Ken Williams Interview: Sierra On-line 🏔

[@bariswheel]

great interview thank you for posting !

One of my living heros, Ken Williams. My life also changed after playing Sierra Games. Fist was LSLS3 but i was to young and didn’t speech english. The first game I bought was LSL5. Then came KG5 on CD. True magic.

[@AlsGeekLab]

It is a bit surreal interviewing a guy that I knew of in my childhood as the guy that wandered on at the end of LSL1. Winning the game was one of the happiest moments of my childhood!

[@t.c6080]

Great interview! I really appreciate how you don't rush to cut them off to get more questions in, unlike a lot of interviewers. Mr Williams has a ton of interesting things to say. Hard to believe it's been 40 years since Mystery House was released.

[@AlsGeekLab]

Thanks, and yes, the fact he is so humble and a genuinely nice guy for all his millions is so awesome!

[@hitherescotty]

Only 20 mins in but I love and have fond memories of Sierra and am so happy this interview exists. And by the way you are a great interviewer - good questions and giving him space to speak.

[@hitherescotty]

As you said, my life was changed because of Sierra adventure games.

[@AlsGeekLab]

That is so lovely of you to say! Thank you for your kind comment. I had more questions but I had already taken over 1.15hrs with him and it was getting late, so I didn't ask him all of my questions. I'm really looking forward to reading his book!

[@BrunoFonsecaPT]

It’s so amazing to see Ken doing interviews about Sierra again... their history is finally getting the right level of coverage. Looking forward to read Ken’s book. And congrats on getting this interview!

[@AlsGeekLab]

Many thanks Bruno, he was really great to speak with!

[@mouritzenmartin]

Amazing interview. Thank you Ken (and Roberta... And everyone else at Sierra) for enriching my childhood!

[@AlsGeekLab]

He is such a genuinely lovely guy, it was a privilege to interview him!

[@realpas]

Thousand times better than Netflix High Score!!! Ken you look great, greetings from Spain!!!

[@AlsGeekLab]

Aww thanks for that! Ken was so lovely, such a humble guy for all his millions!

[@Vohaul214]

I thought High Score was good. I knew they were talking about Roberta Williams even before they introduced her on the show. I’m one of those guys that attributes Sierra for making me the person I am today. I loved all the Quest games.

[@AlsGeekLab]

@@Vohaul214 they certainly were a major part in paving the way for my IT career. For example, I had to learn how to use DOS to play Larry!

[@Vohaul214]

@@AlsGeekLab haha yeah me too, remember having to learn how to make boot-disks for certain games? I was about 9 when I started playing them, they taught me how to spell! back then they were state-of-the-art! I remember Space Quest 4 and it being the first of it's kind point-and-click interface! Ahh the good ol days. Text-Parser...

[@AlsGeekLab]

@@Vohaul214 oh yeah! Boot disk games! I remember having to make a boot disk to make sure I eeked enough ram out of my 4MB to play Leisure Suit Larry 6.

[@velociraptor5962]

Great to hear that story. I always wondered what happened to them and Sierra. We used to love playing the Police Quest games. Thanks to you and Ken for sharing.

[@mileswb]

Awesome interview! So happy to have found this

[@AlsGeekLab]

Glad you enjoyed it! It was a great moment for me ☺️

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

Wow! Less than 700 subscribers and you got an interview with Ken Williams? I’m impressed and amazed! Congratulations! I’m really thankful that Ken, Roberta, and so many other people have been so willing in recent years to talk about memories.

[@AlsGeekLab]

Heh, I'd love it to be quite a lot more than 700 subs! I guess I'm just not doing something right, not sure what that is yet, but in the meantime I hope that what I'm doing is making people happy! With regards to getting to talk to Ken, I think just a bit of cheeky persuasion never hurt!

[@jamesv5802]

This was very well done.

[@AlsGeekLab]

Many thanks James!

[@feslenraster]

This was a great interview, thank you! Subbed and liked for the insights from a terrific game designer and game company. Wish games and gaming companies were as wonderful as Sierra was back in the day

[@AlsGeekLab]

Thank you so much for the sub, I really appreciate it. It spurns me on to make more content like this. Glad you liked the video and yes you are absolutely right, the games of that era (Especially Sierra) were totally different to the games of today and there just isn't anything like them which is sad!

[@muzboz]

Great interview. Lovely work. Interesting to hear how big a deal the Tandy deal was, because even over here in Australia, which felt a world away, it was Tandy stores that we would go to and buy our new Sierra games! I never really realised that there was a bit more connection with Tandy beyond just happenstance.

[@AlsGeekLab]

thanks for the kind comments!

[@nadimbarsoum7177]

Inspiring really. I remember playing games on my dad’s Apple ii C growing up in Egypt. Sierra was an amazing portal to a world of enchantment and intrigue!

[@CrazyTechReviews]

Oh wow cool! Neat to see you doing an interview with him!

[@AlsGeekLab]

really nice guy too!

[@MR-vj8dn]

Oh, yes! I definitely ended up in IT part cause of Sierra. Sitting at my desk atm, loving it and earning a good living 😊

[@Barbabapan]

I showed Space Quest II to a friend back in the day and it blew his socks off. He became a Sierra On-Line and computer fanatic and years later worked on CGI for The Matrix, Superman etc. All thanks to Ken & co.

[@AlsGeekLab]

Thats a wonderful story!

[@Barbabapan]

@@AlsGeekLab a wonderful interview! You ever knew Legend Entertainment? Loved their games too: Mission Critical, Gatewway 1 + 2 (Homegate), Spellcasting 101...

[@PrettyNormous]

Haven't read Ken's book yet, but will absolutely say that Shawn Mills' book that he talks about at the 1hr mark is absolutely amazing!

[@AlsGeekLab]

Yeah it really is a great book!

[@nouveauart]

Great interview. Between Lucasarts games and Sierra they both influenced me. Like you said it was more than just the games. It influenced many people to get into tech, coding, and game development. The book is great too. I am little more than half way through.

[@AlsGeekLab]

Thanks Jason. It's a good read! He writes differently than he speaks. I'm glad we s spoke before I read the book! Lovely guy, it doesn't always come across that way in the book!

[@positronalpha]

Wonderful to hear Ken talk about all of this stuff. Grew up with Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest and King's Quest and they definitely helped shape me and my future.

[@Fellowing2]

That was a really good interview (although the audio was quite low). I've read a few books on Sierra but it was nice to see the man himself talk from his perspective. I didn't realize that he was considered the "bad guy" because most interviews from ex-employees paint him in a positive light. Actually I don't recall anyone ever saying anything negative about him. It probably would have been rude to ask, but I wonder how much of the $1.5 billion CUC paid to buy the company they got to pocket for themselves. Thanks for the time and effort put into this interview. Cheers!

[@AlsGeekLab]

Many thanks! Yeah I know he's a multi-millionaire, but I dare say he didn't see anywhere near $1.5 for the sale. I'm about half way thru his book now and he's only touched on that a little so far. I'll update if I find a number!

[@paoloquattr]

Great interview! I'm so looking forward to reading Ken's book. Can I ask you where are those business slides from ("Lead, don't follow", "Shoot your own dogs", etc.)?

[@AlsGeekLab]

He made it in 2001: www.sierragamers.com/sierra-ppt-2001/

[@paoloquattr]

@@AlsGeekLab Thank you!

[@Forgotten_Lore]

That man and his wife are my childhood! After I "outgrew" Mixed-Up Mother Goose (played it, finished it three times, needed something else) I was playing Leisure Suit Larry from an early age! It was pretty much the first "big person game" I played at around 7 years of age. True, I shouldn't have been pksying it but it was the 80's, parents were just happy their kids were quite. XD Then I had Kings Quest which I adored, never did complete a game but the fact I was able to play it was just fun in general. But, I will admit, his wife's King's Quest, The Perils of Rosella was always my fave one but that l think it was mostly because it was a female lead and I had a love for unicorns, satyrs and fairytales (the whole Rose playing Snow White bit) so they helped me fall in love with Point and Click adventure games. Sierra has always been the one game company that I have very fond memories of, my childhood would have been boring had it not been for their games. Regardless who made them, a lot of their games just made my childhood so much better and I could not thank Mr and Mrs Williams enough for creating a company I loved growing up.

[@AlsGeekLab]

I couldn't say it better! That's exactly how I felt and almost the same experiences though I had

[@vak5461]

I grew up on these guys! Woah!

[@Vohaul214]

OMG this was awesome. Funny how Ken doesn’t mention Police Quest once, must really have some bad blood with Jim Walls, I can only imagine those two personalities together.

[@edinkorat1296]

The Black Cauldron

[@KameariKillScreen]

I really identify with Ken. I need to speak to a psychiatrist...