Sierra Quest Collections

[A Black Falcon]

Most all companies do sell more than 50% of their stock though...

Good point. One I've brought up before. Metroid Zero Mission included the original Metroid, and all the previous KQ collections have included the first version of KQ1, but aside from that I can't really think of any that do that. They SHOULD though. When there's such a major upgrade that it's almost a new game (well, KQ1 isn't that much of an upgrade or change relative to some new remakes these days, it could have been fully mouse driven for example), including the older game should be a matter of course, especially when those old games are so small. Sword of Mana, for example, should have included Final Fantasy Adventure, at least as an unlockable. Since a GBA has a GBC processor in it, that should have been easily doable (though it may have caused issues with the DS). And, actually, I thought they should have included the original NES games in Mario All-Stars. Space concerns were still tight enough even during SNES times that including extra NES games would have been a problem though. No excuse today though, in the form of those Mario Advance games.

Those are mostly full-on remakes, something somewhat different from re-release collections... though Mario Allstars is something in between, since it has the original gameplay, just with new graphics... Metroid Zero Mission and Sword of Mana though aren't re-releases, they're remakes. I guess I can see why you'd include them in this group too though, as they are redos of older games... and yes, it'd be cool if each time someone remade an old game they included old games from the series in it, but while certainly not the rule, it does happen sometimes... it's much less common for collections of old games to include multiple versions of each game than for new games or remakes to include old ones in the series, I think -- like how Zero Mission does include Metroid, but Mario Advance doesn't includes the NES versions of those games... since it's an upgraded re-release, not a true new game, you're assumed to want the latest version, even if you don't. :)

You are right about Sierra being a shell, and that today's Sierra wouldn't do that. In fact, THAT IS MY ENTIRE POINT, that they don't do that! Along with skimping out on Mask of Eternity and that one Leisure Suit Larry game... well it's annoying when they just do this boot out the door job...

I think they were trying to save money on the extra couple of CDs those games would have required... :p

Those aweful blue bars... that's all you keep going on about. Are they that big a deal? Most programs do have those you know. While it would be nice to get rid of them, are they really that distracting? Just think of it as part of your moniter and put it out of your mind if that's the thing that's getting to you. And, yes, the Windows versions are very hard to get working these days (unless you just install Windows 3.x under DOSbox, but that would require a copy of that, which I happen to have in my big bin of old discarded floppy disks, though that is a very round about way of doing it). Sound usually works just fine in the Windows versions, if you can get the game itself to start at any rate. The problem with DOS games is the sound quality for the midi, at least in KQ5 and KQ6 (from what I've played) is pretty bad, at least compaired to what it could be.

The windows ones aren't that bad. They do the job just fine, and how can they be too small? Well, you do still use 800 x 600, so maybe that's the issue. If you run the game in a window they might be hard to see, but if you can see them, a small cursor in a point and click adventure game is a blessing. The issue for me is finding that "sweet spot" on the cursor, the active point. If it's too big, I'll just keep missing, and some of those cursors are so big they hide whatever it was I was trying to click on so I lose track of it. They do look a lot better though, that's true. As I said, I would prefer it if they just bumped up the resolution (shrinking the cursors) so there would be the best of both worlds, but if it's a choice between usability and aesthetics, well I've made my choice. So that leaves the music being worse. If you prize some nicer looking cursors and the lack of a blue bar over superior music (and in the case of KQ6, the cursors are the same just smaller (for the most part) and the character portraits are WAAAY better in Windows), then okay, but that's certainly not where my priorities lie...

KQ7 I might actually prefer in DOS. I can't see any issues with the DOS version of that, and as you said I can run it straight from the HD only in DOS. But, KQ5 and 6? For me the choice goes to Windows and it's a pretty clear cut one at that.

Not just blue bars, there's also the cursors and the size of the window (how I said how the DOS one are fullscreen, while the Windows ones have various things on the screen that in comparison greatly limit the amount of screen actually taken up by the game... (and no, it's not about resolution -- remember how these games either require or very strongly recommend a 640x480 desktop? Yeah. Not exactly 800x600 compatible. Having to switch the desktop resolution before playing each game (and then back afterwards) is a pain too...)

As for the music, as I said, I didn't notice a difference at all in either 5 or 7... maybe I can check that again with 5, but I didn't notice anything when playing it.

5 and 6 are worlds apart. 5 had a number of illogical puzzles. I had fun but it was one of the worse games in the series. 6 however is my personal favorite in the series. If it's your impression of 5 that's keeping you away, think more of 7. You seemed to like that one. This one really is an amazing experience. All the puzzles are logical and have sufficient clues for you to figure them out. It's still hard, but you shouldn't have to resort to a guide if you are willing to stick it out. When you save your game, just make a new file each time (these days space should not be a concern for this game's save files) and you should be fine if you get stuck (which is rarer in this game, but still possible, they only actually got rid of the stuck issue in KQ7). And, unlike 5, there's actually real different ways to solve at least some of the puzzles (as opposed to, do I give the gold needle to this guy and the coin to this guy, or visa versa?), and potential for a split in the direction of the game depending on one critical decision you make as the final hour approaches. Plus, the voice acting is the best in the entire series by a huge margin.

Sierra today is just not up to the task of being kick-awesome and delivering the same quality they used to.

If by "liked 7" you mean "the family got it at some point, and when I played the opening area, got frusterated and gave up early on in, and I don't think anyone else did much better, until a couple of years ago I went back to it and played through it with frequent reference to GameFAQs", then yes, I liked 7... ;)

Seriously, I liked the graphics, graphical design, and music, but the puzzles were very illogical a lot of the time and the "you die and restart from your save/from nearby" thing, while not as cruel as "I sure hope you saved recently before doing that thing that you'd never have guessed would kill you, ha ha!", is still really frusterating...