Freddy Pharkas Series

lenicus

Since telltalegames has brought back sam and max an old favorite. I wonder if they will ever plan to bring back Freddy Pharkas. It was an old favorite of mine and i actually own a copy of Freddy Pharkas frontier pharmacist on windows cdrom that i still play from time to time.

anyone else here remember this game? if so maybe we can talk telltalegames into making a series.

AdamG

I dunno, they'd have to talk with Al Lowe and Sierra about that I guess.

Jennifer

Freddy Pharcas was one of those games that is so well made, that it stands perfectly it's own. It doesn't need a sequel.

But much like I don't want a Grim Fandango sequel for the same reason, I wouldn't mind a game in the same setting.

Armakuni

It's a great game.. I've owned the CD ROM version for years now but only in that small, ugly Sierra classics box. So I recently bought the floppy version on eBay in the big, cool box it was originally released in :cool:

I don't think this game really needs a sequel though.. in the very least, I think they'd have to get Al Lowe on the team.

Not a lot of people are aware of this game anymore either so it might be just as good to start a brand new series instead.

doom saber

I have the cdroom game of Freddy. Pretty good and those who do not know, he is voiced by Cam Clarke, who voiced the 90's TMNT leonard and he-man/prince adam in the recent he-man cartoon.

doom saber

I feel the same way with LSL Magna Cum Laude. I don't think they should make a sequel after that even if people don't like the game. I think the ending where Larry ends up with that one nerdy chick is a good ending and doesn't require another game. I mean give the guy a break. Personally, the game is hilarious and the storyline is cool.

Rasher

"Freddy, Freddy Pharkas. Peerless, Earless, and Free!" I recently replayed the game only to be reminded how much I love it! It really is a one off orginal. Maybe some kind souls give us a remake with better graphics?

I'd love it if telltale would make an orginal game in a similar setting. Is Al Emo anything like Freddy?

Telltale sould make an orignal lisence free game. Just imagine what a telltale original would be like

Guybrush_Threepwood

Great game, my favourite from Sierra, no doubt about it. Its humor could be brought to life again by Telltale but, as in every Sierra game, it was an important fact that you could die a shameful number of times.
I don't think it's in Telltale's game philosophy to make a game where you can die everytime, as I don't think Pharkas would be as funny as the original without the risk of dying.

Kaldire

Talked to al lowe himself. He said he would LOVE to do another freddy and in fact it was in the works before he and others got "the boot". Id say its HIGHLY probable that we will see another in this series... least thats what I hope. And yes I can really see telltale making it but this will be the same struggle for rights with sierra as purcell had with lucasarts im thinking. Ill have to ask al if he actually got the rights back yet or not.... hmm. Anyway look on the brightside and hope what I say comes to be.
I loved freddy :P

PS All the old sierra games made it wondrous when you died, esp the space quest series. Some of the most humorous deaths in the industry came from good ole sierra. Its a classic trademark.

doom saber

Freddy was pretty good. I was somewhat suprised that his girlfriend was really the main villain in the game. I also love how the game made fun of stereotypes in old western films such as having Freddy's sidekick being an eastern indian, the real native american guy (the one who is in front of the store) being political aware of the white man's injustice to his people, and having the chinese cook being a non stereotypical asian guy but acts like one because of the job description. Man, I love Al for adding stuff like that in his games.

From all this talk, I guess I have to dig up my old copy of the game and replay it. Fournately, I forgot most of the puzzles because of time, though I still remember the beer can opener one; I was stuck on that for years till I let my cousins borrow it and showed me where to get it.

ShaggE

Freddy Pharkas is one of the few I haven't played yet, but judging by the concensus of quality, I'll have to find a copy.

Kaldire

its actually hosted for free via a link from al lowes site. Its in rar parts and its kinda slow in connection but its free and there! Thanks to al and the uploader!

PS.. you can email the uploader nicely.. he put them on a faster ftp for me and I got em in no time. Now I dont have to touch my game boxes! oooraah!

ShaggE

Oooh, thanks!

The Commissioner

Just visited Al Lowe's site to relive the memories and listened to the Ballad of Freddy Pharkas and to this day since playing the game (CD talkie) I never knew that Al sang the song himself! How funny!

PimPamPet

It's a fun little game. It doesn't really need to have a sequel, though. Just look at what happened to Leisure Suit Larry.

MusicallyInspired

The disk version of FPFP is apparently far better than the CD-ROM version. Yes, the CD-ROM version has speech, but it also removed tons of content that was in the disk version. Also the demo of the disk version is a game that has nothing to do with the story (which is interesting) and the demo of the CD version is just the beginning of the regular story (which I dislike).

PimPamPet

Really? This is news to me! Guess I'll need to find this disk version then. :-)

MusicallyInspired

By content I mean mostly text. Like combining inventory objects with all other inventory objects. Every one had a unique message. Al decided to scrap it all for a single general response to put the file size down because of the speech. Little things like that. No huge things.

Armakuni

I dislike most old Sierra CD versions.

Kings Quest 5 is probably the one I hate the most since you can't select text while having Soundblaster sound... and the speech is *horrible*.

Space Quest 4 CD version had several issues as well.

I wish they would have included the floppy versions in their collections, would only be a few extra megs.

PimPamPet

Armakuni wrote: »

Kings Quest 5 is probably the one I hate the most since you can't select text while having Soundblaster sound... and the speech is *horrible*.

Yes, you are absolutely right. It was, I think, the first Sierra game to have voice acting so they were probably still trying to figure out all the technicalities, but it's quite unbearably bad in KQ5. The floppy version is definitely superior. The only thing about it that's annoying is the copy protection.

Brainiac

PimPamPet wrote: »

Yes, you are absolutely right. It was, I think, the first Sierra game to have voice acting so they were probably still trying to figure out all the technicalities, but it's quite unbearably bad in KQ5.

That's mostly because the voices in KQ5 were basically just whoever was around the office. Later games used actual actors (in particular, Robby Bevard as Alexander for KQ6 - he's better known as the Beast for Disney)

MusicallyInspired

There was no text in the CD version of KQ5 even if you didn't have SB sound. You absolutely NEEDED Sound Blaster to make that game work otherwise you'd just see dialogue portraits for a second or to looking nice and then disappearing as if they're speaking by telepathy lol. And yes, later Sierra CD ROM games after KQ5 were very nice. Even SQ4 wasn't so bad, even though it got the same "voice actors around the office" treatment as KQ5. Josh Mandel (King Graham) is a great voice actor, though. And as to some problems some people might have with his delivery, he mentioned once in an interview that he tried to put a little more acting into Graham's voice when some things were happening but Roberta and Ken Williams insisted that Graham ALWAYS sound buff and confident. I think that's the only thing that hurt his performance. But it's a minor thing really, all things considered. He's still the best voice actor in the game.

Don't know where that came from, just rambling I guess.

Ikzai

but I would love to see a punishingly difficult Telltale game. And hell, include difficulty options for the game.

Yes, I am a dreamer who still awaits another Space Quest. 3:

floweroftheforest

I just can't get used to the sierra interface.
I find it clunky and clumsy.
Plus any game that you can die in (no matter how humorous) I find just too annoying to play.

PimPamPet

With Sierra, it's not so much the dying that bugs me, but the dead ends in some of the earlier games. It really sucks to make it close to the end of a game, only to find that you missed something near the beginning which you absolutely need to continue.

MusicallyInspired

I never liked dying (though I never hated it. I grew up on dying adventure games not the LA ones), but I really enjoyed the many deaths of Roger Wilco in Space Quest. Nothing has ever seemed to do anything like that ever again; create a protagonist that you control that you just love to see die in so many ways. No other game makes you WANT to kill yourself just to see what happens. It's brilliant.

drunkenmonkey

If you guys have Freddy Pharkas fever, why not have a look at the game Al Emmo and the lost Dutchman's mine. I haven't gotten around to playing it, but the look of the game reminds me a lot of Freddy Pharkas.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/al-emmo-and-the-lost-dutchmans-mine

Armakuni

MusicallyInspired - what did you think of the countless dead ends in Sierra games?
I didn't mind the deaths so much, but I really didn't care for all those dead ends... a bit frustrating to get stuck and not knowing whether it's even possible to continue or if you forgot to do something earlier in the game.

Icedhope

I've been a huge sierra adventure game fan, but I will say this. No one knows frustration like typing commands.

Armakuni

Gah, can't use all caps. Ruined my 'joke'

SKA-T

I can't count the number of times I've forgotten the lodestone in Conquest's of Camelot. Nothing like getting 3/4 's of the way through a game and realize you forgot to get an item in the first 5 minutes. Especially when you've played through it before and should know better. That's when I learned about the debug mode in the old AGI interpreter to give myself the damn thing instead of starting over. Oh, and I loved that you could get your characters killed every 5 minutes. It adds a certain zest to the games. Just don't make me start the whole thing over because I forgot something.

Armakuni

I agree, too many dead ends and way too easy to run into them (in a lot of old Sierra games).

MusicallyInspired

I never minded dead ends at all really. Mostly because I never really ran into them except for the odd few where it was obvious I was in a dead end and just restored an older game. I guess I'm just really observant and leave no stone unturned. I never ran into any dead ends in Camelot the first time I played for instance. And never have since.

I don't know. I never had a problem with dead ends other than that they were just another game obstacle to overcome. Incidentally, so was typing in parser commands quickly . The upside is that my obsessive compulsiveness about checking everything I possibly could caused me to do it in every game from FPS's to TTG's own adventures. Which enabled me to find more secrets in FPSs and likewise all the funny lines written in TTG's games. So I don't regret that. I guess that's why Sierra games are still my favourite adventure memories rather than LA games. I wasn't put off by the so-called "put offs" of Sierra's adventures.

Armakuni

Well, the problem for me wasn't that I encountered them all the time (though I certainly did in some games, like Larry 2!).... the issue I had was that when I got stuck - I didn't know whether or not progress was possible or if I'd encountered a dead end.
It's this uncertainty that bugged me.

doodo!

There was more than one game?

Kaldire

for one.. PimPamPet

you say larry didnt need a sequel and look what happened? well i remember about 4 larry games that rocked ... then they degraded.. you think this new pc version is officially larry ?

LOLOLOL

as for dying in games, its sad when you DONT die in advents to me, sierra always implemented the TRY AGAIN!? method (basically prince of persia sands of time rewind) placing you just before you died.
a few exceptions in early games though, SAVE EARLY SAVE OFTEN .. was the motto.. and i liked and like it.

I love sierra far more, until parser died.. that is...

(where was that SQ2 or 3 ? something with the energizer bunny XD)

i solidly VOTE for a second pharkus, and like I said earlier in the thread, Al claims he would LOOOOVE to do another one.

Now who is down for gold rush 2 (the legend of curlys gold)
DOh!

MusicallyInspired

Kaldire wrote: »

LOLOLOL

Laughing out loud out loud out loud?

as for dying in games, its sad when you DONT die in advents to me, sierra always implemented the TRY AGAIN!? method (basically prince of persia sands of time rewind) placing you just before you died.
a few exceptions in early games though, SAVE EARLY SAVE OFTEN .. was the motto.. and i liked and like it.

You've never played many Sierra adventures if that's what you think. They only had the rewind-just-before-you-die feature in a very select few games. And those were only the later ones like Space Quest 6, King's Quest VII, and such. Actually, I can't even remember any other than those two. Unless one of the later Larry's did that (I never played them nor do I wish to). But you're right. I liked it that way. Seemed too easy with the rewind feature.

I'll admit it. I liked dying. Especially in Space Quest.

(where was that SQ2 or 3 ? something with the energizer bunny XD)

Space Quest IV.....or more accurately, Space Quest XII .

Kaldire

you assume i didnt play many sierra games yet I worked with roberta and ken... so yea funny..

as for the rewind n die, you do know what i mean... esp when you say it seemed to easy after that. Thats my thoughts exactally. But right now I own every sealed sierra game known other than the many varriations listed in the sierra museum from that nutty guy that has 10 copies of each :P

and yes LOLOLOLOL means more than one laugh.. like.. tons of laughing out loud
laugh out loud laugh out loud laugh out loud
Lol lol lol is that better XD with the space ?

SQ dying is one of the man fans +'s for that game, where as in kings quests esp earlier ones like 1 2 and 3 when you just walk a bit left and walla a cliff.. aahhhhh

you seem to know your sierra! just please dont assume i dont XD

EDIT: roberta told me her vision of king graham was not "BUFF" but rather she described as a true man, confident and never doubting what he said. not buff like a muscle lifter "oooo look at my pecs" thats LSL series XD



"Save Early Save Often" SESO (was an in house Oakhurst slogan until they actually put it in games!

MusicallyInspired

Kaldire wrote: »

you assume i didnt play many sierra games yet I worked with roberta and ken... so yea funny..

I'm sorry, I just never expected someone who used to work for Ken and Roberta to have such...eloquent speech.

as for the rewind n die, you do know what i mean... esp when you say it seemed to easy after that. Thats my thoughts exactally. But right now I own every sealed sierra game known other than the many varriations listed in the sierra museum from that nutty guy that has 10 copies of each :P

Yeah, but you said only a few of the earlier games made you save and restore...when in fact ALL of them make you do that. There was barely any Sierra games that had the rewind feature.

and yes LOLOLOLOL means more than one laugh.. like.. tons of laughing out loud
laugh out loud laugh out loud laugh out loud
Lol lol lol is that better XD with the space ?

Whatever floats your boat.

you seem to know your sierra! just please dont assume i dont XD

I'm not assuming anything. Just correcting you.

EDIT: roberta told me her vision of king graham was not "BUFF" but rather she described as a true man, confident and never doubting what he said. not buff like a muscle lifter "oooo look at my pecs" thats LSL series XD

I never meant buff as in physically, I meant in the confident way. But I'm just going by what Josh Mandel said. I don't know anything for myself like apparently you do.

Kaldire

oh i see from an interview, buff as in confident? odd way of putting it lol

and was the first thing you said an insult?

MusicallyInspired wrote: »

I'm sorry, I just never expected someone who used to work for Ken and Roberta to have such...eloquent speech.

you even italicized the USED to .. as if anyone still does work for them, currently they practically live on kens boat :P happy as hell just writing. (not games)

ken was a god to me hacker wise too btw.. if you dont know much about him.. he was a demi god (sorta like captain crunch to me.. an idol)

AND I never said WHAT i did with ken and roberta.. lol assumptions can lead astray.
coulda cleaned the office or gotten the coffee...
which i did.. a lot of ..
as im sure jake and some of the others prolly do too.. (jake cracks whip as in house testers are forced to clean) ROOOOWW ROOOWWW!

MusicallyInspired

No no. Not an insult. Just describing my surprise is all.

Interesting.