Sierra On-Line is a classic example ofthe rise and fall of a gaming company. The 1980s and 90s were the golden years for adventure games, and few companies took advantage of this period more than Sierra. The company started as a modest tech startup in the Los Angeles suburbs, and during its height, was one of the two biggest names in the adventure gaming community.
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Sadly, as storytelling became more common in other genres, adventure games dropped in popularity and Sierra went down with them. The company had become a shell of its former self by the early 2000s, and, at this point, “Sierra” is hardly more than a brand name used by other developers. Still, fans of the company remember its games fondly, and collectors will pay a pretty penny for complete boxes from the studio’s early catalog.
All prices were taken fromPriceCharting.comand were accurate at the time of publication.
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One thing that Sierra loved to do for its adventure games was to put the word “Quest” in almost every title. TheSpace Questseries focused on Roger Wilco, a spaceship janitor who goes on a series of increasingly outrageous adventures.
Space Questwas one of the company’s most successful series, partly because ofthe sense of humor and satire of the lead designers, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, and partly because of the way each story builds directly on each other to create a single memorable journey.Space Quest 3: The Pirates of Pestulonpicks up immediately whereSpace Quest 2leaves off, and features improved graphics, sound effects, and a more intuitive text parser compared to the first two games. It won awards when it came out in 1989, and it’s still a popular collector’s item today.
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Space Quest 2came out in 1987, two years beforeSpace Quest 3. It didn’t break as much ground or improve as many features as the third game did, but it did solidifythe satirical tone of theSpace Questseriesand introduce new mechanics, puzzles, and parodies.
InSpace Quest 2, Roger Wilco ends up as a janitor again despite his heroics, and he’s also the target of Sludge Vohaul, who was secretly responsible for the crisis of the first game. Original copies of the gamecame with a short comic bookthat explains what happens between the first and second games, making the complete box especially valuable to collectors.
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In 1993, Al Lowe, who normally focused on theLeisure Suit Larryseries, decided to create a Wild West spoofalong the lines of the filmBlazing Saddles. He and co-designer Josh Mandel wound up creatingFreddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist.
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Much likeLeisure Suit Larry,Freddy Pharkashas an unusually adult sense of humor, though it may have helped that the game came out a year beforethe ESRB rating system came into existence. UnlikeLarry,Freddywould never get a sequel, but it was popular enough to get a CD-ROM version a year later complete with voice acting for every character. The later CD-ROM editions are particularly rare and valuable.
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Sierra’sQuest for Gloryseries was an adventure-RPG hybrid, an unusual sight back in the late 80s and early 90s. The main character is a player-named adventurer who solves puzzles, fights monsters, andimproves his skills through constant practiceinstead of getting levels or skill points. The whole series was co-designed by married couple Lori Ann and Corey Cole.
Fans often regardQuest for Glory 4as the best game of the series. It features what may be the strongest set of characters and storylines, is the first game in the series to feature voice acting (including narration by actor John Rhys-Davies,who played Gimli in theLord of the Ringstrilogy), and has a dynamic and action-oriented combat system. It also didn’t go through the development struggles of the last game of the series,Dragon Fire.
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Space Quest 1came out in 1986, at which time most graphical adventure games were more liketext adventures with some simple illustrations on top. TheKing’s Questseries started beforeSpace Quest, but this title was the first Sierra game to feature the sense of humor that would become a staple of the company’s later releases.
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Space Quest 1would quickly become a new hit for Sierra, but it was something of a gamble back when it first came out. Combine that fact with the game’s importance as a landmark for the company, and it’s no wonder thatSpace Quest 1is one of the rarest Sierra games out there.
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Sierra covered a variety of story genres with their various Quest series, from fantasy and science fiction to police procedural. However, it wasn’t until 1993 that designer Jane Jensen convinced Sierra to let her create a supernatural murder mystery calledGabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. The story takes place in a detailed rendition of New Orleans, and it features an amazing music score anda star-studded vocal cast that includes Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, and Michael Dorn.
Gabriel Knightwould only get two sequels, but only because Sierra’s fortunes were already in decline during the late 1990s. Like other Sierra games of the time,Gabriel Knightcame out both as a set of floppy disks without voice acting and a multimedia CD-ROM edition with voice acting. The CD-ROM edition is prized by collectors because of the higher quality of the game, the comic-book prequel that came in the box, and the box itself, which had a unique triangular shape for the initial release.
