O’Reilly: FreeSCI: Rebuilding Sierra’s Classic Quests

“In the mid- to late 1980s, game developer Sierra On-Line (known
today as Sierra Entertainment) was renowned for its adventure
titles. These games typically featured animated characters moving
against static background images (such as a castle or space
station). The player interacted with the on-screen characters with
the keyboard or, in later titles, the mouse. This gameplay mechanic
was formulaic, but the company cranked out blockbuster hits like
King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, all of which
spawned numerous sequels.

“Sierra On-Line built these and other games upon its own SCI
(‘SCript Interpreter’ or ‘Sierra Creative Interpreter’) engine.
Each game was comprised of scripts, graphics, and sound files that
were compiled and controlled by SCI.

“For the past few years, programming-capable adventure fans have
been developing FreeSCI, an open source SCI clone. Their goals are
to port SCI games to other platforms, to add new features to the
original games, to provide an engine upon which other hobbyists can
create new Sierra-style games, and simply to have fun…”

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