Mystery House.

[GatorDeb]

Anyone want to TOFTT?

It looks awesome!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=307511510&mt=8


$5.99. $1-$2 and it would be an impulse purchase. $6 needs good reviews and a video.

[PointOfLight]

If you haven't seen it yet, we've been discussing this game a bit at the end of this thread. Synopsis is: same gameplay with updated graphics, I might have TOFTTed it. As it stands, can't justify the expenditure of $6, especially with the release of Oregon Trail.

[markx2]

Why wouldn't you get Frotz instead? It's free and has more adventures.
Plus the best pictures are in your head

[PointOfLight]

I've already got Frotz, but the more variety the merrier!

[PointOfLight]

Originally Posted by spiffyone

Why oh why don't LucasArts and Sierra release ports of their classic adventure games to this platform?

Sierra as an entity doesn't even exist any more, does it? I have little faith in Vivendi / Activision realizing a good thing like old sierra games, even if someone were to point it out to them. As for LucasArts, they unfortunately made it pretty clear that they were done with the adventure game genre when they bailed on Sam & Max and Full Throttle II. So, I don't foresee them reviving their classics for a modern platform any time soon.

[s0mah]

Originally Posted by spiffyone

Why oh why don't LucasArts and Sierra release ports of their classic adventure games to this platform?

lol wut?

Mystery House was a Roberta and Ken Williams game. This game paved (and paid) the way for the foundation of On-Line Systems, which then would become Sierra On-Line.

I'm honestly surprised that you didn't Google/Wikipedia this before posting. You know, so that you could impress us all by your ability to name drop a million irrelevant and/or obscure details relating to game history.

btw:

For those on the fence, Mystery House is a pretty significant artifact of computer gaming history. If it is an entirely accurate port, it probably warrants a $5.99 price tag. On the other hand, this game might be abandonware, and available for download for free on the internet. I dunno.

[PointOfLight]

Originally Posted by s0mah

Mystery House was a Roberta and Ken Williams game. This game paved (and paid) the way for the foundation of On-Line Systems, which then would become Sierra On-Line.

I'm honestly surprised that you didn't Google/Wikipedia this before posting. You know, so that you could impress us all by your ability to name drop a million irrelevant and/or obscure details relating to game history.

Gee, you mean just like you're doing His statement was that he wished Sierra would port some of their classic games. As you even pointed out yourself, Mystery House was actually on On-Line Systems game, so I fail to see your point. Not only that, but this port wasn't put out by any member of On-Line Systems or Sierra, best that I can tell. I'm pretty sure what spiffyone was getting at was that he'd like to see games like the King's Quest and Police Quest series. But then, maybe I'm wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

Originally Posted by s0mah

For those on the fence, Mystery House is a pretty significant artifact of computer gaming history. If it is an entirely accurate port, it probably warrants a $5.99 price tag. On the other hand, this game might be abandonware, and available for download for free on the internet. I dunno.

This I would actually agree with. If you've never played Mystery House and want to see how the graphical adventure genre all began, this is pretty much a must have. As for being able to download it, I'm not sure that I've ever run across it, though I suppose any good Apple II emulator site would have it (those are pretty hard to find as well, though, as my searches for Eamon a few years ago would attest to).

[s0mah]

Originally Posted by PointOfLight

Gee, you mean just like you're doing His statement was that he wished Sierra would port some of their classic games. As you even pointed out yourself, Mystery House was actually on On-Line Systems game, so I fail to see your point. Not only that, but this port wasn't put out by any member of On-Line Systems or Sierra, best that I can tell. I'm pretty sure what spiffyone was getting at was that he'd like to see games like the King's Quest and Police Quest series. But then, maybe I'm wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

Sierra is/was functionally the same company as On-Line. Ken Williams (co-owner/founder) was responsible for the name swap, which happened when I was about 2 years old. So yah, I had to have looked that information up at some point- I was probably too busy at the time trying to master my toilet utilization skills anyways.

King's Quest is the spawn of Mystery Tour. If there were a family tree, you'd find a straight line down. It's just laughable to me that so many of this board's 'die hards' are in actuality, name dropping posers.

As a kid, I tried my hardest to track this game down. My first Sierra game was their Black Cauldron game. Then King's Quest II, to King's Quest I. I was Sierra berserk, and it was retarded. I asked for Thexder on my birthday, and I had no idea wtf it was- barring that it was branded by Sierra On-Line. I knew about Mystery House because it was often mentioned in Sierra's quarterly newsletter/magazine, but I could never find the game in stores. I ended up pirating it over via a 2400 baud modem, like 10 year later.

Anyways, it's the same company. On-Line employees became Sierra On-Line employees. Roberta Williams is almost entirely responsible for both Mystery House and King's Quest. It is what it is.

You're right about Sierra not porting the iPhone Mystery House, and that's mostly the reason why I suggested that the game might now be abandonware. If it is not, then this is prob a case of IP theft. imo though, who cares? Vivendi loses some pocket change that would have been tossed on a pile, and quickly buried by the income earned through the whoring of the remains of Blizzard.

[DrJD]

Originally Posted by s0mah

lol wut?
For those on the fence, Mystery House is a pretty significant artifact of computer gaming history. If it is an entirely accurate port, it probably warrants a $5.99 price tag. On the other hand, this game might be abandonware, and available for download for free on the internet. I dunno.

Actually, Sierra placed Mystery House in the public domain quite a while ago. A few years ago, it was ported to Inform (a language for writing interactive fiction) and made available so that people could produce modified versions as part of the "Mystery House Taken Over" project. You can find the details here:
http://turbulence.org/Works/mystery/

[PointOfLight]

Originally Posted by s0mah

Sierra is/was functionally the same company as On-Line. Ken Williams (co-owner/founder) was responsible for the name swap, which happened when I was about 2 years old. So yah, I had to have looked that information up at some point- I was probably too busy at the time trying to master my toilet utilization skills anyways.

King's Quest is the spawn of Mystery Tour. If there were a family tree, you'd find a straight line down. It's just laughable to me that so many of this board's 'die hards' are in actuality, name dropping posers.

I just don't get how someone asking for Sierra ports is a "name dropping poser"? And as for your little trivia lesson, so what? I knew all that, but I don't see the relevance of it. I guess that's my point. I played All the KQ games first hand when they came out, and probably even played Mystery House first hand. Again irrelevant, but as long as we're sharing

Originally Posted by s0mah

As a kid, I tried my hardest to track this game down. My first Sierra game was their Black Cauldron game. Then King's Quest II, to King's Quest I. I was Sierra berserk, and it was retarded. I asked for Thexder on my birthday, and I had no idea wtf it was- barring that it was branded by Sierra On-Line. I knew about Mystery House because it was often mentioned in Sierra's quarterly newsletter/magazine, but I could never find the game in stores. I ended up pirating it over via a 2400 baud modem, like 10 year later.

Don't see why that's "retarded". Personally, back in the day Sierra made some of the best games around. In fact, they were often used as the benchmarks for system specs.

[QUOTE=s0mah;127693]Anyways, it's the same company. On-Line employees became Sierra On-Line employees. Roberta Williams is almost entirely responsible for both Mystery House and King's Quest. It is what it is.[QUOTE=s0mah;127693]

Agreed there. Ken and Roberta Williams WERE Sierra On-Line. Once they departed / got pushed out (depending on how you read it), Sierra was never the same.

Originally Posted by s0mah

You're right about Sierra not porting the iPhone Mystery House, and that's mostly the reason why I suggested that the game might now be abandonware. If it is not, then this is prob a case of IP theft. imo though, who cares? Vivendi loses some pocket change that would have been tossed on a pile, and quickly buried by the income earned through the whoring of the remains of Blizzard.

Don't disagree with you there either. I think we mostly agree on this whole thing. My point from the beginning was that spiffyone had a fair question when asking about Sierra ports, because to this point Sierra hasn't ported anything, and realistically probably never will. Now if someone else where to port Sierra's games that would be cool, but I'm guessing Vivendi owns all those properties now, so that won't happen either. Too bad, because King's Quest could stand a revitalization. Those were the days...