R.I.P. Sierra Oakhurst
Josh Mandel
Yesterday, Sierra Corporate shut down its Oakhurst facility, putting
most of its 130+ employees on the street. A couple dozen of them were
invited to move to the Seattle area to continue work at the Bellevue
office.
This was the last vestige of a truly historic group of developers in a
truly unique environment.
What makes it all so unique is that Sierra WAS Oakhurst, and has been
for close to 15 years. The economy of the town revolved to an enormous
extent around Sierra, and the town grew along with the company.
Because the community was so tiny, the employees of Sierra didn't just
work with each other, they lived with each other. There were neighbors
and best friends and lovers and spouses. Husbands and wives worked
side-by-side, parents and children. Co-workers got together in the
evenings, partied together on the weekends. You had to. There was
nobody else to socialize with.
A lotta great gaming history was made out of that place, and by a lot
of the same people who were still there...until yesterday. Jane,
Roberta, Al, and other designers may still be producing out of the
Pacific Northwest, but I think most would agree that Sierra's glory
days were in Oakhurst, and every from Ken and Roberta on down drew on
the incredible beauty that surrounded them there.
Good luck to Oakhurst. I hope the town weathers the mass exodus.
It's also a loss to the industry, and I wish the greatest of luck and
good fortune to the talented people who helped make that place so
special.
--Josh
Billy Todd
>I can't believe nobody's talking about this yet.
>
>Yesterday, Sierra Corporate shut down its Oakhurst facility, putting
>most of its 130+ employees on the street. A couple dozen of them were
>invited to move to the Seattle area to continue work at the Bellevue
>office.
Wow. Just another sign that The End Is Near.
>This was the last vestige of a truly historic group of developers in a
>truly unique environment.
This is true. As much as I despise Roberta Williams, she really was a
pioneer in the field of computer gaming. In addition to her own
efforts, bringing together The Two Guys From Andromeda, Al Lowe,
Lori and Corey Cole, and so many others to head great games truly
made Sierra _the_ best computer adventure game company out there
for years.
With Oakhurst gone, I can't imagine a Sierra. The mountain logo,
whether scribbled onto the screen with the AGI, being passed by
a flying carpet, or shimmering in dazzling 256-color with MIDI
fanfare, is now gone for good.
What happened?
I remember reading your posts on the bulletin boards of The Sierra
Network when I was in ninth grade. Offering insights on games I'd been
prodding my parents to buy me for Christmas, you, Corey Cole, and
others from the Oakhurst crowd had to have an immense sense of
accomplishment and pride as scores of posts begged for help through
puzzles you'd created.
Suddenly it all just dissapeared. Quest for Glory 4 came out and was
buggy. Roberta produced a seven (!) CD Phantasmogoria, the Coles
<ahem!> left, TSN was sold off, King's Quest 7 was mediocre at best,
and now...
Sierra's fading. The royal dynasty that was the Sierra family is now
an increasingly minor noble. I played Sierra games starting with
King's Quest 3, and I've still got the box of KQ4 that boasts "Three
Megabytes of code- The largest computer game ever produced!"
Through King's Quests and Quests for Glory, chasing down
Jesse Baines and Sludge Vohaul, Sierra ruled the adventure gaming
industry.
And now the citadel, Oakhurst, is abandoned.
>It's also a loss to the industry, and I wish the greatest of luck and
>good fortune to the talented people who helped make that place so
>special.
Amen. Good night Sierra, and good luck to those who made you great.
It's on a sentimental note that I sign this posting simply as I did
on The Sierra Network bulletin boards those years ago.
AGABilly
Hero for Hire
-------------------
Billy Todd WT...@clemson.edu
"The only demographic group more full of shit than college
students, in general, is graduate students. But that's a
more academic form of shit."- Chad "Oilcan" Orzel, rasfwr-j
Josh Mandel
wrote:
>This is true. As much as I despise Roberta Williams, she really was a
>pioneer in the field of computer gaming. In addition to her own
>efforts, bringing together The Two Guys From Andromeda, Al Lowe,
>Lori and Corey Cole, and so many others to head great games truly
>made Sierra _the_ best computer adventure game company out there
>for years.
>
>With Oakhurst gone, I can't imagine a Sierra. The mountain logo,
>whether scribbled onto the screen with the AGI, being passed by
>a flying carpet, or shimmering in dazzling 256-color with MIDI
>fanfare, is now gone for good.
>
>What happened?
I think it was the same ol' story: noble intentions gave way to greed.
For a long time, it seems, Ken and Roberta were content to run a
company where people had a great time working together and playing
together, and at the same time, making enough -- more than enough --
money to keep the whole thing going.
But as sales stayed flat in the adventure game genre, other genres
were taking off, and suddenly it wasn't enough to have a few million
in the bank, there had to be a few MORE million in the bank...and
more...and more. It stopped being important that the company be a
*fun* place to work; that it was *profitable* to the investors and
company officials became the be-all and end-all.
>It's on a sentimental note that I sign this posting simply as I did
>on The Sierra Network bulletin boards those years ago.
>
>AGABilly
>Hero for Hire
Well, damn, Billy, I think I remember that handle! INCIDENTALLY,
anyone who cares to pay their last respects might want to go to Bill
Shockley's special Forum, set up for anyone who wants to send best
wishes to, or help, the disenfranchised Sierra employees:
http://www.roboto.com
--Josh
Nobody
Josh Mandel wrote in message <36d41a53....@news.mindspring.com>...
>>whether scribbled onto the screen with the AGI, being passed by
>>a flying carpet, or shimmering in dazzling 256-color with MIDI
>>fanfare, is now gone for good.
Was not that mountain in the logo supposed to be El Capitan in Yosemite? If
I recall correctly, that was still a couple hours' drive from Oakhurst.
Maybe they can just change it to Mt. Rainier (at least you can actually see
it from Bellevue (when it's not raining)).
Seriously, they are like all great pioneers--they pave the road, hordes
follow in their path, then they fade away or move on to something else.
Claude Martins
Josh Mandel <jo...@josho.com> wrote:
[about the termination of Sierra's Oakhurst division]
>I think it was the same ol' story: noble intentions gave way to greed.
>For a long time, it seems, Ken and Roberta were content to run a
>company where people had a great time working together and playing
>together, and at the same time, making enough -- more than enough --
>money to keep the whole thing going.
>
>But as sales stayed flat in the adventure game genre, other genres
>were taking off, and suddenly it wasn't enough to have a few million
>in the bank, there had to be a few MORE million in the bank...and
>more...and more. It stopped being important that the company be a
>*fun* place to work; that it was *profitable* to the investors and
>company officials became the be-all and end-all.
It seems as if Sierra has all but abandoned the adventure genre,
and started focussing more on the 3D FPS market. Their success
with Valve's Half-Life and the Hellfire expansion pack for Diablo
will probably reinforce their idea that creating adventure games
is a dead-end venture.
I can't think of any adventure game that is supposed to come out
from Sierra after Gabriel Knight 3; Quest for Glory 5 was the
last of that series, and the less said about KQ:MoE the better.
Probably the only franchise with which they will continue will be
the rather long-in-the-tooth Leisure Suit Larry games.
The first graphic adventure game I played was Police Quest (the
original AGI version). I remember being absolutely enthralled by
my alter ego of Sonny Bonds. The humour was cute (remember "any
port in a storm" on the police terminal?), the animations were
delightful (the chicken prank, and Sweet Cheeks Marie's birthday
celebration dance), and the gameplay was refreshing. I ran through
the rest of their games--my lowly 8088 choking when they switched
to the SCI interface).
Oh well, enough reminiscing.
I guess it really is the end of an era. Regardless of what you
thought of Sierra's games or their designers, they had a tremendous
influence on the adventure game market in their heyday.
Farewell, Oakhurst, and best of luck to all of the designers,
artists, musicians, technicians, programmers, and all the rest,
who created fun little games for all of us.
- Claude.
--
--
Claude Martins, "Timberwolf", ICQ#: 5304950, York U, Toronto, ON, CA
mailto:mar...@cs.yorku.ca && http://www.ariel.cs.yorku.ca/~martins/
"Can you fly, Bobby?"
Poster Formerly Known as Guyver3
>
>>Was not that mountain in the logo supposed to be El Capitan in Yosemite? If
>>I recall correctly, that was still a couple hours' drive from Oakhurst.
>>Maybe they can just change it to Mt. Rainier (at least you can actually see
>>it from Bellevue (when it's not raining)).
>>
>Close...it's Half Dome (also in Yosemite). About an hour from
>Oakhurst. The mileage is actually quite low, but the roads in Yosemite
>are so twisted that you have to drive very slowly if you don't want to
>go tumbling down a ravine.
>
>You're right, they should ditch the Half-Dome logo for something that
>has some meaning to the current company. (Actually, they should also
>drop the "Sierra" portion of their name; the entrance to the Sierra
>National Forest was just 10 minutes from the Oakhurst facility; now
>they've severed all ties to it except in name.)
>
>--Josho
Damn that makes me sad. As another poster said, Sierra On-Line has
officially been merged out of existence. Haven't most of the old
guard left too? Ken's long gone, Roberta's on permanent sebatical.
Is Al Lowe still around? And since Jane Jensen is there, I wonder how
she feels about all of this. When I met her showing off work for
GKIII at the 98 E3 she wasn't sure what the future of the company she
was such and integral part of would be.
Grimfarrow
Josh Mandel wrote:
> On 24 Feb 1999 19:27:56 PST, guy...@usa.net (Poster Formerly Known as
> Guyver3) wrote:
>
> >Damn that makes me sad. As another poster said, Sierra On-Line has
> >officially been merged out of existence. Haven't most of the old
> >guard left too? Ken's long gone, Roberta's on permanent sebatical.
> >Is Al Lowe still around? And since Jane Jensen is there, I wonder how
> >she feels about all of this. When I met her showing off work for
> >GKIII at the 98 E3 she wasn't sure what the future of the company she
> >was such and integral part of would be.
>
> Ken's long gone, yes (he, ex-Oakhurst chief Jerry Bowerman, and
> Margaret Lowe -- Al's wife -- have an Internet talk show channel
> called TalkSpot). Roberta's not really on sabbatical, having just
> released KING'S QUEST: MASK OF ETERNITY. Al's definitely still there,
> having recently put out the Leisure Suit Larry casino game. And Jane
> is still working on GK3, which we all have high hopes for. Mark
> Seibert's still there too; I don't know if he's still composing there,
> or executive producing, or what...and there are several other "old
> guard"-types still there, such as Mark Hood, who was one of the
> original authors of SCI.
>
> --Josh
I thought Al Lowe was in Yosemite Entertainment. Has he been
moved to Seattle?
I find it so blind that the President only talked about big games like
Homeworld , Team Fortress II and Starsiege : Tribes. He obviously
has no clue that Sierra has always been about adventure games,
otherwise perhaps 'Gabriel Knight III' would have come out of
his mouth.
I suspect that GK3 will be the last in the series. At least with the
company that's inappropraitely named "Sierra"
Grimfarrow
Josh Mandel
Josh Mandel
Billy Todd
>On Wed, 24 Feb 1999 08:05:20 GMT, WT...@clemson.edu (Billy Todd)
>wrote:
>
>>With Oakhurst gone, I can't imagine a Sierra. The mountain logo,
>>whether scribbled onto the screen with the AGI, being passed by
>>a flying carpet, or shimmering in dazzling 256-color with MIDI
>>fanfare, is now gone for good.
>>
>>What happened?
>
>I think it was the same ol' story: noble intentions gave way to greed.
>For a long time, it seems, Ken and Roberta were content to run a
>company where people had a great time working together and playing
>together, and at the same time, making enough -- more than enough --
>money to keep the whole thing going.
>
>But as sales stayed flat in the adventure game genre, other genres
>were taking off, and suddenly it wasn't enough to have a few million
>in the bank, there had to be a few MORE million in the bank...and
>more...and more. It stopped being important that the company be a
>*fun* place to work; that it was *profitable* to the investors and
>company officials became the be-all and end-all.
For some reason, I feel like I have to put the beginning of Sierra's
Fall at Phantasmagoria. Obviously I wasn't there, but it came
across to me that Roberta was obsessed with the project. The
influences that had on the other projects Sierra was doing at the
time, such as the extremely buggy release of Quest for Glory 4,
really were negative for us, the players.
After that it all went to hell. Quest for Glory shelved permanently
(they said) after the Coles left Sierra. One of the Space Quest
guys stopped working on the series. King's Quest VII outright sucked.
Larry was, well, Larry.
And Dynamix just wasn't picking up the slack.
Maybe it was due to the bitter feelings over the seperation, but I
remember Corey Cole telling me on TSN that Roberta and Phantasmagoria
were responsible for quite a bit.
>>It's on a sentimental note that I sign this posting simply as I did
>>on The Sierra Network bulletin boards those years ago.
>>
>>AGABilly
>>Hero for Hire
>
>Well, damn, Billy, I think I remember that handle!
Heh. I loved TSN/INN. I stand by my claim that, AOL be damned,
The Sierra Network (and later INN) was the first real on-line
community. Nothing on a computer, Net or otherwise, since then has
ever involved me as deeply as TSN did. It was awesome.
Then it went corporate.
Kind of like Sierra.
Oh well.
-----------------------
Billy Todd WT...@clemson.edu
"Um, yes, I'm looking for three Aztec priests, two
Jainites, and a follower of Baal. I seem to have an
infestation of Jehovah's Witnesses I'm hoping they
could clear up." -Ray Cochener, s.h.w-i
Billy Todd
>On 24 Feb 1999 19:27:56 PST, guy...@usa.net (Poster Formerly Known as
>Guyver3) wrote:
>
>>Damn that makes me sad. As another poster said, Sierra On-Line has
>>officially been merged out of existence. Haven't most of the old
>>guard left too? Ken's long gone, Roberta's on permanent sebatical.
>>Is Al Lowe still around? And since Jane Jensen is there, I wonder how
>>she feels about all of this. When I met her showing off work for
>>GKIII at the 98 E3 she wasn't sure what the future of the company she
>>was such and integral part of would be.
<Snip Pathetically Short List of Who's Still at Sierra>
Josh, I've been meaning to ask. Where are you now? Are you still at
Sierra, or have you joined someone else?
-----------------
Billy Todd Wt...@clemson.edu
Hero for Hire since 1990
Josh Mandel
I appreciate your asking; I'm no longer at Sierra, I'm at Sega --
along with several other Sierra alumni, including Kurt Busch, who for
years edited the Sierra Magazine and InterAction, and Eric Hammond,
who was one of the earliest programmers at Sierra. As a teenager, he
designed the groundbreaking basketball game "One on One."
The togetherness of the people there, largely forced on them by the
circumstances (and they were beautiful circumstances!), has made this
almost as saddening for people who left there years ago as it is for
the people who are leaving now.
--Josh
On Thu, 25 Feb 1999 04:38:19 GMT, WT...@clemson.edu (Billy Todd)
wrote:
>On Thu, 25 Feb 1999 04:18:50 GMT, jo...@josho.com (Josh Mandel) wrote:
Crow T. Robot
wrote:
>For some reason, I feel like I have to put the beginning of Sierra's
>Fall at Phantasmagoria.
I agree. I refused to buy another Sierra created game after
blowing 50 bucks on PhantasmaBOREia and a couple other clunkers (like
the last Space Quest - another yawner). Phantasawhatever was one of
the worst adventure games ever made - extremely dull, badly acted and
with puzzles like give the bone to the angry dog. OOOOOOO - thats
original. I now have 7 frisbees - you know, a cd can go quite far if
its thrown at the right angle. Sierra used to be great - I remember
Space Quest 3 (best in the series), Conquests of Camelot (name?) and
Hero's Quest (before they switched to the name Quest for Glory) quite
fondly.
Crow
Tesiae
Josh Mandel wrote:
> Billy,
>
> I appreciate your asking; I'm no longer at Sierra, I'm at Sega --
> along with several other Sierra alumni, including Kurt Busch, who for
> years edited the Sierra Magazine and InterAction, and Eric Hammond,
>
> --Josh
Oh wow! Can you believe that I still have the old Issues of the Sierra
Magazine? This was before the Sierra Club complained because their
magazine/newsletter had a similar title. So then it became "InterAction."
What was so great is that you only had to buy one game, and you'd
get a subscription for the whole year, and sometimes for years after
that! I remember that in one particular issue, Ken Williams wrote a
lengthy article on the "new trend" in computer gaming: the 3D
accelerator. I was one of the first people to buy the Canopus
produced, Sierra distributed "Screamin' 3D." I forked over $249
of my hard earned money simply because I trusted Mr. Williams'
word. Who would have ever known that the company that made the
chip, Rendition, would turn out to be so lousy? Aside from that unwise
purchase, Sierra gave me countless hours of entertainment. Too
bad such a great company gave in to greed.. :-(
Calamity_Coyote
Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
>
> I thought Al Lowe was in Yosemite Entertainment. Has he been
> moved to Seattle?
Not sure if he moved but he was at Yosemite. I read this on the Employees
Forum: Steve Conrad said, “I want you to know it's not just down there
either. Myself, Tammy Dargan, Rod Fung and others just got done helping Al
Lowe take the last of his office out to his car! It feels like none of the
original Sierra is left! I guess because it's not.”
I asked if this was the end of LSL8 but I got no response yet. Just can't see
Al moving for some unknown reason.
Sierra was looking like it was in some sort of re-birth. With most of the
major games being at Yosemite (B5, GK3, Middle Earth, LSL8, etc) I can't
imagine what you can do once your heart has been ripped out.
> Grimfarrow
Calamity Coyote
aka:Rob Merritt
Acmecity home page: http://animation.acmecity.com/eeek/79/
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Stephen Preston
> across to me that Roberta was obsessed with the project. The
> influences that had on the other projects Sierra was doing at the
> time, such as the extremely buggy release of Quest for Glory 4,
> really were negative for us, the players.
The beginning of the end was, I think, the mouse-click interface, such as
LSL5 / KQ5 and the other similar games that came out around then. They
changed everything so drastically that all the talent was wasted. I think
Sierra really peaked at QFG2, LSL3, etc. I haven't really enjoyed any of
their games since then. What happened afterwards was sort of a logical
consequence of the "dream" of point-and-click interactive movies.
Lucasarts, on the other hand, really didn't change their interface that
much until the Dig, and so were able to maintain their talent for a while.
And though CMI's interface was just really bad, I think with Grim Fandango
they've finally started to recover.
--Steve
jo...@josho.com
Calamity_Coyote <Cala...@acmecity.com> wrote:
> In article <36D4D82A...@polymail.calpoly.edu>,
> Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I thought Al Lowe was in Yosemite Entertainment. Has he been
> > moved to Seattle?
>
> Not sure if he moved but he was at Yosemite. I read this on the Employees
> Forum: Steve Conrad said, “I want you to know it's not just down there
> either. Myself, Tammy Dargan, Rod Fung and others just got done helping Al
> Lowe take the last of his office out to his car! It feels like none of the
> original Sierra is left! I guess because it's not.”
Here's the scoop. Al moved to Seattle in 1994. Steve Conrad, Tammy Dargan,
Rod Fung, and quite a few other ex-Oakhurst people moved to Seattle as well;
the letter Steve wrote on www.roboto.com about Al moving his stuff out to the
car was referring to the Bellevue office, not the Yosemite office. (Tammy and
Rod are, I believe, working on SWAT 3 out of the Bellevue office.)
Al is indeed gone, and indeed there is no LARRY 8. Al's departure was a real
shock.
--Josh
Billy Todd
<Josh, where are you?>
>I appreciate your asking; I'm no longer at Sierra, I'm at Sega --
Awesome! Animating hedgehogs for the Dreamcast?
>The togetherness of the people there, largely forced on them by the
>circumstances (and they were beautiful circumstances!), has made this
>almost as saddening for people who left there years ago as it is for
>the people who are leaving now.
Yeah, I bet its much more saddening for you than it is even for us.
While we played the games, you actually _made_ them.
I guess that while games may have been (or be) a major part of
our lives, Sierra's _really were_ your life for a while.
M. Altura
Stephen Preston wrote:
> >The beginning of the end was, I think, the mouse-click interface, such as
> >LSL5 / KQ5 and the other similar games that came out around then. They
> >changed everything so drastically that all the talent was wasted. I think
> >Sierra really peaked at QFG2, LSL3, etc. I haven't really enjoyed any of
> >their games since then. What happened afterwards was sort of a logical
> >consequence of the "dream" of point-and-click interactive movies.
>
I totally agree with Steve. All the new graphics and sounds were so costly
there wasn't much left of anything for game design. Apparently, the new
generation of computer players were interested in graphics more than good
design. Only few games like Freddy Pharkas and maybe SQ4 had quality touch to
it. I remember when us players were mad at Sierra for stopping the keyboard
interface. That was what set Sierra games apart from the others. But that's
when the new era of computer gaming evolved, and all us playes were succumbed
to follow it.
Anyways,
thanks for reading this message,
TC
Kevin Kramer
made that the the PCjr. It had so much sound and
color and it was in 3D! I was so excited to get
home and boot the jr I could hardly stand it...
(how old was I again, 15?? To illustrate how long
ago it was, I bought the game at Daytons!)
It makes me feel a little old and a little sad
to have watch them fade away over the years...
Folks have loved to bash Sierra over the years,
especially of late, but I for one will be sad
to see them go.
Kevin
Grimfarrow
jo...@josho.com wrote:
> In article <7b496m$e5a$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> Calamity_Coyote <Cala...@acmecity.com> wrote:
> > In article <36D4D82A...@polymail.calpoly.edu>,
> > Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > I thought Al Lowe was in Yosemite Entertainment. Has he been
> > > moved to Seattle?
> >
> > Not sure if he moved but he was at Yosemite. I read this on the Employees
> > Forum: Steve Conrad said, “I want you to know it's not just down there
> > either. Myself, Tammy Dargan, Rod Fung and others just got done helping Al
> > Lowe take the last of his office out to his car! It feels like none of the
> > original Sierra is left! I guess because it's not.”
>
> Here's the scoop. Al moved to Seattle in 1994. Steve Conrad, Tammy Dargan,
> Rod Fung, and quite a few other ex-Oakhurst people moved to Seattle as well;
> the letter Steve wrote on www.roboto.com about Al moving his stuff out to the
> car was referring to the Bellevue office, not the Yosemite office. (Tammy and
> Rod are, I believe, working on SWAT 3 out of the Bellevue office.)
>
> Al is indeed gone, and indeed there is no LARRY 8. Al's departure was a real
> shock.
>
> --Josh
That's exactly what I heard - and feared. I am truly shocked too, considering
Larry 7 sold a good chunk. I guess that asshole of a president only cares
about Half-Life, Pharoah and Homeworld.
And now, a chunk of Dynamix is being laid off too. Some people were given
30-day notice to leave today.
Truly, truly sad.
Grimfarrow
Grimfarrow
Calamity_Coyote wrote:
> In article <36D4D82A...@polymail.calpoly.edu>,
> Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I thought Al Lowe was in Yosemite Entertainment. Has he been
> > moved to Seattle?
>
> Not sure if he moved but he was at Yosemite. I read this on the Employees
> Forum: Steve Conrad said, “I want you to know it's not just down there
> either. Myself, Tammy Dargan, Rod Fung and others just got done helping Al
> Lowe take the last of his office out to his car! It feels like none of the
> original Sierra is left! I guess because it's not.”
Yup, Al Lowe was laid-off....from Bellevue too, not Oakhurst.
> I asked if this was the end of LSL8 but I got no response yet. Just can't see
> Al moving for some unknown reason.
LSL 7 is the end.
> Sierra was looking like it was in some sort of re-birth. With most of the
> major games being at Yosemite (B5, GK3, Middle Earth, LSL8, etc) I can't
> imagine what you can do once your heart has been ripped out.
GK3 is still alive and well. It is being developed in Bellevue, so the
project is not affected by the recent catastrophe.
On a side note, Dynamix is the latest casualty in that David whatever
guy's plan to trim off some fat. Maybe HE should go on a diet,not
Sierra. But in any case, a chunk of people in Dynamix today got a 30-day
notice to leave. Just great.
Grimfarrow
> > Grimfarrow
>
> Calamity Coyote
> aka:Rob Merritt
> Acmecity home page: http://animation.acmecity.com/eeek/79/
>
Poster Formerly Known as Guyver3
Martins) wrote:
>In article <36D5FD51...@polymail.calpoly.edu>,
>Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
>>
>>That's exactly what I heard - and feared. I am truly shocked too, considering
>>Larry 7 sold a good chunk. I guess that asshole of a president only cares
>>about Half-Life, Pharoah and Homeworld.
>>
>>And now, a chunk of Dynamix is being laid off too. Some people were given
>>30-day notice to leave today.
>>
>>Truly, truly sad.
>
>Does anyone really understand the logic behind these decisions?
>Are they gutting the game-developing divisions because they
>intend Sierra to turn into solely a publisher and distributor?
>
>I just don't get it.
>
>- Claude.
>
>--
You know what I think the people let go from Dynamix should do? Go to
GoD or a similiar organization(Mononlith?). If Sierra doesn't want
'em I'm sure others do.
rcma...@netcom.com
>
>
>Josh Mandel wrote:
>
>> Billy,
>>
>> I appreciate your asking; I'm no longer at Sierra, I'm at Sega --
Wow, that brings back memories. When I upgraded from my old
PS/2 Mod80, I also went by the advise I got in the magazine.
Matter of fact, I probably would not be on the Internet today
were it not for having had to upgrade in order to be able to play
the newer (then) Sierra games. It used to be a great group of
artists there. I still treasure the old Sierra adventure games.
They were and are enchanting and charming.
Rosemarie
>
>
>
Rob Merritt
>In article <7b496m$e5a$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> Calamity_Coyote <Cala...@acmecity.com> wrote:
>> In article <36D4D82A...@polymail.calpoly.edu>,
>> Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
>> >
>> > I thought Al Lowe was in Yosemite Entertainment. Has he been
>> > moved to Seattle?
>>
>> Not sure if he moved but he was at Yosemite. I read this on the Employees
>> Forum: Steve Conrad said, “I want you to know it's not just down there
>> either. Myself, Tammy Dargan, Rod Fung and others just got done helping Al
>> Lowe take the last of his office out to his car! It feels like none of the
>> original Sierra is left! I guess because it's not.”
>
>Here's the scoop. Al moved to Seattle in 1994. Steve Conrad, Tammy Dargan,
>Rod Fung, and quite a few other ex-Oakhurst people moved to Seattle as well;
>the letter Steve wrote on www.roboto.com about Al moving his stuff out to the
>car was referring to the Bellevue office, not the Yosemite office. (Tammy and
>Rod are, I believe, working on SWAT 3 out of the Bellevue office.)
>
>Al is indeed gone, and indeed there is no LARRY 8. Al's departure was a real
>shock.
>
Well Damn. First I learn that MST3K is in its final season and now
there will be no LSL8.
1999 is turning out to be a fine freakin year....
Rob Merritt
http://www.bcpl.net/~robertm
Claude Martins
Grimfarrow <rpha...@polymail.calpoly.edu> wrote:
>
>That's exactly what I heard - and feared. I am truly shocked too, considering
>Larry 7 sold a good chunk. I guess that asshole of a president only cares
>about Half-Life, Pharoah and Homeworld.
>
>And now, a chunk of Dynamix is being laid off too. Some people were given
>30-day notice to leave today.
>
>Truly, truly sad.
Does anyone really understand the logic behind these decisions?
Are they gutting the game-developing divisions because they
intend Sierra to turn into solely a publisher and distributor?
I just don't get it.
- Claude.
--
--
Claude Martins, "Timberwolf", ICQ#: 5304950, York U, Toronto, ON, CA
mailto:mar...@cs.yorku.ca && http://www.ariel.cs.yorku.ca/~martins/
"Here's looking at you, kid."
Noman
Grimfarrow wrote:
>
> That's exactly what I heard - and feared. I am truly shocked too, considering
> Larry 7 sold a good chunk. I guess that asshole of a president only cares
> about Half-Life, Pharoah and Homeworld.
I have actually never heard of Pharoah. What kind of game is it ?
> And now, a chunk of Dynamix is being laid off too. Some people were given
> 30-day notice to leave today.
Man !! This is really sad. Creators of Aces of Deep, Red Baron 1/2,
Heart of China, Rise of Dragon, Betrayal at Krondor, Aces over
Pacific/Europe, A10 Tank Killer, Incredible Machines, Front Page sports
games, Willy Beamish, Rama, lately Starseige : Tribes and with the
upcoming "Starseige" (which I'll definitely buy) Dynamix still is (and
always has been) producing top quality games.
And now almost *half* of their artists got this notice to leave.
I hope that Valve's contract with Sierra will be over ASAP. To see
these suits at Sierra making money over that brilliant Valve's game
is quite disgusting.
--
Noman
Nightfox
Kevin Kramer wrote in message <36D5C0AD...@sgi.com>...
>I remember when I found King's Quest I when they
>made that the the PCjr. It had so much sound and
>especially of late, but I for one will be sad
>to see them go.
The decision was totally stupid. Those of us in the FBPro2K Hometeam are
going nuts over there in the forums setup for the Hometeam. It is a forum
seemingly forgotten by Sierra.
The last Sierra game I'll probably buy will be GK3, assuming GK3 hasn't been
ditched like what has seemingly happened with FBPro2K.
The reason for the decision to scrap all this was simply because the current
Sierra President David Grensomethingorother is too incometent to manage a
large company.
Werner
>
>
>Does anyone really understand the logic behind these decisions?
>Are they gutting the game-developing divisions because they
>intend Sierra to turn into solely a publisher and distributor?
Thats the only explanation I can find behind all these actions other
than how to screw up whats left of a once fine company. Probably
somebody within the father company of Sierra thinks that being a
publisher is less risky than being a developer publisher, I just
wished that they at least would finish the current projects.
Werner
-----
Memory Dragon
we...@my-dejanews.com
Terry Canon
I just read through the article written by Josh Mandel called RIP Sierra.
Check it out at http://www.justadventure.com/articles/rip_sierra.html
take care,
TC
Josh Mandel wrote:
> I can't believe nobody's talking about this yet.
>
> Yesterday, Sierra Corporate shut down its Oakhurst facility, putting
> most of its 130+ employees on the street. A couple dozen of them were
> invited to move to the Seattle area to continue work at the Bellevue
> office.
>
> This was the last vestige of a truly historic group of developers in a
> truly unique environment.
>
> What makes it all so unique is that Sierra WAS Oakhurst, and has been
> for close to 15 years. The economy of the town revolved to an enormous
> extent around Sierra, and the town grew along with the company.
> Because the community was so tiny, the employees of Sierra didn't just
> work with each other, they lived with each other. There were neighbors
> and best friends and lovers and spouses. Husbands and wives worked
> side-by-side, parents and children. Co-workers got together in the
> evenings, partied together on the weekends. You had to. There was
> nobody else to socialize with.
>
> A lotta great gaming history was made out of that place, and by a lot
> of the same people who were still there...until yesterday. Jane,
> Roberta, Al, and other designers may still be producing out of the
> Pacific Northwest, but I think most would agree that Sierra's glory
> days were in Oakhurst, and every from Ken and Roberta on down drew on
> the incredible beauty that surrounded them there.
>
> Good luck to Oakhurst. I hope the town weathers the mass exodus.
>
> It's also a loss to the industry, and I wish the greatest of luck and
> good fortune to the talented people who helped make that place so
> special.
>
> --Josh
Brendan Reville
>Magazine? This was before the Sierra Club complained because their
>magazine/newsletter had a similar title. So then it became "InterAction."
>What was so great is that you only had to buy one game, and you'd
>get a subscription for the whole year, and sometimes for years after
>that!
That was a really good magazine. They wouldn't send it to Australia (even
though we dutifully send in our rego cards, like we were supposed to, until
the games in Australia stopped coming with the rego cards)...
The thing I remember best is the quality of customer support... I would
often write letters to them, back in my very early teens, with lots of
suggestions and occasional bug reports. I'd always get a nice personal
letter back from their support people. And, after a while, they'd send a
copy of InterAction all the way to Australia, along with their reply.
I think I started writing to them a few times a year, just to make sure I
got my InterAction magazines! :)
I've still got a pile of them on my shelf. Ah, those were fun days.
- Brendan Reville
Josh Mandel
Thank you so much for the kind words about the article.
I would like to mention that, when I sent the article to Just
Adventure, it contained NO references to "Eucharists" or to farmers
being heavy. These grotesque typos were introduced to the article by
someone at Just Adventure. Somebody, it seems, whose spellchecker
apparently prefers "Eucharists" to "Oakhurst's."
The function of an Editor is to CATCH mistakes, not INTRODUCE them.
I'm embarrassed by the errors and I truly wish JA would do the right
thing and correct them immediately. I make enough mistakes on my own;
I don't require editors to add spectacular new ones FOR me.
--Josh
Wundertoad
right?
Who loves 'ya baby!
...hack...gag...wheeze...and hurl.
dust...@my-dejanews.com
>
> Man !! This is really sad. Creators of Aces of Deep, Red Baron 1/2,
> Heart of China, Rise of Dragon, Betrayal at Krondor, Aces over
> Pacific/Europe, A10 Tank Killer, Incredible Machines, Front Page sports
> games, Willy Beamish, Rama, lately Starseige : Tribes and with the
> upcoming "Starseige" (which I'll definitely buy) Dynamix still is (and
> always has been) producing top quality games.
>
But isn't reasuring to know that the restrucing won't affect such stellar
titles like Trophy Buck? We can look forward to Sierra pumping out tons of
lame ass hunting games, and as for the real games, well, it looks like we'll
have to go elsewhere.