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+--- Thread: AMA About Sierra! (/showthread.php?tid=38)
AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 09-27-2025
It's so nice in here. I love the red naugahyde benches. They remind me of...something.
Just for fun, I thought I'd do an AMA on Sierra topics. There's a lot I'm not in a position to answer, but I'm happy to make stuff up when necessary, so it seems like my breadth of knowledge is much greater than it really is. That's a win/win!
So ask away. Thank you!
Josh
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Joshua AGH - 09-27-2025
Hey man. I know this guy !!!
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Rubacava - 09-27-2025
(09-27-2025, 01:56 AM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: It's so nice in here. I love the red naugahyde benches. They remind me of...something.
Just for fun, I thought I'd do an AMA on Sierra topics. There's a lot I'm not in a position to answer, but I'm happy to make stuff up when necessary, so it seems like my breadth of knowledge is much greater than it really is. That's a win/win!
So ask away. Thank you!
Josh
Hey Josh!!! I’ll start with the classics:
1 What’s your favorite Sierra game (whether you worked on it or not)?
2 Your favorite LucasArts game?
3 And overall, if you had to crown just one adventure game of all time, which one gets the honor?
4 Your top 3 favorite Sierra Box Cover Art
Thank you!
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Beau - 09-27-2025
I know nothing about Mark Seibert, other than he composed some amazing music. Tell me a couple cool things about him.
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 09-27-2025
(09-27-2025, 01:59 AM)Joshua AGH Wrote: Hey man. I know this guy !!!
Hi, Joshua! Pleasure to be here, and may the Adventure Game Hotspot forums have a long and fruitful life!
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Jen - 09-27-2025
Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve played a Sierra game that it’s all lost to the sands of my memory
Wait! There was this cat hair mustache… Haha 
But seriously, no questions, just thanks for making some fun games.
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 09-27-2025
(09-27-2025, 02:04 AM)Rubacava Wrote:(09-27-2025, 01:56 AM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: It's so nice in here. I love the red naugahyde benches. They remind me of...something.
Just for fun, I thought I'd do an AMA on Sierra topics. There's a lot I'm not in a position to answer, but I'm happy to make stuff up when necessary, so it seems like my breadth of knowledge is much greater than it really is. That's a win/win!
So ask away. Thank you!
Josh
Hey Josh!!! I’ll start with the classics:
1 What’s your favorite Sierra game (whether you worked on it or not)?
2 Your favorite LucasArts game?
3 And overall, if you had to crown just one adventure game of all time, which one gets the honor?
4 Your top 3 favorite Sierra Box Cover Art
Thank you!
Ooh, excellent questions, and I don't have to make up any answers.
1. My favorite Sierra game is probably SQ3, although Conquests of Camelot is a very close second. I remember when SQ3 came out (I was living in Chicago and was going to software stores every day, waiting for it to come in). When I finally played it, I thought it was damn near perfect.
Camelot gets extra points because Christy Marx had the honesty and bravery to have multiple endings, none of which were happy. At the time, that was extremely daring for a Sierra game.
2. My favorite LucasArts game is Monkey Island 2. I was in the camp that thought the ending was the greatest mindf*** ever. I mean, it was like a Twilight Zone episode, only hilarious.
3. Ouch, this one is hard. So many contenders, with such different qualities. I guess the single game I remember most fondly is Leather Goddesses of Phobos. The perverse humor, the puzzles that were logical but twisted, the sense of satisfaction I got out of solving them. And a "scratch 'n sniff" card 10 years before Leisure Suit Larry 7's Cybersniff. Steve Meretzky has always been my favorite designer.
4. Hmm! I have never thought about this before, but I think my 3 favorite boxes are Police Quest 1-VGA (with the face of one of my favorite Sierra employees that changes drastically at the right angle), Laura Bow 2 (so stylish), and the Freddy Pharkas box (big brown floppy disk version, not the slim black CD version). It's like a cross between the Time-Life "Old West" books and MAD Magazine.
Tomorrow, my answers might be all different!
Josh
(09-27-2025, 02:28 AM)Beau Wrote: I know nothing about Mark Seibert, other than he composed some amazing music. Tell me a couple cool things about him.
Okay! For one thing, Mark is perceived primarily as a musician and composer. But he was also a Producer (on a LOT of games), a Director (he directed King's Quest 5, Phantasmagoria, and Jones in the Fast Lane), and Designer (he co-designed KQ7 with Roberta!). So he heavily influenced a lot of games even apart from music and audio. He even wrote documentation. He was probably one of the most dedicated and hardest-working employees at the company.
His wife, Debbie, performed in several Sierra games: as voices in Mixed-Up Mother Goose, as the Singing Willow Tree in King's Quest V, and as the singer of "Girl in the Tower," from King's Quest VI. So they're definitely a musical family. I believe they'll be performing together next month at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and I *think* they'll be doing a special rendition of Erana's Peace, which Mark composed for Hero's Quest, in honor of Roberta Vaughan.
Josh
(09-27-2025, 03:21 AM)Jen Wrote: Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve played a Sierra game that it’s all lost to the sands of my memory
You're very welcome, Jen! I think for most of us, most of the time, it was a pleasure and an honor to work on products so loved by so many people. I also think we're all (very pleasantly) shocked and surprised that people are still talking about and playing these games now, thirty or forty years later. Back then, we thought of games as becoming old and irrelevant a year or two after their release. So imagine our constant delight at the interest they still generate.
Josh
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Greg Costikyan - 09-27-2025
I worked with Steve Meretzky, albeit not on an adventure game (at Playdom, on a cancelled "build your own Disney theme park" game) and liked that experience.
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Rubacava - 09-27-2025
(09-27-2025, 03:37 AM)Josh_Mandel Wrote:(09-27-2025, 02:04 AM)Rubacava Wrote:(09-27-2025, 01:56 AM)Josh_Mandel Wrote: It's so nice in here. I love the red naugahyde benches. They remind me of...something.
Just for fun, I thought I'd do an AMA on Sierra topics. There's a lot I'm not in a position to answer, but I'm happy to make stuff up when necessary, so it seems like my breadth of knowledge is much greater than it really is. That's a win/win!
So ask away. Thank you!
Josh
Hey Josh!!! I’ll start with the classics:
1 What’s your favorite Sierra game (whether you worked on it or not)?
2 Your favorite LucasArts game?
3 And overall, if you had to crown just one adventure game of all time, which one gets the honor?
4 Your top 3 favorite Sierra Box Cover Art
Thank you!
Ooh, excellent questions, and I don't have to make up any answers.
1. My favorite Sierra game is probably SQ3, although Conquests of Camelot is a very close second. I remember when SQ3 came out (I was living in Chicago and was going to software stores every day, waiting for it to come in). When I finally played it, I thought it was damn near perfect.
Camelot gets extra points because Christy Marx had the honesty and bravery to have multiple endings, none of which were happy. At the time, that was extremely daring for a Sierra game.
2. My favorite LucasArts game is Monkey Island 2. I was in the camp that thought the ending was the greatest mindf*** ever. I mean, it was like a Twilight Zone episode, only hilarious.
3. Ouch, this one is hard. So many contenders, with such different qualities. I guess the single game I remember most fondly is Leather Goddesses of Phobos. The perverse humor, the puzzles that were logical but twisted, the sense of satisfaction I got out of solving them. And a "scratch 'n sniff" card 10 years before Leisure Suit Larry 7's Cybersniff. Steer Meretzky has always been my favorite designer.
4. Hmm! I have never thought about this before, but I think my 3 favorite boxes are Police Quest 1-VGA (with the face of one of my favorite Sierra employees that changes drastically at the right angle), Laura Bow 2 (so stylish), and the Freddy Pharkas box (big brown floppy disk version, not the slim black CD version). It's like a cross between the Time-Life "Old West" books and MAD Magazine.
Tomorrow, my answers might be all different!
Josh
Invaluable feedback, thanks Josh!!
Freddy's box was something else...
RE: AMA About Sierra! - Josh_Mandel - 09-27-2025
Rubacava,
At the time, I was warned "Brown is the kiss of death for software boxes." Unfortunately, it was also perfect.
Josh