Rare SCI games

[OmerMor]

Well - I too have KQ4 AGI, but since it's AGI I didn't put it on the list.
Mr. T - the list you linked is the one that describes the various debug modes in sierra games - what would like me to do for your new look site? I don't think I have any updates this list...
Omer.

[OmerMor]

added the russian phantasmagoria...
Omer.

[sQeAgZ]

What I'm confused about is why Sierra followed this inconsistent release schedule of language versions (French/German/Spanish). For example:

1. Why was Space Quest 3 (Sci01) only released in German?
2. Why was Police Quest (Sci1) not released in French.
3. Why was Conquest of the Longbow (Sci1) only released in German?
4. Why was Eco Quest 2 (Sci11) not released in German.
5. Why was Larry 6 (Sci32) CD version only released with German texts?

etcetc...

Could it be that previous titles did not sell? Or that some ingame content was tricky for that country. Or that distributors didn't want to sell it? Or or...?

I tried to find info on this on the internet, but it's very hard to come by. I think that someone from France, Canada, Spain, Germany could know best what games were released and which were not and why?

Any light people can shed on this would be greatly appreciated...

Ramon.

[Brian Provinciano]

Does anyone have an actual boxed KQ4 AGI for PC? As far as I knew, the PC AGI version was only distributed as floppy disks, mailed to the purchaser when they purcahsed KQ4 (SCI) but had a computer which couldn't run it.

[Eero R]

I do... There were only minor differences, under requirements there was word "256K" and no mentioning of sound card... Back side had only small differences too. It's actually logical because AGI version was made in case SCI would have big flaws in it, and as far as I know, not every computer had 512K memory those days (I may be wrong here)...

[HWM]

Could it be that previous titles did not sell? Or that some ingame content was tricky for that country. Or that distributors didn't want to sell it? Or or...?

This earlier post says:

Well at the time GK was released, Sierra changed distributor in Spain from Erbe to Coktel Educative, which only translated about 3 or 4 games since...

Regarding this, I think it's mainly a distributor issue... Perhaps as you said; because the previous titles didn't sell that well or something...

Also, I don't know how you exactly discovered what got translated and what didn't, but apart from the lack of information (on the 'net) on it, there's also a lot of (IMHO) faulty information (hello Adventureland!)...

Like the fact I'm still not convinced that Police Quest (SCI11) Spanish exists, since I've seen no real evidence... As far as I know, Police Quest was the last AGI2SCI remake Sierra made (SCI11, instead of SCI1 with other remakes, IIRC) and wasn't translated... Furthermore I *believe* the SCI remakes weren't translated to French and German... Which makes sense, since they didn't bring the cash Sierra expected...

[Eero R]

Well, I guess the Spanish translation was unofficial... Boxshot doesn't really prove anything, as it could be easily changed.

[df]

i think there are only a few legit non english versions. most of the spanish ones i have seen are scistudio hacks.

[kelmer]

Let's settle this with a little history of the spanish distribution of Sierra On-Line games:

No Agi games were ever distributed in Spain, hence no agi games were ever officially translated into my language.

Erbe software was born in 1984 as a spanish distributor of multimedia products, centered in videogames (like Nintendo's). They had a golden age linked to the adventure games' one: they signed contracts with the most important and relevant companies of the era, distributing mostly adventure games, and in my opinion, doing very good translations. Almost every adventure game until 1994 was distributed by this company, they had contracts with LucasArts, Infogrames, Sierra; no adventure games were released without a translation.

They distributed LSL1(VGA), LSL5, LSL6, SQ1(VGA), SQ4,SQ5, KQ5, KQ6, QFG3, Police Quest 3 (PQ1 was never translated or distributed, don't know why) among others, with their respective translations. They even released cheap versions which were the EGA only ones of SQ4 or KQ5 and some more (i got this two, kq5 is somewhat damaged). Robin hood, conquest of the longbow wasn't ever distributed either.

Yet, special edition versions of some Sierra games (like SQ4 CD, KQ5CD or LSL6CD) were never released or translated (well, Gabriel Knight CD was). I guess Sierra didn't want to because they thought they wouldn't make much profit. Some of this games were later released under collections or magazines. (I got them all original in their english versions)

But then this company, Erbe, began to have internal and financial problems (which started when one of their buildings catched on fire), and little by little every partner company were leaving it alone with no products to distribute. (LucasArts signed with EA, Sierra with Coktel, Infogrames got its own distributor in Spain) So much that they wen bankrupt around 1998.

Coktel Educative (one of Sierra's subsidiaries) took care of Sierra's products around 1995, and since then they've translated, as far as I know, the following adventure games:
The Last Dinasty (translated, dubbed)
Torin's Passage (text translation only)
LSL7 (texts)
Lighthouse(texts, voices)
Gabriel Knight 3 (texts)
Urban Runner (texts)

The quality of this translations is not as good as those of Erbe's, but can be stood. They left the following games with no translation of any kind (although they did distribute all of them):

Mixed up Mother Goose
Quest for Glory 4
Shivers
Space Quest 6
Gabriel Knight 2
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria 2
Rama
Shivers 2
Quest for glory 5


When the internet area started and SCI and AGI utilities were being made, the following  amateur translations were made, existing one to each of the following games:

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (AGI)
King's Quest I (SCI)
King's Quest IV
Laura Bow: Colonel's Bequest
LSL2
LSL3
Space Quest 2
Space Quest 3
The Black Cauldron
Robin Hood: conquests of the longbow

An I think that's all.

[sQeAgZ]

Thanks very much kelmer. Now, if we would have someone from France and/or Germany to give us that much detail too, we would we finished!

Anyone?

[sQeAgZ]

Yet, special edition versions of some Sierra games (like SQ4 CD, KQ5CD or LSL6CD) were never released or translated (well, Gabriel Knight CD was).

Was GK1 CD released with Spanish translation or just plain English version?

Furthermore, some other questions:

The following games I can't find info on if they exist. For each I've explained why I think they are there (or not):

Eco Quest 1 (Talkie) German -> Dont' think this exists, since talkie version never had another language (subtitled!), only GK1 and LSL6 had a german substitled version.

Gabriel Knight 1 (Talkie) and Larry 6 (Talkie) French -> These two had a German subtitled version, but no Spanish one (kelmer).

Eco Quest 2 German -> Makes sense since French and Spanish version are available, just like EQ1, LB2, QFG3, KQ6, SQ5 and FP, which were are released around same time (Dec 1991-Apr 1993)

Police Quest 3 French -> This game was released along KQ5, SQ4, LSL5 (Dec 1990-Aug 1991), they all have French, German, Spanish language. PQ3 has German and Spanish, so I think French too?

Quest for Glory 4 French -> Spanish one does not exist, German one does...

Police Quest 4 Spanish -> Kelmer thinks this one does not exist, other do. PQ4 German and French do exist too.

Any confirmations on my ideas will be helpful.

[kelmer]

I've got two GK1 CD versions.

One of them came with the Gabriel Knight Mysteries pack and its completely in english.

The other one is a different CD version (no windows interpreter, only DOS with vesa support) which came with spanish subtitles.

[kelmer]

But it came with a magazine so it's possible they took the files from the floppy version and re-structured them on the resource main pack (there is no evidence though)


LSL6 CD really wasn't translated into spanish, in fact I made a translation using the method I mention above (took the files from floppy version and used them as patches).

[sQeAgZ]

LSL6 CD really wasn't translated into spanish, in fact I made a translation using the method I mention above (took the files from floppy version and used them as patches).

Yeah, I meant LSL6 CD was released with German subtitles, but not with Spanish, so was wondering if one with French exists...

[Farlander]

Add russian version of Larry 7, I have it. Since it was released some years ago... it can't be found anywhere! There aren't even any information on Akella's site for LSL7... so add it. And, you post only offical translations or not?