Sierra Magazines
On one of the window shelves of Ali’s bookstore, he keeps a small collection of Sierra game magazines for visitors to flip through and read. For many years, Sierra had published a game magazine that focused exclusively on Sierra games. The issues were filled with reviews, articles, hints, tips, screenshots, interviews, photographs, polls, letters, etc. just for Sierra game fans. Over the years, the issues have undergone several name changes as well as format and design changes.
Sierra started publishing newsletters starting in 1981 under On-Line Systems. The newsletter was called “The On-Line Letter” with the first issue published in June 1981, just one year after the company was formed. The cover of the 20-page newsletter showed an image of Cranston Manor as an upcoming game. It contained several photographs of early microcomputer software pioneers attending the May 16, 1981 On-Line Dinner/Dance: Mr. and Mrs. Al Remers of California Pacific Computers, Vivian of Rainbow Computers and Ken, Roberta, Dave, and John Williams of On-Line Systems, Randy Hyde of Lazer Micro, and Phil Knopp of Sirius Software among others.
After On-Line Systems became Sierra, The “Sierra Online Newsletter” was published in the mid to late 1980s. It started out in a grayscale news gazette format and later went to full color. In 1989, Sierra changed the title to “The Sierra News Magazine” to reflect the updated look of a colored magazine. In Fall of 1991, the premiere issue of “InterAction Magazine” was released with the modern glossy, full color pages of most of today’s magazines. This new magazine format would be kept for around eight years. Sadly, in early 1999, Sierra canceled “InterAction Magazine” as part of its restructuring process. Many Sierra game fans could find a magazine subscription form in their game boxes. After filling it out and mailing it off, many fans were entitled to some free issues of Sierra’s magazines. Below is an image preview of some of the Sierra newsletter and magazine covers.