Re: "Sierra made the games of my childhood. Are they still fun to play?"

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, 19 May 2025 01:36:41 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant)
wrote:

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:

On Sat, 17 May 2025 18:53:58 -0000 (UTC), ant@zimage.comANT (Ant)
wrote:

>

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/05/sierra-made-the-games-of-my-childhood-are-they-still-fun-to-play/

>

For some, yes, as they have youtube channels dedicated to the genre.
That includes playing these old Sierra games and it is obvious to me
that they are enjoying them.

>

As for me, my teen years were spent mostly playing Sierra titles. I
loved them. I own almost all of their games. And all of their hint
books as well as there is no way I could finish them without help.

>

But at some point, I lost interest in adventure games. It was likely
due to my growing interest in strategy games and RPGs. I go back to
playing those old Sierra adventure games once in awhile but they will
never hold the same fascination for me as they once did.

>
For me, I played its action games like Thexder and its Fire Hawk sequel. :P

I remember /lusting/ after Thexder when it was new. A game with a
transforming robot? It was a dream come true! Nothing could be better!

Then I got the game. To say I was underwhelmed would be to do the word
underwhelmed a grave diservice.

Mostly it was the controls; they were stiff and unforgiving. The
transforming required you to jump and press down at the same time, and
you automatically transformed back into robot-form the moment your
plane-form touched anything. So, of course, the developers had you
navigate through extremely narrow corridors where you constantly
banged against the walls.  The combat was unsatisfying, with an
autotargeting laser that did all the work for you against enemies that
posed virtually no threat. And the production values (at least on the
Apple ][) were incredibly disappointing. There wasn't even any music!

The best part of the game was the box art. I LOVED looking at that.
But the rest of the game was trash, as far as I was concerned. It was
one of those games I kept firing up, hoping it would somehow all come
together so I could finally get enjoyment out of it, but I never did.
To this day I don't think I've ever gotten past the third level, just
because I found the gameplay so unrewarding.

That didn't stop me from buyin Firehawk or Sierra's Win95 port of the
original game, though. It's just a game I wanted to love so much I
kept giving it chance after chance.

Did you like those? I enjoyed Fire Hawk, but its ending boss level was
sooooooooooooooooooooo lame! Like the developers gave up or ran of time.
I can't remember if I played W95 port.

TIL they ported the game to PSP. So now I have to buy that one to see
if I hate it as much as the originals ;-)

I saw videos of that, but don't have consoles. Give me a PC port even in
an emulator.

--
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." --1 Peter 5:6-7. Cooler weekend was a little BUSY. Incoming heat wave!
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