Music Controls: On Off

Sierra On-Line, publisher of Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, was the most successful developer of graphic adventure games in the early years. Along with Freddy Pharkas, they were responsible for the King's Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry adventure series. Unfortunately, they had to close their doors years ago. However, even though we will never see another adventure game from Sierra, they have done us a great service over the years.

Al Lowe, co-designer of Freddy Pharkas, has an outstanding resume when it comes to adventure games. Best known for the six Leisure Suit Larry games he's designed, he got his start working on Sierra's King's Quest series. He has also designed several other adventure games for Sierra. He teamed up with Josh Mandel, a relative newcomer in the field of adventure games, to create a true classic adventure that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

To create Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, Al and Josh assembled a team of artists, programmers, and "other assorted nuts". These people mainly consisted of Ruben* Huante, Bob Gleason, Mike Pickhinke, Steve Conrad, Cindy Swafford, Phy Williams, Karin Young, Bill Shockley, and Aubrey Hodges, along with, of course, Al Lowe and Josh Mandel. Many of these names appear in the credits of such big games as Dagger of Amon Ra, Leisure Suit Larry 5, and Conquest of the Longbow.

Bob was the main artist, and among other things painted Main Street. Ruben* created 30 of the game's characters, some being Freddy, Srini, Madame Ovaree, Whittlin' Willy, and Sam Andreas. Karin led the animating team, and she's mainly responsible for the game's thousands of animation cels. Phy helped out with just about everything on the project, including animation, illustration, scanning, and touch-up. Steve led the programming team, leading Cindy and Bill to greatness. Bill was also the proud voice of several of the most notable sound effects (including "Yee Haw" and "Score!"). Aubrey composed what would become the greatest computer game music of its time. And Mike, the lead game tester, picked the game to shreds, to the point where there are very few recognizable bugs that I know of. When you add Al and Josh's great game design, it's no wonder Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist became the great wonder that it is.

* Mr. Huante's first name is spelled two different ways in the official hintbook: Ruben and Rueben. Al Lowe confirmed that the correct spelling is Ruben.

Copyright © 2000-2024 by Andrew Zitnay. All images are copyright © 1993-1995 by Sierra On-Line, Inc.