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Hidden Treasures of Classic Sierra Games
Posted by Maggie Greene at 7:40 AM on August 25, 2008
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]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Vetterli
Posted 8:02 AM 25/8/08
I wonder what kind of wonders you could find in the old LucasArts adventure games.
Vetterli
vid3oman64
Posted 8:01 AM 25/8/08
Everyone's commenting at the Invaders thing. Makes this article look so lonely. :(
vid3oman64
sir_carrot
Posted 7:55 AM 25/8/08
Boo! The site won't load. Looks like a good feature.
sir_carrot
Jeff Paine
Posted 7:47 AM 25/8/08
Cool.
You can explore the assets yourself with programs called AGI Studio and SCI Studio (for most of the games, anyways) for those of you who want to dig deeper yourself
Jeff Paine
PapaBear434
Posted 8:32 AM 25/8/08
I LOVED those old Kings Quest games. Hell, I still have a good chunk of them on my old portable hard drive.
PapaBear434
housewarmer
Posted 8:31 AM 25/8/08
@HalcyonX12: Perhaps - but most of these games are available through various abandonware sites, and most will run just fine in Dosbox.
housewarmer
HalcyonX12
Posted 8:19 AM 25/8/08
Cool :) Too bad these games aren't showing up on Virtual Console or PSN or something huh?
HalcyonX12
Tigerfog
Posted 9:15 AM 25/8/08
@Vetterli: AFAIK, there were unused animations from the first act for Monkey Island 3.
You can find a whole lot of them here... including Sierra games, I think.
[home.comcast.net]
Also, even more interesting are the initial plot and unused character from Lucasarts' "The Dig".
Tigerfog
Paviel
Posted 9:53 AM 25/8/08
I really liked the parser-based adventure games, but since you pretty much need a keyboard for them, I don't think they'll be available on any console other than PC.
And the point-and-click games that had move, look, do, talk, etc. commands seem pretty awkward without a mouse too.
Paviel
LittleBlueWindow
Posted 9:44 AM 25/8/08
@Tigerfog: Whoa nice link. Thanks for that.
I much preferred the Lucas Arts games over the Sierra games, but either way it's nice to hear about Adventure Games. Hopefully we'll see a resurgence.
LittleBlueWindow
ShaggE
Posted 10:22 AM 25/8/08
Glad I'm not the only one who occasionally looks for comments in game code.
ShaggE
Spoony Bard
Posted 10:46 AM 25/8/08
I miss these games something awful.
But it's too bad that most of the hidden gems were in King's Quest VII. Man, that game stunk to high hell. And the box art had me so excited, I thought it was going to be Disney meets Sierra (and not in the Black Cauldron way).
If they had kept the same formula from V and VI for at least a few more installments, it would have been great :(
Spoony Bard
Vetterli
Posted 11:05 AM 25/8/08
@Tigerfog:
Thanks, man! That was one hell of a nostalgic trip
Vetterli
freakout
Posted 10:53 AM 25/8/08
@Spoony Bard: Damn straight. The art style actually was gorgeous all throughout the game, but the replacement of that big array of standard adventure-game icons with a single, stupid flashing wand sucked nearly ALL the challenge out of the game. I was soooo disappointed.
Didn't stop me from playing through to the end though. I'm a sucker.
freakout
sander_dutch
Posted 11:56 AM 25/8/08
Wow, i wish I had that much free time...
But I do love those old adventure games from Westwood (twas westwood right?) and LucasArt
sander_dutch
ikagah
Posted 12:49 PM 25/8/08
@Spoony Bard: I must be the only one that liked that one
ikagah
Terranvoid
Posted 12:32 PM 25/8/08
@HalcyonX12: I'm not buying and Sierra classics from Sierra anymore. Not since they did a callous rerelease of the things.
Sierra "Classics" by Richard Cobbett
Terranvoid
jmsalal
Posted 1:27 PM 25/8/08
Let's not forget Sierra's localization of Falcom's classic "Sorcerian." That JRPG was truly one of the first of its kind (if not THE first). If my memory serves me correctly, that game preceeded all console JRPGs and contained elements of both standalone and MMO games found today. Too bad it was not so well-received in the US.
jmsalal
Shachihoko
Posted 7:36 PM 25/8/08
Omg, King Quest.. That really bring back memories on playing the games.. But bringing back horrible memories how most KQ games keep crashing on me on the Window 95, booo!
Shachihoko
Pezdispenser
Posted 10:03 PM 25/8/08
"What's going on in there?"
"The Two Geeks from Andromeda hid some stuff in the game's asset files."
"What's going on in there?"
"I JUST TOLD YOU!, The Two Geeks from Andromeda hid some stuff in the game's asset files!"
"What's going on in there?"
"BEAT IT JERK!"
"What's going on in there?"
*You get no reply*
Pezdispenser
HikariOblivion
Posted 1:28 AM 26/8/08
@jmsalal: <3 That was my first game ever. I'll always remember it. :D
HikariOblivion
VENOM77
Posted 8:14 AM 25/8/08
Space Quest was and still is one of the best, of series of games that I ever played.
VENOM77