We’re nothing if not self-referential on this show. And this show harkens back to the very first episode we ever did, all the way back in August 2014, where Fred and I talked about the impending revival of Sierra as “Sierra Games.”
When we did the original episode, we were quite hopeful that this might mean a resurgence in popularity for our beloved franchises of old — perhaps with a new veneer, a new sheen, a new coat of paint. Something to bring them out of the funk of nostalgia and into the bright modern age.
Fast forward to 2016 and the rebooted King’s Quest episodic series has thunderously failed to set the world alight. Neo-Sierra’s other offerings are mostly forgettable: to date, their only other games are a rebooted Geometry Wars game that I don’t recall anyone asking for, a puzzle platformer, and a run-and-gun game.
Guess we’re back to this again. But what was it about Sierra that made us so giddy with anticipation? Why are there still so many vocal and die-hard Sierra fans? What did this magical company even do apart from puzzles about cat moustaches and yeti pies?
Our guest today, Shawn Mills (whom you remember as the co-founder of Infamous Quests, but he is also, in fact, a journalist), has written a 5-part retrospective on Sierra (for your convenience: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5) that had us all intrigued. We all thought we knew the history of Sierra pretty well ourselves, but Shawn went above and beyond for those articles. For one, he talked to a lot of the people that worked there.
Sierra is mostly remembered as a magical wonder-factory in the late 80s, as a trailblazing industry leader in the early 90s, and as a cautionary tale of the stifling realities of suit-and-tie corporate management (not to mention what it does to your reputation to be involved, even if not directly, in one of the world’s the largest corporate fraud scandals) in the mid-to-late 90s.
Shawn covers all the bases with us as we reminisce about ye olden days, speculate about the future to come, and libel our way through a handful of cocaine jokes.
And we will, of course, also find out the answer to that all-important question that’s been on everyone’s mind since Shawn last visited us: Do thieving cunts still owe him money?
It’s all here on the YubTubs:
Or below as audio (where you can also subscribe).
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