Hidden Treasures of Classic Sierra Games

We’ve been a little nostalgic the past couple of weekends, which included a look back at Sierra’s origins; now Adventure Classic Gaming has a look at hidden assets of classic Sierra games. Not the Easter Eggs, but the bits and pieces hidden in the asset files of games — things that will never appear in the games themselves and take some exploration to actually get to. These range from bits of dialogue to wacky animations to pencil sketches; the author takes a look at some of these hidden assets and the meaning behind them:

However, the extreme peculiarity of these discoveries has not diminished my interest in exploring games’ resource files in the least. Seeing the graphics, sounds, and codes neatly grouped in separate sections and finding out how they intermingle to bring the game to life may not be quite as entertaining as playing the game itself, but for those few who have the patience and a lot of free time, it is an interesting experience.

There is always the possibility of discovering an unused background, animation or sound file, or even just an interesting little comment made by a programmer in a script. As small and uncommon as these discoveries that I have made may be, they add a new dimension to the experience of enjoying these adventure games. In a way, they can be compared to the deleted scenes or audio commentary on a DVD release of a movie, and they give the interested gamer some true insights into the games’ design. Since I have only looked at a small portion of the files in just a few adventure games, who knows how many other hidden treasures have yet to be uncovered?

It’s a neat, nostalgic (if sort of odd) look at some of those classic adventure games.

Resource Quest: hidden treasures in Sierra’s adventure games [Adventure Classic Gaming via GameSetWatch]