Sierra Entertainment

Background
Sierra is a legendary PC game developer and publisher, most famous for the King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry series. It was founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams as On-Line Systems. The company is most known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including their first such game, Mystery House, which was released in 1980 for the Apple II. The company would become Sierra On-Line in 1982 and Sierra Entertainment in 2002, which is the company's current identity.

In the late 90's, Sierra passed through a series of acquisitions (by CUC International, then Cendant, which was purchased by Havas). In 1999, suffering from financial troubles after its founders left the company, Sierra announced major layoffs, which included some of its sub-studios to be closed. A year later, Havas became a part of Vivendi and was renamed Vivendi Universal Publishing; Sierra formally disestablished as a company and continued on as a game publishing brand of Vivendi. In 2008, Vivendi Games merged with Activision Publishing to form Activision Blizzard, who then closed Sierra Entertainment. Despite the original studio's closure, the brand itself was revived in 2014 to re-release former Sierra games and some independently developed games.

(1980-1985)
Nicknames: "The Sierra Mountain", "Primitive Mountain"

Logo: On a black background, there is a white line going into a circle. Inside the circle is a white/ outline of a mountain face, with trees below it. To the right of it is "Sierra" in a small script font and "ON-LINE INC".

Variants:
 * On their first title, the logo is in the middle of the title screen.
 * On the PC port of Wizard and the Princess, the logo draws in on a background. Here, the mountain is fully colored and the line and text are.
 * The line and mountain may not be seen.
 * On later games, the On-Line Systems logo (which is the same except the mountain is gone and the text reads as "ON-LINE systems") appears in a slash formation with 5 other copies. Each of them have "Presents" below them.

FX/SFX: The shining and the 2 stars, usually.

Music/Sounds: Silent or the opening theme to the game.

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen on their first titles, like Mystery House. It was also used in tandem with the next logo.

Editor's Note: None.

1st Logo (1982-1997)
Nickname: "The Sierra Mountain II"

Logo: On a black background, a segmented circle is seen with the same mountain face as before, but represented by contrasting segmented lines. Below it is "SIERRA" in Helvetica.

Variants:
 * Usually, the logo would take up the entire screen, with beveled edges and a shiny look to it. 2 stars ping in time with the music, as well as it occasionally shining. The color differs from game to game, but it's mostly.
 * On some games, the logo is on a background, with each piece sliding in one by one. The name then appears below letter-by-letter, as well as "PRESENTS".
 * Sometimes, the logo starts with the picture of an actual mountain before morphing to the logo, with the name brightening below.
 * Later on, the text was modified to a Times New Roman font, and the logo is smaller and placed to the right sometimes.
 * On other games, a furry monster walks in with either the Dynamix logo or byline, before pointing at the logo and saying the name.
 * On the last games, the logo gained a metallic look to it, as well as the Dynamix logo.

FX/SFX: Depends on the game.

Music/Sounds: Starting in 1991, a majestic fanfare with strings which ascend, followed by a 4-note trumpet, and two dings when the stars appear. Other than that, it's silent, or a different fanfare, or the opening music of the game.

Availability: Very common. Can be seen on most of Sierra's games from the time, most notably the King's Quest series.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1997)
Nicknames: "The Sierra Mountain III", "Animated Sierra Mountain"

Logo: Starting off at a dark mountain with clouds rolling above, they move around as thunder lights them up in the back. The camera then zooms in at the mountain, now with thunder striking it, before it brightens up and a circle zooms out slowly to surround it. A duller circle then stops around it, with the second one coming in and with a rainbow coming in from the side. The mountain becomes and the rainbow hits it, turning it into a shining golden Sierra logo. "Times New Roman" zooms in from the screen as the light behind it dies down, before popping up again. The logo continues to shine.

FX/SFX: The thunder, the circle and rainbow, the shine. Very impressive animation, looking beautiful even under the limits of CD-ROM technology.

Music/Sounds: Some dark flutes playing and thunder sounds, ending in a proud orchestral fanfare.

Availability: Appears on the Space Quest Collection Series installer.

Editor's Note: A fantastic and impressive logo for the time that was sadly wasted, having seemingly only been used on a game installer and not any actual titles.

3rd Logo (as Sierra FX) (July 11-December 7, 1998)
Nicknames: "Flying Letters", "The Winged S"

Logo: On a black background, a light shines as the letters of the previous logo swirl around inside it. As they get closer together, the light brightens before forming a glare. The Sierra FX logo, which is the 1998 Sierra logo with spikes and "FX" in a black connected font with a  glow, appears as a light passes behind it.

FX/SFX: The fragments flying and shining.

Music/Sounds: A mystic synth tune with a strange flute when the logo appears.

Availability: Only seen on 2 Yosemite Entertainment games, which were Police Quest: SWAT 2 and Quest for Glory V.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (as Sierra Studios) (September 30, 1998-June 22, 2001)
Nicknames: "Constructed Sierra", "The Winged S II"

Logo: On a rotating starry background, wireframes of the 1998 Sierra logo ("SIERRA" in a strange font with a "wing" on the "S" made from spikes) zoom out and spin into place, along with "STUDIOS". A ring also takes its place surrounding the "S". Then, metal shards cover the logo, turning it. The logo (the bar, the "STUDIOS" text and the ring) turns and proceeds to shine brightly, ending with the ring giving off a gleam.

Variant: A short version exists, with the logo closer to the screen and only having the ring shine. It also only has sounds of the ring shining.

FX/SFX: The logo forming.

Music/Sounds: A deep synth note and several whooshes, ending with sparkles and a dark bell tune.

Availability: Uncommon.
 * Appears on Sierra published games from the era. The most well-known game with this logo is Half-Life.
 * Other games include Lords of Magic, Team Fortress Classic, Counter Strike, Ground Control, SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle (Original and Elite Editions only), King's Quest: Mask of Eternity and Homeworld Cataclysm.
 * The shortened version appeared on Caesar 3.
 * None of the Steam releases of Valve games from this era will have this logo.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (August 21, 2001-October 4, 2002)
Nickname: "The Winged S III"

Logo: On a black background, the Sierra logo in a pinkish zooms out letter-by-letter, starting with the "A". The logo also shines brightly the entire time.

Variant: On SWAT 3: Tactical GOTY Edition, a copyright date appears below.

FX/SFX: The letters flying and shining.

Music/Sounds: Several sharp flying sounds, then a small whoosh sound.

Availability: Rare due to its short lifespan. Seen on Arcanum, Alien vs Predator 2, The Throne of Darkness, Empire Earth, SWAT 3: Tactical GOTY Edition and both the GOTY PC/PS2 versions of The Operative: No One Lives Forever.

Editor's Note: None.

1st Logo (September 23, 2002-November 21, 2008)
Nicknames: "The Sierra Mountain IV", "CGI Sierra Mountain"

Logo: On a white background, we see the bottom of a snowy mountain. As the white clears to reveal a sky, it reveals the familiar mountain with snow and mist all around the reddish rock. As it zooms out, the background fades to black and the mountain fades to the logo, which is a modified version of the familiar mountain still moving in it. When it stops moving, a flurry of snow comes from the corner and takes the logo with it. It then clears out, with the logo fading back in, along with a modified version of the "SIERRA" text from before (minus the wing).

Variants:
 * Software released under the Sierra Home label had this logo with the word "Home" in a cursive font. This print variant was used until 2004, when the Sierra Home label was discontinued.
 * A still version exists, with the mountain and text in.
 * A white-background still version is used on Tribes: Vengeance.
 * On the GBA version of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, it's a still logo over an icy blue background.
 * On the NDS version of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, the still logo is on a royal blue background.
 * Starting in 2006, the logo plays in warp-speed.
 * The logo exists in 4:3, matted widescreen, and true widescreen variants. However, though the true widescreen version exists for the warp-speed version, it is unknown if it exists for the original version.

FX/SFX: Excellent CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A flute piece, transitioning into a techno beat that grows louder into an orchestral hit, and then a whoosh when the snowflake cloud appears. None or the opening theme of the game for the still variants.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * The 2006 warp-speed variant uses a condensed version of the soundtrack.
 * There is a version with a tribal-style remixed soundtrack.

Availability: Very common. While the company was merged into Vivendi Games in 2004, this logo was still used until 2008 as a publishing label.
 * The original version can be seen on F.E.A.R, the console and PSP versions of Eragon, SWAT 4, Ground Control 2, the console and PC versions of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, Caesar IV, the international and Xbox versions of Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Robots, and Crash Tag Team Racing, among others.
 * It was often accompanied by the Vivendi Universal Games logo, as seen on the aforementioned Robots.
 * The later shorter version appears on The Legend of Spyro trilogy, Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Sacrifice: The World is Yours, TimeShift and other games from that era.
 * The Sierra Home variant was seen on Sierra published software from 2002-2004.
 * The GBA and NDS ports of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, Eragon, and Crash of the Titans use the still version.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (July 30, 2014-)
Nicknames: "The Sierra Mountain V", "New Sierra Mountain", "CGI Sierra Mountain II", "The Hiker", "The Activision Mountain"

Logo: We see wind blow against a white background as a man clothed in hiking gear, shielding his eyes with his left arm, comes into view. As the wind dies down, we see the Sierra mountain, and the hiker pauses to view it for a moment before running up to it. The camera zooms out, revealing that the hiker animation comes from a series of bars. They come together to form a, redesigned version of the Sierra mountain logo (2002-2008 version) as "SIERRA", in a stylized font resembling the one from before, forms underneath it. When the logo is complete, it flashes and some frost blows off of it, and the background changes to vignetted black/ gradient. The small byline "©2014 Activision Publishing, Inc. SIERRA is a trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc." fades in at the bottom of the screen.

Variants:
 * A still version of the finished product appears on the bottom-left corner of the title screen for the iOS version of Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions.
 * A shorter version of the logo with only the last part of the animation and no byline appears in trailers for Sierra games. The full version without the byline was used in Shiftlings and the 2015 King's Quest reboot and on Gasket Studios' Vimeo.

FX/SFX: Impressive CGI animation that looks very realistic. Done by Minneapolis-based VFX agency Gasket Studios.

Music/Sounds: Wind blowing sounds are heard throughout the logo. Near the end, there are some whooshes and a deep "boom" (not unlike the 2001 logo) as the logo comes together.

Availability: Current. It was first revealed on Gasket Studios' Vimeo account on July 30, 2014 and officially debuted on Velocity 2X on September 2. Also seen on Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions, Shiftlings, and the 2015 King's Quest reboot.

Editor's Note: None.