History Creator / Sierra

* UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole: Was very far on the "PC" side at its height, though they did publish a few games for consoles late in its life. Ken Williams did admit that his family owned and enjoyed console games. ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' was inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. After the Cendant sale and acquisition by Vivendi, it switched to supporting consoles fully. Thankfully, we got ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' out of it.

Sierra fizzled out in the late 90s, with the decline of adventure gaming, plus being bought out by a comglomerate named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendant Cendant]] which had its' mitts in hotels, real estate and car rentals- soon after the company was formed, it sold Sierra and other software companies (including Creator/BlizzardEntertainment) after an accounting scandal. It was bought by Vivendi Creator/{{Universal}} (although after Universal's merger with Creator/{{NBC}}, it became just Creator/{{Vivendi}}), who were cool enough to let amateur game makers create fan games of their series until 2009, when it was merged into Creator/{{Activision}} and subsequently closed down.

* ''VideoGame/TheBlackCauldron'' (yes, based on [[Disney/TheBlackCauldron the movie]])

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: After the glory days ended and the subsequent sale of the company from Cendant to Vivendi Universal, the Sierra name was little more than a label, and they released titles from other developers. By 2005 it had been fully integrated with Vivendi Games and took on its' [=IPs=], including ''Crash'' and ''Spyro''.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: After the glory days ended and the subsequent sale of the company from Cendant to Vivendi Universal, the Sierra name was little more than a label, and they released titles from other developers. By 2005 it had been fully integrated with Vivendi Games and took on its' IPs, including ''Crash'' and ''Spyro''.

** The Sierra "half-dome". If the game has mountain in the background, you can bet it's gonna be there.

* ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' (inherited from Universal Interactive)

* ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' (''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' continuity only, inherited from Universal Interactive)

Sierra fizzled out in the late 90s, with the decline of adventure gaming, plus being bought out by a comglomerate named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendant Cendant]] which had its' mitts in hotels, real estate and car rentals- soon after the company was formed, it sold Sierra and other software companies (including Creator/BlizzardEntertainment) after an accounting scandal. It was bought by Vivendi Creator/{{Universal}} (although after Universal's merger with Creator/{{NBC}}, it became just Vivendi), who were cool enough to let amateur game makers create fan games of their series until 2009, when it was merged into Creator/{{Activision}} and subsequently closed down.

* LemonyNarrator: Especially if its [[VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry Neil]] [[VideoGame/FreddyPharkasFrontierPharmacist Ross]] or [[WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost Gary]] [[VideoGame/SpaceQuest Owens]].

* BrandNameTakeover: In Russia, point'n'click games are referred to as "Quests", due to popularity of Sierra games in Soviet Russia during the late 80's, and the term "Quest" ("Квест") being much more comfortable to use than "Adventure Game" ("Приключенческая Игра").

* YouCantGetYeFlask: The other reason early Sierra games could be so infuriating. The downside of the company's focus on graphics meant less memory for parsers, contrasted with Creator/{{Infocom}}'s [[DevelopersForesight incredibly smart parsers]]. This is why Sierra ultimately abandoned text parsers altogether.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shivers}}'' and ''VideoGame/ShiversTwoHarvestOfSouls''

* ''VideoGame/{{Shivers}}''

* ''Mystery House'' (the first game released by Sierra)

* UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole: Was very far on the "PC" side at its height, they did publish a few games for consoles late in its life. Ken Williams did admit that his family owned and enjoyed console games. ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' was inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. After the Cendant sale and acquisition by Vivendi, it switched to supporting consoles fully. Thankfully, we got ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' out of it.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Before ''Videogame/KingsQuest'', the company made adventure games but also arcade games and office software.

* UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole: Was very far on the "PC" side at its height, with the company making some occasional digs at console games. The company published a few games for consoles late in its life. Ken Williams did admit that his family owned and enjoyed console games. ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' was inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. After the Cendant sale and acquisition by Vivendi, it switched to supporting consoles fully. Thankfully, we got ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' out of it.

** The Sierra "half-dome". If the game has mountain in the background, you can bet it's gonna be here.

** The Sierra dome. If the game has mountain in the background, you can bet it's gonna be here.

On August 7, 2014, Activision announced that they would [[http://www.shacknews.com/article/85680/sierra-entertainment-set-to-return-with-new-game-at-gamescom-2014 revive the company]] at Gamescom 2014. At Gamescom, it was announced that ''VideoGame/GeometryWars 3: Dimensions'' (developed by Lucid Games, a company formed by former Creator/BizarreCreations staff) and a new ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'' (developed by The Odd Gentlemen, the people behind ''VideoGame/TheMisadventuresOfPBWinterbottom'' and the upcoming ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' adventure game) are the first titles under the revived Sierra label. Unfortunately, as of 2015, it appears that the Homestuck game was permanently tossed out when it came out that the funds for the kickstarted game had been appropriated to fund King's Quest, which soured many fans on both sides, Homestuck fans being upset that a game they had funded had lost the money they had raised while King's Quest fans found that the use of stolen funds to fund the new game made it hard to enjoy. Activision's plan for the label is for working with indie developers who have original projects under development or who are interested in tackling classic Sierra properties.

* BleachedUnderpants: ZigZagged. They were known for being mostly family-friendly, and their flagship series was no worse than a classic Creator/Disney flick. Their first big hit, however, was a text adventure game called ''Softporn Adventure.'' Where it zig-zagged? They tried to downplay or bury the original, but recycled most of the plotline and puzzles in a PlayedForLaughs way, and had an even ''bigger'' hit as 'VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry''

* UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole: Was very far on the "PC" side at its height, with the company making some occasional digs at console games. The company publishing a few games for consoles late in its life. Ken Williams did admit that his family owned and enjoyed console games, and ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' was inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. After the Cendant sale and acquisition by Vivendi, it switched to supporting consoles fully. Thankfully, we got ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' out of it.

''Save early, save often, and don't overwrite saves.''

* UsefulNotes/PCVsConsole: Was very far on the "PC" side, despite the company publishing a few games for consoles late in it's life. Ken Williams did admit that his family owned and enjoyed console games, and ''VideoGame/KingsQuestMaskOfEternity'' was inspired by ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. And then after the Cendant sale and acquisition by Vivendi, it switched to supporting consoles fully. Thankfully, we got ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'' out of it.

* RealIsBrown: As the graphics capabilities of computers improved, Sierra's adventure games had increasingly subdued or washed-out graphics. For example, compare the vibrant 16-color graphics of ''King's Quest IV'' to the subdued 256-color graphics of ''King's Quest V''., The final ''Legend of Spyro'' game, ''Dawn of the Dragon'', also heavily abused this.