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(Like we don't already know who'll win this!)

I felt like posting up another poll, and vaguely remembered Collector mentioning we should do one for the narrators a while back. So I did a little research and tracked down as many Sierra narrators as I could find. Turns out there weren't very many. I ended up chopping down the list a little to exclude any narrator who only had a bit part, and to be honest, I may have missed some games (it's hard enough just finding out which games had talkie versions, let alone narrators - and even harder finding samples for any of them.)

So these are the confirmed few who made the cut! As per the last few polls, just cast your vote, and I'll tally them up in a week for the next round. Ties are broken by excluding the tie-causing vote of the last person who voted, so get yours in early.

Also, be sure to let me know if I missed any major narrators. I can always throw them into the bonus rounds.

The eight are:

1. Neil Ross (LSL6 + 7, Freddy Pharkas) vs. Mary O'Cleary (EQ1)
2. Gary Owens - (SQ4 + 6) vs. Virginia Capers (GK1)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4) vs. Leslie Wilson (LSL2)
4. Art Lewicki (KQ5) vs. Bill Ratner (KQ6)

and a bonus round!

Bonus: Amy Kurylo (The Silver Lining) vs. John Bell (KQ2 Remake)

1. Neil Ross (LSL6 + 7, Freddy Pharkas)
2. Gary Owens - (SQ4 + 6)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4)
4. Bill Ratner (KQ6)

Bonus: John Bell (KQ2 Remake)

John Bell also narrated KQ1VGA and the upcoming KQ3Redux. And Al Emmo as well, if that counts.

1- Neil Ross
2- Gary Owens
3- John Rhys-Davies
4- Bill Ratner

Bonus- John Bell


Great idea for a contest!

I love when you come up with these!

Datadog wrote: The eight are:
1. Neil Ross (LSL6 + 7, Freddy Pharkas) vs. Mary O'Cleary (EQ1)
2. Gary Owens - (SQ4 + 6) vs. Virginia Capers (GK1)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4) vs. Leslie Wilson (LSL2)
4. Art Lewicki (KQ5) vs. Bill Ratner (KQ6)
and a bonus round!
Bonus: Amy Kurylo (The Silver Lining) vs. John Bell (KQ2 Remake)

1. Neil Ross
2. Gary Owens
3. John Rhys-Davies
4. ... Hrm... Bill Ratner.

Bonus: John Bell

1. Neil Ross (LSL6 + 7, Freddy Pharkas)
2. Gary Owens - (SQ4 + 6)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4)
4. Bill Ratner (KQ6)
B: Amy Kurylo (The Silver Lining)

^^

1. Neil Ross (LSL6 + 7, Freddy Pharkas)
2. Gary Owens - (SQ4 + 6)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4)
Was there a narrator in LSL2?
4. Bill Ratner (KQ6)

John Bell

There wasn't any narration in SQ4 or SQ6. (Not that I heard). So...

2. Virginia Capers (GK1)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4)

Those are the only two narrators I ever heard...

(P.S. There was narration in LSL2??? Really?)

1. Neil Ross
2. Virginia Capers
3. John Rhys-Davies
4. Bill Ratner

1. Neil Ross
2. Gary Owens
3. John Rhys-Davies
4. Bill Ratner

Bonus: John Bell

Rath Darkblade wrote:There wasn't any narration in SQ4 or SQ6. (Not that I heard). So...

2. Virginia Capers (GK1)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4)

Those are the only two narrators I ever heard...

(P.S. There was narration in LSL2??? Really?)

While I don't know of any narration for LSL2 (as in, Leisure Suit Larry Looks for Love in All the Wrong Places), there was indeed a narrator in SQ4 and SQ6... but only if you were playing the CD "talkie" version of those games and not the disk-based version (much in the same way that QG4 only had John Rhys-Davies as the narrator in the CD "talkie" version and not the disk-based version).

And, you also had to have a sound card that played nice with the audio drivers (not to be confused with music drivers) that Sierra packed into their games. My first sound card was a Sound Blaster 2.0 card, and just about every Sierra game that made use of an audio driver refused to play nice with that card. Oh I got music no problem... but that accursed AUDBLAST.DRV just wouldn't cut me any slack and as a result, I got the dreaded "Unable to initialize your audio hardware" box whenever I started up a Sierra game. It wasn't until I got a Sound Blaster Pro that I was able to enjoy the Sierra "talkie" games to their fullest (or any other Sierra game that had DAC-compressed sound effects).

EDIT: I did some poking around on MobyGames and the only two games that Leslie Wilson is credited with (both were voice acting gigs) is Hoyle Classic Card Games and The Dagger of Amon-Ra (Laura Bow 2)

That's my bad. I wrote LSL2 instead LB2 (Laura Bow 2.) Leslie Wilson voices both Laura and the Narrator in that game.

And how couldn't you hear the narration in SQ6? I thought that one was always a talkie.

Oh, and my votes:
1. Neil Ross
2. Gary Owens
3. John Rhys-Davies
4. Bill Ratner

Why, oh why doesn't Virginia Capers get more recognition for her stunning job on Sins of the Fathers?

Come on, Gabriel Knight fans! Gabriel, Grace and the Black Wolf won the previous tournaments! We must win this one too!

John Rhys-Davies who?

Rath Darkblade wrote:There wasn't any narration in SQ4 or SQ6. (Not that I heard). So...

2. Virginia Capers (GK1)
3. John Rhys-Davies (QFG4)

Those are the only two narrators I ever heard...

You don't know Gary Owens? Did you only play the floppy version of 4?

Datadog wrote:(Like we don't already know who'll win this!)

Is there any doubt that the final round will be Gary Owens and John Rhys-Davies?

JOHN RHYS DAVIES WHO????????

Sorry, John Rhys Davies is the MAN and has an excellent speaking voice.

AndreaDraco wrote:Why, oh why doesn't Virginia Capers get more recognition for her stunning job on Sins of the Fathers?
Come on, Gabriel Knight fans! Gabriel, Grace and the Black Wolf won the previous tournaments! We must win this one too!

Now see, I liked the talkie version of GK1... but more often than not, I turned it off for GK1 and just read the text myself. Which is probably one of the few games where I have done that. Not that I didn't enjoy her voice or didn't think she did a good job; it's just I thought the first GK was so intense, that I found her voice disrupting my "plunging into the game" portion. So it was much better for it to be quiet, and me read the description and just let myself be the one to narrate how I thought it'd sound.

I don't think suspenseful games do well with Narrators (for me).