===Background===
'''Sierra''' iswas a legendarymajor 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 mostbest known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including their first such game, ''Mystery House'', which was released in 1980 for the Apple II. TheIn 1982, the company wouldmoved becometo Oakhurst, California and was renamed to '''Sierra On-Line'''; inthis 1982name andchange was inspired by the near '''Sierra Entertainment''' inNevada mountain 2002range, a part of which iswas theincorporated company'sinto currenttheir iconic logo as identitywell.
In the late 90's, Sierra passed through a series of acquisitions (by CUC International, then Cendant, which was purchased by Havas). In 19991998-99, suffering from financial troubles after its founders left the company, Sierra announced an internal restructuring and major layoffs, which included the division of its operations into five separate brands, and some of its sub-studios to be closed. A year later, Havas became a part of Vivendi and was renamed as Vivendi Universal Publishing; '''Sierra Entertainment''' (as it was known by then) was formally disestablished as a company afterwards 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.
==On-Line Systems==
'''Logo:''' On a black background, there is a white line going into a circle. Inside the circle is a white/{{color|purple}} outline of a mountain face, with {{color|green}} trees below it. To the right of it is "Sierra" in a small script font and "'''''ON-LINE INC'''''".
'''Trivia:''' The mountain seen in this logo is based off Half Dome in the Yosemite National Park, which is located about 14 miles north of Sierra's headquarters in Oakhurst.
'''Variants:'''
'''Availability:''' Extremely rare. Seen on their first titles, like ''Mystery House''. It was also used in tandem with the next logo.
==Sierra On-Line==
'''Availability:''' Very common. Can be seen on most of Sierra's games from the time, most notably the ''King's Quest'' series.
'''Legacy:''' This logo is well-regarded in the PC gaming community for its presence on many classic titles.
===2nd Logo (1995-1997)===
'''Nicknames:''' "The Sierra Mountain III", "Animated Sierra Mountain"
'''Logo:''' Starting off with Half Dome at the Yosemite National Park with clouds rolling above, they move around as thunder lights them up in the back. The camera then zooms in at Half Dome, now with thunder striking it, before it brightens up and a {{color|gold}} 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. TheHalf mountainDome becomes {{color|gold}} and the rainbow hits it, turning it into a shining {{color|gold|golden}} Sierra logo. "{{font|Times New RomanSerif|{{color|gold|SIERRA}}}}" zooms in from the screen as the light behind it dies down, before popping up again. The logo continues to shine.
'''Variant:''' On a 1995 installerinstallers, the logo appears still. This is likely the very first version of this logo. An abridged version of the standard Sierra tune plays.
'''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:''' The still version appears on installers for Sierra games at the time, around circa 1995. The animated version is only known to appear on the ''Space Quest Collection Series'' installer.
'''Legacy:''' A fantastic and impressive logo for theits time that was sadly wasted, having seemingly only been used on a game installerinstallers and not any actual titles.
'''Final Note:''' In 1998, Sierra On-Line split their publishing operarions into five different brands and sub-labels - [[Sierra Attractions]], Sierra Home (which was previously used beforehand), [[Sierra Sports]], [[Sierra FX]] and [[Sierra Studios]]. It wouldn't be until 2001 when all of them (except for Sierra Home) would be under one brand again.
===3rd Logo (August 21, 2001-October 4, 2002)===
'''Variant:'''
*On the GOTY Edition of ''The Operative: No One Lives Forever'' and the PS2 port of the same game, the logo is cropped to widescreen.
*On the GOTY Edition of ''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'', the GOTY Edition of ''SWAT 3: Tactical GOTY Edition'' and both the GOTY Edition (PC )/PS2 versions of ''The Operative: No One Lives Forever''. ▼
'''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''.
==Sierra Entertainment==
===1st Logo (February 14, 2002-November 21, 2008)===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
Sierra Entertainment 22.jpg|Standard Mountainmountain
Sierra Entertainment 23.jpg|Full widescreen version
Sierra Entertainment 25.jpg|Logo
*On the NDS version of ''Ice Age 2: The Meltdown'', the still logo is on a {{color|royalblue|royal blue}} background.
*Starting in 2006, the logo plays in warp speed and appears in true widescreen.
** However, in some cases, like on ''Ceasar IV'' and on ''The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning'' (when set to fullscreen), the logo is cropped, like the original slower version of the logo.
'''FX/SFX:''' Excellent CGI animation.
'''Availability:''' Very common. While the company was merged into Vivendi Universal Games in 2004, this logo was still used until 2008 as a publishing label.
* PC-only titles:
** The first title to use this logo overall was ''NASCAR Racing 2002 Season'', which used the tribal-style track. The first game to use the standard music track was ''Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza''.
** It has appeared in many PC titles including ''Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom'' (Mattedmatted), ''No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way'', ''NASCAR Racing 2003 Season'' (with the Tribaltribal track), ''The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring'' (with the opening theme), ''SWAT 4'', ''Empire Earth II'', ''F.E.A.R.'', ''Joint Task Force'', among others.
*** ''Contract J.A.C.K.'', ''Homeworld 2'' and ''Ground Control II: Operation Exodus'' all pair this logo with the [[Vivendi Games|Vivendi Universal Games]] logo, where the latter logo appears before the Sierra logo.
** It was not used on either retail release of ''Counter-Strike: Condition Zero'' or ''Half-Life 2'', even though the print logo was present on the packaging. The former game has no opening logos at all, and the latter only has Valve's logo.
** The Sierra Home variant was seen on Sierra published software from 2002-2004.
** The last PC game to use the standard version (and overall) was ''Empire Earth III''.
** The later shorter version was first used on ''Ceasar IV'' for PC and is the only PC-only title to use it (the other one, ''Empire Earth III'', uses the full logo), with the other Sierra PC titles also being available on consoles as well.
* Console/Handheld titles:
** The first console games to use the logo were ''Die Hard: Vendetta'' for the GameCube (Thethe PAL release, which was also on the PlayStation 2PS2 and Xbox, uses the [[NDA Productions]] logo) and ''James Cameron's Dark Angel'' for PlayStation 2PS2 and Xbox (which was the logo's console debut in PAL regions). Other console titles that had it were ''Spyro: A Hero's Tail'' (PAL PlayStation 2PS2 and all Xbox versions, Thethe NTSC PS2 and all GCN versions use the Vivendi Universal Games logo), ''Cold Winter'' (PlayStation 2PS2), ''The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox) ''Crash Tag Team Racing'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox/PSP), ''Ice Age 2: The Meltdown'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox/Wii), and ''Miami Vice: The Game'' (PSP). The last console/handheld game to use the standard version was ''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' for PSP, which used the matted version.
*** As with some PC titles, the European version of ''Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox/PC), ''The Hobbit'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox/PC, used tribal theme), ''Metal Arms: Glitch in the System'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox) , ''Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Xbox/PC), ''Robots'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox/PC), and ''Predator: Concrete Jungle'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Xbox) all pair this logo with the Vivendi Universal Games logo. However they are paired differently. The former three titles pair it with the last VU Games logo, while the latter two titles pair it with the third VU Games logo, and have it appear before rather than after.
** Many European VU Games titles use Sierra logos on the packaging, but in-game, only the Vivendi Universal Games logo appears.
** ''SWAT: Global Strike Team'' also uses the Sierra logo on the packaging in all regions, but in-game, only Vivendi Universal Games' logo appears.
** The shorter version appears on ''Scarface: The World is Yours'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Xbox/PC/Wii), ''Scarface: Money. Power. Respect.'' (PSP), the console ports of ''F.E.A.R.'' (Xbox 360/PlayStation 3PS3), ''Eragon'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Xbox/Xbox 360/PC), ''The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning'' (PlayStation 2PS2/GameCube/Xbox), ''M.A.C.H. Modified Air Combat Heroes'' (PSP), ''TimeShift'' (PlayStation 3PS3/Xbox 360/PC), ''Crash of the Titans'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Wii/Xbox 360/PSP), ''The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Wii), ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Wii/Xbox 360/PC), ''Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy'' (PlayStation 3PS3/Xbox 360), ''Crash: Mind Over Mutant'' (PlayStation 2PS2/Wii/Xbox 360/PSP) and ''The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon'' (PlayStation 2PS2/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Wii) (the latter two of which have [[Activision Publishing|Activision]]'s logo on US boxes but this logo at the start - PAL copies have the Sierra logo on the boxes).
** The still version appears on a small selection of titles, such as ''Tribes: Arial Assault'', ''Tribes: Vengeance'' ''Geometry Wars: Galaxies'', and ''The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor''.
*** This version is more common on GBA and DS titles, appearing on releases such as ''Ice Age 2: The Meltdown'', ''Eragon'', and ''Crash of the Titans'', to name a few. Don't expect it to appear on ''Robots'' for GBA and DS (despite appearing on the box art and label), as it uses the Vivendi Universal Games logo on its own unlike the GCN/PC/PS2/Xbox versions.
===2nd Logo (July 30, 2014-)===
'''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.
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