Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Memo to Ken Williams: The InterAction Project is finished  (Read 3816 times)
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Andy_Roark
Associate Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 15


View Profile WWW
« on: July 02, 2008, 02:31:27 PM »

To: Ken Williams
From: Andy Linnenkohl, Sierra Employee #987123721
Date: 7/2/2008
Subject: InterAction Scanning Project

Mr Williams,

Some time back you made an idle comment about how you would like to see all of the copies of InterAction scanned and posted online, available for people to download. At the time I agreed with your statement and emphatically said so from the back of the room where I was shuttling coffee to Al Lowe and taking verbal abuse for it taking far, far too long (what's up with that guy anyway?). It's possible you didn't hear me over the sound of Jim Walls going crazy because no one liked his submarine game, quitting the company and deciding to go to work for some wave company down in Florida. That's totally cool. You're a busy guy and I understand.

I wanted to drop you a quick memo to let you know that I, with the extensive help of some of the other unpaid interns back here, have burned out five scanners, created more than a little bit of the good ol carpal tunnel syndrome and produced 38 scanned copies of the entire InterAction, Sierra Newsletter and Sierra News Magazine line. Those are now available online at:

http://sierra.gracenroark.net/index.php?pr=InterAction

Some of the scans may have some room for improvement and I'll be running back around to clean those up, touch up a page here and there right after I go find my wife who left me. She mumbled something about me being much more interested in twenty year old publicity materials for some defunct game company than I was in the new floral wallpaper for the kitchen. I think she's living in a hotel down the street. With your permission I am going to go try and convince her to come back. My dog left. Turns out the neighbor kept trying to feed him anti-freeze soaked hotdogs but he finally decided bad attention was better than no attention at all and he now looks at me through the slats in the fence when I go out to mow the lawn every few months after the home owner's association sends me those letters talking about something called a "reasonable level of care" I am supposed to be paying to my lawn. Like a $25 dollar fine is going to make me not harass people for The Sierra Newsletter Volume 1, Number 3.... sheesh. Those people need to get a life.

Anyway, I'll be back in my (imaginary) cube in the basement of the Sierra Professional Building if you have any other assignments for me. I've been thinking that archiving all of the game manuals, box inserts, box cover art and other goodies might be a good idea. I've got a few gig worth of it already up at:

http://sierra.gracenroark.net/index.php?pr=The_Games

but there's still a long way to go. Believe it or not I actually didn't buy every game you guys put out. My parents who, at the time, were responsible for the money flowing into my pockets didn't feel that a "buy first, ask questions later" approach was the right way to teach their son about impulse control. Suckers. Luckilly those same guys that helped me out with the InterAction scans seem to have a few of the games I don't and we've worked out a pretty good approach at how to share this stuff between us so I'm thinking we're going to get that project done as well.

Did you know a bunch of these computer gaming magazines did articles on Sierra? It might be a good idea for me to scan those as well. I'll do that in my spare time. Probably put them here:

http://sierra.gracenroark.net/index.php?pr=Articles

I've probably taken up enough of your time. I'll be the bloodshot eyed guy in the basement if you want to talk. Don't mind the other guys down here - they are just scanning everything they can find with a half-dome on it.

Sincerely,

The SierraVault InterAction Scanning Project
Andy Linnenkohl
Brad Herbert
David Ko
Ryan
Jeffrey Huffine

P.S. Can you get Al Lowe to stop calling me a butt muffin? It's hurting my self esteem.
Logged

Webmaster
SierraVault.com
Tom
Administrator
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 5,618



View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2008, 02:53:52 PM »

 Shocked  Grin  Smiley OMG!!!

N I C E   W O R K ! ! !  Really nice work!

Now I have to hunt for my 'letter to the editor' regarding King's Quest; I can't remember which issue of the Sierra Newsletter it appeared in.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2008, 02:55:18 PM by Tom » Logged

discobobdude
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 192


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2008, 04:07:02 AM »

Wow! This is incredible! Finally I can read all the issues I'm missing (and the pages I ripped over the years)

Plus the hintbooks are great! I remember taking some to school and reading them during reading time because of all the extra stuff in them (the KQ6 one is chock-full of goodies, and the FPFP is HILLARIOUS!)
Logged
parazythum
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 91


Don't Bug Me !


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2008, 11:46:09 AM »

What a nice achievement ! You must be proud. It's a LOT to download, several gigs.

You're also telling it will never stop... How about the CD covers of the Sierra games found in breakfast cereal boxes ? Smiley
Logged

Parazythum.
Don't Bug Me !
Andy_Roark
Associate Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 15


View Profile WWW
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2008, 06:24:48 PM »

"What a nice achievement ! You must be proud. It's a LOT to download, several gigs."

I'm happy, no doubt about it  Grin  Mostly I'm just a little shocked it finally came together.  Four days ago I had six issues missing and no real contacts to annoy and bug anymore.  Then Brad Herbert came through in a big way and nailed all six of the last issues in less than 12 hours.  To be honest I was just as excited to finally see Volume 1 Numbers 1 & 3 as everyone else was.  I'd never seen them (or so I thought) before.  Only after I started flipping through Number 3 did I realize that the T-shirt I had (and have had for twenty years) is from an ad in that issue.  I realized I had seen that issue and must have thrown it away.  Number 4 was the first "mine" issue in the lot so that's probably the case.

It's a whole bunch to download but I should be fine.  The load on my monthly bandwidth has been heavy since I put all of these up but I expect that to decrease once all the "hard core" faithful get their copies.  I doubt I'll break my bandwidth limit this month and if I don't do it this month I don't think it can be done!  You guys, on the other hand, will be checking that download bar for HOURS.

Let me tell you about some CD covers from cereal boxes.....

In all honestly I should probably be ok.  I've decided to be as anal retentive about being a completist as my readers want me to be.  I'm usually pretty happy getting a single copy of a game up - it really doesn't matter to me if the name at the bottom of the black Mystery House box changed from SierraVenture to Sierra On-Line.  If the folks that visit register that it bugs them to not see every single possble variant ever then I'll be more than happy to take their scan and upload it.

Who am I kidding?  What cereal?
Logged

Webmaster
SierraVault.com
Wodball
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 216



View Profile
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2008, 09:11:15 PM »

Geez, this is great!

I remember I was on vacation with my family and I was reading my three copies of Interaction that I got. Man, reading this stuff again... it's so great. I was reading the first one that I got yesterday on your site and it's amazing how far we've come. In the issue that I read, the Ultra 64 hadn't been renamed to the Nintendo 64, 3Dfx was still an independent company, people were happy to get anything to run at 640x480, and Sierra had just made the Roberta Williams Collection.

God, that was a long time ago...

--Woody
Logged
BlueMax
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 911



View Profile WWW
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2008, 02:04:19 AM »

Great memories of the golden age of gaming!  Can't wait to check 'em out!  We didn't get 'em in Canada often!
Logged

AAAAAAAAUUGHH!!!! - Charlie Brown
Ari
Administrator
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 2,600



View Profile WWW
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2008, 07:36:07 AM »

Great work! (and funny too! Smiley )

The only issue of Interaction I ever had was the KQ6 one, and I had lost it at some point (my mom probably threw it out or something), so I'm very excited to reacquaint myself with it. I think it was over 15 years ago...

Anyway good job, and don't let Al get you down...  Wink
Logged

I feel like I'm diagonally-parked in a parallel universe
Salient
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 246


There is no final truth


View Profile WWW
« Reply #8 on: July 04, 2008, 06:30:22 PM »

This is very nice. I love to read this stuff and enjoy the advertisements for AdLib and MT-32's too. Smiley
Logged

My sound stuff: << here >>
For sale: << here >>
New MIDI comparison website: << wavetable.nl >>
Marten
Global Moderator
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1,857



View Profile
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2008, 03:36:48 AM »

I agree with Ari.  Not only is this a big accomplishment, you've managed to retain your sense of humor throughout it all. Smiley
Logged

mace
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 396



View Profile
« Reply #10 on: July 05, 2008, 04:53:44 AM »

I agree with Ari.  Not only is this a big accomplishment, you've managed to retain your sense of humor throughout it all. Smiley


Seemingly the only thing he retained.  Wink  Cheesy
Logged


Using in/on my rig now:
MT-32 first gen, CM-64, SC-155, NEC DB60XG, Yamaha FB-01, AWE64 Gold, MPU-IPC-T
Andy_Roark
Associate Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 15


View Profile WWW
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2008, 01:59:15 AM »

hahahaha... yup.  That's about the size of it.

Actually my wife is horribly addicted to on line games and most of the time I was scanning she was playing Age of Conan. 

Glad you guys are enjoying the site.  Let me know if you are looking for anything you don't see up.

Logged

Webmaster
SierraVault.com
Great Hierophant
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 988



View Profile
« Reply #12 on: August 18, 2010, 04:21:51 AM »

I hate to dredge up an old topic, but the site seems to be down permanently.  Did anyone grab the Interaction scans posted there?
Logged

Cloudschatze
Moderator
Senior Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1,829



View Profile
« Reply #13 on: August 18, 2010, 01:57:36 PM »

I hate to dredge up an old topic, but the site seems to be down permanently.  Did anyone grab the Interaction scans posted there?

www.sierragamers.com
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to: