Sierra Museum

With this week’s blog at http://www.SierraMuseum.com, we're very excited to announce another addition to the Museum's permanent archive of Sierra artwork and production materials - the complete set of original artwork for the Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned graphic novel by artist Ron Spears, from page roughs to reference photos to final artwork. Materials such as these are especially valuable to preserve, because they show the process that went into creating this prologue to game designer Jane Jensen's final Gabriel Knight adventure from Sierra. Here at the Museum, we're dedicated to preserving Sierra's history and bringing back together as much of that history as we can. We curate the largest known collection of Sierra and Dynamix materials and we're currently producing the Art of Sierra coffee table book. If you can help us preserve Sierra history by contributing items to our archives, please contact [email protected].

This week at the Museum, we're very excited to announce and thank another Sierra alumni who is supporting our work: Bill Crow, who is probably best known for creating and running Sierra's full motion video production studio, has generously donated his collection to the Sierra Museum's archives for preservation. Shown here is Bill's production binder for Phantasmagoria, including photocopies of storyboards, production spreadsheets, development emails, hand-written notes and more. The types of materials contained in this binder are especially important to preserving Sierra's history because they offer a rare glimpse into the day-to-day details involved in the production of a game. To donate Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects, contact [email protected].

This week at the Museum, we look at the connection between concept art and hintbooks! Sierra's later hintbooks often contained historically valuable behind-the-scenes interviews conducted at the time of the game's release, although they inevitably left fans wanting even more making-of details. As Sierra's own hintbooks became full-sized guide books and guide book publishers also offered official or authorized guides in collaboration with Sierra, some games had multiple books including the insider content that fans loved. These books often provided looks at concept art and behind-the-scenes material - such as character sketches in the Authorized Players Guide shown here - but didn't reproduce them with the museum-quality archival presentation that all materials curated by the Sierra Museum are preserved with. To donate books to our library (we're always looking for pristine copies for the vault), or to donate original art or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects, contact [email protected].

This week from the Museum's collection, we continue our King's Quest features with a look at the NES version of King's Quest V. Completely remade specifically for the NES, this Konami game is one of only a few console counterparts to Sierra's adventure titles for personal computers. Other games of interest in this category include the SMS version of the original King's Quest (also completely remade specifically for the SMS platform) as well as the Sega CD versions of Dynamix adventures Willy Beamish and Rise of the Dragon. Here at the Sierra Museum, we're always looking for multiple copies of items so that we can fully preserve everything for the Sierra Archives, from varying versions to finding copies in Museum-quality condition. To donate games or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects, contact [email protected].

This week from the Museum's vault, we take a look at preserving factory sealed Sierra games. Unsurprisingly, sealed games are a topic of controversy with fans, some believing that they should remain sealed while others hold that the enjoyment of collecting isn't the same without being able to touch and feel all the manuals and other goodies that were included with the games. We couldn't agree more! Here at the Sierra Museum, we absolutely believe that collecting should be fun, but we also believe that most games are common enough that open copies can be easily acquired and that sealed copies, when they can be found, should remain sealed as valuable historical artifacts. To donate games or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects, contact [email protected].

This week at the Museum, we take a look at preserving floppy disks. Most Sierra fans know that King's Quest IV was developed for both Sierra's original "3-D Animated Adventure Game" engine, AGI, as well as its successor, SCI. Not as many fans may know about the differences between various versions of the SCI release, such as the background differences shown here. Because Sierra often improved their games with refinements, bug fixes and updates to the SCI engine, creating disk images of Sierra floppy disks (exact digital recreations of the data on the disks), especially rare patch disks (like the one shown on the right), demo disks and original disks used by the developers is a critical aspect of preserving Sierra's history. To donate floppy disks, compact discs or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects, contact [email protected].

This week from the Museum collection, an item that's been especially sought after by Sierra fans in recent years - the King's Quest VI Lord of the Dead lithograph, a numbered edition of 450 signed by King's Quest creator Roberta Williams and Sierra artist John Shroades. The original price of the print in late 1992 was $300, which was advertised as a special discounted price from a "value" of $500, with the frame valued at $200. One year later in late 1993, the price was reduced to $99.95. Including the frame, the piece measures 33.5"x27". It is believed that toward the end of the run, the prints were sold without the frame. To celebrate this numbered lithograph, you can now register your print by visiting our Lord of the Dead registry. Original Sierra merchandise is a valuable part of preserving Sierra's history. To donate prints, posters, t-shirts, mugs, magazines, photos, other memorabilia, press items or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

This week from the Museum Archives, we wanted to feature another Freddy Pharkas item generously donated to the Museum by Sierra producer, designer, writer and voice talent extraordinaire Josh Mandel. Shown here is an animation sheet of Freddy Pharkas attempting to wrangle up some items to help preserve Sierra's history. All animation sheets in the Archives are protected in our custom preservation portfolios and matched against the final pixel art in the game, down to the view, loop and cel numbers. (This sheet is View 321, Loop 0, Cels 0 through 3.) To donate original artwork, documents or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

Old gaming magazines, newspaper articles, game catalogs and especially international items are all very important to the archival work of the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects. Shown here are several issues of Multimedia News magazine, an abridged version of Sierra's own InterAction magazine that was published by Sierra subsidiary Coktel Vision in France. To donate magazines, catalogs or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

We'd like to say a special thank-you to Sierra producer, designer, writer and voice talent extraordinaire Josh Mandel this week. Josh has been a long-time supporter of the Art of Sierra project, and has generously donated a number of documents and other items to the Sierra Museum's archives. Shown here is an original photocopy of the Freddy Pharkas storyboards. Photocopies of everything from storyboards to background drawings to character animations were common items when working on a game at Sierra, and are very valuable to preserving the history of those games. To donate photocopied documents, original artwork or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

Twisty History? That was the original name of Pepper's Adventures in Time, an adventure game that was part of the Sierra Discovery Series. It takes all types of materials for us here at the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation project to unravel Sierra's twisty history, including marketing materials, press releases, customer service materials, technical support materials and much, much more. Now if only we had a copy of this Twisty History line art without the "NEW!" balloon covering it. To donate documents or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

Serious fun is serious business! Documents of all kinds, whether they seem important or not - annual reports, memos, design documents, catalogs, internal newsletters, magazines, press releases, newspaper articles, floor plans, business cards and more - are all integral to the archival work of the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra preservation projects. All documents related to Sierra On-Line and its subsidiaries provide valuable historical insights that we believe are worth preserving. (We also gladly accept duplicates of items shown. For example, the Annual Report shown here is a little worse for wear. Any items not needed by the Museum will go to affiliate preservation organizations.) To donate documents or Sierra historical items of any kind to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

Preservation 101: All flat materials belonging to the Sierra Archives collection here at the Sierra Museum - documents, photographs, artwork and more - are safely stored in our custom preservation portfolios. After receiving our museum archival scanning treatment, each item goes into the vault, putting another piece of Sierra's history back together into the larger puzzle. To donate or loan historical materials to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

The Sierra Museum and Art of Sierra preservation projects also extend to Sierra's subsidiaries and related companies, including Dynamix, Coktel Vision and Tsunami. This original drawing from Starsiege, used in the game's Pilot Guide manual, is by Dynamix artist Shawn Sharp, who was the Art Director for a number of Dynamix games including adventure titles Willy Beamish and Space Quest V. To donate or loan historical artwork to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].

In addition to our physical preservation work, the Sierra Museum and Art of Sierra preservation projects are also curating an unprecedented digital archive. The first public feature of the digital Sierra Archives comes courtesy of Clint Smith, whose partner site SierraWallpaper.com features comprehensive, lossless screenshot sets from Sierra, Dynamix and Coktel Vision games and is updated on a semi-regular basis, with each set available for download in common desktop wallpaper sizes. We're currently looking for one or two dedicated Sierra fans to assist with projects related to our digital archives - if you think this might be you, contact [email protected].

It only makes sense to debut the Sierra Museum with Sierra's co-founder, and the storyteller who started it all, Roberta Williams. Seen here in the early 80s in this rare photograph from Sierra's offices, Roberta is pictured demonstrating Sierra's collaboration with Jim Henson, an adaptation of The Dark Crystal, which was Sierra's final Hi-Res Adventure before the company gave birth to the graphic adventure genre with King's Quest, the original groundbreaking 3-D animated adventure game. To donate or loan historical photographs to the Sierra Museum and the Art of Sierra project, contact [email protected].