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The Sierra Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line
The Sierra The Story of Sierra On-Line tells the story of legendary computer game company Sierra On-Line, developers of industry defining titles such as King’s Quest, Quest for Glory, and Leisure Suit Larry. Told through the words of the people who worked there, designers, artists, programmers, animators, musicians, marketting, and management, this is the story told in the words of those people who worked there.
361 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 7, 2020
The Sierra Adventure is the sprawling story of Sierra On-Line, a small homespun computer software and game company that sprung from the kitchen table of a young California Couple, Ken and Roberta Williams and became one of the biggest game companies in the world by the mid 90s. This is the story of the company and all the people who worked in it to - people that made amazing games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Quest for Glory and many more. It's amazing how much happened to the company in so few years, and how it's meteoric rise was only matched by it's unfortunate demise. Author Shawn Mills deftly tells the story through the eyes of the people who were there, with interviews conducted over years, he gives us the story and the adventure of the company that was Sierra On-Line.
May 30, 2021
A warm, if surface level, history of an influential gaming company.
"The Sierra Adventure" is a Kickstarter-funded history of PC gaming company Sierra On-Line. The author, Shawn Mills, is one of the founders of the indie/amateur gaming studio Infamous Adventures (which specializes in updated remakes of classic Sierra point-and-click adventures).
The result is a very warm and nostalgic history of the company that, unfortunately, never helps a reader understand what made Sierra games unique or provide any real insight into the how Sierra operated on a creative level.
It appears that Mills interviewed dozens of former Sierra employees from a variety of departments (marketing, design, producer, music, etc). This seemed like fertile ground to explore how the company operated both at a macro (management) and micro (design) level. So it was a disappointment when the majority of anecdotes or quotations from them covered nearly everything EXCEPT how all these seminal games came to be.
Given how central Sierra was to the development of the point-and-click adventure was, I was hoping for more insight into the design of these games. How did designers view player choice, "dead-ends", rewards, story progression in a "3-D" environment -- or simply, since puzzles were so central to these games, what was the process for coming up with the variety of puzzles? How did the rise of competing companies (LucasArts, MicroProse, et al) influence the choices Sierra games made? It's 20+ years since the last Sierra adventure game, so nobody is looking for *solutions* to these puzzles, but some insight into how/why the designers made certain choices would have been enjoyable.
Instead, we get far more talk about office management (who commuted from where, how small Oakhurst CA is, how various project managers tasked unnamed people out to various projects without any real detail beyond that it sometimes made people upset, sometimes didn't, etc) rather than a deep dive into the CREATIVE process for a very creative company. Accordingly, there are multiple variations on "We wanted to make a [type of game]....so we did." This is almost inevitably followed by "Once again, Sierra hit a home run." It is deeply unsatisfying.
We do get a *lot* on the differences between Sierra's AGI game engine and later SCI engine. If you're a programmer (as Mills is), this is great. But it fails to explain the difference in tone/content or design choices between King's Quest, Space Quest, or Gabriel Knight. It's a little too geeky for its own good.
Also disappointing is that it's clear in some interviews (or in the bits Mills cribbed from other sources) that was some real tension within Sierra -- whether it was from how they paid designers, the pressure to maintain the "image" of Sierra as a super fun happy company, or challenges about who got credit for which games. While he lets some bits sneak through, it's clear Mills has no real desire to explore this and while I understand the desire to not air dirty laundry, there was almost certainly a way to tell a more complete story about Sierra rather than the fairly hagiographic treatment here.
Ultimately, this was a pleasant, rose-colored look at an influential company that never takes off the rose-colored glasses or provides a satisfying look at the creative process of Sierra On-Line.
"The Sierra Adventure" is a Kickstarter-funded history of PC gaming company Sierra On-Line. The author, Shawn Mills, is one of the founders of the indie/amateur gaming studio Infamous Adventures (which specializes in updated remakes of classic Sierra point-and-click adventures).
The result is a very warm and nostalgic history of the company that, unfortunately, never helps a reader understand what made Sierra games unique or provide any real insight into the how Sierra operated on a creative level.
It appears that Mills interviewed dozens of former Sierra employees from a variety of departments (marketing, design, producer, music, etc). This seemed like fertile ground to explore how the company operated both at a macro (management) and micro (design) level. So it was a disappointment when the majority of anecdotes or quotations from them covered nearly everything EXCEPT how all these seminal games came to be.
Given how central Sierra was to the development of the point-and-click adventure was, I was hoping for more insight into the design of these games. How did designers view player choice, "dead-ends", rewards, story progression in a "3-D" environment -- or simply, since puzzles were so central to these games, what was the process for coming up with the variety of puzzles? How did the rise of competing companies (LucasArts, MicroProse, et al) influence the choices Sierra games made? It's 20+ years since the last Sierra adventure game, so nobody is looking for *solutions* to these puzzles, but some insight into how/why the designers made certain choices would have been enjoyable.
Instead, we get far more talk about office management (who commuted from where, how small Oakhurst CA is, how various project managers tasked unnamed people out to various projects without any real detail beyond that it sometimes made people upset, sometimes didn't, etc) rather than a deep dive into the CREATIVE process for a very creative company. Accordingly, there are multiple variations on "We wanted to make a [type of game]....so we did." This is almost inevitably followed by "Once again, Sierra hit a home run." It is deeply unsatisfying.
We do get a *lot* on the differences between Sierra's AGI game engine and later SCI engine. If you're a programmer (as Mills is), this is great. But it fails to explain the difference in tone/content or design choices between King's Quest, Space Quest, or Gabriel Knight. It's a little too geeky for its own good.
Also disappointing is that it's clear in some interviews (or in the bits Mills cribbed from other sources) that was some real tension within Sierra -- whether it was from how they paid designers, the pressure to maintain the "image" of Sierra as a super fun happy company, or challenges about who got credit for which games. While he lets some bits sneak through, it's clear Mills has no real desire to explore this and while I understand the desire to not air dirty laundry, there was almost certainly a way to tell a more complete story about Sierra rather than the fairly hagiographic treatment here.
Ultimately, this was a pleasant, rose-colored look at an influential company that never takes off the rose-colored glasses or provides a satisfying look at the creative process of Sierra On-Line.
January 7, 2022
I enjoyed reading the various people's sometimes differing perspectives of what was going on on the Sierra side of things. I was at Dynamix (one of the owners) from its first days through the Sierra buyout and up until almost the very end.
December 12, 2020
I liked this book quite a bit, although I think it might be a little difficult to understand the full story of the sierra adventure (as the title proports) without having some additional context from either being a sierra super fan or first reading Ken William's book Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings. In fact, I would argue that Ken's book is a MUST before getting into this book as it does a better job of giving a high-level overview of Sierra from birth to death, and will arm you with the context you'll need for the stories in this book.
While I enjoyed this book a lot, and learned quite a bit, I do find myself critical of the way the story is told. All of the major information is conveyed through direct quotes that I assume were mostly provided in spoken interviews. This story telling style often had me re-reading quotes several times as I struggled to understand what was being said. The nuance and intention of speech was clearly lost on its way to the page. Sometimes the author would interrupt these quotes to help clear up those parts that could potentially be confusing. Sometimes this worked very well. Too many times I was left scratching my head.
I also got the sense that there was a lot more to the stories being shared than the author was allowed to print (he even says as much at one point). That's fine if that was a reality for the author, but as the reader I really didn't like feeling like I wasn't getting the whole story. Too often I'd have the nagging feeling that the author was getting a much better 'Story of Sierra Online' than I was. Again, I blame this on the book being so heavily reliant on direct quotes that are clearly cherry picked from a spoken conversation. It was a little too obvious for me that many of the juciy bits weren't making it to the page.
Overall, an enjoyable read that I'm happy to have spent time with. I give it a score of 398 out of 412 points.
While I enjoyed this book a lot, and learned quite a bit, I do find myself critical of the way the story is told. All of the major information is conveyed through direct quotes that I assume were mostly provided in spoken interviews. This story telling style often had me re-reading quotes several times as I struggled to understand what was being said. The nuance and intention of speech was clearly lost on its way to the page. Sometimes the author would interrupt these quotes to help clear up those parts that could potentially be confusing. Sometimes this worked very well. Too many times I was left scratching my head.
I also got the sense that there was a lot more to the stories being shared than the author was allowed to print (he even says as much at one point). That's fine if that was a reality for the author, but as the reader I really didn't like feeling like I wasn't getting the whole story. Too often I'd have the nagging feeling that the author was getting a much better 'Story of Sierra Online' than I was. Again, I blame this on the book being so heavily reliant on direct quotes that are clearly cherry picked from a spoken conversation. It was a little too obvious for me that many of the juciy bits weren't making it to the page.
Overall, an enjoyable read that I'm happy to have spent time with. I give it a score of 398 out of 412 points.
October 27, 2020
From a Sierra fan perspective, this is an awesome book covering the basic outline of the company Sierra Online. It's brilliant as an introduction to anyone interested in one of the most influential gaming companies of all time, established by Ken and Roberta Williams.
However, if you have been around the Sierra story for a while, you may find this book slightly disappointing. It briefly passes through the story at lightening speed, and many of the stories (but not all) have been heard before through the fan community or other sources. To be fair, the author was clear about this. I just felt this book could have been so much more especially since the author had access to many of the original Sierra game designers, and some of the more interesting quotes were kind of glossed over to their impact within the company.
Overall, the writing is good. There were some cases of doubling-up on information or repetitive narrative in the quotes (which I tended to find more in the second half, than the first). But the majority of the book is first-hand stories from behind the scenes that help move the reader along and it never felt 'bogged-down' in detail, making it an excellent read.
Definitely recommended for the Sierra fan and a must have on the shelf as an excellent Sierra resource.
However, if you have been around the Sierra story for a while, you may find this book slightly disappointing. It briefly passes through the story at lightening speed, and many of the stories (but not all) have been heard before through the fan community or other sources. To be fair, the author was clear about this. I just felt this book could have been so much more especially since the author had access to many of the original Sierra game designers, and some of the more interesting quotes were kind of glossed over to their impact within the company.
Overall, the writing is good. There were some cases of doubling-up on information or repetitive narrative in the quotes (which I tended to find more in the second half, than the first). But the majority of the book is first-hand stories from behind the scenes that help move the reader along and it never felt 'bogged-down' in detail, making it an excellent read.
Definitely recommended for the Sierra fan and a must have on the shelf as an excellent Sierra resource.
June 25, 2023
"The Sierra Adventure" is a well-written book on the history of Sierra Entertainment. It talks about the key games that are known by the Sierra brand, some snippets from their development cycle, how well they are received, and short interviews from the people involved. A lot of the information regarding how the developers, designers started their work in Sierra and what was their connections with the games. Moreover, some business decisions taken by the Sierra execs. on how and why they steered their portfolio the way they did have been explained.
If you loved Sierra games back in the days and/or want to learn more about the games of Sierra and the people involved with it, this will be a good book.
I think the book gives good mid-level information about the games and Sierra as the company, it shies away to go in to the details in either department.
Say for the game design, aside from some anectodes, details about development of some key games are pretty limited. Why they have such and such levels, how did they approached level design, puzzle design etc.. Majority of the comments on such development processes are explained as either with rough ideas or simply by stating that the developers simply "felt that way".
As for the business aspect, again the story of the company is left a bit unclear. The last two chapters give some information but I guess what is given in Ken Williams's "Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings: The rise and fall of Sierra On-Line " book is much more comprehensive and detailed. If I did not read that book beforehand, I'd be left greatly surprised how the company fell down the way it did.
Also, some reviews talk about the book being very one-sided for the high level execs. I also felt similarly. Again Ken Williams's book offers much more introspection on this department. I guess a bit elaboration on why the company did X in its context and was it a smart idea, was it a terrible decision etc. It feels like the book shies away from criticizing the beloved developers and designers of Sierra. Do not get me wrong, of course a lot of the end products have been quite good, but a bit of comparison, critical thinking could have helped the book immensely.
But overall, it is a good book gives good insight about the Sierra entertainment.
If you loved Sierra games back in the days and/or want to learn more about the games of Sierra and the people involved with it, this will be a good book.
I think the book gives good mid-level information about the games and Sierra as the company, it shies away to go in to the details in either department.
Say for the game design, aside from some anectodes, details about development of some key games are pretty limited. Why they have such and such levels, how did they approached level design, puzzle design etc.. Majority of the comments on such development processes are explained as either with rough ideas or simply by stating that the developers simply "felt that way".
As for the business aspect, again the story of the company is left a bit unclear. The last two chapters give some information but I guess what is given in Ken Williams's "Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings: The rise and fall of Sierra On-Line " book is much more comprehensive and detailed. If I did not read that book beforehand, I'd be left greatly surprised how the company fell down the way it did.
Also, some reviews talk about the book being very one-sided for the high level execs. I also felt similarly. Again Ken Williams's book offers much more introspection on this department. I guess a bit elaboration on why the company did X in its context and was it a smart idea, was it a terrible decision etc. It feels like the book shies away from criticizing the beloved developers and designers of Sierra. Do not get me wrong, of course a lot of the end products have been quite good, but a bit of comparison, critical thinking could have helped the book immensely.
But overall, it is a good book gives good insight about the Sierra entertainment.
December 20, 2021
This was a good book on the history of Sierra On-Line. The elephant in the room for me was the lack of photos and artwork in the book. This book describes the evolution of Sierra’s game design, including the graphics. I kept turning the pages thinking that surely the author would include screenshots of the games, photos of the key players (Ken and Roberta Williams, Al Lowe, etc.).
If this author chooses to put out a second edition, it has the potential to go from good to great with photos and artwork to help tell the story.
Overall I enjoyed this book, as it did a better job of going a little more in-depth on the history of Sierra On-Line which Ken Williams’ book did not do.
If this author chooses to put out a second edition, it has the potential to go from good to great with photos and artwork to help tell the story.
Overall I enjoyed this book, as it did a better job of going a little more in-depth on the history of Sierra On-Line which Ken Williams’ book did not do.
June 24, 2021
It’s a great read if you’re a fan of the company’s games, but I’m not sure how it would be to others.
It’s hagiographic, and the author takes management’s side on almost everything. Most of the interviews come from the upper tier people at the company who landed on their feet, so we never get a sense of the people whose lives were destroyed by numerous layoffs, threats of layoffs, 20 hour days, and accounting fraud.
Obvious incidences of sexual harassment are dismissed as nothing because the perpetrators said it was nothing.
Enjoyed it overall though!
It’s hagiographic, and the author takes management’s side on almost everything. Most of the interviews come from the upper tier people at the company who landed on their feet, so we never get a sense of the people whose lives were destroyed by numerous layoffs, threats of layoffs, 20 hour days, and accounting fraud.
Obvious incidences of sexual harassment are dismissed as nothing because the perpetrators said it was nothing.
Enjoyed it overall though!
May 14, 2021
I’ll take like, three more of these, please.
June 27, 2022
This was an excellent book. I enjoyed Ken Williams's book for the overall history of Sierra, but he generally shied away from discussing adventure games in any real detail. This book can stand on its own as an in-depth history of the games, or it could be read side-by-side with Ken's book, if the reader wants more information on the business side of things. (Personally, I recommend both--Ken's book for the history of the company, and this book to get the details about the games that made the company so great.)
The author has done a ton of work to connect with former Sierra employees, and it's usually a lot of fun to hear their perspectives. At times, it's a bit sad to find out that they weren't having fun when they made some of my favourite games (or even that they didn't like the game at all), but they're still happy to hear that people loved their work. This book gives a few pages about each of my favourite games--every installment from the major series (King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry), as well as some of the others that I really enjoyed (Codename: Iceman, Conquests of Camelot, and more). It's also pushed me to wand to play through the other games that I've purchased through GOG but haven't made it to yet (the Laura Bow games, Gabriel Knight, etc.). It was a great surprise to see that every game is discussed, which is more than I hoped for.
Because the book combines the narrative with interviews and quotations, there are some times when the same information is repeated close together. This tends not to be distracting. The editing is also quite good--very few noticeable typos (Bill Davis is referred to as Bill Davies on page 231, "diversity" is used instead of "diversify" on 251, and there is a "the" missing in "about game itself" on 343). Not bad for a book of this length.
I also liked how the Kickstarter backers were given some space to discuss their love of the games. This is a great idea to offer a reward that is actually interesting to other readers. I enjoyed their stories and felt that they added to the book rather than serving as a tacked-on afterthought.
The book offered everything it promised and more. Definitely worth the money--a fun nostalgic journey. I can't say it rekindled my love of the games, since that's never died out, but it definitely made me excited to play them again (and I even bought a few of the other games that were mentioned along the way). Highly recommended for anyone who loved (or loves) the Sierra games.
The author has done a ton of work to connect with former Sierra employees, and it's usually a lot of fun to hear their perspectives. At times, it's a bit sad to find out that they weren't having fun when they made some of my favourite games (or even that they didn't like the game at all), but they're still happy to hear that people loved their work. This book gives a few pages about each of my favourite games--every installment from the major series (King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry), as well as some of the others that I really enjoyed (Codename: Iceman, Conquests of Camelot, and more). It's also pushed me to wand to play through the other games that I've purchased through GOG but haven't made it to yet (the Laura Bow games, Gabriel Knight, etc.). It was a great surprise to see that every game is discussed, which is more than I hoped for.
Because the book combines the narrative with interviews and quotations, there are some times when the same information is repeated close together. This tends not to be distracting. The editing is also quite good--very few noticeable typos (Bill Davis is referred to as Bill Davies on page 231, "diversity" is used instead of "diversify" on 251, and there is a "the" missing in "about game itself" on 343). Not bad for a book of this length.
I also liked how the Kickstarter backers were given some space to discuss their love of the games. This is a great idea to offer a reward that is actually interesting to other readers. I enjoyed their stories and felt that they added to the book rather than serving as a tacked-on afterthought.
The book offered everything it promised and more. Definitely worth the money--a fun nostalgic journey. I can't say it rekindled my love of the games, since that's never died out, but it definitely made me excited to play them again (and I even bought a few of the other games that were mentioned along the way). Highly recommended for anyone who loved (or loves) the Sierra games.
May 14, 2025
This non-fiction is not for everyone. Still, I would like to bring it to your attention. Even if the subject matter may not mean anything to you, it remains interesting from an economic and business point of view (how did a successful billion-dollar company ever go under) and from a creative and artistic point of view (telling stories, also in a visual way).
Shawn Mills, a fellow reviewer at Adventure Game Hotspot, published "The Sierra Adventure" in 2019, a book about the company Sierra On-Line, probably the most famous developer of graphic adventure games in the 80s and 90s.
It is a detailed "behind the scenes" story about the people behind the games that brought joy and pleasure to millions of people. How the couple Ken and Roberta Williams got inspired, started writing games themselves, and founded their company. How they attracted more and more people to them. How the technology evolved over the years. How the market changed too.
It's full of anecdotes about people you may have only known as a name in the credits. The games themselves aren't really discussed in detail - that's not the point of this book - but enough to make me want to replay my childhood favorites.
Shawn Mills, a fellow reviewer at Adventure Game Hotspot, published "The Sierra Adventure" in 2019, a book about the company Sierra On-Line, probably the most famous developer of graphic adventure games in the 80s and 90s.
It is a detailed "behind the scenes" story about the people behind the games that brought joy and pleasure to millions of people. How the couple Ken and Roberta Williams got inspired, started writing games themselves, and founded their company. How they attracted more and more people to them. How the technology evolved over the years. How the market changed too.
It's full of anecdotes about people you may have only known as a name in the credits. The games themselves aren't really discussed in detail - that's not the point of this book - but enough to make me want to replay my childhood favorites.
September 14, 2020
I kickstarted this book, and it does what it set out to do well - this is a book for fans by a fan. The author has reached out to a good chunk of some of the people who were in the midst of the Sierra journey for their insights and recollections, and lovingly constructed a timeline of memories and context surrounding what was a prolific and successful company and their products. This isn’t a book of corporate intrigue and deep investigative journalism - it is an accounting of the hard work, creativity and ingenuity of pioneers in their fields. I’m glad there’s renewed interest in these sorts of books - this year alone we will see Sid Meier’s Memoir, the Coles (Quest for Glory) are apparently considering a book, and Ken Williamson himself has started to pen his version of the history of Sierra - I’m sure at least some of these have been inspired in some small measure by Shawn’s enthusiastic and successful efforts in this book!
December 1, 2021
A love letter to the best darn adventure game company of the '80s and '90s. I backed this on Kickstarter and can safely say that who travelled with King Graham back in the day or climbed trees endlessly to raise their stats in Quest For Glory: So You Want To Be A Hero will adore The Sierra Adventure. I even learned about a few games that I had no idea the company published, like the CRPG Wrath of Denethenor.
There's some spots where Shawn Mills' status as a Sierra outsider impacted his ability to make this book as comprehensive as it could be (no interview with Roberta Williams, and his summary of the events that led to Sierra's downfall in the early 2000s feels a bit quick), but it's still pretty dang complete. For more insider details, you can also always read Ken Williams' tell-all book Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings, which is best consumed in conjunction with this one.
There's some spots where Shawn Mills' status as a Sierra outsider impacted his ability to make this book as comprehensive as it could be (no interview with Roberta Williams, and his summary of the events that led to Sierra's downfall in the early 2000s feels a bit quick), but it's still pretty dang complete. For more insider details, you can also always read Ken Williams' tell-all book Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings, which is best consumed in conjunction with this one.
June 25, 2024
Like most who will read this book, I played a lot of sierra games when I was younger. If that is you, and you're at all interested in the history of Sierra, this book is a great read!
The most interesting tidbits to me were around Al Lowe. I had no idea that -- Not sure that really needs to be behind a spoiler tag since its just some historical information, but if you don't know the history well and want to find out cool facts from reading the book you can avoid it!
I'm really glad Shawn took the time to write this niche piece. I greatly enjoyed reading it.
The most interesting tidbits to me were around Al Lowe. I had no idea that -- Not sure that really needs to be behind a spoiler tag since its just some historical information, but if you don't know the history well and want to find out cool facts from reading the book you can avoid it!
I'm really glad Shawn took the time to write this niche piece. I greatly enjoyed reading it.
November 22, 2022
As a long-time fan or the old Sierra adventure games, I really enjoyed reading this book. The history of the company and the people behind it was written with a perfect balance of detail and brevity. I especially enjoyed hearing quotes from the author’s interviews with so many of the original game designers and programmers.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who was a fan of the games or interested in computer gaming history. The writing was clear and flowed smoothly, so I found it a fun and easy read. I hope the author does a follow-up about some company like LucasArts or Interplay!
Overall, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who was a fan of the games or interested in computer gaming history. The writing was clear and flowed smoothly, so I found it a fun and easy read. I hope the author does a follow-up about some company like LucasArts or Interplay!
February 20, 2023
Really enjoyed this book and learning all about the history of Sierra. I grew up playing the adventure games they developed, and I still revisit them every now and again. So it was exciting to hear more about how they were made, and it brought back fond memories of playing them when I was younger (including regularly getting stuck and having to phone the hint line!). It’s clear that a lot of hard work has gone into researching and writing this book from the author, Shawn Mills, and his love for Sierra and their games really shows. I highly recommend The Sierra Adventure, especially to anyone who is a fan of the adventure games the company released!
February 22, 2024
Great for Sierra fans, neat to learn more about culture of 80s and 90s software company. Well researched.
I know this was a Kickstarter project but it would benefit greatly from including pictures of the staff, offices, and most of all the games to help give more context to releases, and to avoid being only blocks of text. Would also have liked to have more information about competitors during Sierra’s golden age, for example mentioning how a big release by LucasArts changed the audience expectations.
Overall very good.
I know this was a Kickstarter project but it would benefit greatly from including pictures of the staff, offices, and most of all the games to help give more context to releases, and to avoid being only blocks of text. Would also have liked to have more information about competitors during Sierra’s golden age, for example mentioning how a big release by LucasArts changed the audience expectations.
Overall very good.
June 20, 2024
Spectacular retelling of the history of some of the greatest games ever created. The interviews and context provided really brought the history to life, and I felt as though I was reliving the history of Sierra right alongside the employees. Truly, a captivating and engaging experience. Now I can't wait to blow my monthly budget on all the old games I've now read about but never got a chance to play!
September 18, 2020
A good read. The account of how id Software was nearly purchased by Sierra was new to me.
There's been no books chronicling this company's history. Then The Sierra Adventure comes out, and within three months (if it's not delayed), Ken Williams's new Sierra On-Line book (Not All Fairy Tales Have Happen Endings) should be coming out as well.
There's been no books chronicling this company's history. Then The Sierra Adventure comes out, and within three months (if it's not delayed), Ken Williams's new Sierra On-Line book (Not All Fairy Tales Have Happen Endings) should be coming out as well.
September 30, 2020
Great read if you played any of the Sierra adventures. Lots of details on the production of nearly every game, the people, the environment - so connected to the games that it even gets a little bit boring for games you didn't play (but you can just skim those and get to the juice on your favourites).
December 16, 2020
A great history for fans of Sierra games! Lots of anecdotes and an insight into the sweat and tears that went into those games we loved.
January 11, 2021
This is a good companion book to the one Ken Williams recently published, and goes into more detail about the creative environment at Sierra, as well as its enduring impact and legacy.
April 2, 2021
Interesting, but overly long due to a lot of repetition.
September 22, 2022
Solid history of the iconic adventure game developer. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
October 6, 2022
A nostalgic journey to times of great joy. Sierra games marked my childhood and youth. It was with them that I started to learn English by myself. This is a book full of interesting stories featuring the great professionals who shaped Sierra On-Line. Very well written and deeply researched.
April 16, 2024
This a very complete read that should satisfy most retro gamers. It's a little light on the business side, but Ken Williams has an entire book about that, so this is justifiable.
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