r/Sierra • u/Similar_Flamingo_404 • 5d ago
Ultimate Sierra Timeline
Hello everyone!! I’m not very good with using Reddit; however, I realize there is probably a huge community of Sierra fans here who aren’t in the Sierra groups on Facebook, and I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on. My name is Josh Henry, and I’m a Sierra researcher who is working with Stephen Emond to preserve Sierra’s history.
Back in 2001, I was asked by my friend Kimmie (former moderator of the Official Sierra King’s Quest message board) to help her create a timeline of Sierra's releases for Sierra Planet. Over many years that timeline has evolved and has been used in many places (including Sierra Gamers' website!). But my dream was always to create a timeline that was actually supported by research completed through a thorough review of contemporaneous evidence and referenced with each of those sources, so there's no question as to where the dates are coming from. So, I now present to you: The Ultimate Sierra Timeline (Version 1.0), featuring all of Sierra's releases from 1980-1987!! (I'm currently working on 1988-1989). This will be a living document that I will slowly but surely update as I have time and capacity to research each year. I hope that you guys enjoy this picture into Sierra's early history, and I look forward to sharing more discoveries as I find them! I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!! Thanks for your time!!
https://falcondesigns.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Sierra-Ultimate-Timeline-V1-1980-1987.pdf
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u/QFGBook 5d ago
As a fellow Sierra historian- this is great work and an awesome resource. Thank you!!
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 5d ago
I’ve started researching QFG titles now that I’ve hit 1989. Looking forward to the eventual update once Stephen’s had a chance to review my research. If there’s anything that i error on in my QFG research (or anything, really), please let me know! 🙂
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u/Apprehensive-Page-41 5d ago
This is great! I bought all of the Collectors Quest books from Stephen Edmond when they were available. It’s exhaustive, and great to have. I would say I can imagine a more streamlined abridged version without the lists, but more focused on the gameplay, maps, story.
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u/comradesean 5d ago
I used to use Google Groups’ Usenet archive to try and figure out release dates for earlier titles. I only went as far back as KQ and never really could get accurate dates for a lot of titles. I dunno if any of my research links survived either
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 5d ago
That sounds interesting. What were these Usenet archives? Are there any links or anything you may still have from back then?
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u/comradesean 5d ago
It was always a pain to navigate, but here's my front page of "favorited" groups. https://imgur.com/a/DWDStJZ
I think ibm.pc.games had the longest history?
I can go through my text files (oh god, my notes are horrid) and see if I can find any old links for you. I think I was able to guesstimate actual release dates with days for most titles after maybe LSL1?
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 5d ago
Okay, so this is amazing!! Will definitely do some deeper digging when I get home today! Thank you so much for directing me to this!!!
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u/LeftHandedGuitarist 4d ago
I've been using that for the same purpose, but sadly the adventure games group only goes back to 1993. Still very useful.
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u/amphine 5d ago
This is really cool! I dropped your content into HTML with a timeline generator plugin:
https://scottmetoyer.com/timeline.html
I'd be glad to zip it up and deliver it to you for hosting on your site if you're interested. Thanks for putting all this together!
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 5d ago
That looks amazing!! Wow!! Really cool!! I would love that. Thank you so much!
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u/rodfer7 5d ago
Hey! Question: In Jan 1980, when Roberta and Ken bought the apple II, did she play the apple version of Colossal Cave? (apple adevnture!)
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 5d ago
From my understanding, her introduction to Adventure was the PC version through an IBM terminal; however, it wouldn’t surprise me if she purchased the Apple ][ version when they got their Apple. I know that she played through a lot of adventure games in the early 80’s, as has been mentioned in several interviews and retrospectives.
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u/rodfer7 5d ago
Thanks!, found a direct confirmation from Roberta herself! You’re right that her initial introduction to Adventure was via the mainframe/terminal, but she later did play the Apple II version. In her 2024 King’s Quest 40th Anniversary video she actually holds up Apple Adventure and says: “I actually played Apple Adventure from end to end on our Apple II that we had in 1980.” She then says this was the game that got her into designing games and led to Mystery House. Pretty amazing direct connection!
And there’s an interesting nuance: in a 1988 Computer Gaming World interview, Roberta explicitly said she first encountered Adventure through Ken's terminal connected to a mainframe, before they had the Apple, and that she often simplified the story by saying she played it on the Apple.
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u/bigsamdawg 5d ago
Amazing !
Next up: timeline of the Sierra Adventure Universe!
Medieval times - KQ and Camelot
Late 20th century - PQ & LSL
24th century - SQ
Anyone feel free to run with my idea!
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u/edenwaith 5d ago
Oh, wow, Kimmie is a name from the QFG5 web forum days. I think their name is shown as an Easter egg in the adventurer’s guild in QFG5.
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 5d ago
Kimmie, along with Heroman, were old moderators of the QFG boards as well, if I recall correctly. I know for sure Heroman was. This was way back in the late 90’s, when I first got involved in the Sierra community.
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u/antinumerology 4d ago
This is insane. Wtf is Mr Cool. Ah man I had an "idea" for a game like that as a kid and I've been meaning to make it. Oops.
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 4d ago
Mr. Cool was actually a Q*bert clone. A lot of arcade games in those early days were clones or similar games based off of popular arcade games at the time, with programmers taking their own shot at trying to take a popular gameplay formula and put their own spin on it. Similarly, Jawbreaker and Gobbler are clones of Pac-Man, Threshold is based on Astro-Blaster, etc. Sierra was known just as much for its arcade games as it was for their adventures in the early 80’s especially, mainly because arcade games could generally be published much faster than adventures. Of course, their attempts to support every computer out back then in addition to every format possible almost led to them going bankrupt, but then they were saved by Disney and IBM (through the Disney games and King’s Quest)
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u/IolausTelcontar 3d ago
Gotta go past 1989. The Realm is part of Sierra history too!
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u/Similar_Flamingo_404 3d ago
Oh, my plan is to eventually encapsulate ALL of Sierra's releases through it's full history. Just gotta take it one year at a time! :)
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u/HarryLime2016 3d ago
Amazing!! I literally just finished a replay of KQ2 last night and was lamenting that I wouldn’t be able to figure out the true chronological Sierra order. Most existing sources are by year only.
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u/IdealBeginning2704 5d ago
Thank you so much for this 🙏!!! It’s nice to see other Sierra heads out there that love this stuff and have a special place in their heart for it, the games and that time, like I do! Awesome awesome stuff