New Manuals and A Letter From the President

Gather around the fire kids and let me tell you about the days that gamers played games in black and white and a newfangled technology called the Sound Card was first introduced....

Actually, I'll let Ken Williams tell you all about it.  It's amazing that a president of game development company wrote a to introduce the sound card.  He definitely deserves props for two things:

1.  Actually writing a letter to his clients (Where is that type of customer service now?  I am looking at you Apple).
2.  For being dead-on in embracing the technology... and being right.

Plus, I LOVE that he offered to mail a CASSETTE of sound card audio. Of course, the story about playing songs with the kiddos...too much.

On another note, I've finished the uploads of the King Quest 2 and Police Quest manuals.  The Police Quest manual is especially fun, as it reads like a mini-police training guide.  I am simply amazed that so much time and effort went into the creation of a game manual; now a days they seem like an after-thought in the game development process.

Finally, with a little bit of meat and potatoes, I feel good about outreach to promote the blog.  I  really would love fan feedback and interaction.  So if you got drawn here by a post I wrote on another site or blog - thanks for the visit!  Please know this is a dedicated blog from a real fan, and I hope you will come back and share this blog with your friends.

Cheers!

Don't Bogart That King's Quest Manual...

Since the last post, I've been preoccupied tweaking the manual scanning process.  Between the Epson Scan software and Adobe Elements, I finally found a combination that do these manuals justice.  You can view the King's Quest manual through the page link on the right hand side.  In addition, I've completed all the King's Quest 2 scan and edits, and they should be up this weekend.  I am really excited to share these with other fans- I researched the Internet for other sites offering full manuals for viewing enjoyment, and I found none that matched my vision.  Please check the manuals out, enjoy, and post your feedback!

SB

Old School Sierra: The Inspiration

Hello and welcome to Old School Sierra, my blog dedicated to Sierra games from the late 80's to early 90's.

The inspiration to start this blog is two-fold:

1. As a 31-year old who lives in progressive and high-tech Austin, I want to get caught up with the social media times (believe it or not, I don't even have a Facebook account- crazy, I know) and...
2. I absolutely LOVED Sierra Adventure Games growing up.

However, what really got me started was preparation for a major life change.  Exactly four weeks from today, my wife and I expect the birth of our first child (a little girl).  As a result, I recently converted our home office into a baby's nursery (I describe it as giraffes and pink stuff).  It actually was pretty therapeutic; I got to dispose of random items that we never use.  As Tyler Durden once said, "The things you own end up owning you".

Along the way, I came across my collection of Sierra manuals and catalogs.  I kept the manual of every game I ever owned, along with catalogs (from 1988 on) and other Sierra merchandise.  Still in a Zen-like state from ridding my house of material clutter, I had an epiphany... I should share these catalogs and manuals with the on-line community; Sierra would be my blog muse!  I was inspired - that same day I went on Amazon and ordered an EPSON V30 scanner.  It's funny; I would never have guessed a hobby from my early teens would be my vehicle into the 21st century.  

A couple of weeks later here we are with my first post.  I hope to create a place where fans can discuss great games such as King's Quest, Space Quest, and Hero's Quest (aka Quest for Glory), and I plan to post random full manuals for Sierra fans to enjoy.  These manuals are great - they range from comic books to legitimate short stories (not like game manuals today- but that rant is for another post).  In addition, I have extra copies of catalogs (I was surprised to find six duplicate 1992 Sierra Amiga catalogs) which I'll look to give away to real enthusiasts.

Let's go down memory lane together...

SB