- This topic has 2 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 2 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Ken –
It was great seeing you and Roberta recently on Netflix High Score. After seeing that, I wanted to reach out and share two particular Sierra Online stories by way of a thank you.
The first one takes place in 1985. I am in Michigan visiting my grandparents. As they are want to, my Grandmother is spoiling me and wants to know what I really wanted that was special. What I really wanted in 1985 was King’s Quest II. She didn’t really understand the concept of computer gaming, but was intrigued. It took me an afternoon of calling around to computer stores in and around Detroit before I found a store near her office in Dearborn that had a copy that was for the correct platform. On a lunch break, we went to the store and I showed her the box. Romancing the Throne?! I had to explain to her that it was totally age appropriate and that she wouldn’t get in trouble for buying it for me.
I was so happy walking out of that store! I still had a week before I would be back home on the West Coast and able to use the computer to actually play the game. Every spare minute of down time that I had for the rest of that vacation I spent reading the manual over and over again, enjoying the box art and just basically consuming everything but the software. It was something I looked forward to all the way back to California. It was like an unboxing video on loop for days, I can still smell the 5.25″ disk!
Late in the 80s I was part of a local PCjr Users Group. We were obviously big Sierra fans, for the wonderful 16 color support and the 4 voice sound chip. On a budget, it was the best PC experience in terms of AV. I needed to reach out to Sierra and ask some questions relating to software for an article for our newsletter. I wasn’t sure how to reach out, so I asked one of our members who worked at Egghead Software, if he might have some guidance.
He told me that there was a little black book that Egghead gave the managers and it had the corporate contact number for just about every company they sold software for. He gave me the little book. There were two or three numbers down for Sierra, so I noted them and thanked him.
I called one of the numbers that weekend and expected to be able to leave a message and wait for a follow up call back. I got an answering machine message for “Ken and Roberta!” I listened to the message as I stood there in disbelief. I was expecting a corporate sounding office announcement. This sounded like the pictures I’d seen of you guys “hanging out.” It was so cool. And as a complete fanboy, I lost the ability to speak and made sure that I hung up right at the beep to take a moment to acknowledge that that had just happened.
I’ve got plenty of happy Sierra memories, but I wanted to share those two with you and thank you for being such a huge part of my life in the 80s and into the 90s. I’ve never stopped playing your games. They are very special.
Thank you!
-
-
I was talking with a friend about games we used to play online and stand alone PC games in the 80’s and 90’s. Of course Sierra was the FIRST thing that came to mind. Beta testing Sierra Online was probably the most fun. Working and playing with all the developers on that project was interesting and educational for all of us.
I remember being a Comdex one year and attending a launch party for one of the games. Al Lowe, Larry Buchanan and you and Roberta were there. Al told the story about how he got his last minute room by saying he wasn’t one of computer nerds….. HE WAS HERE TO GAMBLE.
Good laughs, good friends, good times….. hope you are all well. Please pass my email addy on to Al if possible and I’m not sure where Larry is at all???
-
