Play Old Sierra Games, For Free, In Your Browser
There once was a time, before closures, before Lucasarts, when the name “Sierra” meant premium PC adventure gaming. Those days are, sadly, long gone. But they will not be forgotten!
If you head over to Sarien, you can take part in a little project that’s part-game, part-museum piece, with old Sierra adventure games running in Flash on your browser. The graphics are the same, and if you want, you can use text commands, but a right-click menu system has also been introduced to speed things up a bit.
That’s the game part. The museum part comes in a gallery of assets from the old games, with a wide range of things like background art available for browsing.
Interestingly, it also supports…well, multiplayer, with the internet-based nature of the games allowing users to see other gamers attempting the same puzzles as you are in real-time.
Currently three games are supported – Leisure Suit Larry 1, Police Quest 1 and Space Quest 1 – with more promised.
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
To this day I cant look at a glass of water when i’m really thirsty without thinking about Kings Quest V
Was Hero’s Quest from Sierra too? I can’t remember.
I do however remember playing Hero’s Quest 4.
Always had trouble getting past the wizzard.
“Ken Sent Me”
Would you mind putting up Laura Bow 1 and King’s Quest 4 through 7? I love those games but can’t get them to work on my PC. Also, can you guy’s add sound to the games?
@Esper_tricks: Its better to burn out, then to fade away.
Combine
@MrBionic: Yeah. That is WEAK.
Hey_Blinkon
What? No King's Quest?
I loved all those games, they're responsible for me learning English much more than school was.
Police Quest, Space Quest, Gabriel Knight and Larry are all very close to my heart - just as much as the Lucasarts adventures. Those were objectively even better but the old school Sierra stuff is legendary as well.
El-Suave
If it still has the age verification system most kids won't be able to play LSL1... after all do they know who Spyro Agnew was?
Yeah. I'll wait until they put up "The Incredible Machine"...
@eriklindemann: It's been on GameTap for weeks. I never played it before it released on GT, but I knew I had to download it. Awesome game.
Is this even legal?
@Stuart Bradley Newsom: OMG Quest for Glory is the best! I have special place im my heart for all the old sierra adventures but quest for glory was always my fave.
@Stuart Bradley Newsom: I think he means Gabriel Knight
SansSanity
kings quest pls kthxbye. oh i'm gonna dig up my old cd collection now!!!
pissa
Hurrah!
Oh man this rules so friggin much!
Gam3r
@Grisaille: Flip it, Ninja!: Holy shit man I haven't played Police Quest in so fucking long! Wasn't it Police Quest 3 that they changed the whole art style?
This brings back memories of me as a kid not being able to type "get nightstick" quick enough before the bikers kicked my ass in Police Quest 2.
Oh how I miss those days of gaming. You kids and your confounded shiny, realistic graphics ain't got nothing on the games of old.
@Orionsaint: I think KQ might bring some legal wrath. You can buy remastered versions that will run on modern PCs.
stupid_mcgee: would prefer an astronaut
where's laura bow?
@ChekhovsGun: If this was LucasArts, yesterday. They tried to C&D the hell out of SCUMM. With Sierra, I'm not sure.
stupid_mcgee: would prefer an astronaut
@Daikon: Didn't you know the handle would stick and flood the bathroom? You gotta grab the ring on the sink and read the graffiti on the wall a few times to get the password for the other door in the bar.
I just discovered DOSBox the other day and have been playing =) Finally beat LSL after nearly 20 years.....
madog
@Krytha: Hell yeah! That was a great one when I was little. The puzzles were pretty simple, but it was still quality stuff.
stupid_mcgee: would prefer an astronaut
@HibikiRush: Yeah, it was the same with me. I was playing Police Quest and Larry a lot on my good ol' 500, even tho my english was crap because I was 8 years old.
@Stuart Bradley Newsom:
i always liked the Ron Jeremy sierra game.
Chest Quest.
Noodle-Works
@NeVeRMoRe666: Errr...In Larry I meant.
How do I get laid?
@Esper_tricks: Boo...It's super laggy.
LoL!
"Touch Girl on the Boob"
Watching you guys play is priceless!
@zoesch:
Unlike back then, we have this thing called the internet. I hear it has all sorts of information on it.
CaptLtrl
@lamebrain:
Just like Final Fantasy, 6 is way better than 7. :D
CaptLtrl
It's not Flash, it's plain old HTML with some Javascript.
Sjoerd Visscher
@Stuart Bradley Newsom:
hahaha, come on.. That live action Gabriel Knight game is TERRIBLE!! :D All the bad german accents. NOOO, I had blocked it out!
CaptLtrl
'lick hooker'
;D
'lick hooker'
;D
@Grisaille: Flip it, Ninja!: I might try playing Police Quest again once I finish the run of Sins of the Fathers I'm through right now. Great memories, these games bring.
Drei Drachen, drei Drachen...
Thats all well and good but where is the flash version of "oils well"
Jsmoke
@CaptLtrl: When I started hearing people complain about The Beast Within's German accents I could only think: "Thanks I am not from there". If the accent had made it impossible for me to play such a game, my life would have been different.
But, yeah, it was a bad move from Sierra, not hiring native Germans for those parts. A dark stain in an almost perfect mantel piece.
Just tried playing Leisure Suit Larry. I used to play this game when I was about 11 before school because someone installed it on a really old IBM machine. Was hilarious. This game just messes up the sprites and it's annoying have other people around.
Wow, this is the greatest thing since diced cheese doodles!
...
Hmm... There aren't any? WHYYYYYYY?!?! KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!
@Krytha: I was a big fan of Lost Mind of Dr. Brain, but that's a pretty different game.
@Smeesh: I remember the one that actually takes place in other Space Quest games, that one was pretty hilarious. They go into the future to Space Quest 6 or something and back to Space Quest 1. Too clever for its time
@UCHU: Kinda like how we put "Hero" on the end of everything now? Oh how the times have changed
I didn't have any audio. However, it would be nice if they could get Tandy 1000/PC Jr audio for the old titles, and record MT-32 audio for newer ones
Tandy audio:
+ Watch video
MT-32:
+ Watch video
Shin-san
@Shin-san: Forgot to add that the top video may contain a few spoilers
Shin-san
Larry is glitchy as hell. I couldn't get the blow-up doll out of the cabinet. :(
Okay, I was playing SQ and got stuck in the table in the archives room. >_>
CyricZ
@HibikiRush: Glad to see the "take off clothes" command still works
DukeOfPwn
@EloraHRanma: Drei drachen criechen en mein enshclave...
(I know I'm butchering the German language right now)
I love it! Sounds great to me!
HUNTER HUNTED!
INCREDIBLE MACHINE!
NoobSmasher
Kings Quest or gtfo
xenothaulus
@zoesch: or they can do what I did as a kid, and do the trial and error answer, until you remember every question.
@Mucudadada: Obviously you haven't gone and talked to the drunk in the Bar's bathroom with 5-10 other players.
God this is brilliant.
@Babelfish:
It would certainly free up your hands!
Cue the drums
@Roufuss: It's just you. There is clearly the sound of awesomeness while playing.
@Roufuss: It's just you. There is clearly the sound of awesomeness while playing.
@Kitsune Sniper: Let's not sully ourselves with such details like "legality" or "Someone's going to be suing someone over this"
Daniel Butler
Thank you Kotaku, this news has just made my day... AWESOME.
Daniel Butler
@zoesch: Are you kidding me? I was 11 years old and didn't really get many of the in-game jokes, so I would load up LSL repeatedly just to play the trivia questions at the beginning. It wasn't until I turned 12 that I got the humor and actually tried to beat it.
With that said, they need to get PQ2 up there ASAP, as that's the only one I never actually beat. I kept dying to sewer gas before my dad deleted the game off of our 20 meg HDD to make room for something else.
@francoamerica: An excellent question. I love those games.
Well crap. My productivity for today just went flying out the door.
But thanks anyway Kotaku. That laundry will be there tomorrow, right?
Willy Beamish please!
Leisure Suit Larry is one of the first games I ever played. I was 3 or 4 years old and I would watch my dad play and tell him where to go.
I owe my gaming addiction to you Larry.
Cool! I grew up playing these games! Space Quest 1 was one of the first games I saw, next to a small handful of arcade clones (pinball, kong, casino, etc)
Wow, if they released any of the King's Quest games on that site I'd probably be forced by my childhood memories to play them. Then I would cry as I would probably still be unable to finish any of the first 3.
StriderShinryu
This is the video game news of the CENTURY!
Brill
@Thassodar: "This brings back memories of me as a kid not being able to type "get nightstick" quick enough before the bikers kicked my ass in Police Quest 2."
Wasn't that in the original Police Quest? I remember that bit though, he he. The trick was to turn the game speed to slow ;) I never finished the game though, now's my chance to finally get it done.
@Midnightjade:
I actually found both of them as well as a ton of other games at abandonia.com, they work perfectly with dox box, sound and all! Hopefully you can pass the test the reporter gives you on egyption mythology in the beginning!
There's some serious, breaking bugs in the games, pity.
Wait, Space Quest? Today is already wasted.
Sooo sweet! I hope that Sierra decides to dot he same. Kings Quest Baby!
ssoltero
I think someone broke it :( I get an error everytime I try to go the site.
@SecCom: Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition.
I'd buy twelve million copies of Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition!
Because Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition is an actually sweet game.
And I heard that Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition is getting a sequel called Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition 2: More Mesa Boogie!
So now I think that Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition is selling out by making Mesa Boogie Presents - Mesa Boogie Guitar Hero: Mesa Boogie Edition 2: More Mesa Boogie.
Bad ActivisioHarmoKonamixEAMTVNeversofision...!
@stupid_mcgee: would prefer an astronaut:
You can get Space Quest like that too, so that's not it. I assume it's something they're working on.
CaptLtrl
Common Space Quest IV! I tried playing that game a while back but my computer freaked out on me. I remember the futility of pressing random buttons on the panel of the ship...
Shane Morton
Great to see someone keeping the classics alive and trying to keep them availible to people. Lucasarts and sierra back in the day had the best line ups of those adventure games. Something that can never be replicated again.
@Stuart Bradley Newsom:
I LOVE all Sierra games, but I do agree that Gabriel Knight is one of the best series...
This made me the happiest of all day! I LOVE CLASSIC SIERRA GAMES!!!!
@Orian:
AGDInteractive has a couple of King's Quest you can download and play for free. They are the SVGA remakes I believe, which takes away some of the fun nostalgia, but still it's fun to play.
www.agdinteractive.com, I believe.
DO WANT.
@T-DoggIsTheLick: I'll check back later when they have Space Quest VII ready. A lot of good memories with that game.
BORNtoDIE3