The Sierra Background Art Tournament: Round 2

[Datadog]

Welcome to Round Two! All the games that weren't present in Round One are now ready to fight! In fact, you'll now notice that the VGA and SVGA sections have actually grown in brackets, making this battle larger than the last. Obviously, the 2D-SVGA battle will be finished by next round, while the VGA battles will require a fifth.

So here we go again! You know the drill - vote!

Also: posting pictures is not required, but it is encouraged because it makes the thread look pretty.

The battles are:

Best in AGI
1. Manhunter 2 vs. King's Quest 1
2. Leisure Suit Larry 1 vs. The Black Cauldron
3. Mixed-up Mother Goose vs. Manhunter
4. Space Quest 2 vs. Gold Rush!

Best in SCI 16-Color
1. Codename Iceman vs. King's Quest 4
2. Conquests of Camelot vs. King's Quest 1 Remake
3. The Colonel's Bequest vs. Quest for Glory 2
4. Quest for Glory 1 vs. Space Quest 3

Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5 vs. Castle of Dr. Brain
2. Freddy Pharkas vs. Mixed-Up Mother Goose Remake
3. EcoQuest 1 vs. Space Quest 5
4. Leisure Suit Larry 5 vs. Space Quest 4
5. Quest for Glory 4 vs. Gabriel Knight 1
6. Pepper's Adventures in Time vs. The Dagger of Amon Ra
7. King's Quest 6 vs. Leisure Suit Larry 1 Remake
8. EcoQuest 2 vs. Quest for Glory 3

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7 vs. Leisure Suit Larry 6
2. King's Quest 7 vs. Torin's Passage

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Gabriel Knight 3 vs. Shivers
2. King's Quest 8 vs. RAMA
3. Quest for Glory 5 vs. Phantasmagoria
4. Gabriel Knight 2 vs. Phantasmagoria 2

And while I'm at it, here's some lovely art from "The Wizard and the Princess". It's a pooooiiiiisonous snake!

[AndreaDraco]

Here my votes! Sorry, but I don't really have the time to search and post screenshots!

Best in AGI
1. King's Quest 1
2. Leisure Suit Larry 1
3. Mixed-up Mother Goose
4. Gold Rush!

Best in SCI 16-Color
1. King's Quest 4
2. Conquests of Camelot
3. Quest for Glory 2
4. Quest for Glory 1

Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5
2. Freddy Pharkas
3. EcoQuest 1
4. Space Quest 4
5. Gabriel Knight 1
6. The Dagger of Amon Ra
7. King's Quest 6
8. Quest for Glory 3

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7
2. King's Quest 7

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Gabriel Knight 3
2. RAMA
3. Quest for Glory 5
4. Gabriel Knight 2

[Collector]

Best in AGI
1. King's Quest 1 - King's Quest is THE AGI game. The graphics were ground breaking at the time.
2. Leisure Suit Larry 1 - The gritty city in spite of the limitations of AGI.
3. Manhunter - See my earlier statement in the first round.
4. Space Quest 2 - Very atmospheric for an AGI game.

Best in SCI 16-Color
1. King's Quest 4 - First treat of SCI graphics.
2. King's Quest 1 Remake - A fairy tale in glorious EGA!

KQ1SCI.png (11.95 KiB) Viewed 10333 times

3. The Colonel's Bequest - See my earlier statement in the round one.
4. Quest for Glory 1 - Tossup for me.

Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5 - First to wow us with VGA graphics.
2. Freddy Pharkas - Of the two, Freddy better availed itself of the capabilities of VGA.
3. EcoQuest 1 - Again, fantastic, epic backgrounds.
4. Space Quest 4

5. Quest for Glory 4

6. The Dagger of Amon Ra - The big city!

LB2.png (40.43 KiB) Viewed 10333 times

7. King's Quest 6 - Again, KQ6 would have been great game, even in EGA, but the art is part of the reason that the game stands out.

8. EcoQuest 2

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 6 - Tossup, but LSL6' is more interesting to me
2. Torin's Passage - Magnificent hand painted BGs

Torrin.png (30.02 KiB) Viewed 10333 times

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Shivers
2. RAMA
3. Quest for Glory 5
4. Gabriel Knight 2

[Datadog]

Best in AGI
1. King's Quest 1 - The front of the castle is one of the greatest places in adventure game history.
2. The Black Cauldron - Love the stylized, colorful artwork in this one.
3. Manhunter - Same reason I like the sequel's art. It's very rich in everything.
4. Gold Rush! - Look at the details! The building cut-aways, the historical architecture, the landscapes - this is my personal pick for best of AGI, actually.



Best in SCI 16-Color
1. King's Quest 4 - What Iceman has in detail, KQ4 makes up for in atmosphere.
2. King's Quest 1 Remake - Now THAT'S an update!
3. Quest for Glory 2 - Gotta go with the Arabian motif over the Louisiana bayou.
4. Space Quest 3 - Is that Dave's space pod in the debris? Why, yes it is!



Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5 - Can't beat the original just yet.
2. Freddy Pharkas - The old west is a great setting. I'm surprised more games haven't tackled the era.
3. EcoQuest 1 - I love SQ5's art style, but I'm still hooked on EQ1's underwater world.
4. Space Quest 4 - The artwork in this games makes the universe feel enormous!
5. Quest for Glory 4 - I'm sticking with the scope of QFG4 here. GK1's settings feel more claustrophobic.
6. The Dagger of Amon Ra - Museums always make for great settings.
7. King's Quest 6 - I hope it never comes down to KQ6 vs. EQ1, I don't think I could choose.
8. Quest for Glory 3 - Monkey village!



Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Sticking with the upgrade!
2. King's Quest 7 - Torin has better animation, but KQ7 still has the better backgrounds.

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Shivers - Going with the pre-rendered museum over GK3's lo-res landscapes.
2. RAMA - I really need to play this one already. It looks great.
3. Quest for Glory 5 - P1's mansion isn't bad, but I'm sticking with QFG5's atmosphere.
4. Gabriel Knight 2 - Yep.

[Tawmis]

Best in AGI
1. Manhunter 2
- Manhunter had some pretty good graphics back then!

2. Leisure Suit Larry 1
- Difficult to beat LSL1 for me, because of the ladies. They looked pretty for graphics back then!

3. Manhunter
- Seen Manhunter 2 comment above.

4. Gold Rush!
- Sigh, I hate not giving SQ any love here; but I don't see anything beating GoldRush! in AGI...

Best in SCI 16-Color
1. Codename Iceman
- This was painful. Despite not even seeing all the graphics (as I never beat this game), just even from what I have seen, it beats out one of my all time favorite Sierra Games, KQ4.

2. King's Quest 1 Remake
- Was too beautiful seeing all those little fairy tail references getting real detail.

3. The Colonel's Bequest
- This is probably one of my favorite SCI games, ever. So it will be tough if it comes down to this vs GoldRush!

4. Space Quest 3
- Finally some SQ love!


Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5
- The paintings were just too beautiful in KQ5

2. Freddy Pharkas
- Lots of great detail and really captured the western feel.

3. Space Quest 5
- More SQ love, finally!

4. Space Quest 4
- SQ4 is one of my favorites in terms of graphics and backgrounds... So...

5. Gabriel Knight 1
- GK1 did too much of a good job capturing the mood and feel with the backgrounds.

6. The Dagger of Amon Ra

7. King's Quest 6

8. Quest for Glory 3

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7
- Sorry the cartoon look is just too good.

2. King's Quest 7 vs. Torin's Passage
- Torin's Passage; it felt more like a cartoon than KQ7's mostly side scroller.

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Gabriel Knight 3
- GK3 does a better job capturing the essence

2. RAMA
- RAMA.

3. Phantasmagoria
- This will be tough to beat for me.

4. Gabriel Knight 2
- GK2 was amazing for the graphics!

[Akril]

Best in AGI
1. Manhunter 2
2. The Black Cauldron
3. Manhunter
4. Space Quest 2

Best in SCI 16-Color
1.King's Quest 4
2. King's Quest 1 Remake
3. The Colonel's Bequest
4. Space Quest 3

Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5
2. Freddy Pharkas
3. EcoQuest 1
4. Space Quest 4
5. Gabriel Knight 1
6. Pepper's Adventures in Time
7. King's Quest 6
8. EcoQuest 2

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7
2. King's Quest 7

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Shivers
2. RAMA
3. Phantasmagoria
4. Phantasmagoria 2

[Collector]

Hey Akril, you missed your SHP birthday greetings.

[BBP]

AGI
1 Manhunter 2
2 LSL1
3 Mixed-Up Mother Goose
4 Gold Rush!

SCI 16C
1 KQ4
2 Camelot
3 Colonel's Bequest
4 QfG1

VGA
1 Vote for KQ5 had nice variety, although CoDB had that wonderful puzzle screen.
2 Mother Goose Re-make
3 EcoQuest 1
4 LSL5
5 GK1
6 Pepper's Adventures In Time
7 KQ6
8 EQ2

Non-Realistic SVGA
1 LSL7. It was more of a unity, 6 had style clash between girls and the rest of the game.
2 Torin's Passage. Although the KQ7 forest was lush.

Photo-Realistic SVGA
1 One of the few tiers of which I know both games extremely well, the other being the LSL-battle. Shivers had its magnificent oil paintings, such as the werewolf room, the library, the subterranean world with the tar lake, the breathtaking ceilings of the planetarium... But I'll go with GK3. See the nighttime part of the game.
2 RAMA
3 Im going to vote Phantas for the awesome theatre room doors and the big head in the house.
4 Neuschwanstein battles the Bizarro Green Underworld of Phantas 2 and wins by a landslide.


Since I still love Shivers, here's a picture of the werewolf room:

[El Ravager]

Best in AGI
1. Manhunter 2.
2. Leisure Suit Larry 1.
3. Manhunter.
4. Gold Rush! Extremely versatile use of an inherently limited graphics format.

Best in SCI 16-Color
1. Codename: ICEMAN
2. Conquests of Camelot
3. Quest for Glory 2
4. Space Quest 3

Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5
2. Freddy Pharkas
3. Space Quest 5
4. Space Quest 4
5. Gabriel Knight 1 [Really tough choice, though...]
6. The Dagger of Amon Ra
7. King's Quest 6
8. Quest for Glory 3

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7
2. King's Quest 7

Best in Photo-Realistic SVGA
1. Shivers
2. RAMA
3. Quest for Glory 5
4. Gabriel Knight 2

[Datadog]

I'll be starting a new round in the next couple days. Get your votes in while you can!

[stuntology]

I'll try to post pictures next time, i just have votes for now.

1. Man hunter 2
2. Leisure suit larry 1
3. Man hunter
4. Gold rush!

1. Codename iceman
2. Kings quest 1
3. Colonel's bequest
4. Quest for glory 1

1. Kings quest 5
2. Freddy pharkas
3. Ecoquest 1
4. Space quest 4
5. Quest for glory 4
6. Dagger of Amon ra
7. Kings quest 6
8. Quest for glory 3

1. Leisure suit larry 7
2. Kings quest 7

[Datadog]

All righty - voting's over! After counting them all up and breaking one tie, we finally see an end to this round.

And the winners of Round Two are...

Best in AGI

1. Manhunter 2
2. Leisure Suit Larry 1
3. Manhunter 1
4. Gold Rush!

Best in SCI 16-Color
1. King's Quest 4
2. King's Quest 1 Remake
3. The Colonel's Bequest
4. Space Quest 3

Best in VGA
1. King's Quest 5
2. Freddy Pharkas
3. Ecoquest 1
4. Space Quest 4
5. Gabriel Knight 1
6. Laura Bow 2
7. King's Quest 6
8. Quest for Glory 3

Best in Non-Realistic SVGA
1. Leisure Suit Larry 7
2. King's Quest 7

Best in Photorealistic SVGA
1. Shivers
2. RAMA
3. Quest for Glory 5
4. Gabriel Knight 2

Next round, we'll see being the final battle between SVGA cartooniness. Until it's up, enjoy our half-time show!