sierra

February 26, 2020

Roberta Williams To Be Honored With GDC Pioneer Award

Peter Paltridge Game Developers Conference, gdc, pc, roberta williams, sierra, video games 0

Any fan of PC gaming history knows who Roberta Williams is. As one of the co-founders of Sierra On-Line, she and her husband Ken revolutionized the industry with their innovative (and frustratingly obtuse) adventure titles. Now she’s picking up another award for her contributions, the GDC Pioneer Award. The story goes that Roberta was stuck at home when Ken brought in a computer from work. Back then, in the primitive days, computer adventure games were told entirely with text. Frustrated with this, Roberta set out to make the kind of games she wanted to play, and in 1980 she and Ken self-published Mystery House, Sierra’s first title and the venture that snowballed into beloved projects like the King’s Quest series. “It’s hard to truly measure the impact of Roberta Williams’ landmark titles; they not only pushed the technological envelope at the time, but they helped establish video games as a legitimate storytelling medium, and one that could appeal to men and women alike,” says Katie Stern, general manager of GDC.

November 24, 2019

Roberta Williams Presents: The Sierra Super Mansion

Peter Paltridge retro games, roberta williams, sierra, video games 0

Stop whatever you’re doing and check this out. The former home of Sierra On-Line founders Ken and Roberta Williams is now on the market, and pictures of its interior designs have been published online. This is the first time anyone outside of a privilieged few have seen what this house is like. I wouldn’t be talking it up if it didn’t live up to this couple’s reputation in every way. First, if you don’t know who Ken and Roberta Williams are, they founded a groundbreaking computer game company in the early 80s. Sierra On-Line became famous for pushing hardware like the Apple II and Commodore 64 into new territory — at the time they got started, an adventure game with graphics was a novelty. Ken and Roberta published quirky adventure games with text parser controls throughout the 80s and into the 90s. Roberta’s most famous creation was the King’s Quest series, but Sierra published others like Roger Wilco and Leisure Suit Larry that took adventure gaming in all sorts of

August 30, 2016

Latest Humble Bundle Brings The Love For Classic Sierra Games

Nathan Gibson classic, downloadable games, humble bundle, police quest, sierra, space quest, stea 0

Recently, a huge collection of classic Sierra games, such as Police Quest and Gabriel Knight, made their way to Steam. Now players can get their hands on dozens of the titles thanks to the latest Humble Bundle. The lowest option tier, which costs just $1, gives players access to team codes for the six games in the Space Quest Collection, Phantasmagoria 1 &2, the first four entries in the Police Quest series, and the platformer Shiftlings. There are several more tiers available up to a cost of $20, offering plenty more titles for you to enjoy, including modern releases such as Geometry Wars 3. Any money spent on the bundle can be split between Humble Bundle, Sierra, and The Call of Duty Endowment. That organization is a charity aiming to help find unemployed military veterans a job. The full list of games can be seen below: Pay $1 or more Space Quest Collection Phantasmagoria 1 and 2 Police Quest Collection Shiftlings Pay more than the average (about $8) Arcanum: Of