(re: re: re: re: re: PQ and real police training) “…Rod worked on a lot of Sierra’s franchises (King’s Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, etc.) and started as a Studio Director filming actors on Sierra’s blue screen stage. Police Quest 4 was his first experience as a full-time developer assigned to a team. So I assume you knew him Ken. Can you remember what kind of guy he was? Any funny stories let me know 🙂 …”
You are right that Rod worked at Sierra for a many years, and on a lot of projects. I met him hundreds of times, but didn’t really know him. He was a quiet guy, and serious about his work – not someone who would spend hours telling you his life story. I remember having tremendous respect for him.
Hopefully, I’m not wrong on this: but I belive Rod was married to, or living with, or both, Tammy Dargan – who ran the SWAT project. I realize that I should know more, especially about someone I saw as often as Rod and Tammy, but it really wasn’t my style to do a lot of small talk with people at the office. Even my assistant would frequently point out that it had been months since I had said hello to her. I always thought that if people had time to chat around the coffee machine, they didn’t understand the problem (that there was work to be done!) I met regularly with Tammy and Rod to review their projects, but we didn’t really hang out.
I think I recall that Rod was the Art Director on one of the Leisure-Suit Larry projects. If so, Al Lowe would be able to tell you tons of stories about him.
Reading your message confirms what I suspected, Sierra, after I left, was embarrassed to have associated with Daryl Gates.
It’s really sad how they screwed up Sierra. I remember thinking that it was OK for Roberta and I to sell, because Sierra was strong enough to withstand just about anything. One expression I used to use was that “I wanted to build a company that our grandkids could be proud of”. I always wanted to focus Sierra on a 100 year game plan, and do the little things right that would keep us “in the game” for many generations, even when it might mean temporary pain in return for long-term gain. I thought we could weather out periods of time when there might be poor management. Now I know I was wrong. Bad management can bring down a good company with amazing speed.
-Ken W
