Ken Williams (gaming)

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Ken Williams
Screenshot of Ken Williams in a game, Police Quest 3.
Born	October 1954
Occupation	Game programmer
Spouse	Roberta Williams

Ken Williams (born October 1954) is an American game programmer and co-founder with his wife Roberta Williams of On-Line Systems, which later became Sierra On-Line. Roberta and Ken married at the age of 19 and have two children. The couple have been leading figures in the development of graphical adventure games.

Ken Williams and Jim Henson, circa 1982

Their contribution to gaming was partially chronicled in the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Ken was the president of Sierra until the company was sold to CUC in 1996 (CUC, owned by Cendant and due to legal troubles, sold the company to Havas in 1999 (which, in turn, was aquiried by Vivendi in 1999. Vivendi currently holds the Sierra name)).

As of 2006, Ken is enjoying retirement with his wife, Roberta. He is no longer active in the computer gaming industry; his current projects are limited to writing and managing a website construction tool called TalkSpot, primarily as a hobby. He has published a book "Crossing An Ocean Under Power" that chronicled his journey with Roberta across the Atlantic on his 62' trawler during his retirement years.

In a 2006 interview^[1] with Adventure Classic Gaming, Ken admitted to the names of two individuals who had most influenced his career as a game developer and in how he envisioned Sierra On-Line to be, "No doubt about it: There were two people that had a heavy influence on Sierra: Bill Gates and Walt Disney. These two companies were our role models. I read every book written on both companies. I did everything to try to understand how they thought, and how they did business."

Ken's trademarks have been his mustache and hair. His appearance has inspired Sierra's designers for some sprites, honouring Ken with cameo appearances in some games. One of these "incarnations" is the chief Keneewauwau of the Nontoonyt natives and Ken, the annoying joke teller (both appearing in Leisure Suit Larry games), as well as a whipper of Scumsoft in Space Quest III.