those pics in SCI Companion and see how they drew them. I took a lot of inspiration from QFG1 and SQ3. LB1 is also really nice when it comes to dramatic lighting. KQ4 kinda sucks IMO.

I think (from what I recall when I worked on this before) I usually sketched them out first on paper, then drew them using that paper image as a tracing image. Although for this last one, I just drew it freehand from paper sketches (i.e. didn't trace) and then did a lot of adjustments.

As for character animations, those are really difficult. I have no idea.

I may just sketch and employ you.
What's your price?

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Art feedback

« on: July 06, 2016, 03:41:55 PM »

The ego in Cascade Quest looks feminine. Is that on purpose?

Nope.... I forget where I got it from, but I think it's a re-colored police quest ego or something. But I gave it bare legs (which is relevant to the story, actually). It's the legs that make it look feminine, right?

Hmm... maybe I should make the main character female... my game certainly fails the Bechdel test currently. The only female character is a goat.

It's a collection of things that make Ego look female: Slender curvy legs, short skirt or shorts, Parka / Jacket hiding breasts, black pixie cut and black pumps... But yeah, a female character seems to suit the game better.

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Art feedback

« on: July 06, 2016, 03:35:21 PM »

On a related thing to SCI0 Art, I can't make it myself, not for my main project or side project. If I even tried you would literally just get stickmen drawings and stuff, when I'm trying to make an authentic SCI0 looking game... How do I find SCI0 Artists to art for me?

10

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Art feedback

« on: July 06, 2016, 03:06:14 PM »

I'm redrawing several of my screens for my SCI0 project, and I'd like to get some feedback on what looks good and what looks bad.

Here's the first one I've redone. It's a dark cave in which you need to find a light switch to turn the lights on (otherwise you have to navigate a twisty path in the dark). I'm probably going to split it up into two screens... the top image is the new version (first screen), and the bottom image is what it looked like before.


If anyone else has any art to share, feel free to use this thread!

Looks great. I'm excited because Cascade Quest is one of the two demo games I've wanted to see made into a full game, the other is Legend of the Lost Jewel.

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Forum Support and Suggestions / Re: SCIProgramming Logo.

« on: July 06, 2016, 08:31:53 AM »

If you're gonna add kerning, at least stick to the pixel grid :3

That's some harsh accusations there!
Anyway, your kerning is not enough. You have 3 pixels of space between the 'C' and the 'I'. The 'S' is just one pixel apart from the 'I'.

I like the "save early save often" bit, but I feel the font there is a bit too large. I think a smaller font and a smaller gap between the "save early" and "save often" would look better. Maybe if you use a font small enough to fit it all between the 2 'g's.

The font for Save Early Save Often is fine I think, but I think the Save Early should end just before the first G in Programming, and the Save Often should start just after that G.

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The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / FanFiction

« on: July 06, 2016, 08:02:51 AM »

I'm dissatisfied by the lack of FanFiction for major Sierra Franchises (Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest, Police Quest, etc.) on FanFiction or Archive of Our Own (Seems to be the better place generally: Cleaner and sleeker, easier to navigate and read, etc.), I'm all about user-generated fiction about their favourite TV Shows, Movies, Books or Video Games, and I'm disappointed in the lack of it for Sierra games. Maybe one day I'll make a crossover with Larry from LSL and King Graham from KQ...

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Forum Support and Suggestions / Re: SCIProgramming Logo.

« on: July 06, 2016, 06:59:08 AM »

Save early save often it is, then.

Yep.

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Forum Support and Suggestions / Re: SCIProgramming Logo.

« on: July 05, 2016, 05:39:28 PM »

Backup early, compile often?

I think that's the best tagline we can get from that. Heck, drop the "Remember:" part, that's pretty obvious to a Sierra fan.

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Forum Support and Suggestions / Re: SCIProgramming Logo.

« on: July 05, 2016, 02:36:21 PM »

"Remember: save early, save often."

That or "Remember: Program early, program often."
Since we're SCI>Program<ming.