Ken Williams is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 game programmer

Game programmer

A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...

 and co-founded On-Line Systems, which later became Sierra On-Line, together with his wife Roberta Williams

Roberta Williams

Roberta Williams is an American video game designer. She is most famous for her pioneering work in graphical adventure games, particularly the King's Quest series.-Career:...

. Roberta and Ken married at the age of 19 and have two children. The couple were leading figures in the development of graphical adventure games.
Their contribution to gaming was partially chronicled in the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution is a book by Steven Levy about hacker culture. It was published in 1984 in Garden City, New York by Anchor Press/Doubleday...

. Ken was the president of Sierra until the company was sold to CUC in July 1996, but he remained with the company leading its strategic direction until November 1997. Vivendi

Vivendi

Vivendi SA is a French international media conglomerate with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications, the Internet, and video games. It is headquartered in Paris.- History :...

 (now Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard, Inc., formerly Activision, Inc. is the American holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. The company is majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA and was created through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007, in a...

 after the Vivendi Games

Vivendi Games

Vivendi Games, formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games, was the holdings company for Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Vivendi Games was founded as Vivendi Universal Games after Vivendi bought Universal Studios in the early 2000s...

 and Activision

Activision

Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

 and merger) currently holds the Sierra

Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...

 name.

, 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 titled Crossing an Ocean under Power that chronicled his journey with Roberta across the Atlantic on his 62-foot trawler during his retirement years.

In a 2006 interview 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

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...

 and Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

. 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

Moustache

A moustache is facial hair grown on the outer surface of the upper lip. It may or may not be accompanied by a type of beard, a facial hair style grown and cropped to cover most of the lower half of the face.-Etymology:...

 and hair. His appearance has inspired Sierra's designers for some sprites

Sprite (computer graphics)

In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...

, honoring Ken with cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

s 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

Leisure Suit Larry

Leisure Suit Larry is a series of adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009. The main character, whose full name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing "loser" in his 40s...

games), as well as a whipper of "scumsoft" in Space Quest III.

External links

• Ken and Roberta Williams page
• Interview with Ken Williams at Adventure Classic Gaming (1996)
• 17 Oct 2005 interview with Ken Williams
• Entry at The Dot Eaters featuring Williams and an early history of Sierra