Bringing The Classics Sierra Games To Consoles

[Mordavia]

hiya all........

just a topic I thought would be cool to discuss.

With the upcoming release of the remaking of Secret of Monkey Island for both PC and XBL. My wife and I were both wondering would it be a good idea and worth it to bring and possible remake the classic sierra quest games on the console. I think it would be a nice idea. If whomever owns the rights to these games now( i dont know who does, I lost track) might consider the idea of introducing a whole new generation of players to characters like King Graham, Gabriel Knight, Roger Wilco, or even Leisure Suit Larry. I think it would be cool to have it on the Wii what with the wii remote and all. But if they wanted to update the games to like HD then maybe XBL would be a good candidate. What do YOU think?????

[DrJones]

The problem is that Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Fate of Atlantis still beat most of the games released today, while 80% of the earlier Sierra Games can't even compete with games released fifteen years ago. It's one thing being able to play these old games, and other pretending people to buy them.

[MusicallyInspired]

That's debatable, but true enough for today. Sierra adventures I always pictured were for hardcore adventurers with their unforgiving mazes, dead end puzzles, and constant deaths. LucasArts adventures I always pictured were appealing more to average gamers or even non-gamers with the absence of deaths, dead ends, and general tediousness. Which is why they'd still do well today.

[Klytos]

The problem is that Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Fate of Atlantis still beat most of the games released today, while 80% of the earlier Sierra Games can't even compete with games released fifteen years ago. It's one thing being able to play these old games, and other pretending people to buy them.

I disagree. Games like Kings Quest 5, Gabriel Knight, any of the Space Quest games, and the Quest for Glory series would hold up very well today if updated like they're doing with Monkey Island.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I think MI was getting at if 100% of each company's games were ported than Lucas Arts would be more appealing to today's gamers which is agreeable but if you want to compare very specific titles to each other from each brand name then it might be different. I think LA has both a higher chance of doing it (as they are still a production company today) and would be more successful at it. But I would still go Skippy for a Gabriel Knight Redux

[MusicallyInspired]

I think MI was getting at if 100%....

That wasn't me that was DrJones. I actually disagreed with him, too.

[DrJones]

The problem is that Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Fate of Atlantis still beat most of the games released today, while 80% of the earlier Sierra Games can't even compete with games released fifteen years ago. It's one thing being able to play these old games, and other pretending people to buy them.

I disagree. Games like Kings Quest 5, Gabriel Knight, any of the Space Quest games, and the Quest for Glory series would hold up very well today if updated like they're doing with Monkey Island.

I actually said "earlier games" of Sierra in my post. Games like King's Quest VI, Gabriel Knight, Space Quest IV or Quest of Glory IV hold much better values today because they were done much, much later and with much more experience (the first VGA games like King's Quest V and Larry V, and Quest For Glory II are debatable).

And I'm not saying that the first sierra games were bad games. The problem is that they weren't afraid of trying new things in that new genre they created, and quite a few things of these didn't pan out. It's hard to follow modern game design rules when they didn't exist back then. When the theory came into place was in part because of those games. Because of the (now) bad design choices that players found so annoying. I mean, puzzles that require a phone line, dead ends, gambling, pixel hunt (maze puzzles), random thievery. The list is long.

And even though they are quite interesting to have them around, and I've played a lot of them in my age and in the anthologies, and I enjoyed some of them a lot, if I had a business and had the chance of buying the right to sell the games as they were, without modifications, I wouldn't buy 80% of the early ones (Pre-VGA) because I don't think they would sell at all, even if I could update just the graphics like the Monkey Island remake did. Because that's what Sierra did, and what Sierra stopped doing for a reason.

And it's not a demeanor to your hard work, I have played all of AGDI's released games, I have played your games, and I have played some more AGS games and I absolute love them ALL!! But I know I'm not mainstream, and I know that most of those people wouldn't play half the Sierra catalogue if it were free. And it just happens that they can find them for free.

Wow, how depressing. Sorry guys.

[Anonymous Game Creator 2]

I kind of agree with Dr Jones here. LucasArts has the right idea with the Monkey Island remake. They're keeping things fresh and new. While the game is old, the graphics are new, the features are new, and the idea of getting actors like Dominic Armato and Earl Boen to reprise their roles from the later games is great for novelty value. It ensures that MORE people will download the revamp of The Secret of Monkey Island (if only to check out the enhancements) than would be the case if they were simply re-releasing the 320x200 VGA version.

This is similarly the reason why there's always a lot of buzz whenever we release a remake of an old Sierra game, even though everyone's played the original many times before. People are intrigued to see what the new version is like and to discover what has been improved upon. But there needs to be this drawcard aspect to pique peoples' interest.

I believe there's a decent chance for the old Sierra games to be popular on consoles but they'd probably need to receive the same 'enhancement' treatment that LucasArts is giving The Secret of Monkey Island. The problem is that each successive company that acquires the Sierra IP seems to prefer playing hot potato with them, rather than putting them to any worthwhile use.

[Quest For Glory Fan]

I think MI was getting at if 100%....

That wasn't me that was DrJones. I actually disagreed with him, too.

Bah, oops, sorry. I'm a scatter brain today it seems.