Neverending Nights

… and are you talking about the comic strip called B.C.?

No. This is in reference to a game.

Oh, you must mean B.C.’s Quest for Tires?

Grrr…

Truth of the matter, this dates back to 1990, when myself, and my good friend at the time, Shawn Corum, were dreamers.

You see, at the time there was a massive computer company known as Sierra On-Line, Inc.

But first, a little history about Sierra.

Sierra was founded by husband and wife power couple, Ken and Roberta Williams. Ken was the technical side with knowledge of programming and Roberta was the creative side, with her mind full of wild ideas – ideas that she presented to Ken, who didn’t think some of which was possible. Originally they had wanted to develop software for the new Apple II computer, but Roberta had much grander ideas! Roberta, who had loved the text adventure games (side note – I too was a fan of text adventure games, and made my own called Final Soul – go on, check it out! It opens a new window and runs on modern machines now!) had wanted to bring graphical adventures to the Apple II computers!

This seemed like an impossible notion, until Ken banged his head against the computer several times and found a way to code such a thing – as rough as it might be, they’d discovered a way to add graphics to their “text adventure” game – and thus developed Mystery House.

In 1983, IBM contacted Ken and Roberta Williams and had asked them to develop a game for their PCjr. They would go on to develop the Adventure Game Interpreter (which would quickly simply be called the AGI engine). This AGI engine would go on to be used for the first set of games that Sierra would go on to develop!

In 1984, Sierra would release King’s Quest for the PCjr, which, tragically did not do so well. But when Tandy released the Tandy 1000 (I posted about my own Tandy 1000 SX on here, and also had a picture on another site I run over at Larry Laffer, with me dressed as Leisure Suit Larry standing in front of my Tandy 1000 SX!) – and Ken and Roberta decided to try it on the superior computer, as well as the Apple II – and in this case the game was met with immediate success! This would cause Sierra to employ more games, along the same lines…

• Al Lowe created Leisure Suit Larry
• Mark Crowe & Scott Murphy created Space Quest
• Jim Walls created Police Quest

And this was just the beginning! In 1988 Sierra created a new “game engine” called Sierra’s Creative Interpreter which would go on to simply be called SCI. It was far more complex, allowed for text parser and EGA (16 color) graphics. King’s Quest IV (that’s right, Sierra had already made up to King’s Quest IV by this point!) had originally been released in the AGI engine, was then released with this new SCI engine!

Also at this time, Sierra would bring on others, such as…

• Lori and Corey Cole created Hero’s Quest (which, due to some legal issues with Mattel, who had a board game called Hero Quest, they would go on to change the game’s title later to Quest for Glory).

In 1990, Sierra looked unstoppable. Sierra released King’s Quest V with their new SCI1 (newly improved SCI engine) that now allowed for a stunning 256 colors. The game would go on to sell over 500,000 copies – the first time any Sierra game had done so!

This propelled Sierra ever forward. In 1991 they launched something called The Sierra Network, which was a service you could log into and chat, play games, etc. Oh, it had a monthly fee (or hourly fee), and trust me – it was not cheap. But as someone who was an avid user of it (and spent more time than I probably should have on it!) – it also happened to be where I would end up meeting the woman who would become my wife years later.

Sierra didn’t stop there… they brought on…

• Jane Jensen created the critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight, which included voice actors such as Mark Hamill (you might know him as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, among the thousands! of other voices he now does) and Tim Curry (oh, you know, from a few minor things such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Muppet Treasure Island, Legend and my all time favorite movie, Clue)!

In 1995 they made FMV (full motion video) games such as Phantasmagoria, which was by Roberta Williams, who’d made the King’s Quest series – and she even said it was her favorite game to have worked on! (Side note – it’s such a fantastic game! I have so many great memories tied to that game!)

So how does this all relate to the title of “B.C. Quest”…

Well, see back there where Sierra had made games that all had “Quest” somewhere in the title… that was just some of them (King’s Quest, Police Quest, Hero’s Quest/Quest for Glory, Space Quest) – there were other games too (EcoQuest, Conquest of Camelot/Conquest of the Longbow, The Colonel’s BeQuest)

Well, there Shawn and I were… 20 years old, dreaming big… We looked at what Sierra had done…

• They made a real life city game in a modern world (Police Quest)
• They made a comedy adult game (Leisure Suit Larry)
• They covered the fantasy game (King’s Quest and Quest for Glory)
• They covered futuristic (Space Quest)
• They covered the ocean/economic (EcoQuest)
• They covered legends (Conquest of Camelot/Conquest of the Longbow)
• They covered murder mysteries (The Colonel’s Bequest)

What had they not covered yet?

Prehistoric!

So Shawn and I got to scribbling down ideas. We had a board, where we were drawing out the map, different quest ideas, how the game would progress, different puzzle ideas, we drew a rough map using (I can’t remember the name of it now, but it was essentially Windows Paint… it might have even been called Paint even way back then) and I did some coding using QBasic to try and mimic how some of it might work.

Our game featured a character named Duh Ugg (pronounced “Doug”) who was a caveman, and had his father’s brother (Ugg Kull) who had “ventured beyond” – and now Duh Ugg wanted to do the same. In our game “B.C.” did not stand for Before Christ, rather it stood for “Before Civilization.” Because as Duh Ugg travels, he ends up falling through a lake and getting frozen. However, he’d awake much, much later, washing ashore – and the world has drastically changed. It was now 1990!

It took several months – but the two of us had actually developed a game idea from start to finish. The next part I am not super clear – if we reached out to Sierra and got an NDA or if we worked with Shawn’s dad who developed an NDA for us.

Anyway, we took all of this stuff, printed it out and saved it on a disk as a PDF and sent it on the way to Sierra.

We actually got a reply.

And it was crushing. But also great.

I wish I still had all the letters I used to get back from Sierra (at the time, I was very actively writing into their InterAction magazine – usually those correspondences were with – I am pretty sure it was Bridget McKenna – but I don’t think it was her who replied to our game idea… I can’t remember who that was).

However, it’d gone along the lines of: What you have here is a collection of very wonderful ideas. This looks like it would be a fun game to play and it looks like the two of you put a lot of time, effort and love into this – and this is something we at Sierra love to see! We want our developers to have that passion and drive! And we love seeing that our games have inspired both of you to take this step! However, I am sad to say that Sierra released a game in 1983 called B.C.’s Quest for Tires.

What they said after that, I can’t remember. But it was pretty much “Keep trying and never give up.”

So what’s this about?

Well, I was in a recent discussion on the Sierra Help Forums talking about this… and I dug up the game box we designed and the manual we designed and all of that… and scanned it… along with the “promotional photos” we’d sent with our proposal… and figured, why not post them here for archiving sake? Even though it has nothing to do with Neverending Nights, I truly doubt I would have made Neverending Nights without Sierra… because Sierra was another step in fueling my creativity.

So let’s take a look…

The Mug!

That’s right. We went hard. When we came up with this whole idea, we were so confident this was going to work out, we got ourselves each a mug… I still have mine to this day!

The Promotional Photo(s)… There was more than one?

The “promotional photo” we included with our yellow envelope was this one…

Side note… the bear “rug” on my shoulders… those glasses were from Pizza Hut, from, probably a Back to the Future promotion or something… Edit: My wild guess was correct, it was Back to the Future II… I knew it was Pizza Hut, because I was or had been working there…

But there were other photos we’d taken…

Here are some more scattered photos with the B.C. Quest cover, my mother & father’s dog with our thing we’d made on the sheet, and stuff…

So let’s show off the box art and such, since the above photos barely show them… here’s some scans…

The Box (click the images to see the full size)

Because I didn’t want to use (and lose) an original Sierra disk sleeve, I’d made several “fake” Sierra disk sleeves such as this (this one has the 5.25″ disk that probably, if it still works, actually has text files we put our notes on… sadly, I don’t have a 5.25″ drive anymore to find out what’s on this disk…)

We also loved how Hero’s Quest/Quest for Glory had a little extra manual, so we’d created the same thing…

The Caveman’s Survival Guide

And finally…

The instruction manual

Even though this never became the game we’d dreamed it would be… it became the memory I will never forget, regardless.

• Tawmis.

Race: Human
Occupation: Captain of the Crimson Draco Legion
Place of Birth: Fiezur
Known Relatives: Mother (Unknown Name), Father (Unknown Name)
First Appearance: Episode Fifty: ‘Destiny or Chance?’
History: Very little information is known about the Captain of the Crimson Guard. The only thing known about him before his life as a member of the Crimson Draco Legion, is that he hailed from the distant shore of Fiezur. Under the ruthless and horrid rule of Komp’khaun, a barbaric and idiotic king, the man whose name time has forgotten stole a small sailing boat one night and sailed for new lands. A storm of incredible magnitude blew him off course, and set the small sailing ship sailing into the much feared waters of the Scarasea Oceans, where thousands of shipwrecks pierced the dark oceans, like jagged claws reaching out of the ocean. His skip was overcome by pirates who took him and beat him relentlessly, simply for the sake of entertainment. However, one night, the man whose name time has forgotten – broke free, and murdered the captain of the ship and took over. Thus begun the days of his name simply being known as ‘The Captain.’

His ruthlessness on the seas captured the attention of the Red Dragon, Crimson, who attacked his ship and slammed it into a small, abandoned island. She killed his crew and offered him a chance to either die on the small island or to become a member of her Crimson Draco Legion. The man accepted the position within the Crimson Draco Legion, surprised to see that dragons ever existed (they had not been seen by the eyes of Mortals in several thousand years). He quickly rose through the ranks within the Crimson Draco Legion. Within a year, he was Crimson’s most trusted agent. She trusted a scroll to him that spoke of a highly urgent mission.

The Crimson Captain, as he had been promoted to, ventured to Gnome Mountain where he spoke to a Gnome there named Daniel the Delightful. He told Daniel that he could help his brew become even more tasty (for the Gnomish Brew Festival). Daniel believed him and allowed the man to tamper with the barrels of Daniel’s brew. During the Brew Fest, it was Daniel’s beer kegs that exploded as Daniel entered the room and cast a simply Dazzle Spell to mark his entrance. The explosion was so massive that it left an enormous crater at the top of Gnome Mountain (the incident heard around the world as “The Explosion Of Gnome Mountain”). Remarkably, no one was hurt – as that had not been the intention.

The Crimson Captain was searching for something that had been buried – seeking to awaken something – something that had been noted in the scroll given to him by Crimson. When it did not yield the results he had hoped for, he returned to Crimson.

When Crimson was defeated and killed by Peter and Grayson, it was the Crimson Captain who led the manhunt to track down the two. It was in the City of Pomtom, where the Captain of the Crimson Draco Legion suspected Gariff and Kabewse of being Peter and Grayson, since they wore the same colored armor. This was the first – time, confirmed – that the Knights had ever removed their helmets. Whatever the Captain of the Draco Legion saw in their faces, was enough to give him pause – and in the end, excuse them. Amiee the Armorer had contacted Ann the Armorer, in the City of Ator, to make armor that was exactly like Gariff and Kabewse’s, and was able to easily bypass the Crimson Draco Legion hunting party – who believed it was the two Knights that they had previously questioned.

The Crimson Captain still leads the Crimson Draco Legion, who has vowed to one day have their vengeance against Peter and Grayson.

Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Unknown

Accessories:

WEAPON: The Crimson Claw Staff. This Staff is supposed to grant the owner the same powers as the Crimson Dragon.

Race: Human
Occupation: Captain of Atorian Guard
Place of Birth: Ator
Known Relatives: Mother (Unknown Name), Father (Unknown Name), Poppy the Salt Vendor (Wife), Hannah the Hopeful (Adopted Daughter), Katie the Kid (Adopted Daughter)
First Appearance: Episode Fifty-Eight: ‘VisionQuest’
History: Craig the Commander was born in Ator and joined their military force when he was very young. He quickly rose through the ranks with his determination and ability to write policies that were very thorough and beneficial for the Atorian Guard. Within a few short years, he rose to the status of Commander – the youngest Atorian to do so. When a mysterious sand storm brought larger than life tumbleweeds blasting into Ator – it was Commander Craig who led the fight (believing it had been the work of some evil wizard).

When an old man, with silver eyes and silver hair, named Dean came to the City of Ator and warned them that a blue dragon, by the name of Cobalt was near by, none – save Douglas – listened to what the old man had to say. Admittedly, Douglas, like the rest of the City of Ator, thought the old man was suffering from Dry Madness – a madness that sweeps those who have been lost too long in the desert without proper food and water. After all, there had been no dragons seen for thousands of years upon the World of Mortals. Still, Douglas reported what the Old Man with Silver Eyes had said to Commander Craig. Vern had tried to stop his brother Douglas from bothering the Commander with such news, not believing any of it to be true.

However, a few short years later, the blue dragon Cobalt made its attack on the City of Ator – none were ready. Still, Commander Craig was at the front of the line, ready to die to defend his city. It wasn’t until Dean, the silver haired, silver eyed wizard changed into the form of a silver dragon and roared – that it startled the Blue Dragon enough to drive it away. The City of Ator immediately enforced a draft, led by Commander Craig, to help protect the City. The Wizards of Ator, worked feverishly now – rather than seeking ways to improve their powerful spells – to crafting magical items against such magnificent and terrifying beasts. Douglas was one of the first soldiers to rise in the ranks under Commander Craig’s leadership.

Several years later, unbeknownst to Peter and Grayson, because they had taken money out of the Wishing Well, it had indeed hampered Poppy’s travels. A mysterious sand storm suddenly appeared and erased all evidence of the path that she had been on. Lost, she ended up encountering all the animals that Peter had previously summoned in the desert outside of the City of Ator.

After several weeks of not hearing from her mother, Hannah the Hopeful, took the money that Peter had given her and gathered her young sister and headed for the last known location Peter had mentioned seeing her mother – the City of Ator. After two weeks of travel, she arrived in the City of Ator to discover her mother had left several weeks ago. She put out a reward in the City of Ator to help find her mother. Commander Craig of the City of Ator Army answered the reward and gathered men to find Poppy the Salt Vendor.

Commander Craig found Poppy in the Stormpeak Mountains – the supposed home of the Blue Dragon, Cobalt. They safely retrieved her and returned with her to the City of Ator. When it came to collecting the reward from Hannah, Commander Craig refused the award and said that he had done it because someone needed help – not because he had wanted the reward. Poppy the Salt Vendor refused to let Commander Craig leave without accepting something – so, the two of them went on a date where they discovered they had several things in common and bonded very closely.

Before long, Commander Craig became a steady member of their family – finally, officially proposing to – and marrying Poppy the Salt Vendor, and adopting Hannah and Katie as children of his own.

Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown (Though Sometimes If The Sun Is Right He Appears To Be A Ginger)

Accessories:

WEAPON: As Commander of the Atorian Guard, he has a wide assortment of magical swords at his disposal.

Race: Human
Occupation: Cook
Place of Birth: Florduh
Known Relatives: Lady Lorraine(mother), Father (Unknown Name), Pierce (Brother)
First Appearance: Neverending Nights – Episode 16: Dessert City?
History: Conner is the son of the beautiful Lady Lorraine. When the White Dragon named Frostmourn attacked Florduh, Lady Lorraine and Conner (along with the rest of the population) was forced to flee the land. The reasons for Frostmourn’s attack were never discovered; as Frostmourn was a Dragon of the North and ruled over the kingdom of Snowfall’s Edge. Regardless, having been born and raised in the hot, humid lands of Florduh, when they fled they moved to The City of Ator, whose hot, desert climate was similar to what they were used to. With nothing to call their own, Lady Lorraine, Conner and Pierce learned to make the best with what they had.

Pierce, who was younger than Conner, frequently slipped into the Dragon’s Cave behind the City of Ator, where he had discovered an underwater lake full of aquatic life. He would bring the fish and crabs to Conner, who learned how to cook them. With no (known) large bodies of water around the City of Ator, the citizens marveled at the constant supply of fish and crabs that Lady Lorraine’s sons provided, making this extremely rare delicacy very high in demand – and well worth a pretty gold coin or two! It did not take long for Lady Lorraine and her sons to be well off, with the money they made. While Pierce was in the Dragon Caves acquiring more fish and crabs, was when Peter and Grayson first ventured into the City of Ator. Dubious about the crab juice (that’s all that was left; the watery juices that the crabs had been cooked in), Grayson questioned where they were even getting crabs in this massive desert. Unwilling to reveal the location, fearful that these two would be adventurers would take over – Conner kept a tight lip and ended up convincing the two heroes that they should purchase the “crab flavored water.”

While Grayson was at the Inn getting a show with Madame Marie, Peter the Ranger ventured back out into the town and spoke with Lady Lorraine further; where he learned about the Dragon that had attacked the Kingdom of Florduh. This seemed like a likely place to begin search for the dragon that they would kill to become (in)famous. Peter promised Lady Lorraine that when they killed Frostmourn that he would share his part of the treasure with her so that she might once again live comfortably.

As fate would have it, Peter and Grayson would not go after Frostmourn. While in the City of Ator, they encountered Poppy the Salt Vendor who explained there was a Dragon in the Dragon Caves, just behind the City of Ator (and that’s why those caves were called “The Dragon Cave”). Peter and Grayson ventured into the Caves to seek out that Dragon instead.

But, Peter did not forget his promise to Lady Lorraine. When the Dragon of Silverlake was defeated, Peter sent a messenger to the City of Ator with a message for Lady Lorraine and her children to come to the City of Neverending, where he had purchased a home for her and her children to live in. Conner was hired at the Bar of Destiny to become the head Chef. While visiting the Bar of Destiny, Pierce had run into a man named Jon the Joyful and introduced him to his mother, Lady Lorraine. The two of them began speaking, and a few short years later, were happily married.

Pierce has vowed to one day return to Florduh and find Frostmourn.

Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Accessories:
COOKING KNIFE: Conner has a non magical cooking knife.

Race: Dragon
Occupation: Blue Dragon, Leader of Azure Order
Place of Birth: Realm of Dragons
Known Relatives: Ankalagun (The All Father of Chromatic Dragons – Deceased), Skatha (The All Mother of Chromatic Dragons – Unknown), Obsidian (Black Dragon – Sister), Crimson (Red Dragon – Sister), Emerald (Green Dragon – Sister), Frostmourn (White Dragon – Sister)
First Appearance: Never Appeared In An Episode.
History: When the Platinum Dragon arrived in the World of Mortals, he brought with him light and life to the world. Skatha, the all Mother of Chromatic Dragons, seeking to devour the light, had tried to consume the rainbows that burst through the dark, dank clouds of the world. She tried so furiously to prevent any and all color to enter the world that she absorbed it into herself – in the end, becoming a colorful dragon herself – each head, representing one of the colors of the world – Red, for the fire; Blue, for the Skies; Green, for the grass and tress; Black, for the shadows created by the light; and White, for the pure snow in the Northern Lands.

She grew so furious at the Platinum Dragon, that she cut herself and bled each of the five colors. In a vile attempt to ruin what each of those colors meant, she corrupted her blood and grew each of them into a mighty dragon – Red – whose breath of fire was hotter than anything known; Blue, for the skies, whose lightning bolt breath could destroy anything; Green, for the grass, whose poisonous breath was made from some of the most lethal plants; Black, for the shadows, whose acidic breath was a massive force of destruction; and White, for the snow, whose breath could freeze anyone’s blood. When they were ready, she unleashed them upon the world.

After a thousand years of fighting and nearly sundering the World of Mortals, the Chromatic and Metallic Dragons agreed to leave the World of Mortals; it had been Cobalt that had arranged for the agreement, weaving her words in such a manner that it left a loophole for the Chromatic Dragons to return to the World of Mortals, knowing that once her deception had been revealed, the Metallic Dragons, bound by their Word and Honor, would still not violate their Oath.

Cobalt claimed the desert lands as her own, drawn by the golden sands that reminded her of mounds of endless gold. She took up residence in The Forlorn Mountain in the desert sands of Ator. After several hundreds years, she heard about the the City of Ator, and the riches they had made. This captured Cobalt’s curiosity and she attacked the City – only to find it, much to her surprise – defended by a Silver Dragon. One of the Metallic Dragons had returned to the world of Mortals.

Cobalt warned her sisters of the presence of the Metallic Dragon. If Argent the Silver returned, that meant that the others may have returned as well.

When the death of Crimson reached Cobalt’s ear, and that the Blade of Destiny had been founded and used by the fabled bloodline – Cobalt sealed the Forlorn Mountain, where she still slumbers, unaware that her father – the Dragon of Silverlake was also destroyed.

Eyes: Blue
Hair: N/A (As Dragon)

Accessories:

WEAPON: As a Dragon, Cobalt’s lightning breath is said to be one of the most powerful weapons. Cobalt is also known as “Sky” to some.