Sierra Trivia Game

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pbpb33
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Sierra Trivia Game

#1 Post by pbpb33 » Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:05 pm

Just for fun, I thought I'd start a little Sierra trivia quiz on here to test your Sierra knowledge. This quiz is not open book, not open note and certainly is not open Google!! You must read and sign an honor code pledge before proceeding. Quiz is open to all!

1) What was the theme/slogan for Sierra's 15th Anniversary marketing campaign?

2) In some issues of InterAction magazine, there was a rumour-type column written by someone using a pseudonym. The pseudonym was also the name of a kind of creature, which helps to explain why the author of the column was sometimes depicted in cartoon form as resembling this kind of creature. What kind of creature was it?

3) What was the name of Sierra's groundbreaking debut website in 1995?

4) An Indian-sounding, three-part name appeared in the credits (producer) for some Sierra titles in the late 80's and early 90's. What was that name?

5) Which Sierra designer wrote the pilot and several episodes of (and essentially created the characters for) the hit 1980's animated TV series Jem?

6) What was the area code that you had to call for technical support (not 800 number) in Oakhurst BEFORE Sierra had any offices in Washington State?

7) Which Sierra series included a game that came with, among other things, a novelty/souvenir napkin in the original game box?

8) The spouse of which well-known Sierra designer painted the cover art used for one of this designer's two major Sierra games?

9) What was the working title of the ill-fated political comedy project from Al Lowe in the early 1990's?

10) Which was the first and only major in-house, EGA (16 colors) Sierra game to feature digital sound effects?

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#2 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:53 pm

This is hard, I don't know any of them.

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#3 Post by Akril » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:35 am

Nuts, I don't know the answers to half of these, but I'll give it a shot anyhow.

1) What was the theme/slogan for Sierra's 15th Anniversary marketing campaign?
I think it was "The Fun has Just Begun", but I doubt it.

2) In some issues of InterAction magazine, there was a rumour-type column written by someone using a pseudonym. The pseudonym was also the name of a kind of creature, which helps to explain why the author of the column was sometimes depicted in cartoon form as resembling this kind of creature. What kind of creature was it?
A magpie.

[I'm not sure about #3, so I'm skipping it.]

4) An Indian-sounding, three-part name appeared in the credits (producer) for some Sierra titles in the late 80's and early 90's. What was that name?
Guruka Singh...and I can't remember his last name.

[I have no idea what the answers to 5 and 6 are.]

7) Which Sierra series included a game that came with, among other things, a novelty/souvenir napkin in the original game box?
The LSL series.

[I have no idea about #8.]

9) What was the working title of the ill-fated political comedy project from Al Lowe in the early 1990's?
I think it was Capitol Punishment, but I can't be sure.

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#4 Post by DrJones » Mon Nov 09, 2009 3:32 pm

That's really hard. I used to play the games, not the company. :eek

My answer to every question is Roberta Williams. :hat

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#5 Post by Broomie » Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:47 pm

3. I thought Sierra's website was just called Sierra Online. Don't recall any other special name for it.

5. Christy Marx. I remember after playing Conquest of a Longbow and looking her name up to find other titles she had worked on in IMDB and remember reading about the show. When I read the question I knew it was a female designer and just remembered all the major designers until her name popped up.

8. I'm going to guess number 8 but was it again the spouse of Christy Marx, who tragically died in a car crash. No idea what his name was but I remember reading he was an artist but don't remember if he designed the box art or not.

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#6 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:17 am

Number 8 was Peter Ledger.

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#7 Post by Akril » Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:20 pm

So...when are the answers going to be posted?

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#8 Post by gamecreator » Tue Dec 08, 2009 7:03 pm

They already are... on Google. :p

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#9 Post by Vildern » Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:22 pm

DrJones wrote:My answer to every question is Roberta Williams. :hat
Haha :lol same here.

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#10 Post by pbpb33 » Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:26 pm

OMG! I totally forgot I posted this. You guys are amazing!! Great answers! Here are the answers, as I believe them to be... I may have some things wrong.

1) What was the theme/slogan for Sierra's 15th Anniversary marketing campaign?
ANSWER: "The Fun has Just Begun" -- I know this because I won a Sierra 15th Anniversary t-shirt in some contest thing advertised in InterAction. They used that slogan in a lot of their 15h anniversary promotions.

2) In some issues of InterAction magazine, there was a rumour-type column written by someone using a pseudonym. The pseudonym was also the name of a kind of creature, which helps to explain why the author of the column was sometimes depicted in cartoon form as resembling this kind of creature. What kind of creature was it?
ANSWER: magpie ("Johnny Magpie") -- this was one of my favorite features in InterAction. It was kind of a rumor mill/behind-the-scenes type column. If you said bird, give yourself half credit! :-P

3) What was the name of Sierra's groundbreaking debut website in 1995?
ANSWER: SierraWeb. This was a big deal at the time... I remember all the fanfare when it opened. I still have screenshots saved from when I first visited!!

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#11 Post by pbpb33 » Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:37 pm

OMG! I totally forgot I posted this. You guys are amazing!! Great answers! Here are the answers, as I believe them to be... I may have some things wrong.

1) What was the theme/slogan for Sierra's 15th Anniversary marketing campaign?
ANSWER: "The Fun has Just Begun" -- I know this because I won a Sierra 15th Anniversary t-shirt in some contest thing advertised in InterAction. They used that slogan in a lot of their 15h anniversary promotional materials. I still have the shirt! Ironically, this was about the time that the fun was coming to a grinding halt, at least in terms of adventure gaming. Ugh. Though they did put out some good titles in the late 90's, the "glory days" of the Sierra adventure game had since passed.

2) In some issues of InterAction magazine, there was a rumour-type column written by someone using a pseudonym. The pseudonym was also the name of a kind of creature, which helps to explain why the author of the column was sometimes depicted in cartoon form as resembling this kind of creature. What kind of creature was it?
ANSWER: magpie ("Johnny Magpie") -- this was one of my favorite features in InterAction. It was kind of a rumor mill/behind-the-scenes type column. If you said bird, give yourself half credit! :-P

3) What was the name of Sierra's groundbreaking debut website in 1995?
ANSWER: SierraWeb. This was a big deal at the time... I remember all the fanfare when it opened. I still have screenshots saved from when I first visited!!

4) An Indian-sounding, three-part name appeared in the credits (producer) for some Sierra titles in the late 80's and early 90's. What was that name?
ANSWER: Garuka Singh Khalsa. I always remember this name sticking out like a sore thumb for me in the credits. Apparently he was an important guy at the company.

5) Which Sierra designer wrote the pilot and several episodes of (and essentially created the characters for) the hit 1980's animated TV series Jem?
ANSWER: Christy Marx. I thought it was cool when I found out. Yeah, even though I'm a guy I watched JEM when I was really little... don't laugh...

6) What was the area code that you had to call for technical support (not 800 number) in Oakhurst BEFORE Sierra had any offices in Washington State?
ANSWER: 209! I used to call all the time. I think now the calling area has been split and Oakhurst now uses 550.
I used to also call up LucasArts (I was a fan of Sierra over LucasArts/LucasFilm Games), and I'd ask them when King's Quest 5 was coming out and I would say how much I loved their company and all their "quest" games. They'd be like, "ummm, that's actually not us." Then I would say something like, "ooohhh, reallly? darn. hmm. do you have their number? because I think they're just the best." Sigh, the memories. I remember coming back from the beach in the afternoons during the summer and looking forward to playing the games when I got home. I always had to call tech support because I was always having trouble with my funky sound card.

7) Which Sierra series included a game that came with, among other things, a novelty/souvenir napkin in the original game box?
ANSWER: Leisure Suit Larry. Unless I'm mistaken, I think the game came with a napkin from Lefty's Bar.

8) The spouse of which well-known Sierra designer painted the cover art used for one of this designer's two major Sierra games?
ANSWER: Peter Ledger, former husband (I believe) of Christy Marx.

9) What was the working title of the ill-fated political comedy project from Al Lowe in the early 1990's?
ANSWER: Capitol Punishment. (pun on "capitol" hill) -- I wish this had come out! I can't think of any other similar titles. But I guess it would have been dated quickly, and delving into politics carries a lot of risk.

10) Which was the first and only major in-house, EGA (16 colors) Sierra game to feature digital sound effects?
ANSWER: QFG2 Trial by Fire. (at least that's what I always thought... I can't think of any other "3-d" animated adventure Sierra titles in EGA with text parser and with the option for digital sound effects)

Everyone who posted a response will a receive a PhD from High-Tech University (you will get "with honors" if you can name which Sierra title that university name is from -- hint: I hear they have a job opening for a janitor, but if all you have is a few months work history as a cook at Monolith, you may want to look elsewhere) in Sierra Studies.

Because I know that there are a lot of smart, knowledgeable people on this forum, I tried to make the questions tough (but also, I hope, fair).
Last edited by pbpb33 on Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#12 Post by pbpb33 » Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:47 pm

Here's an archive shot of the 1996 Sierra website... they weren't still calling it SierraWeb by then, but it's kind of a neat look back in time, nonetheless:

http://web.archive.org/web/199612182345 ... ierra.com/

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Re: Sierra Trivia Game

#13 Post by Akril » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:51 am

Hmm...about 4.33 out of ten. Could have scored worse, I suppose.

My answer for #1 was pretty much a guess. One of the videos that came with the KQ 15th anniversary collection used that phrase about seven times, so I figured that might have been the official slogan. I have no idea about that bonus question, though.

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