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March 9, 1998 Dear Adventurer, Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School! Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire release date pushed to Sep 1, '98 We are now scheduled to ship on September 1, 1998. Dragon Fire will enter the final QA phase on June 1. Our decision to convert to 16bit color ultimately pushed the date back by 3 months. 16bit color has many benefits: Characters are no longer restricted to a 16-color palette. Each character will have its own 256 colors and will be lit by 16bit color. Scrolling panoramas will be smoothed by anti-aliasing. Ghosts will look like ghosts and characters will fade if they pass behind a transparent object. All in all, the additional wait means we can incorporate our latest technology and deliver, as we have promised, a product of the highest quality. Say goodbye to 8bit color If you have the demo then you have a piece of history. The Sneak Peek Demo was programmed in 8bit color. That's what Dragon Fire used to look like. Dragon Fire is now being programmed in 16bit color. Featuring real time colored lighting that allows the character to reflect the glow of a blazing torch or a lighted window as he passes in the night, and real time colored environmental lighting for special effects. And, with 16bit color you'll see special effects that are unlike anything seen in a game before this! How will the change to 16bit effect the minimum requirements? I thought you would never ask! We're working on various 'routines' that we hope will boost performance. At this time, however, an upgrade of the minimum requirements may prove to be necessary. Does the change to 16bit mean 3D cards will be required? No. In fact, our support for 3D accelerated video cards hasn't changed. A 3d accelerator card is not required but for those of you that do have a card, it won't hurt either. We support them but are not enhanced by them. Has a solution been found for the CD-ROM Drives that fail to read the Sneak Peek Demo? We still refer folks to the manufacturer of their CD-ROM Drive for any driver updates or upgrades to Drives that can read multi-session CD's. Thanks to the demo we at least have an early heads up to the problem and can anticipate it better for the full product. Unfortunately, Sierra's policy does not allow us to support demos, so once it's done it's a done deal and we move on. The feedback we have received from the demo is helping us to overcome any show stopping obstacles early and allowing us to fine tune many other aspects of the game and it's interface. What's up with Beta Testing? The letters we have received from Questers desperately seeking to beta test Dragon Fire has been overwhelming. I have my own personal 'private' list that I have been compiling from the F.A.C.S. members ever since I took over QA on Dragon Fire (Almost a year now!). And, well, need I say more? The F.A.C.S. members come first! Most of you are painfully aware that I've been saying, "I'll keep you posted" for a long time now. Referring back to our top story, Dragon Fire will enter the QA phase on June 1. It will be during the QA phase that any beta testing will take place. Of course, all the formalities such as legal forms, etc. must be completed before beta testing can begin. So, again, I'll keep you posted. Server problems are still preventing the Sneak Peek Demo download A 43 meg version of the Sneak Peek demo will be made available for download any time now...at either http://www.sierra.com/titles/qg5 or http://www.qg5.com By the time you receive this newsletter the problem most likely will be resolved and you may already be experiencing our Sneak Peek at Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire. What's the difference between the Sneak Peek DL (downloadable) Demo and the Sneak Peek demo that is available for sale with the Dragon Fire Soundtrack and the Quest for Glory Collection? About 43 meg or so. We converted the sound files from 22k, 16bit to 11k, 16bit and removed the Red Book audio tracks. Otherwise, there is no difference.
X Marks Gaming Madness Contest
Quest for Glory came in a strong third (out of the 35 titles showcased) within the Software category in the February X Marks Gaming Madness Contest. GameSpot plans another contest in April where we hope you will once again pursue your Quest for Glory.
TalkCity chat with Lori Cole and Chance Thomas a success
The chat we held on Saturday, February 21 with Lori Cole and Chance Thomas was a huge success. Questers want another chance to chat with Lori and we're gonna give it to you. Stay tuned for further developments on this late breaking story.
Well, that's about it for this edition of the Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to email them to feedback@qg5.com.
Thank you for being a member of our F.A.C.S. newsletter, and we'll catch you in a few weeks with some more info on Dragon Fire.
Until next time,
Robin Bradley
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