The International House of Mojo

Well, the text parser ones were harder, you got me there. But, I was born about 5 years before they started using VGA for everything. So, never had to endure those ones other than KQ1 and PQ2, and SQ1, and those were after I had played some of their VGA sequels.

Interplay had two winners with their ST:TOS games also...

Also, also, I call it an emulator, not a ROM player. And I dont think thats a good comparison. But thats just me.

I'll still stick with I'm a fucking genius.

Then, perhaps, you failed to grasp my examples of torturous design in Williams' games - all of the ones were from the old fashioned text parser versions. Saying you "beat all the VGA versions" is akin to bragging about beating Battletoads on a ROM player using save states. Yeah, good for you, no, that doesn't prove the old games weren't sadistic. QED.

In addition to Freddy Pharkas, there's also Pepper's Adventures in Time, King's Quest VI, Space Quests III and IV, Police Quest II, and the Quest for Glory series (and although IV is everyone's favorite, I really want to give credit to II), not to mention things like Zeliard, The Incredible Machine, Sierra's support of Coktel Vision's Gobliiins series (which includes Woodruff and Schnibble of Azimuth), and weird little game called Jones in the Fast Lane.

Pharkas

Oh, and Freddy Pharkus (sp?), that game rocked, I remember the demo for that game was even cool, it came I think with a different sierra game, and that demo was like its own little story taking place in the actual games starting area, good stuff.

I always think its funny when people complain about how hard all sierras games were, I mean, they were hard, but I had beat all the vga versions of the KQ, SQ, and PQ, before I was 12. And I was probably around 12 or so when I beat GK1, which I consider one of my favorite adventures.

But I guess I'm just a fucking genius.

Had Sierra been Scott Murphy, Mark Crowe, and Al Lowe, it's not unlikely that UlenceFlats.com would be a part of the Mojo Network. But, alas, some other folks were involved, and happened to have higher ranks than the trio above. Roberta Williams' work was nothing short of sadistic - the Whale Tongue climb, the entirety of the third King's Quest, the cheapest plethora of "oops you fail" of the original King's Quest and the horrendous pace & writing of Phantasmagoria. Deaths were far from the issue: most puzzles were volatile, requiring abundant replays from the start and every overwrite of a save game was a risk not worth taking.

Jensen's Gabriel Knight series I never got into, though I would not dare to badmouth the first game in the series, despite my conviction that it jumps the shark in the third act.

But when it comes to Larry, the series stands heads and shoulders above the rest, including my beloved SQ (5 and 6 proved that "solo records < the band that once was" is true in video games, and 2 is wholly unremarkable). Looking for Love and Pulsating Pectorials (LSL2 and LSL3, respectively) were bigger, more daring (in puzzles, not boobs), and more original, and in my not-so-humble opinion they stood the test of time well. I do hope the HD versions will make it that far, yet I wonder how they'll deal with LSL5, which I would consider the worst game in the series. (Al Lowe's kind provision of the game design document sheds light on this issue, as the game was built with a certain degree of pandering to an audience and shooting for higher completion rates.)

BTW, Al lowe's big band is called Mojo big band
http://www.mojobigband.com/
That's very on topic :p

i love Sierra too :)
And to be honest, I'm more excited about this new Larry game than Telltale's King's Quest. BTW, mixnmojo now can also start covering anything Jane Jensen / Gabriel Knight, as she worked on kings quest 6 :p

Heck yeah, id like to see more sierra love around here. When it comes to tech and games, I try to never fan boy it up. Growing up I had almost equal love for lucas adventures and sierra. Lucas might have won a little bit, because I didn't die constantly, but as I got a little older I liked some of there more serious stuff.

My dad never let me play the Larry series, obviously, and when I got old enough to load it up myself, and had to find D batteries for a muddy lady and her toy. Fun stuff.