Ken Williams - Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings: The rise and fall of Sierra On-Line

NOT ALL FAIRY TALES
HAVE HAPPY ENDINGS

The Rise and Fall of Sierra On-Line

By Ken Williams

Copyright 2020 Ken Williams. All rights reserved.

Published by Ken Williams

ISBN 978-1-71672-736-8

VERSION 2020_09_24 v1

DISCLAIMER: This autobiographical book was written based on the authors memories. Different people will remember events in different ways. Time has passed and memory has faded. If there are any events which have been recounted inaccurately, it was not intentional. All game related images are the property of the copyright owners and are included herein for historical purposes.

Contents

I have three great loves in life: Roberta, computers and boats. That said, this is not a book about any of those things, although the first two of those are important to the story.

My hope in writing this book was that through giving others a front-row look at my journey through life, the mistakes Ive made and the successes Roberta and I have had, that there might be some piece of it that helps others.

Many of you reading this book may be hoping that this is the ultimate behind-the-scenes tell-all look at Sierra On-Line, the company Roberta and I founded and ran for eighteen years. Thats both true and untrue. This is Sierras rise and fall as seen through my eyes. There are no interviews with the game designers. There are very few details about any of the games. There are no game hints. Instead, what you will find are the secrets behind what made Sierra so special. Youll get a look at the strategies that infused Sierra with a specialness so profound that someone like you might pick up this book and invest time in reading it twenty-five years after Sierras untimely demise. Youll also find that it has a lot of personal background on Roberta and me. As you will see, much of what Sierra was flowed directly from Robertas and my personality. You cant really understand Sierra without a deep dive into how Roberta and I think.

I have thought for years about writing a book about the Sierra experience. My hope was that someone else would write a book and save me the trouble. There has, in fact, been a huge amount written, but I now realize that there are elements of the story that only I can tell. Its too good a story to leave untold, and there is much to be learned from it. At a minimum, I can guarantee that it is an entertaining story. Whether or not I was able to get it down on paper: Well youll need to be the judge of that.

Ken Williams, July 2020

We believe that the boat is unsinkable

Philip Franklin, Vice-President of White Star Line, builders of the Titanic Cruise Ship

In 1979 my wife, Roberta, designed a computer game that I programmed. That game became the basis of Sierra On-Line, a company we raised from its infancy over a sixteen-year period. By 1996, Sierra was recognized worldwide as a leader in consumer software with one thousand employees producing hit products in education, productivity and entertainment software. From a start on our kitchen table, Roberta and I had built Sierra into a company that would be acquired for nearly one billion dollars.

Sadly, this fairy-tale story does not have a fairy-tale ending.

Instead, the story ends with corruption, lies, litigation, sadness, layoffs, bankruptcies, and prison.

They say that the best place to start a story is .

at the beginning.

So, here we go (drum roll, please)!

If you are born poor, its not your mistake. But if you die poor, its your mistake.

Bill Gates

I dont know the whole story, and dont care enough to research it, but apparently my heritage is nothing to brag about.

My only memories of my grandfather, on my dads side, was of him dying. He was a scrawny little guy with a dark complexion and dark curly hair which didnt seem to gray. He dragged around an oxygen tank and would sit smoking, drinking whiskey, and spitting into a coffee can.

Ive been told that he was a colorful character in his prime. He grew up in the hills of Kentucky, sold illegal moonshine and is alleged to have spent time in jail for murder. There is no part of me that wishes we could have spent more time together.

My dads older brother was a chip off the old block. He also died of alcoholism.

Somehow, my dad came through what must have been a tough childhood to be a good guy. He was nineteen when he married my mom, who was only sixteen at the time. My mom was young, but this was the back country of Kentucky almost seventy years ago.

My moms family was certainly better than my dads, but she also came from a broken home.

In the years following marriage my parents had four children, of which I was the oldest. My dad had trouble finding work and loaded the family into a car for a move to California, which at the time was rumored to have plenty of employment and a growing economy.

Dad found work as a TV and appliance repairman for the retailer Sears Roebuck and Co. It wasnt a great income, but they were able to purchase a small home in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Pomona CA.

At a very early age I developed an interest in reading. One of my earliest memories was reading the book Moby Dick. Maybe that book started me on the path of being interested in the sea? I dont know. I was devouring full books at five years of age. It seems impossible, but that is my memory. I read every Superman comic. I read the complete series of books called Hardy Boys; 190 volumes of kids solving crimes. When those ran out I read a similar series called Nancy Drew. I was frequently busted by my mom for reading books, using a flashlight, under the covers late at night. It didnt slow me down.

We couldnt afford for me to own the books I was reading. As soon as I was old enough to ride a bike I started hanging out at the Pomona Public Library. I loved that library. Some of my fascination was the access to books, but it was also a place to hide from my home.

My mom and I didnt get along. I have no recollection of what we fought about, but I know that we did and that I was always happier when away from home. I remember my dad as working all the time, returning only late at night. Looking back on it, I suspect his relationship with my mom wasnt much better than my own and, like me, he sought refuge elsewhere.

Incredibly, I have very few memories of my childhood. A psychologist might be able to say if Ive blocked them out somehow. I have no idea, but I dont really want them back. I have only brief snippets of memory before turning eighteen.

Most of my childhood memories are not of playing. They are of time spent at the library, or at the nearby courthouse. In my early teens I started attending criminal trials. I loved entering courtrooms and sitting quietly in the back watching someone be tried for some offense against society. Murder trials were my favorite. I dreamed of being a lawyer someday. No one ever challenged me but Im sure everyone wondered what a ten-year-old kid was doing wandering the halls of a courthouse, or why his parents werent watching him. I was what you might call a strange kid.

I do recall that I was a smart kid. However, this did not translate to good grades. I would quickly read through any textbook and decide I knew everything and then spend class time bored.