Building a mansion, driving a bright red porche with no seatbelt, making deals with Jim Henson, and this isn't the peak of his career, it's just the beginning of it. This ragtag group goes on to dominate the market.
Sierra (and Dynamix) was a great company that made amazing products that inspired my journey into computers. First I had to learn how to fix my computers to run the games, then I learned how computers worked and then things went from there. Seems that Ken and Roberta built a great company culture and it is great to see they are back in the industry.
It’s so awesome how this video captures a particular moment in history. Looking back from what we know now it’s so fascinating to see what was happening then and what everyone was thinking at the time. Knowing what’s in store for their future, it’s particularly difficult to listen to the quote that Ken had at the end about their new house. The video does a good job of trying to capture how hard Ken and Roberta worked for years and how proud they were of being able to build their dream home to live in with their family. 6:54 “I think I’ve finally convinced myself this company isn’t going to fail.” If this was filmed in 1983, that means the arcade game crash was right around the corner and Sierra Online almost did fail, if it wasn’t for IBM and the birth of King Quest. But how would they have known in 1983? Boy, that must have been such a difficult time, with the threat of then losing their home just a few year later. I’m so glad it worked out. You guys deserved it. Thank you for sharing! Can’t wait to play colossal cave!
I forgot about that timing. You are right. The house became part of the problem, as well as part of the solution. We sold stock to raise the money to build the house, and then borrowed against it to keep the company from going under.
After reading Ken's book it is awesome to be able to SEE Ken and Roberta as their younger selves in the very early days of Sierra! So incredible to both read and SEE the origins of my most favorite company ever! Thank you Ken and Roberta!
❤ Awesome. I got my first computer in 1984 at age seven. Sierra games were a huge inspiration to me, and likely one of the major reasons I've been in this industry for more than 27 years.
This video perfectly captures that early 1980s corporate boomtime era. Then a year or so after this everything crashes. Again, where is my Netflix show on the Williams/Sierra? haha
Several people have approached us wanting to do a documentary. We're still trying to make up our minds. There's a lot to be said for quietly slipping back into anonymity.... - Ken W
Started self learning English by playing SQ1 in my teens in 1987 which made an incredible difference in my career path, turned me into self learner. Loved adventure games and it was super hard to get a pirated copy at the time, originals were not sold in Brazil until 1994 or later. Been lucky to get original Helicopter 3D in 1997 and PQ3 in 1991, I think, and wondered how well made and high quality it was. I still have it + some all old games from eBay as good childhood memories. Now it's time to dig in Colossal Cave!
This is so cool. I was 13 in 1983 and had a crush on Roberta. Thought she was so cute. I'm not even sure where I saw her (pre-internet). Might have been in an advertisement or maybe in the Phantasmagoria manual? I don't recall. Anyway. Always been a big fan of Roberta and Ken. What a team! Loved Sierra and all the games and I'm looking forward to getting Colossal Cave! Thanks for doing another game! Can't wait!
Ah back when men looked like men! these are the young computer nerds of the early 80s and yet they look like they could beat the shjt out of any 20yr old today. loven them beards and style.
dad brought home his compaq portable, when i fired it up it had the smell of his office at work where it lived during the week. after loading programs such as biorhythm, decathelon and night mission pinball, it was around the time when IBM was getting ready to enter the home market with the IBM PCjr. Along came the junior around christmas of 1984, within a few weeks we were already looking for a game. We found one called Wizard and the princess distributed by Calsoft in Agoura CA. Soon after playing that game I was in the local radio shack and found a sharply packaged title called King's Quest. I was instantly addicted to Sierra's stuff. The rest is history.
One of my absolute earliest memories is of playing Kings Quest 1. I am losing my goddamned mind over a new Williams game. Now that you've gotten the hang of Unity, if we could next get a spiritual successor to Kings Quest NO, wait! How about another Clara Bow mystery! Although maybe Kings Quest. KQ8 had some decent ideas, but 3D just wasn't nearly good enough at the time to convey the texture and complexity that we had grown accustomed to. Will you be doing a collector's edition of Colossal Cave or anything?
I am looking at doing a boxed version in a Sierra-style box. It will take a while to put it together though, and we're just starting that process. I'm guessing it will be at least three or four months. - Ken W
The guy shown side on in front of an IBM PC, at about 2:29 in, I'm fairly sure that is Jeff Stephenson. He was working on HomeWord for the IBM PC & PCjr in 1983, so maybe this shows him working on that.
I've been tipped off that the man in a red shirt, standing up behind two programmers at about 2:25 in, is none other than Steven Levy, author of the "Hackers" book. I've compared it with photos of Levy from that time period and I think it could well be true. If so, then this (amazingly) shows him in action interviewing programmers for his book!
"computer" is a general term. but I found it odd that in about Y2K people in Erick Oklahoma, the ones who rented my grandmother's house after she passed on, had a computer with Windows 95 loaded on and were online! I never thought in my wildest dreams(in a farming town in 1999/2000 in the middle of nowwhere, some 30 or so miles from any nearby community, near the rural boarder of texas) would be regularly using the PC as a tool for their work and play.
games like King's Quest that require some kind of attention span to complete do not exist today. For instance, I purchased King's Quest III in 1988 I was 17 or so and when I began I thought I wouldn't like it. but the potential of the game is unlocked when you draw out a few "skeleton's" in Mananan's closet. doing this requires lots of grueling coming/going from town and dying. about 12 or so game hours. then you get into what your protagonist, goes by the name "Gwydion", can REALLY do. (I won't go into that-play the damned game!). today if you can't run across the screen and shout at everyone and pretentiously "badass" around and trip switches at the call of a green arrow and be "rewarded" a hollywood movie then people are too bored and stop playing. how sad the evolution is more ethstetic and less about WHAT you do and HOW you can do it different ways! and more about attention baiting! akin give a horse in a race a carrot run it around the track he will likely follow. is that they way games should be? I think not! I miss the old days. wish they could change the graphics but keep game quality but decidedly people want a crutch, not an improvement!
That's a much younger version of ME! I don't recognize him either. I haven't seen that version of me since looking in a mirror about FOURTY (40) years ago. I do remember this being filmed. It was a big budget production. I think it was Dateline, but may have been 60 minutes or 20/20.
@@JUST-UK-JAY Thanks, although... I don't like how I seem in these old videos. A little too cocky. I was in my 20s and thought I knew everything. I'm a little older, and hopefully a lot wiser now (but, still think I know everything, and am just as wrong about it now as I was then!)
Keep those old broadcasts rolling in. Pure history.
Building a mansion, driving a bright red porche with no seatbelt, making deals with Jim Henson, and this isn't the peak of his career, it's just the beginning of it. This ragtag group goes on to dominate the market.
Sierra (and Dynamix) was a great company that made amazing products that inspired my journey into computers. First I had to learn how to fix my computers to run the games, then I learned how computers worked and then things went from there. Seems that Ken and Roberta built a great company culture and it is great to see they are back in the industry.
Absolutely love these old broadcasts. Reminds me of an episode of Computer Chronicles. Also that red 928 😮
It’s so awesome how this video captures a particular moment in history. Looking back from what we know now it’s so fascinating to see what was happening then and what everyone was thinking at the time.
Knowing what’s in store for their future, it’s particularly difficult to listen to the quote that Ken had at the end about their new house. The video does a good job of trying to capture how hard Ken and Roberta worked for years and how proud they were of being able to build their dream home to live in with their family. 6:54
“I think I’ve finally convinced myself this company isn’t going to fail.”
If this was filmed in 1983, that means the arcade game crash was right around the corner and Sierra Online almost did fail, if it wasn’t for IBM and the birth of King Quest. But how would they have known in 1983? Boy, that must have been such a difficult time, with the threat of then losing their home just a few year later. I’m so glad it worked out. You guys deserved it.
Thank you for sharing! Can’t wait to play colossal cave!
I forgot about that timing. You are right. The house became part of the problem, as well as part of the solution. We sold stock to raise the money to build the house, and then borrowed against it to keep the company from going under.
After reading Ken's book it is awesome to be able to SEE Ken and Roberta as their younger selves in the very early days of Sierra! So incredible to both read and SEE the origins of my most favorite company ever! Thank you Ken and Roberta!
❤ Awesome. I got my first computer in 1984 at age seven. Sierra games were a huge inspiration to me, and likely one of the major reasons I've been in this industry for more than 27 years.
This video perfectly captures that early 1980s corporate boomtime era. Then a year or so after this everything crashes. Again, where is my Netflix show on the Williams/Sierra? haha
Several people have approached us wanting to do a documentary. We're still trying to make up our minds. There's a lot to be said for quietly slipping back into anonymity.... - Ken W
We are going way back here.
We gonna take you back to the past! To play some awesome games that gonna kick a$$!
This is very inspiring. Can't wait to get my hands on your new game Ken! Cheers from México!
Wow! This video of a 1983 Sierra is a true gem! Also at 2:29 I’m pretty sure that was Jeff Stephenson.
Started self learning English by playing SQ1 in my teens in 1987 which made an incredible difference in my career path, turned me into self learner. Loved adventure games and it was super hard to get a pirated copy at the time, originals were not sold in Brazil until 1994 or later. Been lucky to get original Helicopter 3D in 1997 and PQ3 in 1991, I think, and wondered how well made and high quality it was. I still have it + some all old games from eBay as good childhood memories. Now it's time to dig in Colossal Cave!
This is so cool. I was 13 in 1983 and had a crush on Roberta. Thought she was so cute. I'm not even sure where I saw her (pre-internet). Might have been in an advertisement or maybe in the Phantasmagoria manual? I don't recall. Anyway. Always been a big fan of Roberta and Ken. What a team! Loved Sierra and all the games and I'm looking forward to getting Colossal Cave! Thanks for doing another game! Can't wait!
Ah back when men looked like men! these are the young computer nerds of the early 80s and yet they look like they could beat the shjt out of any 20yr old today. loven them beards and style.
dad brought home his compaq portable, when i fired it up it had the smell of his office at work where it lived during the week. after loading programs such as biorhythm, decathelon and night mission pinball, it was around the time when IBM was getting ready to enter the home market with the IBM PCjr. Along came the junior around christmas of 1984, within a few weeks we were already looking for a game. We found one called Wizard and the princess distributed by Calsoft in Agoura CA. Soon after playing that game I was in the local radio shack and found a sharply packaged title called King's Quest. I was instantly addicted to Sierra's stuff. The rest is history.
One of my absolute earliest memories is of playing Kings Quest 1. I am losing my goddamned mind over a new Williams game. Now that you've gotten the hang of Unity, if we could next get a spiritual successor to Kings Quest NO, wait! How about another Clara Bow mystery! Although maybe Kings Quest. KQ8 had some decent ideas, but 3D just wasn't nearly good enough at the time to convey the texture and complexity that we had grown accustomed to. Will you be doing a collector's edition of Colossal Cave or anything?
I am looking at doing a boxed version in a Sierra-style box. It will take a while to put it together though, and we're just starting that process. I'm guessing it will be at least three or four months. - Ken W
@@colossalcave I will buy fifty copies of that.
She looked so sad in her first shot! Ha!
I love that Roberta was a pioneer in the modern Work From Home trend.
Sounds like Jim Butterfield narrating the video
Seeing this make me sad about the downfall of Sierra OnLine
On-line?
Who were the other engineers featured in the interviews? One of them looks familiar but I can't put my finger on it.
Many of them I don't recognize beyond remembering that they worked at Sierra. It has been a LONG time.
The guy shown side on in front of an IBM PC, at about 2:29 in, I'm fairly sure that is Jeff Stephenson. He was working on HomeWord for the IBM PC & PCjr in 1983, so maybe this shows him working on that.
@@lanceewing9102 It is Jeff! I just checked to verify - Ken Williams
I've been tipped off that the man in a red shirt, standing up behind two programmers at about 2:25 in, is none other than Steven Levy, author of the "Hackers" book. I've compared it with photos of Levy from that time period and I think it could well be true. If so, then this (amazingly) shows him in action interviewing programmers for his book!
@@lanceewing9102 It absolutely is! Holy shit! This is such a find. I am literally looking at my dog-eared copy of Hackers on my shelf right now.
4:01-4:10 the shade xD But thats how you gotta do it. Put it in their faces and make them believers :)
"computer" is a general term. but I found it odd that in about Y2K people in Erick Oklahoma, the ones who rented my grandmother's house after she passed on, had a computer with Windows 95 loaded on and were online! I never thought in my wildest dreams(in a farming town in 1999/2000 in the middle of nowwhere, some 30 or so miles from any nearby community, near the rural boarder of texas) would be regularly using the PC as a tool for their work and play.
games like King's Quest that require some kind of attention span to complete do not exist today. For instance, I purchased King's Quest III in 1988 I was 17 or so and when I began I thought I wouldn't like it. but the potential of the game is unlocked when you draw out a few "skeleton's" in Mananan's closet. doing this requires lots of grueling coming/going from town and dying. about 12 or so game hours. then you get into what your protagonist, goes by the name "Gwydion", can REALLY do. (I won't go into that-play the damned game!). today if you can't run across the screen and shout at everyone and pretentiously "badass" around and trip switches at the call of a green arrow and be "rewarded" a hollywood movie then people are too bored and stop playing. how sad the evolution is more ethstetic and less about WHAT you do and HOW you can do it different ways! and more about attention baiting! akin give a horse in a race a carrot run it around the track he will likely follow. is that they way games should be? I think not! I miss the old days. wish they could change the graphics but keep game quality but decidedly people want a crutch, not an improvement!
who the hell is this ?
That's a much younger version of ME! I don't recognize him either. I haven't seen that version of me since looking in a mirror about FOURTY (40) years ago. I do remember this being filmed. It was a big budget production. I think it was Dateline, but may have been 60 minutes or 20/20.
@@colossalcave ok cool story bro, have fun down nostalgia lane :)
@@JUST-UK-JAY Thanks, although... I don't like how I seem in these old videos. A little too cocky. I was in my 20s and thought I knew everything. I'm a little older, and hopefully a lot wiser now (but, still think I know everything, and am just as wrong about it now as I was then!)