18th September 2006, 1:04 PM
Well the collections really are out now. Took long enough.
Now it's time to find reasons to be upset about them! By that I mean, I'm waiting for reviews of the collections to tell me exactly what features are and are not included with the games. Are the instruction booklets complete or just quick "just do this when you reach this puzzle" affairs without any of the neat storyline stuff? Further, is this JUST the games, or will they toss in ALL that extra content they've been putting in these collections every previous itteration? I'm talking the interview movies, quiz games, that King's Quest checkers and backgammon thing, all manner of odd editorial pieces about various histories of the series, and so on (really a very fleshed out collection, the way it used to be done, back when games were tall as a mountain and twice as smart). Further, the last KQ collection also included 4 Apple II games and an Apple II emulator, as well as the two Laura Bow games and Mixed up Mother Goose (a very easy game for like the 5 years oldest of kids, but still a good "Early Childhood" game, a "mouse trainer" if you will).
Unfortunatly the only information I have is the quick blurbs on the collections at Sierra's site (no detailed listing of exactly what's there, just a basic description). The most I can say is it is very likely Mask of Eternity is not included. Beyond that, it would take a lot of work getting all that old extra content to work with XP perfectly. I can only hope all those delays were for adding the extra games from the last KQ collection. Doubtful though... That's why I'll just wait for the review.
There's also the possibility that at least the other games will later be included in some sort of "Sierra Others Compilation" along with the Gabriel Knight games, Quest for Camelot, and maybe Mask of Eternity. Beyond that, there's still the matter of them releasing the Quest for Glory compilation.
At the very least, now that instead of directly accessing the hardware, these games are using a driver layer like DirectX, they have much greater longevity in terms of "forwards compatibility". These should work into the future no matter what changes are made, so long as a directx translator or emulator is made for that system.
Now it's time to find reasons to be upset about them! By that I mean, I'm waiting for reviews of the collections to tell me exactly what features are and are not included with the games. Are the instruction booklets complete or just quick "just do this when you reach this puzzle" affairs without any of the neat storyline stuff? Further, is this JUST the games, or will they toss in ALL that extra content they've been putting in these collections every previous itteration? I'm talking the interview movies, quiz games, that King's Quest checkers and backgammon thing, all manner of odd editorial pieces about various histories of the series, and so on (really a very fleshed out collection, the way it used to be done, back when games were tall as a mountain and twice as smart). Further, the last KQ collection also included 4 Apple II games and an Apple II emulator, as well as the two Laura Bow games and Mixed up Mother Goose (a very easy game for like the 5 years oldest of kids, but still a good "Early Childhood" game, a "mouse trainer" if you will).
Unfortunatly the only information I have is the quick blurbs on the collections at Sierra's site (no detailed listing of exactly what's there, just a basic description). The most I can say is it is very likely Mask of Eternity is not included. Beyond that, it would take a lot of work getting all that old extra content to work with XP perfectly. I can only hope all those delays were for adding the extra games from the last KQ collection. Doubtful though... That's why I'll just wait for the review.
There's also the possibility that at least the other games will later be included in some sort of "Sierra Others Compilation" along with the Gabriel Knight games, Quest for Camelot, and maybe Mask of Eternity. Beyond that, there's still the matter of them releasing the Quest for Glory compilation.
At the very least, now that instead of directly accessing the hardware, these games are using a driver layer like DirectX, they have much greater longevity in terms of "forwards compatibility". These should work into the future no matter what changes are made, so long as a directx translator or emulator is made for that system.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)