@freakout: er, that previous comment was in reply to you.

scumm_boy

R.I.P Sierra.

Majorasblaze

If they started making old-school Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games again, I'd be in heaven! Thank god for Tell-tale games and their Sam and Max series... otherwise the whole genre would be completely gone :(

scumm_boy

@karasu is my homeboy:

Yea it's sad. In fact I believe there was a story on here the other day where original founder Ken Williams said he'd rather the company just die out than make such poor decisions one after the other.

ElMuerte

Those were the good old days.

Why didn't they ever try to make a new Kings Quest/Police Quest/Space quest game? Maybe thats why they went of business.

Albishor

@ElMuerte: Us oldschool gamers prefer to remember

lmao. So they were already dead then, this being the final nail.

Sorry.

karasu is my homeboy

@karasu is my homeboy:

That's the newer crappier Sierra. Us oldschool gamers prefer to remember the good days of Sierra. Where we played as King Graham admist 16 color fantasy backgrounds.
Ken and Roberta should have never given away controlling interest.

ElMuerte

I'm not sure this means much for the quality of games. Crappy games will still get made, and still get released, they just won't get published by SIerra anymore. Someone else will market the horrors instead. The losers are Sierras (un)employees.

stoneagedan

Lords of the Realm 2 anyone? I put a lot of time into that game. Even New Year's '00 I was playing that game when the clock hit 12.

Callidux

Sierra? The same one that made a series of awful decisions, like holding the surprisingly good Timeshift's release over the summer FPS drought and releasing it in the holidays, drowned in 3 huge FPS releases where is was lost in the shuffle?

That Sierra?

What a shock. They didn't set this up for themselves at all.

karasu is my homeboy

@Mooglecharm:

I never did, but my Dad did back before he was forced to stop most of his gaming due to family stuff. I remember him playing Lords of the realm and warcraft quite a bit. I have the Lords of the realm II CDs sitting on my desk right now actually lol.

CCCombobreaker

Just played King's Quest VI the other day. Installed Windows 3.1 through Dosbox so I could get the hi-res character portraits.

....now I have the stupid "Girl in the Tower" song stuck in my head.

ElMuerte

I'll be pouting out a 40 for my old friend. It was a long slow death, so in a way I'm glad it's finally over. Quest for Glory 4 LIFE!

drifter13

@scumm_boy: Me too. (sniff) Dammit, why couldn't some lesser genre have died out instead? I'd kill for some good new instalments in the SQ series.

freakout

Anyone else played Lords of the Realm I & II? Lords of Magic? Some great memories right there, but I seem the be the only one who played em.

Mooglecharm

The analogy of a lost, forgotten people returning to their homeworld sometime in the far future...it sounds like providence.

You served us well, Sierra. May you come back to us, when the Vaygr are upon us.

/geekiness

*wipes tears*

pylon_trooper

What about that next (stupid assed) LSL game? Or is someone else publishing that one?

BTW, for us old school gamers, last last year, there were box set releases (yet again) of the Space Quest, Police Quest, Kings Quest, and LSL series. You can get each set for under $20 each, and they all use DOSBox to run.

I'm hoping these might one day end up on Steam or GOG, so a new generation can enjoy them.

number9

So this means no 3D Space Quest VII for sure?

terminalboredom

@SsLordMagus:

Come again? You liked that wreck of a movie?

JakeDunn

That looks like the Sierra logo from the beginning of Space Quest IV. I'll miss their fantastic adventure games :(

scumm_boy

I guess now I have to stop waiting for Police Quest 5.

DocRimbo

Sad that the company that bought Activision(and holds 52% in activision blizzard) is the one getting rid of their catalog of great titles.

CCCombobreaker

Man, that logo brings back good memories! Maybe all they needed to resurrect Sierra was to add "Quest" to the beginning or end of every title. Hello, "Mummy Quest"? That already sounds better.

razorangelwings

The death of Sierra is sad, way too many fond memories. King's Quest is the best the best the best

Lazarus2k8

The movie was good... :/

SsLordMagus

Sierra kind of suffer from the sonic effect, im not gonna miss them :P

cnas

Blactivision?
Sounds like a urban effort on their part.

akilshohen

Ahhh Police Quest. I was so horrible at that game. I would never get past the first little bit, because once I got a gun I would just starting shooting, y'know, everybody.

Quilt

So now there will never be an AstroChicken 2?

I used to call their BBS for Space Quest hints. I even talked my parents into taking me on a tour of their offices not too far from Yosemite. Everybody was very nice. They had this slick floppy duplicating machine that was cranking out the hits.

I've got not to bury Sierra, but to praise them.

Yonderboy

Hmm, I hope Homeworld gets picked up by somebody, loved those games. :/

c0rnpwn

This is sad news. I loved the Tribes games.

vanlingo

@SsLordMagus: @ビッグ ボス: THAT MOVIE WAS AWFUL. They replaced the girl from the first two Mummy movies with the worst actress I have ever seen (every time she opened her mouth, I wanted to ram my fist into it!), everyone's lines were groan inducing, and the plot was boring as hell. As soon as I saw YETIS come from nowhere, kick someone through a gate and make the touchdown sign, I knew that this movie had no redeemable qualities and that every copy should be BURNED!

DukeOfPwn

@JakeDunn: Come on, the movie was not that bad for what it was meant to be: a fun summer popcorn action flick.

ビッグ ボス

SWAT 4 was genius.... but it crashed my machine at random intervals and was therefore impossible to enjoy during the randomized intervals that it would function. What made it worse was that it was so bloody fantastic and it just didnt like my pc hardware despite all my efforts to arrange blind dates, fun nights out etc.

It was one of the reason i sprung towards the PS3.
Have to admit i want a new games-enabled PC though.

GMC

Wasn't Sierra the PC publisher for The Incredible Machine? If so, how come no one mentions that awesome game?

StupidDufus

ahhh good times.

i loved them all. space quest 3 on the amiga started it all. actually playing all the other older games was a reason for me to beg my parents for a 486dx33 (that and xwing and darkforces ;) )

i loved the quest for glory series for its nice rpg touch and a world that felt more alive than WoW will ever be.

i would love to pickup some rights for those IPs and have some new iterations (true to the spirit of the old ones) developed for "episodic content providers" like xbl or steam

sundawn

This is sad. I've been playing their games since day one with Mystery House. On-line Systems (aka Sierra On-line aka Sierra) is one of the oldest and most innovative software companies still in operation. It's shameful the way the label has been sidelined. If I was Ken Williams I'd be pissed (and very, very, very, ridiculously rich). This is like Atari all over again.

xot

Ah SWAT. Good times! Realistic enforcer type shooter with squad mechanics...Solid shooter in my book.

excaliburps

There's hope yet - World in Conflict: Soviet Assault looks to be making it out before Activision make the final decision on Sierra!

NiceMissMayonnaise

;_; 'Tis a sad day for gaming.

errington07

Oh King's Quest 3 how I miss you. I loved the old Kings quest and Space Quest games.

mahi

@scumm_boy:
I'm playing "And Then There Were None" on the Wii now, so it's not completely gone. Not great, but not bad. I'm a sucker for most point and clicks.

Can't wait till Sam and Max.

sqlrob

Space Quest was a fun game. To sad there will not be another Space Quest game :(

DEATHSTROKE007

*/COMMENTS not comics. Sheez.

thebigsmoke

It's funny to read the comics and see the crystal-clear split between people who were buying games in the late 80s and early 90s and the younger gamers.

For those of my ilk - "computer games" was almost synonymous with "Sierra"... They not only defined the point-and-click genre (still my favourite), but also revolutionized RPG ("Krondor", "Heroes Quest/Quest for Glory"), pioneered on-line gaming (ImagiNation Network), invented the MMORPG (The Realm), made huge inroads (with Broaderbund) into the Educational Market, were one of the first PC companies to import and localize japanese titles ("Silpheed" and "Thexder")...

Even if you don't give two hoots about Gabriel Knight, Sonny Bonds, or Sir Graham - the world of videogaming would be entirely different without the work the company did while in Oakhurst.

It's a shame to see the name fade out, maybe someone will pick it up someday, but the damage has been considerable (see the comments from everyone above who only knows them from their post-Vivendi releases).

@ElMuerte:
GIRL. IN. THE. TOWER (damn you)... I'm calling out (oh man)... please TELL ME WHAT DO DO. (argh)...

thebigsmoke

So, does this mean Project Origin can now be called F.E.A.R. 2?

Paradyme

I grew up on Sierra, and waited impatiently for all their releases. I even really enjoyed the Mech game that they put out, though for the life of me I cannot remember what it was called.

zenpoet

Second. Ah Sierra, how awesome you were back in the day. I remember playing Kings Quest 4 right when it came out and thinking how awesome it looked... which is utterly hysterical today. And I don't know how many hours I spent bumbling around that space freighter trying to get out in Space Quest III. I wanted to get into that TIE Fighter so bad. Kings Quest VI owned all though. I want some mint leaves... they sound so refreshing right now! Good times, good times

gloveofpower

Sierra is just nostalgia now. It's time for it to rest. Goodbye.

DigitalHero

For any of you out there looking to relive those memories, there are some fan remakes of some of the originals. It looks likes the remade Quest For Glory II will be hitting sometime this month or early next month.

[www.agdinteractive.com]

That company also updated kq1 and kq3. Another company remade kq3 (which can be found at [www.infamous-adventures.com] )

MistakenIdentity

Oh great, now my earlier comment appears. Oh well, at least you got to see the two variations. Pick the one you like the most/find the most offensive.

Also, typing "Sierra" during the course of writing my amazing comments brought pangs of nostalgia. As many will remember, you invoked most of their old adventure games by typing the "sierra" at the DOS prompt.

I might as well continue my rant. Sierra has existed in name only ever since Ken Williams left the company. Sierra has been a dead, lifeless shell of it's former self for years. Have you seen "The Serpent and the Rainbow?" It's like that.

Prism Ra

Time to go replay all the old adventures methinks. They were bloody hard but bloody good fun.

Thanks for all the good times Sierra

Sunjammer

Oldschool Sierra games made you feel like a battered woman. They beat the hell out of you but you keep coming back for more!

Prism Ra

Oooh the Quest games, Roberta Williams was my first geek crush, still have her response to a fan letter I wrote before I could piss straight...

surprised PHANTASMAGORIA and Gabriel Knight didn't make the list in the post...

Daigoji Gai

Oldschool Sierra games made you feel like a battered wife. They would beat the hell out of you but for some reason, you still loved them.

Prism Ra

sad face...

ZetaCrossfire

I've said it so many times - Sierra was sort of like that beloved, but strange Uncle - fascinating and mysterious, but always a little dysfunctional in his relationships with the world. In the end, so affected by Alzheimer's he just wasn't the same person.

Sierra hadn't been itself - the company that brought us so many wonderful adventure titles - since it was merged and lost most of its core employees, moved away from its birth location. Quest for Glory V was really the last of its kind. It saddens me to put it to rest, but I guess it was coming for a long time.

Goodbye, Sierra.

sir_carrot

Between Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Kings Quest and Police Quest I don't even know how much of my teenage years I spent playing these games. I remember Police Quest 4 freaking me the heck out. Space Quest was my personal favorite series even though 6 was a bit meh.

The downside with all the Quest games were they could be BRUTAL unless you saved a lot. Picking between "The door on the left" and "The door on the right" often meant player death with the wrong choice! :-P

NateN

I'd say that it's sad that sierra is fading away but... why really. Maybe because we are nostalgic? I honestly don't want a company continuing to squander talented people and money to make crap games. They made some great games back and the day and failed to continue to evolve... Its a dog eat dog world boys..

Kalevias

Let's remember the good times. Like Diablo: Hellfire.

...I'll shut up now.

MysidianMan

well its no surprise that this dev died. they have been shoveling out crap now for a while.

EVIL_V2

its very sad to see them go

kamfair55

This is actually good. The corpse can rest in peace now.

Fortyseven

@kpburke: Their website got a remake not too long ago (including the label "Coming soon"). More telling, however, is that the Adventurer's Correspondence School has lessons that have been added on a regular basis. They are on course 3 and there are 6. If I was a betting man, I would say that they will release the game soon after the last course has been added to the website.

MistakenIdentity

@MistakenIdentity:

Same here. Thank Jeebus for DOSBox. It's so much easier to play these games now.

I have an external MIDI interface connected to a Roland MT-32 for the music. Playing Space Quest 3 with real, (for it's day) top-of-the-line sound hardware is an amazing experience.

Prism Ra

Oh man. Sierra. The Quest/LSL/Knight series plus Krondor and many other titles shaped my intellectual and moral identity in a profound way. I honestly owe any semblance of success I have in the future to Sierra. They have those amazing sleeper titles, too, like Codename: Iceman. Oh man. Manhunter. Gold Rush. Incredible Machine, oh, you truly were Incredible. I could go on and on....

ratzofftoya

@kpburke: I remember needing to edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files in order to get the games to start properly. Most of the younger crowd here probably don't even know what those files are.

That computer tweaking is what lead to my current job, I owe a lot more to Sierra than simple fond memories.

MistakenIdentity

@MistakenIdentity: The remake is actually coming out? I feel like that's been going on for years.

Have any of you heard of Hero Quest 6? It's supposed to carry on in the QfG vain. I'm skeptical, mostly because it literally has been going on for about 5 or 6 years.

kpburke

I love(d) Sierra. I just restarted playing through Quest for Glory (gotta love Boxer, bringing ease of DOSBox use to us Mac users) and the King's Quest games, and all it did was make me yearn for the days when the family computer had a massive 4MB* hard drive and was all DOS, all the time.

*I was in second grade when we got the computer, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm certain we only had a 4MB hd. Also, whenever we shut down without going a proper way, the computer would save info and eventually we had no space left to install my TMNT game, all because of improper shutdowns.

kpburke

Empire Earth? Homeworld I and II? SWAT? HL1? I think most people just haven't played these games considering that Homeworld is thought of as one of the best RTSes of all time. Hal-life is certainly one of the best shooters of all time and the most recent SWAT was pretty damn good.
Rest in piece.

M-26-7

It is really sad to see Sierra go away and turn to dust. I loved them years ago like years ago. Sierra has not made any thing really great as of late. I loved playering there games on the PC. There are so many great adventure games. That it is saddening to never see them again. I wonder if there is any company that would plan on buying Sierra now that ActiZard said they would like to sell the company. I would love to see Take-Two buy them. I think they could bring Sierra back to there former Glory days.

BlackIceJoe

Sierra will always have a soft spot in my heart, just too many childhood memories of their games growing up.. I was so hoping to see Roger Wilco come back with his Space Quest antics, I think that game would so ROCK with all latest technologies available to games these days. Bring Back SPACE QUEST!!!!!!!!!!

Darksider1972

Noooooooooooooooo..............

adragonfang18

@ratzofftoya:

Well said (about the intellectual and moral development) though I also have to thrown in Leisure Suit Larry for helping me learn what it was to be a man when I was still in single digits. I don't think my parents realized what they got for me, nor do I think I really grasped the lounge lizard's adventures until my testicles fully dropped. Wish they would burry what they are doing with the Larry franchise nowadays along with what was Sierra.

Daigoji Gai

Wait Wat about World in Conflict sequel?

adragonfang18

King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Quest For Glory, Half-Life 1, Homeworld, SWAT...

Rhainor

@Yonderboy: Wow... I, too, talked my family into dropping by their offices during a family vacation in Yosemite back... what... twenty years ago? Damn, I just felt myself getting older.

Sierra was a perfect software company for that era. They were never positioned to grow into a modern software development house. But gaming owes an awful lot to the innovation and vision of Ken and Roberta Williams, Al Lowe, the 2 Guys from Andromeda, Corey and Lori Cole, and Jane Jensen.

PositivelyGreg

Sierra has been around for a long time and honestly it sucks to see them be swept off their feet so easily. There's not going to be many independent gaming companies left at this rate. This sucks and honestly I'm worried about these winds of change we're experiencing.

Barf#1

...OH DEAR GOD! I NEED TO PLAY POLICE QUEST AGAIN! OH DEAR LORD!

akumaserge

Space Quest is one of my favorite games of all time!

Farewell Roger Wilco!

remixnzza

I was always partial to the Space Quest series. I oddly enough found Space Quest II and Police Quest among a bunch of games on my grandparents computer that they didn't even know they had. I really latched on to Space Quest, and played II, III, IV, and V. I remember being so mad our old 386 computer couldn't handle Space Quest VI. I eventually played it, and found out I wasn't missing much having not played it. I also liked King's Quest IV and V.

The hardest Space Quest moment for me was on the freighter in Space Quest III. At that point in the game, I remember picking up a piece of wire that was important for reasons I can't recall. Then you get mugged by a rat. I spent AGES trying to find where the rat had run off to get get my inventory back. I eventually had to buy the hint book, only to discover all I needed to do was go back to where I originally picked up the wire and pick it up again.

crescentfresh

@PositivelyGreg: We might have been there the same day. It was about 20 years ago for me as well.
That tour altered the course of my life in more than a few ways.

RIP Sierra On-Line.

Yonderboy

They'll likely be back some day. Any brand name as valuable as theirs has a great chance to be resurrected.

But yes, a very sad (albeit fitting) way to go out.

Aggrotank

i did qa for a few of their games. let me tell ya, after almost a year of playing M.A.C.H., im happy to see them go.

PaaatrickBabyBoy

RIP Sierra.

Mike's Stalker

Sierra was awesome, but I'm glad they are going away before the image of them becomes like how I see Sega now

Shin-san

I'll always miss the police chases in Police Quest 1...

gomerkyle9

Sierra was awesome until Steam came out. I really did not have any trouble with the Steam software. But it is a very stupid idea creating a installation that requires(mandatory) have internet in order to be able to play Offline. Anyways... Too bad sierra will be gone. But I still have Half-life 1 to remember them.

Video

Last weekend, I went home to help my parents clean out their garage. In it, was an old family computer from nearly 15 years ago. I plugged it in, and found a folder with my name on it. Inside (among other things) were folders with save files for games from Lucas Arts, Interplay, and Sierra.

Now that all of these companies have effectively ended their game production, I believe my childhood is officially over.

moonwaltz7

Don't forget Caesar III. I use to love that game.
Simcity and age of empires love-child.

Cue2

Can we maybe post news updates without biased opinions?

Call me a flaming homosexual, or whatever else, but personally I liked The new Mummy and I like Coldplay (I'm referring to the post about Guitar Hero Coldplay).

Let's try to make this fair and balanced, you know, like Fox News. Except maybe actually keep it fair and balanced.

emt9109

All I've gotta say about the Mummy... it was better than Indiana Jones' recent "effort" (or lack there of).

Cause007

Space Quest IV was the best. Especially the windoze version complete with Gary Owens' narration.

I think I've run through that game more than any other game, period.

Just clicking on pointless stuff was a complete joy that has yet to be topped.

My favorite part had to be when Roger travels back in time to SQI, and gets thrown out of the bar for being 256 colors.

terminalboredom

*still waiting for TRIBES 3* (and no... T:V doesn't count)

Cenobite

Those who know are aware that Sierra dug their own grave by the mid-nineties by getting rid of some of their more talented designers and letting Roberta Williams run her mouth off.

Personally, I knew that things were starting to go south when they replaced Jim Walls with Darryl Gates.

Paul Soth

So long Sierra; I'd mourn harder but let's face it, they stopped being Sierra when Roberta and the rest left years ago.
Nevertheless, DOS vidonya, old friend.

cynopt

I sort of wish they'd stick the Sierra label on Starcraft 2, just so it can go out with a bang, rather than this pathetic whimper.

Pantsman

Just remember a group of guys are making "The Silver Lining", which fits after KQ8 (which SUCKED). It's not too shabby either, they're making some quality shit.

corronchilejano

Sierra made the first game I can remember playing, Lode Runner: The Legend Returns for Mac (probably PC too). God I loved that game. It needs a PSN/XBLA rerelease NOW. No sidescrolling Puzzle-platformer has topped it yet.

Placentasaurus

tribes 2 was a joy to play. haven't played a multiplayer like it since how they got 64 players on the screen all running smooth on a 56k connection will always baffle me.

QimatGroton

Well, I'm sad to see it go but not really. It isn't Sierra.

Plus, let's hope that this will allow someone to pick up the Sierra mantle in a revival of the franchise. Who knows? Maybe those AGD cats ;)

Spoony Bard

@DukeOfPwn: That woman made the experience extremely painful for me also.

Refused