Hoyle's Official Book of Games

Hoyle's Official Book of Games is a series of games produced by Sierra Entertainment. Volume 1, released in 1989, featured multi-player card games. Volume 2, released in 1990, featured 28 varieties of Solitaire. Volume 3, released in 1992, featured board games. Volume 4, was a remake of Volume 1, with two additional games.

Volume 1

Hoyle's Official Book of Games: Volume 1
Developer(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Atari ST
Release date(s)	NA 1989
Genre(s)	Card game
Mode(s)	Single player

Hoyle's Official Book of Games: Volume 1 was the first card game simulator series released by Sierra entertainment. The series owes its name to Edmond Hoyle.

The Hoyle trademark and facecards were used under license from Brown & Bigelow Inc.

Games

The games included are: Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Hearts, Gin Rummy, Cribbage and Klondike.

Characters

For all games, except the last, the player could choose opponents, each having their own AI and manner of playing. These opponents included historical figures, members of Sierra staff, and characters from Sierra games.

When the player took too long making a decision, the characters started having dialogues, each according to his background. For example, Leisure Suit Larry begins to comment about women, while Roger Wilco wants to escape the game to save the universe again.

"More serious players"

• The Kid
• Warren Schwader (programmer)
• Diane
• Thelma
• Sol Silverman
• Colonel Henri Dijon
• Lenny
• Shelly LeBlanc
• Sonny Bonds

"Not so serious players"

• Larry Laffer
• Bulldog
• Devin (son of the animator)
• Jerry Moore (Sierra animator)
• King Graham
• Cassie
• Roger Wilco
• Rosella
• Christina (programmer's daughter)

Development

The original concept was submitted to Ken Williams (CEO/Founder of Sierra On-line) by Warren Schwader. Once the project was greenlit, Warren acted as the Lead Programmer as well as the Game Designer. The games were programmed using Sierra On-line's proprietary scripting language: Sierra Creative Interpreter (SCI). SCI was originally created to aid in the development of Sierra's core line of adventure games. Working with SCI to implement card games and to code artificial intelligence for the characters proved challenging.

Warren Schwader continued as the Lead Programmer and Game Designer for the next two games in the series.

Volume 2

Hoyle's Official Book of Games: Volume 2
Developer(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Atari ST
Release date(s)	NA 1990
Genre(s)	Card game
Mode(s)	Single player

Hoyle's Official Book of Games: Volume 2 is the next volume in the Hoyle card games simulator series by Sierra Entertainment. This time, the pack offered 28 games, as opposed to the first volume's six. The other main difference between the two was that all the games were solitaire variants, so there was no option for choosing opponents. Subsequently, the game did not feature any Sierra characters for co-players.

The 28 solitaire games offered are: Calculation, Strategy, Eagle Wing, Beleaguered Castle, Klondike, Canfield, Golf, Flower Garden, Scorpion, Spiderette, La Belle Lucie, Fortress, Baker's Dozen, Bristol, Eight Off, Shamrocks, Yukon, Eliminator, Slide, Bowling, Nestor, Aces Up, Gaps, Penguin, Pyramid, Triplets, Poker Square

Volume 3

Hoyle's Official Book of Games: Volume 3
Developer(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release date(s)	NA 1992
Genre(s)	Card game
Mode(s)	Single player

Hoyle's Official Book of Games: Volume 3 was the third volume in Sierra On-Line's series of computer games based on the officially licensed Hoyle rules and trademark. Unlike the two previous game, this one was made with Sierra's new improved VGA engine, and focused on board games, where the previous entries in the series had featured card games.

Games featured were Backgammon, Checkers, Dominoes, Yacht (a takeoff on Yahtzee), Pachisi, and Snakes and Ladders.

Characters

Like the first volume, and unlike the second volume, this game offers Sierra characters as opponents in the various games.

Good guys

• Mother Goose (Mixed-Up Mother Goose)
• King Graham (King's Quest series)
• Rosella (King's Quest series)
• Larry Laffer (Leisure Suit Larry series)
• Passionate Patti (Leisure Suit Larry series)
• Jones (Jones in the Fast Lane)
• Sonny Bonds (Police Quest series)
• Roger Wilco (Space Quest series)
• Laura Bow (The Colonel's Bequest and The Dagger of Amon Ra)

Evil guys

• Ad Avis (Quest for Glory II)
• Baba Yaga (Quest for Glory I)
• Lillian (The Colonel's Bequest)
• Arnoid (Space Quest III)
• Mordack (King's Quest V)
• Mr. Big (Leisure Suit Larry V)
• Lolotte (King's Quest IV)
• Vohaul (Space Quest II)
• Sheriff of Nottingham (Conquests of the Longbow)

Hoyle 4

Hoyle4, Hoyle Classic Card Games was a remake of Volume I, released with VGA support, speech and original soundtrack. There was a set with 'Classic Characters' to play with and one with an increased number of Sierra characters as well. Load screens involve a silly comments made by the Classic characters, in relationship to whatever game was loading. The number of games was increased to eight, with the inclusion of Contract Bridge and Euchre.

Classic characters:

• Dinky
• Scout
• Crazy Jack
• Trudy
• Josephine
• Billy Joe
• Chip
• Winthorp
• Fairbanks

Sierra characters:

• King Graham
• Pepper
• Willy Beamish
• Larry Laffer
• Quarky
• Laura Bow
• Adam
• Roger Wilco
• Dr. Brain.